Wilhelm Pelikan

Wilhelm Pelikan (1893 to 1982) was a German-Austrian chemist and anthroposophist, born in Pola in Croatia and died in Arlesheim in Switzerland. He studied chemistry in Vienna and Graz and was introduced to anthroposophy through the work of Rudolf Steiner, whose student he became. He first worked in a gold and silver refinery in Vienna, and in 1919 Eugen Kolisko invited him to join the research institute Der Kommende Tag in Stuttgart. In 1922 he began working in the newly established laboratories of the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Stuttgart, preparing metal mirrors. After the institute was dissolved in 1924 he became head of Weleda in Schwäbisch Gmünd and held the position for forty years.