Max Delbrück (chemist)

Delbrück was born in Bergen auf Rügen. He studied chemistry in Berlin and in Greifswald. He was a member of the fraternity Free Corps of Cimbria. In 1872 he was made assistant at the Academy of Trades in Berlin. In 1874 he was appointed head of the newly founded experimental facility of the Spirits and Liquor Trade Association of Germany. This facility was transformed and expanded in 1882 into the Research and Educational Institute for Brewing (VLB). Delbrück was head of the Institute of Fermentation Technology within the research institute. In 1887 he was appointed instructor at the Agricultural College, and in 1899 was given a full professorship. He was founder of the Department of Machine-Aided Technologies of the VLB (1888) and partook in the conception of the degree course Brewmaster. The researches, carried out in part by Delbrück himself, in part under his guidance, resulted in technical contributions of the highest value to the fermentation industries. He was one of the editors of the Zeitschrift für Spiritusindustrie (1867), and of the Wochenschrift für Brauerei. He died in Berlin, aged 68.

Delbrück came from a highly respected Prussian family of intellectuals and civil servants. He was a younger brother of the historian Hans Delbrück and uncle of the Nobel laureate physicist Max Delbrück.