Professor Nikodem Caro

How are you related to Professor Nikodem Caro?

Connect to the World Family Tree to find out

Professor Nikodem Caro's Geni Profile

Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love

  • Build your family tree online
  • Share photos and videos
  • Smart Matching™ technology
  • Free!

Professor Nikodem Caro

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Łódź, Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland
Death: June 27, 1935 (64)
Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy
Place of Burial: Zürich, Zürich District, Zurich, Switzerland
Immediate Family:

Son of Albert Abraham Caro and Rosa Caro
Husband of Elsa Charlotte Johanna Caro
Father of Vera Deborah Petschek
Brother of Dr. Leo Caro and Felix Siegmund Caro

Managed by: Randy Schoenberg
Last Updated:

About Professor Nikodem Caro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikodem_Caro

Nikodem Caro, Chemist and entrepreneur Co-founder of SKW Co-inventor of calcium cyanamide synthesis and first president of Bayerische Stickstoff-Werke AG (BStW) in Trostberg, one of the predecessors of Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoffwerke, SKW for short. Nikodem Caro

b. 1871, Lodz d. 1935, Rome

Nikodem Caro came from a well-known Jewish family residing in Poland and Upper Silesia. After graduating from high school at the age of 17, he went to study in Berlin. He completed his studies in 1891, graduating as a chemist from the (Berlin-) Charlottenburg Technical College. Just a year later he gained his doctorate at Rostock University. These activities brought Caro into contact with Prof. Adolph Frank, with whom he primarily carried out research into the production of cyanides, in addition to experiments on gas hydration and the gasification of peat. The process he developed for producing cyanic compounds from carbides was patented on March 31, 1895. This calcium cyanamide synthesis became known as the Frank-Caro patent, while the end product of the synthesis was known as (calcium) cyanamide.

With a view to economical exploitation and further research into cyanamide, Caro established the Cyanidgesellschaft mbH in partnership with Adolph Frank, Dr. Fritz Rothe, Deutsche Bank, Siemens & Halske and the Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt vormals Roessler.

In 1901 Albert Frank, son of Adolph Frank, and Dr. Hermann Freudenberg proposed calcium cyanamide as a fertilizer under the name Kalkstickstoff [lime-nitrogen]. The Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt relinquished its holding in the Cyanidgesellschaft the same year and in 1908 the Bayerische Stickstoff-Werke AG (BStW) was founded in Munich to produce calcium cyanamide at the Trostberg site. It was owned by the Cyanidgesellschaft and Nikodem Caro was its first president. The Bayerische Stickstoff-Werke merged in Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoffwerke AG in 1939, renamed SKW Trostberg AG in 1978.

Nikodem Caro not only gave his name to the Caro-Werk, the hydroelectric station III of the future SKW built near Hirten in 1924, but was also an honorary citizen of a total of 18 Bavarian municipalities, Bulgarian Consul General and honorary senator of several universities. After the National Socialists seized power, Caro left Germany in 1933, emigrated through Switzerland to Italy and died in Rome in 1935.

view all

Professor Nikodem Caro's Timeline

1871
May 23, 1871
Łódź, Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland
1935
June 27, 1935
Age 64
Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy
????
????
Zürich, Zürich District, Zurich, Switzerland