Establishing the Leipzig Laboratory
As mentioned, until Kolbe's new lab was built, he was forced to work in Kühn's unsatisfactory facility. One condition he made was to ask for an immediate expansion of this lab, into the ground floor space of the adjoining building (a private house acquired by the university). This addition was finished with "fabulous speed," in time for the Prak-
tikum to begin in early November. But Kolbe was shocked at the conditions in Kühn's lab: it contained not a single retort, condenser, filter stand, or piece of useable glassware. He was amazed that Kühn could even pretend to teach laboratory procedures there; he had to spend twice his start-up budget just to get to the point where he could accept students. Still, he felt happy to be in Leipzig, "newly invigorated" by the change, impressed by the excellent collegial spirit among the professors, and delighted to be free of the "miserable relationships" in Marburg. In the spring, Kolbe moved his family into an apartment directly adjacent to the lab, at Universitätsstrasse 20.[48]
Problems soon arose. The Saxon Kultusministerium that had been so generous with its thalers now began to pinch groschen, complaining about the projected cost of the new lab and the salaries of assistants. It delayed the start of construction from the promised date of Easter 1866, first to that summer, then upon the outbreak of war to the summer of 1867. Meanwhile, Kolbe was gratified by the demand for his talents: seventy Praktikanten per semester were registering and more than eighty auditors for his lectures, which stretched even the expanded lab to its limits and beyond. This was more than Erdmann and Knop were attracting in both of their laboratories combined. Even the war made no difference to his enrollments.[49]
The funding for the new institute was finally formally approved by the Ständesversammlung in January 1867, and construction in the Waisenhausstrasse began in late August 1867, with a budget of 80,000 thalers. The large plot (220 by 250 Fuss[50] ) was acquired by the university from the city by means of a real estate trade. In March and April 1867, Kolbe toured other laboratories in Berlin, Greifswald, Marburg, Heidelberg, Munich, Stuttgart, Bonn, and Zurich in the company of his architect, Zocher; in March 1868 he spent three weeks in London on the same assignment. Remarkably, his favorite lab was Staedeler's, in Zurich. The plans were approved in July 1867, and construction began the following month. After the long delay, rapid progress was made, so that by the time of his second architectural tour, the structure was already roofed. The residence was ready for occupancy by October 1868, and the official dedication of the lab took place on 16 November. The final cost was about 85,000 thalers, plus 15,000 for furnishings and equipment.[51] This amount was considerably less than what the Prussians had spent on either the Bonn or Berlin institutes, even though the Leipzig lab could accommodate as many students as both put together.
Kolbe was now master of a wonderful edifice, by far the largest chemistry institute in Germany and probably the world.[52] Above the large, well-lit basement (housing the furnace, coal bins, laundry, baths,
and pantry) was the main floor, then a second story above which were attic storage rooms. The two main floors held 44 rooms in all—altogether 51,000 square Fuss (4660 square meters) of working and living space—with high fifteen-foot ceilings. Kolbe made certain that the building was designed for maximum light and ventilation in all rooms. It was equipped with coal-fired steam heat, running water, gas for illumination and burners, and all of the most modern conveniences. Fully a seventh of this space was taken up by an opulent director's residence along the front wing of the building, open to the light and air on three sides, and consisting of fourteen large rooms plus a cellar and attic, with a small garden outside. A hundred feet of second-floor corridor separated Kolbe's airy private study in his residence from his well-equipped private laboratory.
The building was laid out roughly in a letter "E" shape, a configuration that was much admired and copied, particularly in the United States, for its rational management of natural light. The "E" was arrayed with its bottom line along the east-west Waisenhausstrasse; four main laboratory rooms for the Praktikanten were laid out along the main north-south axis, two on each main floor, with the beginners below and the advanced students on somewhat larger benches above. In addition to an impressive variety of special purpose laboratory spaces for the students, the building also provided residences for the superintendent and three assistants, and private labs for the latter as well as for the director. Two auditoriums, seating 60 and 160 students, respectively, were also located on the ground floor. The smaller one was essentially for the Privatdozenten, while the larger one—boasting a nineteen-foot ceiling and a hundred illumination burners for evening lectures-was for the director.
