Editing Justus von Liebig (section)

==Early life and education==
[[Image:Young-Justus-Liebig.jpg|thumb|right|The young Liebig: 1843 lithograph after an 1821 painting (Liebighaus)]]

Justus Liebig was born in [[Darmstadt]] into the [[Middle class|middle-class]] family of Johann Georg Liebig and Maria Caroline Möser in early May 1803.<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|1–3}} His father was a [[drysalter]] and hardware merchant who compounded and sold paints, varnishes, and [[pigment]]s, which he developed in his own workshop.<ref name=Brock>{{cite book
|last1=Brock
|first1=William H.
|title=Justus von Liebig : the chemical gatekeeper
|date=1997
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|location=Cambridge, U.K.
|isbn=9780521562249
|edition=1st
}}</ref>{{rp|1}} From childhood, Justus was fascinated with [[chemistry]].

At the age of 13, Liebig lived through [[the year without a summer]], when the majority of food crops in the [[Northern Hemisphere]] were destroyed by a [[volcanic winter]].<ref name=Evans2002>{{cite journal|last1=Evans|first1=Robert|title=Blast from the Past|journal=Smithsonian Magazine|date=July 2002|volume=415 |issue=6875 |page=943 |bibcode=2002Natur.415Q.943. |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blast-from-the-past-65102374/}}</ref> [[Germany]] was among the hardest-hit nations in the global famine that ensued, and the experience is said to have shaped Liebig's later work. Due in part to Liebig's innovations in fertilizers and agriculture, the 1816 famine became known as "the last great [[subsistence crisis]] in the Western world".<ref name=Post1977>{{cite book|last1=Post|first1=John D.|title=The last great subsistence crisis in the Western World|date=1977|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=9780801818509}}</ref>

Liebig attended grammar school at the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt, from the ages of 8 to 14.<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|5–7}} Leaving without a certificate of completion, he was apprenticed for several months to the [[apothecary]] Gottfried Pirsch (1792–1870) in [[Heppenheim]] before returning home, possibly because his father could not afford to pay his [[indentures]] (a legal [[contract]] that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation). He worked with his father for the next two years,<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|7–8}} then attended the [[University of Bonn]], studying under [[Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner]], his father's business associate. When Kastner moved to the [[University of Erlangen]], Liebig followed him.<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|13}}

Liebig left [[Erlangen]] in March 1822, in part because of his involvement with the radical [[Corps Rhenania Heidelberg|Korps Rhenania]] (a nationalist student organization), but also because of his hopes for more advanced chemical studies. The circumstances are clouded by possible scandal.<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|19–28}} Some scholars argue that he fled to Paris because of his involvement in radical student groups. In late October 1822, Liebig went to Paris to study on a grant obtained for him by Kastner from the [[Hesse|Hessian]] government. He worked in the private laboratory of [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]] and was also befriended by [[Alexander von Humboldt]] and [[Georges Cuvier]] (1769–1832). Liebig's doctorate from Erlangen was conferred on 23 June 1823, a considerable time after he left, as a result of Kastner's intervention on his behalf. Kastner pleaded that the requirement of a dissertation be waived and the degree granted ''in absentia''.<ref name=Brock/>{{rp|33–34}}