Alexander Kraft, PhD
Dr. Alexander Kraft is a chemist and historian of chemistry from Germany. He studied chemistry at the Humboldt University in Berlin where he received his doctorate in 1994 in the field of semiconductor electrochemistry. Since 1995 he has worked as an employee, founder, or consultant for various start-up companies in Germany, the USA, Sweden, and Spain in the fields of electrochemical water treatment and dynamic smart windows (electrochromism, thermochromism). Since 2007, Kraft has also been working as a historian of alchemy and chemistry, with a focus on the history of Prussian blue and the history of chemistry and alchemy in Berlin. He has published three German-language books in this field. These include works on the history of chemistry in Berlin (Chemie in Berlin: Geschichte, Spuren, Persönlichkeiten, 2012), the history of Prussian blue (Berliner Blau: Vom frühneuzeitlichen Pigment zum modernen Hightech-Material, 2019) and the history of alchemy in Saxe-Meiningen around the year 1700 (Zwei Herzöge im Goldrausch: Die Alchemie am Fürstenhof von Sachsen-Meiningen von 1680 bis 1724, 2023). Since 2016, Kraft has been researching the biography and writings of the alchemist Dorothea Juliana Wallich. Together with colleagues in the Alchemy Network at the Gotha Research Center (Erfurt University), selected experiments by Wallich are being recreated. The ligand exchange thermochromism she discovered is still the basis for developmental work towards dynamic glazing in modern construction.
Alexander Kraft is the editor and principal translator of Dorothea Juliana Wallich’s collected alchemical works, Pathways to the Universal Tincture, available through Rubedo Press.