Projecting upward from his average Praktikum enrollments of 70 per semester during 1865-1867, Kolbe planned initially for a capacity of 100. Falkenstein, however, urged Kolbe to think more expansively, to plan for a maximum of 130. Kolbe was doubtful, knowing this was twice the size of any institute yet planned or built and fearing later recriminations regarding unused space, but he swallowed hard and accepted Falkenstein's proposal.[53] To Kolbe's shock and amazement, even this huge capacity was soon oversubscribed. It took only a year after the new institute was opened for the number to hit 100, and by summer semester 1872 the capacity of 130 was reached.[54]
The following semester no fewer than 170 students attempted to register for the Praktikum. Kolbe at first wanted simply to turn 40 of them away, but a means was devised to fit all of them into the existing space. Since there was no way he could directly oversee the work of so many, Kolbe arranged that the 40 extra students would pay their hon-
oraria directly to the assistants supervising them—of whom he now had five—and not to him. As Kolbe admitted to Liebig, this was all part of his plan to prove to the Kultusministerium under the new leadership of Gerber how important he was and what sort of student demand he could command.[55] In the summer of 1873, he had no fewer than 210 attempted registrations, of whom he accepted 170. For one more semester, winter semestor 1873/74, he accepted 170, then, his point having been driven home, he ruled that thereafter only the first 130 were to be accepted.[56] His enrollments in lecture have not been documented; only once have I found a mention in correspondence, namely, that in winter semester 1881/82 he had 270 auditors (in 1873 Kolbe's auditorium had been expanded to seat 250).[57]
Kolbe had certainly come up in the world, and in a hurry. As late as 1860 in Marburg, Kolbe was attracting merely a dozen or so Praktikanten per semester into his laboratory and a similar number into his auditorium. Six years later he had increased these numbers sixfold, or looking at a longer period, the demand jumped fifteenfold in the course of thirteen years. During the 1870s, Kolbe's institute was by far the largest of all seventeen institutes, seminars, and Sektionen at the University of Leipzig.[58] Kolbe was successful in using these numbers as leverage, for in 1866 his budget was doubled to 2000 thalers, then in 1872 doubled again to 4000. He did not worry about increasing his salary, for with all the students at his disposal, his honoraria were substantial, over 5000 thalers per year. From his teaching alone, Kolbe was earning close to 8000 thalers per year in 1873, six or seven times what he had been making a dozen years earlier.[59]
What factors operated to produce this fabulous success story? No doubt Kolbe himself ascribed it principally to his success as a teacher and scholar, and to some degree he was correct. However, other considerations were also important. All the universities of the German Empire were booming in the early 1870s, and none more so than Leipzig. After 1868 Kolbe had the largest and most modern institute in Germany to serve as a draw. Even so, other institute directors at major universities were having similar experiences. Wislicenus at Würzburg reported 102 Praktikanten for summer semester 1874, including 28 professionalizing chemists; Volhard had 151 for winter 1877/78.[60]
Moreover, even in the era of one Ordinarius per institute, Kolbe had a degree of monopoly on the teaching of chemistry in Leipzig that was rare in Germany. For example, Wöhler, Liebig, and Bunsen at Göttingen, Munich, and Heidelberg, respectively, had created decentralized institutes where much basic chemical instruction—and virtually all of it in the burgeoning field of organic chemistry—was tendered by Extraordinarien and Privatdozenten. Erdmann's successor, hired in
1871, was Gustav Wiedemann, who was much more a physicist than a chemist and could attract little chemistry clientele—despite Kolbe's efforts to have him share the load. Knop was still around; in 1870 he was promoted to Ordinarius, but was simultaneously absorbed within the new Landwirtschaftliches Institut to teach agricultural chemistry only. Hirzel had given up academia altogether and had henceforth applied himself to entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, not only did the professionalizing chemists, whose numbers were exploding, find themselves in Kolbe's chemistry classes but also every student of pharmacy and medicine and many students in other applied fields such as veterinary medicine, forestry, economics, metallurgy, and agriculture. Finally, Kolbe was one of the few eminent and active organic chemists around who were accepting personal students, his major rivals being Kekulé in Bonn and Hofmann in Berlin, and this at a time when organic chemistry was booming.
