Euler-Chelpin was born on 15 February 1873 at Augsburg, Germany to Rigas Georg Sebastian von Euler-Chelpin and Gabriele von Euler-Chelpin (née Furtner). His father was at the time captain in the Royal Bavarian Infantry Guard Regiment (Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment), who was soon transferred toMunich and would finally become a lieutenant general (Generalleutnant). During his childhood, he spent most of his time with his grandmother atWasserburg am Inn. He went to the Royal Junior High School in Augsburg (predecessor of Holbein Gymnasium ), also inWürzburg andUlm. After serving as a one-year volunteer in the Bavarian first Field Artillery Regiment, he took interest in the color theory and began studying art at the Munich Academy of Painting (1891–1893). He was taught under Schmid-Reutte andLenbach, a German painter of realist style. He thereafter went to attend the University of Berlin to study chemistry underEmil Fischer and A. Rosenheim, and physics underE. Warburg andMax Planck; where in 1895 he received his doctorate.[1]
In 1899, von Euler-Chelpin was appointed to teach asPrivatdozent in the Royal University at Stockholm where he began visiting the laboratory ofvan 't Hoff, one of the many who influenced Euler-Chelpin's interest in science along withNernst.[1]
In 1902, he took Swedish citizenship, although keeping his German citizenship. Nevertheless, during theFirst World War, von Euler-Chelpin took part in voluntary service with theImperial German Army in the artillery (1. Feldartillerie-Regiment) of theBavarian Army, transferring to theLuftstreitkräfte in 1915, finally with the rank as captain (Hauptmann). During theSecond World War, he worked in a diplomatic mission on the German side.
In 1906, he was appointed Professor of General andOrganic Chemistry in the Royal University, Stockholm. In 1929, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the International Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation established in Stockholm the Vitamin Institute and Institute of Biochemistry, and Euler-Chelpin was appointed as its director. In 1941 he retired from teaching, but continued his research.[1]
Hans von Euler-Chelpin married twice. His first wife wasAstrid Cleve, who was the first Swedish woman to obtain a doctoral degree of science. They had five children: Sten (1903–1991), Ulf Svante (1905–1983), Karin Maria (1907–2003), Hans Georg Rigas (1908–2003) and Birgit (1910–2000). In 1913 he married again to his second wife, Elisabeth "Beth" Baroness af Ugglas (1887–1973), whose participated in collaborations with Euler-Chelpin. They had four children: Rolf Sebastian Ugglas (1914–2005), Hans Roland Ugglas (1916–), Curt Leonhard Ugglas (1918–2001) and Johan Erik Ugglas "Jan" (1929–1954). His son,Ulf von Euler, was a well-known physiologist and in 1970 he received a Nobel Prize for his research on the chemical nature ofnorepinephrine on the synapses. In 1931, his daughter Karin von Euler-Chelpin married the writerSven Stolpe and had four children with him (one of which wasLisette Schulman).[1]
During his life, von Euler-Chelpin created a series of monographs such asBiochemistry of Tumours, written in collaboration with Boleslaw Skarzynski, published in 1942 and the other entitledThe Chemotherapy and Prophylaxis of Cancer, published in 1962.
von Euler-Chelpin died in Stockholm on 6 November 1964, at the age of 91.[1]
In 1929, Euler-Chelpin and Arthur Harden received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for research onalcoholic fermentation of carbohydrates and the role of enzymes. Arthur Harden dealt only with the chemical effects of bacteria from 1903 with alcoholic fermentation. Harden discovered that theenzymezymase, discovered byEduard Buchner, only produces fermentation in interaction with thecoenzymecozymase. Euler-Chelpin, in turn, convincingly described what happens in sugar fermentation and the action of fermentation enzymes using physical chemistry. This explanation led to the understanding of the important processes taking place in the muscles for the supply of energy.[1]
