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{{Short description|German chemist (1881–1945)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Hans Fischer
| image             = Hans Fischer (Nobel).jpg
| caption           = Fischer in 1930
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1881|7|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Höchst (Frankfurt am Main)|Höchst on Main]], [[Hesse-Nassau]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1945|3|31|1881|7|27|df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Munich]], [[Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria]], [[Nazi Germany]]
| field             = [[Chemistry]]
| work_institutions = [[University of Innsbruck]], <br>[[University of Vienna]], <br>[[Technical University of Munich]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Lausanne]] <br> [[University of Marburg]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Theodor Zincke]]{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
| academic_advisors = [[Hermann Emil Fischer|Emil Fischer]]
| doctoral_students = {{Unbulleted list|[[Alfred E. Treibs]]|[[Werner Zerweck]]|[[Costin Nenițescu]]|[[Adolf Stachel]]|[[Heinz Gibian]]}}
| known_for         = [[Chlorophyll]]<br>[[Haemin]]<br>[[Knorr_pyrrole_synthesis#Related_synthesis|Fischer–Fink synthesis]]
| prizes            = [[Liebig Medal]] <small>(1929)</small><br>{{no wrap|[[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] <small>(1930)</small>}}<br>[[Davy Medal]] <small>(1937)</small>
}}

'''Hans Fischer''' ({{IPA|de|ˈhans ˈfɪʃɐ|-|De-Hans Fischer.ogg}}; 27 July 1881 &ndash; 31 March 1945) was a German [[organic chemistry|organic chemist]] and the recipient of the 1930 [[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] "for his researches into the constitution of [[haemin]] and [[chlorophyll]] and especially for his synthesis of haemin."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1930/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1930|publisher=nobelprize.org}}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early years===
Fischer was born on July 27, 1881, in [[Höchst (Frankfurt am Main)|Höchst]], now a city district of [[Frankfurt]] located in Germany. His parents were Dr. Eugen Fischer, Director of the firm of {{ill|Kalle & Co.|de|Chemische Fabrik Kalle}}, [[Wiesbaden]], and Privatdozent at the Technical High School, [[Stuttgart]], and Anna Herdegen was his mother. He went to a primary school in Stuttgart, and later to the "Humanistisches [[gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]]" in [[Wiesbaden]], matriculating in 1899. He read [[chemistry]] and [[medicine]], first at the [[University of Lausanne]] and then at [[Marburg]]. He graduated in 1904 obtaining his chemistry degree, 2 years later in 1906 he licensed for medicine and in 1908 he qualified for his [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]]<ref name="Nobel">{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1930 ''On Haemin and the Relationships between Haemin and Chlorophyll''</ref> which he applied to the University of Munich.

===Career===
He worked first at a Medical Clinic in [[Munich]] and then at the [[First Berlin Chemical Institute]] under [[Hermann Emil Fischer|Emil Fischer]]. He returned to Munich in 1911 and qualified as lecturer on internal medicine one year later. In 1913, he became a lecturer in [[physiology]] at the Physiological Institute in Munich. In 1916, he became Professor of Medical Chemistry at the [[University of Innsbruck]] and from there he went to the [[University of Vienna]] in 1918.

From 1921 until his death, he held the position of Professor of Organic Chemistry at the [[Technical University of Munich]].
[[File:Nobel ceremony 1930.jpg|thumb|Nobel Award Ceremony]]
Fischer's scientific work was mostly concerned with the investigation of the pigments in [[blood]], [[bile]], and also [[chlorophyll]] in [[leaves]], as well as with the chemistry of [[pyrrole]] from which these pigments are derived. Of special importance was his synthesis of [[bilirubin]] and [[haemin]]. He received many honors for this work, and received the [[Nobel Prize]] in 1930. The [[lunar crater]] [[Fischer (crater)|Fischer]] was named after him (and [[Hermann Emil Fischer]]) in 1976. Hans Fisher had mapped the composition of a hem group. In 1929 Fischer succeeded in producing the substance and proving that its ring has a central atom of iron, as he also continued studying other pigmented substances of a biological importance of biochemistry such as chlorophyll, the color that plays part in a plants photosynthesis. Fischer also unraveled the bile pigments biliverdin (which causes the yellowish color characteristic of bruised skin) and bilirubin (which yellows skin in jaundice cases), and synthesized them in 1942 and 1944, successively. He conducted microanalyses of more than 60,000 chemical substance, and had won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1930. The person that sparked Fischer's interest was von Muller, his former professor and supervisor whom interests were in pyrrole pigments by inviting Fischer to work with him at the well-known Second Medical Clinic in Munich in 1910. Under Muller, he began to examine the composition of the bile pigment bilirubin, something he would continue to be engaged in during the decades that followed. Fischer's succession also came with difficulty's as many of his experiments seemed to have failed but with time Fischer was able to perfect his acknowledgement with his failed attempts.

===Personal life===
Fischer married Wiltrud Haufe around his 50's in the year 1935. Fischer was a man who was dedicated almost "exclusively" to his work. He continued his scientific research during Germany's Nazi era, and committed suicide on Easter Sunday in 1945, after his laboratory and life's work had been destroyed by the bombing of Munich in the last days of World War II.

==Honours==
*Fellow of the [[Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]] (1919)
*[[Geheimrat|Privy Councillor]] (1925)
*Liebig Memorial Medal (1929)
*[[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] (1930)
*[[Honorary doctorate]], [[Harvard University]] (1936)
*[[Davy Medal]] of the [[Royal Society of London]] (1937)

==Literature==
*{{Citation | author=Heinrich Wieland | title=Hans Fischer und Otto Hönigschmid zum Gedächtniss | journal= [[Angewandte Chemie]] | year=1950 | volume=62 | issue=1 | pages=1–4 | doi=10.1002/ange.19500620102 | postscript=.| title-link=Otto Hönigschmid | bibcode=1950AngCh..62....1W | author-link=Heinrich Wieland }}
*{{Citation | pmid=11810971 | last=Bickel | first=M H | publication-date=2001 | year=2001 | title=[Henry E. Sigerist and Hans Fischer as pioneers of a medical history institute in Zurich] | volume=58 | issue=3–4 | periodical=[[Gesnerus]] | pages=215–9}}
*{{Citation | pmid=4584221 | last=Stern | first=A J | publication-date=1973 | year=1973 | title=Hans Fischer (1881–1945) | volume=206 | issue= 1| periodical=Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. | pages=752–61 | doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1973.tb43252.x|bibcode = 1973NYASA.206..752S | s2cid=40633114 }}
*{{Citation | pmid=5323649 | last=Watson | first=C J | publication-date=1965 | year=1965 | title=Reminiscences of Hans Fischer and his laboratory | volume=8 | issue=4 | periodical=Perspect. Biol. Med. | pages=419–35| doi=10.1353/pbm.1965.0052 | s2cid=32016198 }}
*{{Citation | pmid=14036988 | last=Kämmerer | first=H | publication-date=Nov 3, 1961 | year=1961 | title=Hans Fischer (1881–1945). A reminiscence on the 80th anniversary of his birth | volume=103 | periodical=Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift (1950) | pages=2164–6}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{PM20}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1930

{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1926-1950}}
{{1930 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Hans}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1945 suicides]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:German organic chemists]]
[[Category:20th-century German chemists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Scientists from Frankfurt]]
[[Category:People from Hesse-Nassau]]
[[Category:University of Marburg alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Vienna]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich]]
[[Category:Suicides in Germany]]