Kolbe also knew how to promote his subject. In the introduction to his book Das chemische Laboratorium der Universität Leipzig , he aggressively defended the pedagogical utility of the study of chemistry, not only for science students, but also for philosophers, philologists, and law students. Chemistry is often criticized by laymen as a crude and empirical craft, whereas, Kolbe proudly affirmed, it is a true science and an essential liberal art, an integral part of natural philosophy with well-developed theoretical structures; the time cannot be distant when all will be expected to study chemistry to become truly educated.[61] This is especially true for theology students, he thought. Directly reflecting the views of his father, the broadminded pastor Carl Kolbe (whose death had occurred just two years previously), Kolbe wrote
It is becoming ever more apparent these days that there must be a change in the academic training of our theologians, whose orthodoxy has alienated the public and is the principal culprit in the much-lamented indifference of the masses toward the institutions of the church as well of those of the state, whose intolerant rigidity and narrowmindedness repels even the educated classes. The young theologian requires a broader education than he has customarily received, he must above all become acquainted with the natural world in which he lives, and study the Book of Nature, this other divine revelation, as well as the Book of Books.[62]
Kolbe concluded his brief by arguing for the long-term economic significance of chemistry. Saxony was highly respected for its industrial might, hence its wealth, especially in the machine and chemical industries. Regarding the latter, whence came this fortunate situation? His answer: from the Saxon academic laboratories where chemists are properly educated—during the last generation especially by Erdmann.
It was because Saxony and its sister states had wisely invested in chemical education that German chemical industry had become stronger than the English or French industries, where comparable investments had not been made. Moreover, he continued, it is prudent for a state to invest heavily in academic laboratories, for they serve as models for private industrial labs, which increase the prosperity of a state.[63]
It must be noted that Kolbe's contention was neither obvious nor irrefutable. He admitted as much by conceding that German academic chemistry had often been treated in a stepmotherly way in comparison to the more traditional fields. In sharp contrast to other fields, even other laboratory disciplines, chemistry students were required to pay for their own materials, a burden that added anywhere from 5 to 100 thalers or more per semester onto their costs. In addition, the Prussian and some other German universities demanded a pro rata contribution from each student to defray the laboratory's general budget. This special "tax" was "not only unfair and unjust, but also impolitic from a national-economic viewpoint," as Kolbe attempted to argue. Rather than voicing alarm at the "epidemic" of interest in the study of chemistry with its attendant costs, university administrators should greet this development with joy for the future national prosperity that it portends.[64]
The importance of the science-versus-technology question here broached by Kolbe warrants discussion. To Edward Frankland, sitting in the capital of the unenlightened British Empire, Kolbe's arguments were welcome but also not self-evident. He wrote to Kolbe:
I wish you could in some way demonstrate this, which, a priori ought certainly to be the case. Just the opposite opinion unfortunately prevails here & greatly impedes the progress of experimental science in this country. When I urge upon Politicians here the disgraceful position of science in this country as compared with Germany, they reply contemptuously "What has science done for German commerce & manufactures? To whom are due the invention of the two greatest modern chemical manufactures—Paraffin oil & Aniline colours? Are they not due to Englishmen? Why, if all this science does her any good, does Germany still dread the competition of our manufacturers, and impose enormous duties on our goods and why, notwithstanding these high protective duties, and the greater cost of labour and coal in this country, is Germany still our best customer for chemicals and steel? Why is Germany obliged to apply to England to get her capital supplied with Water and Gas?" These are awkward questions, & when I say "There is a want of enterprise in Germany (to which the wretched condition of the streets of Berlin & the overcrowding bear testimony)" the reply of course is "Yes! and this want of enterprise is caused by too much attention to, & dependence upon, abstract science."[65]
As it happened, of course, this debate was occuring right at the watershed period in which German chemical industry was first beginning to be strongly influenced by academic science, and the latter was climbing toward world leadership. Frankland's unnamed politicians were right that it had been an Englishman, William Henry Perkin, who first developed a commercially successful coal tar dye, in 1856-1858. What they failed to note was that Perkin had been a student of Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry, that Hofmann represented a partial transplanting of German (Liebigian) academic science into England, and that Hofmann and several other German expatriates had since returned to Germany.
