The Geheimrat

The Geheimrat

Early in Herman Mark’s tenure in Brooklyn, his colleague Isidor Fankuchen addressed Mark as Der Geheimrat, which means privy or secret councilor, but in German universities it had a special, untranslatable meaning. It was a title bestowed by the German kaisers on prominent academicians, but it suggests the standard caricature of the “stuffed shirt,” pompous professor. Fankuchen meant Geheimrat as a joke, but it stuck as a title for Mark precisely because he was the antithesis of a true Geheimrat. Mark, who had a self-deprecating sense of humor, was pleased by the title, and he became known as the Geheimrat.¹

Known as the Geheimrat, but hardly a Geheimrat, Mark was Viennese to the core, the kind of central European who kissed lady’s hands. He seemed in many ways to meld Old and New World virtues into “a combination of a European and Viennese gentleman, with the openness to people, places and ideas which are really typically American.”² One former colleague describes Mark as “formal in an informal way.”³ For example, he almost always wore a tie, but even when he was teaching in Vienna, Mark could be found picnicking with his students. His lack of pomposity was demonstrated by the greetings he gave all, high and low, educated and uneducated, regardless of whether he knew the person. A typical Mark greeting was “Good morning! Good morning! Good morning! How are you, Herr Professor?” It mattered little whether the visitor was indeed a professor. Mark used the title for even the most casual acquaintance in the belief it made people feel important. This disarming style could be carried rather far, as in the time Mark introduced a young man to Dean Kirk as “Dr. Smathers, who is coming to us to earn his Master’s degree.”⁴

Former colleagues invariably have kind words for Mark. Herbert Morawetz, who came to Brooklyn Polytech as a student and joined the faculty in 1951, describes Mark “as a man of tremendous personal charm.”⁵ He was always ready to help fellow faculty members and students. Murray Goodman, who taught at Polytech and served as director of the Polymer Research Institute, calls the Geheimrat “the true catalyst in helping me to develop my career.”⁶ Another colleague says Mark had an uncanny “ability to relate to all people at all levels.”⁷

Mark never “allowed any unpleasantness in his life to affect his actions.”⁸ He did not hesitate to invite German chemists who were known to have been pro-Nazi to give lectures at the Institute. His magnanimity included Hermann Staudinger, one of the giants in the early years of macromolecular science who disagreed with Mark on the structure of polymers. According to Morawetz, “Staudinger treated [Mark] like dirt, came here and was really received with the highest honors.”⁹

By the time Mark came to America and then organized the Polymer Research Institute, he had already done much of his important, creative, and seminal research. His contributions to science now were as an ambassador for polymer chemistry and education. He did this in many ways: through the symposia he organized at the Institute; by lecturing all over the world; by having a hand in polymer publications; and by keeping up with the latest research. “His great contribution in America,” Herbert Morawetz claims, “was once a year he would give a lecture, and they were wonderful lectures, on what’s going on in polymers in the world.”¹⁰ Herman Mark, Goodman says, had “a special ability to know what was going on, to be at the center, and to know what breakthroughs were imminent and to communicate that widely and broadly through the scientific world.”¹¹

Herman Mark died on April 6, 1992, a month short of his 97th birthday. In his latter years, Mark was frequently asked the secret to his longevity, despite his penchant for cigars and liquor. His response: “It’s really quite simple. You just have to pick your parents properly.”¹²

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¹ Herman Mark, From Small Organic Molecules to Large: A Century of Progress, in Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams: Autobiographies of Eminent Chemists, ed. Jeffrey Seeman (Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1993), pp. 120-122; Telephone interview with Hans Mark, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, June 6, 2003.
² Telephone interview with Murray Goodman, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, May 29, 2003.
³ Interview with Eli Pearce, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, May 27, 2003.
⁴ For a number of anecdotes about Mark, see Morton Hunt, “Profiles: Polymers Everywhere,” Part one of two parts in The New Yorker, September 13, 1958.
⁵ Interview with Herbert Morawetz, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, May 27, 2003.
⁶ Murray Goodman, “Herman Mark, My Career Catalyst,” in Sheldon Atlas, Eli Pearce, and F.R. Eirich, eds., Polymers to the Year 200 and Beyond: A Memorial Symposium for Herman F. Mark (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993), p. 188.
⁷ Pearce interview.
⁸ Morawetz interview.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Goodman interview, May 30, 2003.
¹² Pearce interview.

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