Editing Emil Erlenmeyer (section)

=== Early life and education ===
Erlenmeyer was born in Wehen, [[Duchy of Nassau]] (today [[Taunusstein]], Hesse, near Wiesbaden), in 1825, the son of  a Protestant minister.<ref>See biography by Conrad, in Further Reading.</ref> He enrolled in the [[University of Giessen]] to study medicine, but after attending lectures of [[Justus von Liebig]] changed to chemistry. In the summer of 1846 he went to [[Heidelberg]] for one year, and studied physics, botany and mineralogy, returning to Giessen in 1847. After serving as assistant to H. Will and then to [[Carl Remigius Fresenius]], Erlenmeyer decided to devote himself to [[pharmaceutical chemistry]]. For this purpose he studied in Nassau, where he passed the state pharmaceutical examination, and shortly afterwards acquired an apothecary's business, first at [[Katzenelnbogen]] and then in [[Wiesbaden]]. He became dissatisfied with pharmacy and returned to chemistry, finishing his doctorate at Giessen in 1850.

In 1855 he moved to Heidelberg to work on the chemistry of fertilizers in the laboratory of [[Robert Bunsen]]. He wished to teach, but Bunsen's associates were not allowed to take private students. Therefore, with his wife's help, he converted a shed into a private laboratory. In 1857 he became a [[privatdocent]] and his habilitation thesis "On the manufacture of the artificial manure known as superphosphate" contained a description of several crystalline substances which greatly interested [[Robert Bunsen]]. It was while at Heidelberg that Erlenmeyer was brought under the influence of [[Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz|August Kekulé]], whose theoretical views he was one of the first to adopt.  He was the first to suggest, in 1862, that double and triple bonds could form between carbon atoms, and he made other important contributions to the development of theories of molecular structure.