Jan Johann Böhm - Chemist and Photographer

National Technical Museum, Prague 2021, 210x261 mm, 299 pages, ISBN 978-80-7037-337-8 Jan (Johann) Böhm (1895–1952) was a German Czech chemist and photographer who worked in the field of physical chemistry and contributed to the development of Czechoslovak crystallography. In 1920, he began his career at the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin and later worked at the university in Freiburg im Breisgau. Böhm collaborat¬ed with the Nobel Prize winners Fritz Haber and George de Hevesy. In 1935, he returned to Prague for political reasons and was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry at the German (Charles) University where he stayed un¬til 1945. After the closure of universities in November 1939, he enabled the chemist Jaroslav Heyrovský to continue his development of polarograph throughout the war. After the liberation in May 1945, Böhm’s situation was complicated because of his German nationality and he could not find a job that matched his skills and abilities. Beginning in 1946, he worked as a chemist at the Association for Chemical and Metallurgical Production in Pardubice Rybitví. Böhm was an enthusiast amateur photographer. His first pictures, dated from 1912, capture the chemical experiments and physical and astronom¬ical phenomena. During the 1920 s and 1930 s, he travelled extensively, mostly to Germany and Switzerland, and documented his journeys. He mainly photographed landscapes, primarily the mountains for he was an avid skier and alpinist, but also took pictures of his family and friends. During the war, he photographed Prague, especially its Baroque monuments.