Feigl, Friedrich

After his studies of biology and chemistry at the Technical University of Vienna Friedrich Feigl became in 1914 graduate engineer and - after serving in the army in the First World War - assistant professor at the University of Vienna in 1919. In 1920 he received the title of Dr. tech. from the Technical University (thesis: "Über Verwendung von Tüpfelreaktionen in der qualitativen Analyse") and became assistant professor at the II. Chemical University Laboratory. He was promoted untenured professor of analytical and inorganic chemistry at the University of Vienna in 1926 and extraordinary professor in 1936. He was regarded as one of the pioneers of chemical microanalysis and of the application of organic reagents in analytical chemistry. 

Friedrich Feigl was persecuted in times of Nazism as a Jew lost his position and was thrown out of the university in 1938. He emigrated via Switzerland to Gent/Belgium, where he worked as director of a research laboratory, but was arrested in 1941 and deported to a camp in South France. He managed to flee and emigrate via Vichy to Rio de Janeiro/Brasilia, where he worked as head of a department and laboratory of the ministry of agriculture and analysed Brasilian natural resources. He became a Brazilian citizen in 1944.

Fritz Feigl became Professor of Chemistry at the Universidade Federale do Rio de Janeiro in 1953 and held honorary professorships at the Technical University and the University of Vienna. His pioneering work in the field of microanalysis and the establishment of the spot test as an important instrument in analytical chemistry and medicine earned him an international academic reputation.

Fritz Feigl received many honors and awards. In 1931 he received the Fritz Pregl Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in 1957 the Wilhelm Exner Medal of the Austrian Trade Association and in 1961 the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. Numerous universities around the world awarded him honorary doctorates, including the Vienna University of Technology (1948), the Universidade de São Paulo (1956) and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna (1967). 

Since 1950, the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry (ASAC) has awarded the Fritz Feigl Prize at irregular intervals to chemists under the age of 40 for outstanding scientific achievements.

In 2003, the City of Vienna named the Fritz-Feigl-Weg in Vienna-Donaustadt (22nd district) after him. In 2009 he was included in the Memorial book for the victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938, and in 2018 in the memorial wall of the Faculty of Chemistry.

Works (selection)

Qualitative Analyse mit Hilfe von Tüpfelreaktion, 1931 (English: Qualitative Analysis by Spot Tests: Inorganic and Organic Applications, 1937).

Laboratory Manual of Spot Tests, 1943.

Chemistry of Specific, Selective and Sensitive Reactions, 1949 (Química de Reações Específicas).