Ferdinand Tiemann

Who was Ferdinand Tiemann?

Johann Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Tiemann was a German chemist and together with Reimer discoverer of the Reimer-Tiemann reaction.

Beginning in 1866, Tiemann studied pharmacy at the TU Braunschweig where he graduated in 1869. His professor in Brunswick wrote a letter of recommendation to August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the University of Berlin where Tiemann started as assistant of von Hofmann in 1869. In 1874 Wilhelm Haarmann and Tiemann started a company, after they discovered the synthesis of vanillin from coniferyl alcohol. The vanillin plant Holzminden was not very successful before Karl Ludwig Reimer discovered the Reimer-Tiemann reaction which opened an alternative synthesis route to vanillin. In 1882 Tiemann became professor at the University of Berlin.

He was involved in the first synthesis of Jonon a compound of the sweet violet, which became a huge success for Harmann & Reimer company.

August Wilhelm von Hofmann married Berta the younger sister of Ferdinand Tiemenn.