History of the Institute

The emerging field of Biochemistry gained increasing importance in Freiburg during the 20th century. In the Medical Faculty, the Physiologisch-Chemisches Institut, initatied by Heinrich Kiliani (1855-1945) and Franz Knoop (1845-1946) was renamed 1963 to Biochemisches Institut and 1995 to Institut für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie. In parallel, the Faculty of Biology installed a chair of Plant Biochemistry held by Hans Grisebach (1926-1990) and subsequently by Wolfgang Haehnel. 

Chair of Biochemistry

In the Chemical Laboratory, Kurt Wallenfels (1910-1995) was appointed extraordinary professor of Organic Chemistry in 1953 and became chair of Biochemistry in 1961, establishing the subject in the curriculum of Chemistry. Chairs at the institute were

With Georg Schulz, Protein Crystallography was established as a methodic centerpiece of the department. With the promotion of Thorsten Friedrich to full professor in 2012 the institute was extended to two concurrent chairs.

Associate Professors of Biochemistry

Since 1996 a second professorship with a biochemical orientation was established. This was extend to a third position in 2012.

Institute of Biochemistry

In 2012, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry was separated into the Institute of Organic Chemistry and the Institute for Biochemistry. In this process, Thorsten Friedrich obtained a second chair position as a W3 professor of Biochemistry. Susana Andrade was appointed W2 professor for membrane protein biochemistry in 2012 and promoted to W3 professor of Biochemistry in 2018.