Fritz Mindermann Collection

Fritz Mindermann was a German chemist. Born in Kassel, Germany on August 5, 1925, Mindermann served in the German Air Force’s Signal Corps during World War II. He was taken prisoner of war by the Soviets when Germany surrendered, but was released at the end of 1945.

In 1946, Mindermann started studying chemistry at the University of Basel in Switzerland. After four semesters, he transferred to the University of Tübingen in Germany, where he studied under German chemist Georg Wittig, who later went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1979. Mindermann completed his education under Wittig’s supervision at the University of Tübingen, earning his Diploma in Chemistry (1952) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry (1953). He remained a close associate of Wittig for the rest of Wittig’s life.

In 1954, Mindermann joined the research staff at J.R. Geigy Limited, a well-known Swiss chemical company. At J.R. Geigy and its corporate successor CIBA-Geigy Limited, he went on to enjoy a long and productive career. Mindermann was awarded a number of European and United States patents between the mid 1950s and early 1990s, including those for “Azo Pigments” (1958), “Copper Containing Disazo Dyestuffs of the Stilbene Series” (1959), and “Ultra-Violet Light-Absorbing Composition of Matter” (1961). He was also the author of a number of journal articles and papers.

Fritz Mindermann passed away on March 4, 2016.

Sources

Fritz Mindermann Papers, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.