Siegfried Huneck

Siegfried Huneck (9 September 1928 – 9 October 2011) was a German chemist and lichenologist. Much of his scientific career was hampered by the political situation in the former German Democratic Republic. He rejected pursuing a career in academia, and instead ended up working at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, a public research institute, from 1969 until his retirement in 1993. Despite his relative isolation and restricted freedoms in East Germany, Huneck had numerous professional contacts both in Germany and abroad, and was a highly published scholar. Many of his more than 400 scientific publications dealt with the chemistry of lichen products. He was awarded the Acharius Medal for lifetime achievements in lichenology in 1996.

Life and career Siegfried Huneck was born on 9 September 1928 in , a small settlement in the Thuringian Forest region (Thuringia, Germany). He attended primary school there, and then grammar school for boys in Schmalkalden, which he completed in 1947 after a two-year delay caused by World War II. After the war ended, Huneck's region became part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where the actions of citizens were heavily controlled by the state. Starting in 1950, Huneck began employment as a laboratory worker in the RFT broadcasting station in Erfurt (doing metal analysis), and then a year later as a scientific-chemical assistant in the Volkseigener Betrieb ("people-owned factory") in Jenapharm.