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In memoriam of an exceptional entomologist

The esteemed member of the German Society for General and Applied Entomology (DGaaE), Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Wittko Francke, died unexpectedly on 27 December 2020 in Hamburg at the age of 80 from a SARSCov2 infection. Even from the hospital, he gave corrective instructions for manuscripts, although he was already struggling with death. Who was this extraordinary personality? Wittko Francke was born in Reinbek near Hamburg on 28 November 1940. Both of his parents were forest scientists and cofounders of the Federal Research Institute for Wood Research in Hamburg. While Wittko Francke's father turned to silviculture, his mother, Helene FranckeGrossmann, made a name for herself in forest entomology, studying mainly sawflies and their symbionts. After his father's death in World War II, a young Wittko Francke often accompanied his mother on hikes where he was introduced to entomology and scientific work in the process. It became clear to him early on that certain phenomena in nature could not be explained by biology alone, such as the sudden colonization of diseased trees by bark beetles. After graduating from high school in 1960, he began studying chemistry at the University of Hamburg. In 1968, he wrote his diploma thesis on the scents of wooddestroying tree fungi after his supervisor, sugar chemist Prof. Dr. Kurt Heyns, gave him complete freedom in the selection and methodology of his research. Subsequently, in 1973, Wittko Francke headed an independent research group as a research, and later university, assistant and habilitated in organic chemistry in 1979 with the topic ‘Chemical Communication in Beetles’. His first publication appeared in 1973 in the ‘Zeitschrift für Angewandte Entomologie’ (today Journal of Applied Entomology, an official publication of DGaaE), in which the substances responsible for aggregation of the bark beetle Xyloterus domesticus L. were studied (Z. angew. Ent. 74: 319, 1973). Together with one of the pioneers in this field, Prof. Jean Pierre Vité (Freiburg), he identified a large number of bark beetle pheromones. Wittko Francke was a university assistant and private lecturer in Hamburg until 1985, when in the same year he turned down a call to Giessen and accepted a professorship in organic chemistry at the University of Hamburg. From 1986, he was head of the Laboratory for Organic Trace Analysis and, after turning down a call to Heidelberg (natural products chair, successor to Prof. Hermann Schildknecht), he was given a special chair in organic chemistry in Hamburg, ‘Marine Organic Chemistry’, where he realized that the expensive apparatus for trace analysis of pollutants was excellently suited for the analysis of pheromones and other natural products. An important reason for his refusal to go to Heidelberg was the fact that Wittko was a proud son of Hamburg and loved his city. Thus, he chose to spend his entire research life at the University of Hamburg. Wittko Franke's research was characterized by international cooperation. This is apparent in his more than 450 publications, in which most of them his working method was based on interdisciplinary cooperation. In an age in which only original publications count, he also always attached great importance to producing quality review papers. One must not forget that his university, research and international commitment was only possible through constant, maximum commitment and hard work. It is not possible to go into numerous details here, but Wittko Francke's chemical– ecological and entomological activities should be especially acknowledged. His main interest was in volatile, low molecular weight, biologically active natural products. Focal points were the pheromones of various insects, especially of butterflies, hymenopterans, beetles or caddisflies, although it is almost easier to name insect orders with which he never worked rather than those with which he did. New pheromone classes, especially his muchloved spiroacetals, were discovered and described by him. As an excellent chemist, he and his research group