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Bayer credits its chemist Felix Hoffmann with making aspirin's active ingredient, acetylsalicylic acid, in a stable form in 1897, but that account is disputed. In 1949 his senior colleague Arthur Eichengrün wrote that he had directed the project and given Hoffmann the task. Historian Walter Sneader supported Eichengrün's claim in 1999; Bayer and other historians do not accept it.

Arthur Eichengrün / Felix Hoffmann, Bayer, 1897 (dispute surfaced 1949, re-examined 1999)

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The story behind the card

Eichengrün was Jewish and was persecuted under the Nazi regime; in 1944, aged 76, he was imprisoned at Theresienstadt, where he typed a letter worded much like the paper he published in 1949. The account crediting Hoffmann had first appeared in 1934, as a footnote in a history of chemical engineering, and Sneader argued that in the Nazi years Eichengrün was in no position to rebut it in public. Bayer registered the name Aspirin in 1899. The drug went on to become one of the best-selling medicines in history and helped make Bayer a major pharmaceutical company.

Türkçe oku
Bayer'e göre aspirinin etken maddesi asetilsalisilik asidi 1897'de kararlı bir biçimde elde eden, şirketin kimyageri Felix Hoffmann'dır; ama bu anlatı tartışmalıdır. Hoffmann'ın kıdemli meslektaşı Arthur Eichengrün 1949'da, çalışmayı kendisinin yönettiğini ve bu işi Hoffmann'a kendisinin verdiğini yazdı. Tarihçi Walter Sneader 1999'da Eichengrün'ü haklı buldu; Bayer ve bazı tarihçiler ise bu görüşü kabul etmiyor.

Eichengrün Yahudiydi ve Nazi rejiminde zulüm gördü; 1944'te, 76 yaşındayken Theresienstadt'a kapatıldı. Orada daktiloyla yazdığı bir mektup, 1949'da yayımladığı yazıyla neredeyse aynı şeyleri söylüyordu. Hoffmann'ı öne çıkaran anlatı ise ilk kez 1934'te, bir kimya mühendisliği tarihi kitabında dipnot olarak yer almıştı. Sneader'a göre Eichengrün, Nazi yıllarında buna açıkça itiraz edebilecek durumda değildi. Bayer, Aspirin adını 1899'da tescil ettirdi. İlaç zamanla tarihin en çok satan ilaçlarından biri oldu ve Bayer'in büyük bir ilaç şirketine dönüşmesinde önemli rol oynadı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Arthur Eichengrün
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