From Berlin to Frankfurt am Main: biochemist Maria Kobel contributed to "Beilstein's Handbook of Organic Chemistry" for over three decades.

Maria Kobel was born on 5 August 1897 as the eldest of ten siblings in Liegnitz in Lower Silesia (now Legnica in Poland). She studied chemistry in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) from 1918 to 1921 and received her doctorate in 1921 with a thesis entitled "On the substances referred to in the literature as glyoxylurea". She moved to Berlin in the same year.

Her excellent academic and doctoral achievements did not go unnoticed and in 1924 she was employed by the biochemist Carl Neuberg (1877-1956), a student of Alfred Wohl (1863-1939), at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for Experimental Therapy in Berlin-Dahlem. A short time later, the institute was renamed KWI for Biochemistry. From 1929 to 1936, Kobel headed the Department of Tobacco Research there.

Neuberg was Kobel's scientific mentor until his dismissal in 1934 and expulsion due to his Jewish origins. Their joint research focussed on the phosphoric acid esters of glycerol (trivial name glycerol). Kobel and Neuberg published specialist articles together with titles such as "Phosphoric acid esters of carbohydrate metabolism" and "Ferments and their effects". In Neuberg's extensive list of publications, it is noticeable that women were often involved in his publications. Compared to other institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, more female scientists worked at Neuberg's institute. In addition, a relatively large number of female students received their doctorates at the KWI for Biochemistry. Kobel remained on friendly terms with her mentor until his death in 1956.

Even before his emigration, Neuberg managed to place Kobel at the "Hofmann House" in Berlin. Until 1945, the building at Sigismundstraße 4 was the headquarters of the German Chemical Society, which August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818-1892) had co-founded. Kobel's scientific creativity is evidenced by her treatises, which she published in the four-volume handbook "Methods of Fermentation Research", published in 1941.

From 1941, Kobel was a member of the editorial staff and later head of department of "Beilstein's Handbook of Organic Chemistry". This work, known by chemists as "Beilstein" for short, is a comprehensive catalogue of compounds in organic chemistry, which continues to be maintained today as the Beilstein database. With the support of Frankfurt Nobel Prize winner Otto Hahn (1879-1968), the Beilstein Institute was established as a foundation in Frankfurt am Main in 1951. As an employee of the institute, Kobel helped to shape the "Beilstein". Until the mid-1970s, she was still mentioned as the author and editor of Beilstein's Handbook of Organic Chemistry.

Maria Kobel died shortly after her 99th birthday on 14 August 1996 in Kronberg im Taunus.

Sources
H. Conrads, B. Lohff: Carl Neuberg - Biochemistry, Politics and History. Lebenswege und Werk eines fast verdrängten Forschers, Steiner, Stuttgart, 2006
M. Engel: History of Dahlem, Berlin-Verlag, Berlin, 1984
A. Vogt: Wissenschaftlerinnen in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten A-Z, 2nd expanded edition, Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, 2008, pp. 98-100
E. Baman, K. Myrbäck (editors): Die Methoden der Fermentforschung, four volumes, Thieme, Leipzig, 1941

Authors
Prof. Dr Eberhard Ehlers
Prof. Dr Heribert Offermanns

Editing
Dr. Uta Neubauer

Project management
Dr. Karin J. Schmitz (GDCh public relations)

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