Richard Martin Willstätter FRS(For) HFRSE[1] (German pronunciation: [ˈʁɪçaʁt ˈvɪlˌʃtɛtɐ] ⓘ, 13 August 1872 – 3 August 1942) was a German organic chemist whose study of the structure of plant pigments, chlorophyll included, won him the 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

He was in the Department of Chemistry, first as a student of Alfred Einhorn—he received his doctorate in 1894[citation needed] – then as a faculty member.

In 1905 he left Munich to become professor at the ETH Zürich and there he worked on the plant pigment chlorophyll.

In 1924 Willstätter's career came to "a tragic end when, as a gesture against increasing antisemitism, he announced his retirement.

"[2] According to his Nobel biography:[7] "Expressions of confidence by the Faculty, by his students and by the Minister failed to shake the fifty-three year old scientist in his decision to resign.

However, not surprisingly, in December 1934 the (Nazi) Berlin State Police confiscated all the copies that had already been printed.

In 1933, in a lastminute attempt to counter the Nazi threat, the traumatized leaders of the Centralverein (Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith), the most representative organization of assimilated German Jews, commissioned the compilation of a list of Jewish "achievers" and "achievements" in all fields.

The task was executed with overwhelming thoroughness by a committee of experts headed by Siegmund Kaznelson, well known during the Weimar period as an editor and publisher.

To avoid possible misunderstandings, the book even included an appendix on "non-Jews widely regarded as Jews."