Wilhelm Haarmann - Vom Start-up zum milliardenschweren Unternehmen: Dem Pionier der Riechstoffindustrie zum 175. Geburtstag.

The article describes the life and work of Wilhelm Haarmann, a pioneer in the fragrance industry. Haarmann founded the company Haarmann & Reimer, which is now known as Symrise. His groundbreaking synthesis of vanillin was the starting point for the development of the fragrance and flavor industry. Haarmann was born in Holzminden in 1847 and studied chemistry in Göttingen and Berlin. He was a member of the German Chemical Society and participated in the Franco-Prussian War. In the letter, Haarmann describes his enthusiasm for the war and his participation in the military. He reports that he and his brother August joined a company and will soon begin drilling. The war takes him to the vicinity of Paris, where he has to endure until the spring of 1871. However, Haarmann's initial enthusiasm gives way to the realization that the war is one hardship after another. In terms of his chemical experiments, Haarmann was able to convert coniferin into coniferyl alcohol and isolate a new compound called coniferegenin. However, he could only determine the structure of this compound through chemical reactions, as instrumental analysis was not yet known at that time. The article describes the chemical investigations of Wilhelm Haarmann and Ferdinand Tiemann on the synthesis of vanillin from coniferin. Haarmann isolated coniferin from the cambial sap of coniferous trees and carried out various reactions to produce vanillin. Tiemann presented the results of the investigations at a meeting of the German Chemical Society and claimed that they had synthesized the odor and flavor component of vanilla. The research findings were confirmed by Pierre-Paulin Carles, who had already reported on the chemical composition of vanillin in 1872. In 1874, Wilhelm Haarmann founded the first company for the synthetic production of vanillin from coniferous wood in Holzminden. Together with his partner Tiemann, they succeeded in producing a fragrant substance from coniferin, which they identified as vanillin. Haarmann planned to sell the product to various industries such as the chocolate industry or bakeries. The vanilla plant, from which natural vanillin is obtained, originally grows in the rainforests of Mexico and was later cultivated in other tropical regions as well. The collaboration between Haarmann and Tiemann led to the development of a synthetic route for the production of vanillin from guaiacol. However, this process proved to be uneconomical and was not transferred to production. Instead, Tiemann succeeded in producing vanillin inexpensively from eugenol, which is contained in clove oil. This significantly reduced the price of synthetic vanillin. The artificial variant was now considered a financially interesting alternative to natural vanilla. The collaboration between the two was successful, although Reimer died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1883. Haarmann was the entrepreneur and Tiemann the creative scientist who developed new products. Christian Andreas von Cothenius bequeathed one thousand gold talers in his will for the awarding of a golden commemorative coin for the best treatment of a prize question in the field of practical medicine. Gustav Robert Kirchhoff also received this award. There are reports of the collaboration between Georges de Laire and Charles Girard in the laboratory of Théophile-Jules Pelouze, where they synthesized fuchsin. Haarmann & Reimer were particularly interested in the production of synthetic vanillin, as it was more cost-effective than real vanilla. They commissioned Lina Morgenstern to create recipes using synthetic vanillin. [Extracted from the article]