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Abstract

When in 1971 the University of Giessen offered me a position as full professor of organic chemistry (succession of F. Kröhnke on Liebig's chair) a delegation of three ambitious chemistry students from Giessen visited me in Karlsruhe to enquire whether, in case I accepted the offer, they could carry out the experimental diploma work (cf. master thesis) in my group. One of the three candidates was actually Dieter Enders, who subsequently finished the Diploma and PhD theses in record time (by 1972 and by 1974, respectively). The topic of his work was umpolung of amine/ imine reactivity, mainly through lithiated nitrosamines. 1 Dieter then joined E. J. Corey's group for postdoctoral research (1974)(1975), in which he studied the generation of lithiated tert-butylimines and dimethylhydrazones (enolate equivalents) and their reactions with various electrophiles. 2 In the period 1972-1975, Dieter received a highly competitive stipend of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.