Friedrich Wöhler (1800 – 1882)
The live
•Friedrich Wöhler was born in Eschersheim in
1800.
•He studied in Frankfurt. He got a degree in
medicine and surgery at the University of
Heidelberg in 1823.
•He taught chemistry in Berlin, became a
university professor in Göttingen.
•He met Justus von Liebig, a German chemist.
•The former is a colourless, poisonous, volatile liquid acid that hydrolyses
readily to ammonia and carbon dioxide.
•They experimented on the oil of bitter almonds.
•Most of Wöhler’s work was in the domain of inorganic chemistry but he
made his greatest achievement when he broke down the barrier between
organic and inorganic chemistry.
•In 1828 he succeeded in artificially preparing urea, which had always
been classified among substances produced only through the agency of a
‘vital force’.
