11 Facts About Siegmund Gabriel

Siegmund Gabriel began studying chemistry at the University of Berlin in 1871.

Siegmund Gabriel continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg in 1872 with Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen.

Siegmund Gabriel began teaching as an assistant, initially in the inorganic chemistry department, before becoming an associate professor in 1886.

The Siegmund Gabriel Synthesis is a reaction which synthesizes pure primary amines, involving the reaction of potassium phthalimide with an alkyl halide, followed by hydrolysis.

The Siegmund Gabriel Synthesis was adapted by Siegmund Gabriel in 1889 to a procedure for the preparation of amino acids.

In 1891 Siegmund Gabriel synthesized pyrrolidine from l-amino-4-chlorobutane, and in 1892, using the same procedure, he prepared piperidine from 1-amino- 5-chloropentane.

Siegmund Gabriel was the first to prepare phthalazine in 1893 and, with his student James Colman, pyrimidine in 1899.

Siegmund Gabriel was a member of the German Chemical Society and served on its board for many years.

Siegmund Gabriel was born on November 7,1851, in Berlin, the youngest of factory owner Aron Gabriel and his wife Golchen nee Pollnow's six children.

Siegmund and Anna Gabriel had two sons: Ernst, born in 1885, became a dermatologist and later earned his living as a chicken farmer after his emigration to Israel; Kurt, born in 1896, became a dentist and was able to continue to work in this profession after emigrating to New Zealand.

Original documents from Siegmund Gabriel's estate have been kept at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York since 1979.