Edith Weyde

Weyde was the second child of an Austrian grammar school teacher in Prague.^[1] She grew up in Aussig and finished her Abitur in 1919.^[1] Then, she worked for four years as a laboratory assistant for the Verein für chemische und metallurgische Produktion.^[1] In 1923, she began studying chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden.^[1] Four years later, she finished her doctorate with Robert Luther at the Photographic Institute of the Technical University of Dresden.^[1]

Weyde started her first job in the photographic-photochemical laboratory of I.G. Farbenindustrie AG in Oppau in 1928.^[1] After four years, she was transferred to the Agfa photo-paper factory in Leverkusen.^[1] She worked on improving the tropical suitability of photographic paper and for this purpose developed stabilizers for the photographic layers.^[1] She was involved in the development of the first Agfacolor papers from 1937 and contributed to the success of early color photography.^[1][3]

Weyde developed the silver salt Diffusion transfer method—also called "Copyrapid"—which was a process for the accelerated production of a photographic positive image according to an original.^[1][2][6] This led to the development of photocopiers, instant film and instant cameras.

• 1963 Kulturpreis of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie^[7]
• Silberne Gesellschaftmedaille of the Fotografische Gesellschaft Wien^[1]
• 1965 Honorary Membership of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology^[8]
• 1965 Diesel-Medaille of the Erfinder-Verband Nürnberg^[9]
• 1973 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society London^[1][10]

Also, a street in Leverkusen is named after her.^[11]