Arthur Eichengrün

Arthur Eichengrün (13 August 1867 – 23 December 1949) was a German Jewish chemist, materials scientist, and inventor. He is known for developing the highly successful anti-gonorrhea drug Protargol, the standard treatment for 50 years until the adoption of antibiotics, and for his pioneering contributions in plastics: co-developing (with Theodore Becker) the first soluble cellulose acetate materials in 1903, called "Cellit", and creating processes for the manufacture of these materials which were influential in the development of injection moulding. During World War I his relatively non-inflammable synthetic cellulose acetate lacquers, marketed under the name "Cellon", were important in the aircraft industry. He also contributed to by inventing the first process for the production and development of cellulose acetate film, which he patented with Becker.

He also claimed to have directed the initial synthesis of aspirin but this is controversial.

Arthur Eichengrün was born in Aachen as the son of a Jewish cloth merchant and manufacturer. In 1885, he took up studies in chemistry at the University of Aachen, later moved to Berlin, and finally to Erlangen, where he received a doctoral degree in 1890.

In 1896, he joined Bayer, working in the pharmaceutical laboratory. In 1908, he quit Bayer and founded his own pharmaceutical factory, the Cellon-Werke in Berlin. His company was "Aryanized" by the Nazis in 1938.

In 1943, he was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison for having failed to include the word "Israel" in his company's name (Nazi law required Jewish companies be identified as such). In May 1944, he was arrested again on the same charge and deported to the concentration camp Theresienstadt, where he spent 14 months until the end of World War II in Europe, escaping death.

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