The Call to Marburg

At mid-century, when he published his review article on theoretical organic chemistry, Kolbe was thirty-two years old and had been seeking to enter an academic career for several years. The usual route to this goal included publication of substantial research, which he had done, but also teaching as Privatdozent or ausserordentlicher Professor, which he had not. Kolbe was not alone in his quest. The decade that had just passed was one of those periods during which almost no movement was made in the German chemical professoriate that would allow opportunities for younger scholars. This was the context in which Hofmann, failing opportunity in Germany, accepted the call to the Royal College of Chemistry in London.

Moreover, this slow job market came at a time When the founders of the later German dominance in chemistry, such as Bunsen, Wöhler, and especially Liebig, were producing substantial numbers of highly qualified and highly motivated students. Complaining of his heavy teaching responsibilities, Wöhler wrote Liebig in 1851:

You are the one who is really to blame, by raising chemistry to its great reputation through your achievements and writings, that we must slave as we do, since now the whole world wants to do chemistry. But the damage you have inflicted must be borne.

At the same time, Heinrich Debus informed his Doktorvater that he had just accepted a post at Queenwood College. "It would not have

been easy," Bunsen replied, "for you to have given me greater joy than by this news . . . I have often thought of you recently, not without concern, in this time of ever increasing overcrowding in our field . . . "^[1]

But it was just at this time that the death of N. W. Fischer at Breslau and the nearly simultaneous retirements of Leopold Gmelin at Heidelberg and J. N. Fuchs at Munich provided one of the first great chains of professorial successions in the field. After Fischer's death (on 19 August 1850), the Prussian authorities were able to lure Bunsen from Marburg to Breslau by promising him a new laboratory; as Bunsen learned from his Berliner colleagues, Kolbe would have received the call had he declined.^[2] Upon Gmelin's retirement, an inquiry went first to Liebig, who considered the possibility for a time but then declined.^[3] The choice fell once more on Bunsen, who, with the promise of another new lab in his pocket, transferred to Heidelberg in 1852. Bunsen's replacement at Breslau was C. J. Löwig, who arrived from the Zurich Technische Hochschule in 1853; Löwig's successor at Zurich was Wöhler's former assistant Georg Staedeler. Fuchs' retirement in Munich led to another call for Liebig, which this time was accepted (1852); Liebig's successor in Giessen was Heinrich Will.

Although he remained in London, Hofmann was involved with many of these negotiations. While Liebig was deliberating over Heidelberg, he wrote Hofmann to say that should he (Liebig) decide to decline, he would recommend Hofmann in his place; were he to accept, he intended to recommend Hofmann as his successor in Giessen. Hofmann replied confidentially that he would indeed like to return to Germany and would be inclined to accept a call to Heidelberg, but not to Giessen.^[4] Hofmann nearly did get the nod from Heidelberg, but it appears his conditions may have been too expensive for the Badische authorities.^[5] A few months later, Liebig informed Hofmann both that Bunsen had the call and that he had accepted Munich as "an honorable retraite " from Giessen. He added, "If you are not called to Giessen, the Darmstädters are asses."^[6] He also tried to exert influence for Hofmann in the Breslau deliberations of 1852—an undistinguished city, to be sure, but "the bridge to Berlin."^[7] Hofmann's unwillingness to be a candidate for either Breslau or Giessen was motivated by personal and political reasons, and probably also by the unappealing prospect of exchanging a lucrative position in a world capital for a less remunerative position in a provincial town.^[8]

Kolbe was growing ever more impatient for a call, and his two chief promoters, Wöhler and Bunsen, well knew it.^[9] After losing out to Bunsen in the Breslau succession, Kolbe set his sights and hopes on Marburg. In January 1851, Prorektor Nasse inquired of Hofmann

whether he would be inclined to accept a call to Marburg. Hofmann's reply was long, gracious, and frank, but it was clearly negative in tone.^[10] Bunsen's opinions regarding other possible candidates for his own succession were then officially solicited.

Bunsen was prepared. He had obtained letters of recommendation for Kolbe from Liebig and Wöhler, assembled them together with two letters he had received five years earlier from Berzelius praising Kolbe, and submitted all four along with his own cover letter. Bunsen, Liebig, and Wöhler were all in agreement: with the single exception of Hofmann, who probably would not accept the call, Kolbe was clearly the best choice among the younger chemists. All praised his ability, accomplishments, and reputation. Liebig considered his papers of the late 1840s to be "masterpieces" and noted that only "external circumstances" had conspired to prevent him from accomplishing even more.^[11] Six days after Bunsen submitted these letters to the philosophical faculty, the faculty voted to recommend Kolbe. The following month (March 1851) Kolbe duly received the call to Marburg as ordentlicher Professor and Director of the Chemical Institute, and the contract was signed in April.^[12]