Walter Weizel "Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg". He received his doctorate in physical chemistry at Heidelberg, under Max Trautz. He switched form chemistry to physics to work on the quantum mechanics of molecules as a fellow of the "Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft" (NG; Emergency Association of German Science) at the "Universität Rostock". He completed his Habilitation in 1929. After Habilitation, Weizel worked briefly at "Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik" (BASF, Baden Aniline and Soda Factory) at Ludwigshafen. Then, during 1931, he had a Rockefeller fellowship to the University of Chicago. From late in 1931, Weizel was an "ordentlicher Professor" (ordinarius professor) of theoretical physics at the
Aniline obtained a base that he named "benzidam". In 1843, August Wilhelm von Hofmann showed that these were all the same substance, known thereafter as "phenylamine" or "aniline". In 1856, whilst trying to synthesise quinine, von Hofmann's student William Henry Perkin discovered mauveine and went into industry producing the first commercial synthetic dye. Other aniline dyes followed, such as fuchsin, safranin, and induline. At the time of mauveine's discovery, aniline was expensive. Soon thereafter, applying a method reported in 1854 by Antoine Béchamp, it was prepared "by the ton". The Béchamp reduction enabled the evolution of a massive dye industry in