Annelore Köster-Pflugmacher (1919–2002): Leading authority in inorganic chemistry #

Boron, germanium and the halogens: these elements were the focus of Annelore Köster-Pflugmacher’s research. As a chemistry professor at RWTH Aachen University, she also undertook extensive teaching duties.

Annelore Köster-Pflugmacher (née Trapp) was born on 19 March 1919 in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). After completing her school-leaving examinations, she studied chemistry at the Albertus University of Königsberg. She completed her doctoral dissertation on silicon iodides under Robert Schwarz (1887–1963) at the university’s Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. On 21 November 1942, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences.

During her studies, she met Dieter Pflugmacher, whom she married in 1941. The Second World War, however, made her a widow within a short time. Her husband was killed in July 1943.

From July 1942 to November 1944, Pflugmacher worked as a research assistant at the Chemical Institute of the University of Königsberg. Shortly before Russian troops invaded, she fled west in 1945. Pflugmacher eventually found a new professional home in Aachen. She had followed her doctoral supervisor, who in 1948 had accepted an appointment as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Electrochemistry at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen. In April 1950, Pflugmacher was appointed as a permanent research assistant at RWTH, where she submitted her habilitation thesis in 1953, entitled ‘On the study of bromine oxides’. In 1960, she was appointed to an extraordinary professorship, and in 1961 she was named a Scientific Councillor at RWTH. During this period, she met the chemist Alfred Köster, whom she married in 1962. Two years later, the couple moved to Langenfeld in the Rhineland.

Köster-Pflugmacher’s research focused on the oxides of bromine and the halides of boron, as well as the organometallic compounds of germanium. She primarily used X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy as an analytical method. At RWTH, she also undertook extensive teaching duties, as chemistry instruction for students of mechanical engineering and other disciplines fell within her remit. She also oversaw chemistry lectures for trainee secondary-school teachers. From 1961 onwards, Köster-Pflugmacher was also editor of the German-language new editions of Gaston Charlot’s (1904–1994) textbook ‘Rapid qualitative analysis of cations and anions’. Charlot was the founder of modern analytical chemistry in France.

Köster-Pflugmacher retired in March 1981. In 2010, RWTH Aachen University recognised her habilitation thesis in its calendar ‘100 Years of Women’s Studies at RWTH’. Annelore Köster-Pflugmacher lived to the age of 83 and remained in Langenfeld until her death. She died on 12 August 2002.

Literature
H. Werner: Geschichte der anorganischen Chemie, Wiley & Sons, Weinheim, 2016, p. 158

Gedächtnis der RWTH Aachen, Alma Mater Aquensis, Sonderband 1870-1995, p. 71