Otto Ruff

Fischer was noted for his work on carbohydrates (sugars) and so Ruff started his career as an organic chemist.

Supported by the far-sighted Fischer, who recognized that while organic chemistry was now mature, physical chemistry was growing rapidly, Ruff became head of the new inorganic department in Berlin, working alongside Alfred Stock who was five years his junior.

This drastic change in subject benefited Ruff during his work on chlorides sulfur compounds.

The books were: "The Chemistry of Fluorine" (published in 1920 by Springer Verlag, Berlin) and "Introduction to Chemical Practicum" (Leipzig 1926, 2nd edition 1937).

[1] Along with Svante Arrhenius, Henri Moissan, and Alfred Werner, all of whom received Nobel Prizes, O. Ruff was regarded as the driver of the achievements of inorganic chemistry in first decades of the 20th century.

Prof. Ruff (r.) with assistant Manfred Giese (l.) between 1932 and 1934