Issue in Honor of Prof. Lutz F. Tietze ARKIVOC 2007 (v) 1-5
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lutz F. Tietze
A Tribute
Lutz F. Tietze was born on March 14, 1942 in the city of Berlin. In the aftermath of World War II his family moved to the northern German state Schleswig-Holstein where he was raised and educated. In 1961 he obtained the “Abitur” and decided to study chemistry at the near-by University of Kiel from which he graduated with the diploma degree in 1966. During his studies he also spent some time at the University of Freiburg which turned out to be a life-changing decision because there he met his wife Karin to whom he has now been married for more than 40 years. From 1966 until 1968 he made experimental studies towards his Ph.D. degree in the group of the natural product chemist Prof. Burchard Frank in Kiel, investigating the selective oxidation of laudanosolin derivatives.
Supported through a Fulbright fellowship he crossed the Atlantic ocean to take up a research associate position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) in the renowned group of Prof. George Büchi, completing a total synthesis of the natural product loganin. While working hard on his synthesis project he still had some spare time and enjoyed sailing on the Charles river and off the Massachusetts coast at Marble Head. In 1971 he returned to Germany and started his independent career at the University of Münster. Having broad experience both in natural product and synthetic chemistry he picked as the initial project for his habilitation work the natural product secologanin, a key biogenetic precursor to the monoterpenoid indole-, ipecacuanha-, and cinchona- alkaloids. He probably did not anticipate that this compound would consume most of his attention for the next decade or so, as it turned out to be an extremely challenging target. Eventually, he accomplished a total synthesis of the aglucon of secologanin, developed a general glycosidation method of the iridoids and secoiridoids, and made important contributions towards the biogenetic origin and the use of secologanin for the synthesis of other
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