Biography Wachenheim
After studying chemistry and completing her doctorate in Heidelberg, followed by a research stay in Hanover, Lili Wachenheim became the first female chemist to take up a position at BASF in 1918. However, she left the company again in the same year after her marriage. Her trail disappears completely when she emigrated to the USA with her family in the 1930s.
Lili Wachenheim was born in Mannheim on 23 April 1893. She studied chemistry at Heidelberg University and was awarded her doctorate in 1916 for her thesis “On the decomposition weight of nitrosyl chloride”. After working as an assistant to Max Bodenstein (1871–1942) at the Electrochemical Institute of the Technical University of Hanover, she was employed by BASF on 2 January 1918 as its first female chemist. She worked in the ammonia laboratory, which was headed by Alwin Mittasch (1869–1953). Mittasch was a chemist of Sorbian origin who became particularly well known for his groundbreaking work on catalyst development for ammonia synthesis using the Haber–Bosch process.
Wachenheim’s first research report was entitled “On the reaction of nitrogen dioxide with water and nitric acid at various concentrations” and was dated 11 March 1918. Two further research reports followed. At the end of 1918, Wachenheim left the company after marrying the chemist Heinrich Müller. The social consensus at the time was that employment was incompatible with the role of a wife and mother. The family emigrated to the USA in the 1930s. Unfortunately, no information is available about Lili Wachenheim’s subsequent career. Lili Wachenheim died in the USA on 12 May 1989.
(Biography supplemented with date and source of death by K. J. Schmitz)
Literature
BASF SE: Die Anilinerinnen, brochure, Ludwigshafen, 2017
Lili Wachenheim Mueller
UPDATE
A further article about Lilly Wachenheim appeared in Nachr. Chem. 70, July/August 2022, p. 22. The author is Gisela Boeck, Deputy Chair of the GDCh Division of History of Chemistry. To the article in the GDCh app.
The GDCh Division of History of Chemistry published a biographical sketch of the chemist in its Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe online, Volume 27 / 2023.
Authors
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Ehlers
Prof. Dr. Heribert Offermanns
Editorial processing
Dr. Uta Neubauer
Project management
Dr. Karin J. Schmitz (GDCh-public relations)
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