Alfred Stock and the renaissance of inorganic chemistry
When, a hundred years ago on the 16th July 1876, a 'Sunday child', baptised Alfred, was born to the Danzig insurance official Hugo Stock and his wife Hildegard, a heart began to beat whichwas destined, in the course of its 70 years' existence, to live through all the heights and depths of its earth— ly fate. A human being entered life, whose extraordinary research and organisational ability swiftly raised him to scientific fame and international re— cognition. His physical strength was increasingly consumed in the service of chemistry until he closed his eyes for the last time on the 12th August 1946 in a small town on the river Elbe, at the end of a life full of successes and honours, extensively paralysed after indescribable suffering from the hard— ships of refuge during the aftermath of the last war and the loss of his very last possessions, in the simplest of surroundings, quiet and unrecognised in the confusion of the postwar period. Let us follow the changing fate on his long road from the unhindered start to the bitter end, a life which bridged the wide span of periods of German history from the 'Kaiserreich' through the 'Weimarer Republik', the 'Drittes Reich' to post—war Germany, and whose course saw the introduction of signif i— cant developments in inorganic chemistry. But it was Alfred Stock and his congenial contemporary Otto Ruff who, by their modern working methods and successful achievements, rescued Inorganic Chemistry — which, after the great discoveries of the .18th and the beginning of the 19th century, gradually became more and more insignificant and, at the turn of the century, was living a Cinderella's existence beside its two more attractive sisters, Organic Chemistry, already in full bloom, and Physical Chemistry., which was just beginning to flower — from the rale of the serving maid and raised it to the ranks of equal status. Alfred Stock spent his school years in Berlin, to where his parents moved two years after his birth. At that time he was already beginning to love this active, lively and gay town, in which he spent a total of nearly five decade of his life. It is surely no coincidence that he started his 'Lehrjahre' (Student years) (Berlin, Paris), 'Gesellenjahre' (early research period) (Berlin, Breslau), 'Meisterjahre' (years as Professor) (Berlin, Karlsruhe) and 'Ruhejahre' (retirement) (Berlin, Warmbrunn), each time from this same city, always returning and beginning again at a higher, more mature and more enlightened stage of his life.