research of BASF from 1949 up to his retirement in 1957. From 1952 to 1966, he also sat on the supervisory board. He was also a professor at the University of Mainz and TH Darmstadt from 1951 and 1952 respectively. Together with Otto Bayer and Karl Ziegler he received the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1960 for expanding the scientific knowledge on and for the technical development of new synthetic high-molecular materials. Legacy Most of the industrial processes that were developed by Reppe and coworkers have been superseded, largely because the chemical industry has shifted from coal as feedstock to oil. Alkenes from thermal cracking are readily available, but acetylene is not. Together with his contemporaries Otto Roelen, Karl Ziegler, Hans Tropsch, and Franz Fischer, Reppe was a leader in demonstrating the utility of metal-catalyzed reactions in large scale synthesis of organic compounds. The economic benefits demonstrated by this research motivated the eventual flowering of organometallic chemistry and its close connection to industry. Further reading Neue Entwicklungen auf dem Gebiet der Chemie des Acetylen und Kohlenoxyds (New developments in the area of the chemistry acetylene and carbon monoxide). Springer Berlin, Göttingen, Heidelberg. 1949. 184 pages. References 20th-century German chemists University of Jena alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Werner von Siemens Ring laureates Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1892 births 1969 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Organic chemists People from Eisenach