Konrad Bloch
Biography
Konrad E.
Bloch was born on 21st January 1912, in Neisse, Upper
Silesia, then Germany, the son of Fritz Bloch and his wife
Hedwig, née Striemer. He attended the elementary school and
the Real gymnasium in the same city and in 1930 went to Munich to
study chemistry at the Technische Hochschule. He became soon
attracted to organic chemistry, especially the structure of
natural products, an interest which he owed in large measure to
the inspired teaching of Hans Fischer. Another
influential experience was to attend the Sessions of the
Münchener Chemische Gesellschaft and to hear the great
organic chemists of the time, Adolph Windaus,
Heinrich
Wieland and Rudolf
Willstätter report their researches on steroids,
porphyrins and enzymes.
For racial reasons his studies in Munich ended in 1934 after he
had obtained the degree of Diplom-Ingenie