Friedrich Rathgen

Born in Eckernförde in 1862, Friedrich Wilhelm Rathgen studied the natural sciences in Göttingen, Berlin, and Marburg, earning a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1886. Soon afterward, he moved into museum work at a time when the scientific preservation of artifacts was still taking shape.

In 1888 he became the first director of the Chemical Laboratory of the Royal Museums in Berlin, a post he held until his retirement in 1927. He is widely described as a founder of conservation science because he brought chemical and physical methods into the treatment and study of archaeological and museum objects.

Rathgen is especially remembered for his early handbook on the conservation of antiquities and for the lasting influence of his research on archaeological conservation. The Berlin laboratory that continued this tradition was later named the Rathgen Research Laboratory in his honor.