Heinrich Bertsch

Heinrich Gottlob Bertsch (11 January 1897 – 19 March 1981) was a German chemist. He is considered the inventor of the world's first fully synthetic detergent.

Life

The son of an elementary school teacher, he attended the Oberrealschule in Ludwigsburg, where he graduated from high school in 1916. After his military service in World War I, he studied chemical technology from 1919 at the Technical University of Stuttgart and completed his studies with a diploma examination in 1921 and a doctorate in engineering in 1922. After initial positions in Stuttgart and Dresden, he took up a position as a chemist at H. Th. Böhme AG in Chemnitz on 1 August 1924, where he initially researched in the field of textile auxiliaries. In 1927 he was given power of attorney and was appointed chief chemist. The great success of Fewa led to the Henkel Groups entry into Böhme in 1935 and the founding of Böhme-Fettchemie, of which Bertsch was a member of the Management Board from then on, before joining the Henkel Management Board in October 1941.

Also in 1950, Bertsch was first appointed part-time professor of chemical technology at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1953, he was accepted into the German Academy of Sciences (DAW) and was full-time director of the Academy Institute for Organic Chemistry from 1954 until his retirement in 1963.

Bertsch received several awards for his services in the GDR, including the National Prize of the GDR II. Klasse (1953) and the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver (1959).