12 Facts About Fritz Laves

Fritz Henning Emil Paul Berndt Laves was a German crystallographer who served as the president of the German Mineralogical Society from 1956 to 1958.

Fritz Laves grew up in Gottingen, where his interests included piano music as well as collecting rocks and minerals.

Fritz Laves began his university studies in geology in 1924 at the University of Innsbruck, and continued at the University of Gottingen before moving to ETH Zurich for doctoral studies under Paul Niggli.

Fritz Laves tried unsuccessfully to prevent Goldschmidt from being dismissed in 1933, and later had difficulty advancing through the German academic system under the Nazis because he was known as a protector of the Jews.

Fritz Laves was drafted into the German army in 1939, but returned to academia after the intervention of Paul Rosbaud, and instead worked on metallurgy for Hermann Goring during the war.

Fritz Laves insisted on adding powdered crocodile bones to the batch, but because of Rommel's difficulties in the land of the Nile, settled for the tail-bones of a lesser lizard.

Fritz Laves remained in Zurich until his retirement in 1976.

Fritz Laves was the editor of the journal Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie between 1955 and 1978, which honoured him with a special issue in May 2006 commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

Fritz Laves was married to architect Melitta Druckenmuller, who assisted him with many of the illustrations in his publications.

Fritz Laves was awarded the Roebling Medal, the highest honor of the Mineralogical Society of America, in 1969.

Fritz Laves was a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and a corresponding member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Fritz Laves was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bochum.