Talk:Emil Kopp

Emil or Emile Kopp?

Emile Kopp was born in Alsace in 1817. This was a part of France until 1871. Emile Kopp was French, not German, and he remained French his entire life, even though he lived for a while in England and in Switzerland. He thought of himself as French, and never lived under German rule. I have edited the article accordingly, and have changed the title of the article from Emil Kopp to Emile Kopp. Ajrocke (talk) 14:09, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Not 100% true Webster calls him a German. [1]. The reality would be that he was a person from Alsace. The people there were forced to change sides twice every century and therefore a real claim would be a further forced incorporation into france or germany which did no good to the area. --Stone (talk) 17:40, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

The German Wikipedia article calls him a German chemist. The 1911 Britannica, the actual source of this article, doesn't take a stand, but the narrative sounds more French than German. Seems reasonable to call him French since he was born and reared under French rule. There doesn't seem to be any basis for calling him Emile. All the references call him Emil. I think a verifiable reference with this name is needed to make that call, and I will see if I can undo the move. Bob Burkhardt (talk) 23:39, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Of course all of the German sources, and those sources influenced by German, and those sources written during German ownership of Alsace, would use the German form Emil. Hence, citing those sources do not prove the point that "Emil" is to be preferred. But he was born in France, and lived nearly all of his life in France. I'm not guessing here, I am a historian of chemistry and I know this person's life. He would (and did) certainly prefer the French form of his name, "Emile".Ajrocke (talk) 18:24, 15 June 2011 (UTC)