Walter Hieber

Who was Walter Hieber?

Walter Hieber was an inorganic chemist, known as the father of metal carbonyl chemistry. He was born 18 December 1895 and died 29 November 1976. Hieber's father was Johannes Hieber, an influential evangelical minister and politician.

Hieber was educated at Tübingen, Würzburg, and Heidelberg. In 1935 he was appointed Director of the Inorganic Chemical Institute at the Technical University in Münich.

Among his numerous research findings, Hieber prepared the first metal carbonyl hydrides such as H2Fe(CO)4 and HMn(CO)5. He discovered that metal carbonyls undergo nucleophilic attack by hydroxide, the “Hieber base reaction.” He and his students discovered several metal carbonyl compounds such as Re2(CO)10 and Os3(CO)12 He pioneered the development of metal carbonyl sulfides. Hieber is also known for his work with the cis effect, also known as th labilization of CO ligands in the cis position in octahedral complexes.

Hieber was highly decorated for his work, including in 1951 the Alfred Stock Prize. One of his most famous students was Nobel prize winner Ernst Otto Fischer. His first foreign student was John Anderson, FRS, in 1931.