Chemist, Industrialist. Co-founder of the German chemical company AGFA. The second son of composer Felix Mendelssohn, he was born in Leipzig, Germany. After his father's death in 1847 he was raised in Berlin by an uncle, the banker Paul Mendelssohn. He earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (1863) and did pioneering work with aniline dyes. In 1867, Mendelssohn and Carl Alexander von Martius established the Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation (AGFA) in the Berlin suburb of Rummelsburg for the manufacture of aniline and later azo dyes, and these were the company's mainstays for a quarter century. Like many members of his family Mendelssohn suffered from high blood pressure, and he died of a heart attack at 39. From the mid-1890s AGFA went on to become the top German rival of Kodak in producing photographic chemicals and film stock, including the Agfacolor process (1932). With the decline of film-based photography, the firm sold off its consumer division in 2004 and now focuses on digital imaging for other businesses. It has 11,000 employees in 40 countries.
Chemist, Industrialist. Co-founder of the German chemical company AGFA. The second son of composer Felix Mendelssohn, he was born in Leipzig, Germany. After his father's death in 1847 he was raised in Berlin by an uncle, the banker Paul Mendelssohn. He earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (1863) and did pioneering work with aniline dyes. In 1867, Mendelssohn and Carl Alexander von Martius established the Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation (AGFA) in the Berlin suburb of Rummelsburg for the manufacture of aniline and later azo dyes, and these were the company's mainstays for a quarter century. Like many members of his family Mendelssohn suffered from high blood pressure, and he died of a heart attack at 39. From the mid-1890s AGFA went on to become the top German rival of Kodak in producing photographic chemicals and film stock, including the Agfacolor process (1932). With the decline of film-based photography, the firm sold off its consumer division in 2004 and now focuses on digital imaging for other businesses. It has 11,000 employees in 40 countries.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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