Many entrepreneurs correctly perceived that Perkin's discovery promised to transform a plentiful but worthless waste product of gas and coke production into a valuable feedstock material, and so a large number of dye companies were formed in Britain, France, and Germany during the late 1850s and the early 1860s. The pace of innovation in these early years was furious, but experimentation was not guided by well-understood or well-articulated theory. That began to change in 1863, with the introduction by Edward Nicholson's firm of systematically alkylated aromatic dyes appropriately named "Hofmann's violets." After Kekulé's benzene theory was proposed, the influence of theory became much stronger. The first dramatic payoff of structure theory for the chemical industry came in 1868-1869 with the synthetic production of the important natural dye alizarin, in which Baeyer, Graebe, Carl Liebermann, Heinrich Caro, and Perkin all played significant roles. At this time, alizarin was second only to indigo as a dye, and its source, madder, was the major crop in Provence and other parts of the world. With the introduction of the chemists' far cheaper and purer alizarin, the madder farmers were ruined. From this time on, a clear trend toward the amalgamation of theory and practice was much in evidence, especially in Germany. The English, however, were slow to see the connection. In another generation, the relationship was evident to all, but not yet in 1872.[66]
I have said nothing yet about the details of Kolbe's classes and practica in Leipzig. Unfortunately, documents that could illuminate such details do not seem to have survived. The semester enrollments previously discussed suggest that Kolbe instructed about 1600 Praktikanten during his nineteen years in Leipzig. Records of promotions to the doctorate do survive and indicate that he served as advisor to 68 Doktoranden.[67] Among the best known of his practicum students in Leipzig were Ernst von Meyer, Henry Armstrong, A. M. Zaitsev, V. V. Markovnikov, Constantin Fahlberg, Hermann Ost, Ernst Beckmann, Rudolf Leuckart, and Theodor Curtius.
Every winter semester Kolbe lectured on inorganic chemistry six days a week at nine A.M. , every summer semester on organic chemistry four days a week at eight. His beginners' Praktikum was four or five days per week, two to three hours per day; advanced students worked from nine until one and two until five o'clock, six days a week.[68] From three assistants in 1865, Kolbe worked his way up to four in 1870, then five by late 1872. Advanced Praktikanten numbered a dozen or so per semester early in Kolbe's Leipzig period, and more like thirty to fifty during the 1870s.[69] During this latter period, Kolbe had three of his assistants carry out the primary supervision of the beginners on the ground floor, while a fourth helped him with the advanced workers upstairs; the fifth assistant was dedicated to the lecture experiments. But Kolbe kept abreast of the progress of every Praktikant, no matter how crowded his laboratory became nor how much a novice the student was.[70]
Indeed, Kolbe regarded such personal attention as a fundamental pedagogical principle. It led, he averred, to a certain "patriarchal relationship" between him and his students, which developed over the long term into a permanent esprit de corps that reinforced the positive qualities he was seeking to instill. His strict hierarchical bureaucratic organization thus had a certain pedagogical justification, and moreover it seems to have operated well, without the authoritarian tone that many expected.
Kolbe explicitly stated that his pedagogical philosophy and teaching methods as developed in Marburg continued without essential change in Leipzig.[71] Those methods have been described in chapter 5, with firsthand reminiscences by Leipzig students, Markovnikov in 1866-1867 and Armstrong in 1867-1870. One more witness may be introduced here, that of his student and eventual son-in-law Ernst von Meyer (1847-1916).
Meyer, descended from an aristocratic Kurhessian family, was a second cousin of Kolbe's wife and knew her slightly from Marburg. After arriving in Leipzig and attending Kolbe's first lecture for winter semester 1866/67, he introduced himself, was received in a formal fashion (typical of northern Germans, commented Meyer), and was invited to visit. He soon became intimate with the entire family. His reminiscences of the laboratory routine dovetail with those of Markovnikov and Armstrong, as well as with Kolbe's descriptions. Meyer wrote
A better school than Kolbe's I could not wish for.... With the help of able assistants (Finkelstein and Drechsel) he was able to devote himself to everyone, even the beginners; he would not tolerate any of the many
reactions we observed to remain unclear to us. At that time there were still no printed short introductions to qualitative analysis, as are ordinarily in use today. Our handwritten observations were examined and reviewed by an assistant, also by Kolbe himself. This kind of instruction instilled in the beginner a firm foundation for further development.
Meyer stayed in Leipzig two years, then attended Heidelberg before serving as an officer in the Franco-Prussian war. On his return to Leipzig, he resumed his studies, earning a doctorate in 1872, whereupon he became one of Kolbe's assistants. In 1875 he became engaged to Kolbe's eighteen-year-old daughter Johanna, and they married the following year.[72]