He was expelled from his Gymnasium for detonating an explosive device he had made at home from chemicals obtained from his father's business. He was apprenticed to an apothecary in Heppenheim.
Liebig studied at the University of Bonn, together with Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner. When Kastner moved to the University of Erlangen, Liebig accompanied him and received his doctorate there in 1822. He then received a grant from the Hessian government to study in Paris. Through the influence of Alexander von Humboldt he was able to work in the private laboratory of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac.
In 1824 at the age of 21, he became professor at the University of Giessen. He was a professor at the University of Munich from 1852 to 1873. He became Freiherr (baron) in 1845. Liebig improved organic analysis, and discovered that plants feed on the nitrogen (actually microbes do the conversions to nitrogen componds) and carbon dioxide in the air, as well as on minerals in the soil. One of his most famous accomplishments was the invention of nitrogen-based fertilizer. He was also one of the first chemists to organize a laboratory as we know it today. The vapor condensation device he invented for his research is still known as a "liebig condenser"
In 1865 he founded the Liebig Extract of Meat Company which produced beef extract, an innovation of his, as a cheap, nutricious alternative to real meat.
The University of Giessen today is officially named after him, Justus Liebig University Giessen.
Major Works
Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology (1840)
Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology (1842)
LIEBIG, JUSTUSVON, Baron (1803-1873), German chemist, was born at Darmstadt, according to his baptismal certificate, on the 12th of May 1803 (4th of May, according to his mother).
He remained at Giessen for twenty-eight years, until in 1852 he accepted the invitation of the Bavarian government to the ordinary chair of chemistry at Munich university, and this office he held, although he was offered the chair at Berlin in 1865, until his death, which occurred at Munich on the 10th of April 1873.
Apart from Liebig's labours for the improvement of chemical teaching, the influence of his experimental researches and of his contributions to chemical thought was felt in every branch of the science.
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