Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt

Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt was a German mineralogist, natural philosopher and art collector. He produced a nine-volume atlas of crystal forms from 1913 to 1923 which was influential in establishing the field of crystallography. He introduced what are now called Goldschmidt symbols Φ and ρ for the gnomonic angles of crystals. In 1933, he was dismissed from his position at the University of Heidelberg due to his Jewish origins and he died shortly afterwards while in exile in Salzburg. His wife Leontine committed suicide when faced with deportation to a concentration camp.