Lieselotte Feikes (1923–2008): In the Service of Environmental Protection

From 1953 to 1984, Lieselotte Feikes worked for Freudenberg in Weinheim an der Bergstraße. Among other things, she developed a process for treating tannery wastewater on behalf of the company. At the end of her professional career, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for this work.

Lieselotte Feikes was born in 1923 in the small town of Viersen near Düsseldorf. After the early death of her father Josef, who had worked as a private tutor, she grew up with her sister in a female household strongly shaped by their mother’s friendly nature. She had already developed a keen interest in mathematics during her school years, but found the subject too dry for university study. Chemistry, on the other hand, appealed to her because of its experimental nature.

After completing her Abitur in March 1942, she therefore wanted to study chemistry. However, after leaving school she first had to complete Reich Labour Service. It was not until the summer semester of 1943 that, with the support of relatives, she was able to enrol in chemistry at the University of Halle. Her most important academic teacher was the future Nobel laureate Karl Ziegler (1898–1973). After only three semesters, however, Feikes had to interrupt her studies in the summer of 1944 because lectures were no longer being held owing to the war. In the following months, she worked as a laboratory assistant on wartime service at the chemical institute of the University of Halle. In October 1944, she became a laboratory assistant there under Margot Goehring (later Becke-Goehring, 1914–2009).

After the end of the war, Feikes initially returned to her home town of Viersen, but from there applied again for a position with Goehring, who was by then teaching and conducting research at Heidelberg University. She was accepted and studied chemistry, with physics and geology as subsidiary subjects, at Heidelberg University from 1946 to 1953. During her studies, she worked as an assistant in the analytical department at the chemical institute.

Feikes received her doctorate in 1953 for her dissertation entitled “On the reaction between polythionate ions and hydrogen sulphide”. During the graduation ceremony, she was recommended to visit Karl Freudenberg (1886–1983), the Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry. He arranged a position for her at the family-owned Carl Freudenberg & Co. KG in Weinheim an der Bergstraße. The company had grown out of a tannery, but even then also produced seals and nonwovens. The company’s best-known products include household articles under the Vileda brand.

From the end of July 1953, Feikes worked for the Carl Freudenberg Works in Weinheim, initially on a three-month trial basis. The 29-year-old chemist mainly worked on analysing the wastewater generated by the company. After the probationary period, she requested a permanent position. In her application, she wrote: “The work is still in full swing, and I am genuinely enjoying working here in the laboratory!” Hans Freudenberg (1888–1966), then a member of the management of the Freudenberg Group, recognised her scientific potential and offered her continued employment.

From November 1953 to May 1973, Feikes worked in the company’s leather laboratory, which she also headed from 1969. She was also entrusted with responsibility for treating tannery wastewater at the company’s sites in Weinheim and Schönau, which posed a considerable threat to people and the environment – although this was also because, at the beginning of the 20th century, Freudenberg had developed a tanning process using chromates rather than plant-based substances. Feikes devised a multi-stage process (mechanical-chemical-biological) for treating tannery wastewater, which was used at two newly built treatment plants operated by the company in Weinheim and Schönau. She also contributed her expertise to the subsequent construction of treatment plants for the Freudenberg Group in France, Brazil and Mexico. From the beginning of the 1970s, Feikes was responsible for environmental protection throughout the Freudenberg Group. In 1983, she wrote the widely acclaimed book “Ecological Problems of the Leather Industry”.

For her services to environmental protection and wastewater treatment, Feikes was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in August 1985. As early as May 1979, she had received the annual prize of the Association for Tannery Chemistry and Technology for her contribution to solving the environmental problems of the leather industry. In 1984, she was awarded honorary membership of the Association of Austrian Leather Technologists, and in 1989 honorary membership of the Association for Tannery Chemistry and Technology.

Although Feikes retired in January 1984, she continued to work as a consultant for the Freudenberg Group until 1991. She therefore remained the company’s environmental protection officer until 1987. Lieselotte Feikes died in Weinheim on 29 January 2008 at the age of 84.

(Contributed by: Dr. Michael Horchler, Head of Corporate Archives / Freudenberg Group)

Literature
• S. M. Schwarzl and M. Hertel, Nachrichten aus der Chemie 50, 2002, p. 639
• German Chemical Society (GDCh): Women chemists – they existed and they exist, brochure 2003, p. 29
• Corporate Archives of Freudenberg & Co. KG, Weinheim