11 Facts About Georg Wittig

Georg Wittig shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Herbert C Brown in 1979.

Georg Wittig was born in Berlin, Germany; shortly after his birth moved with his family to Kassel, where his father was professor at the applied arts high school.

Georg Wittig attended school in Kassel and started studying chemistry at the University of Tubingen 1916.

Georg Wittig was drafted and became a lieutenant in the cavalry of Hesse-Kassel.

Georg Wittig became a close friend of Karl Ziegler, who was doing his habilitation with Auwers during that time.

In 1931 Georg Wittig married Waltraud Ernst, a colleague from the Auwers working group.

The time in Braunschweig became more and more problematic as the Nazis tried to get rid of Karl Fries and Georg Wittig showed solidarity with him.

The newly built department and the close connection to the BASF convinced Georg Wittig to take this opportunity.

Georg Wittig worked at the University of Heidelberg even after his retirement in 1967 and published papers until 1980.

Georg Wittig was well known in the chemistry community for being a consummate experimenter and observer of chemical transformations, while caring very little for the theoretical and mechanistic underpinnings of the work he produced.

Georg Wittig has his name on a literature work titled on a compound labelled Colopidalol.