German chemist who, about 1678, duplicated Hennig Brand (Brand, Hennig)'s isolation of phosphorus. A court chemist and apothecary, he later directed the laboratory and glassworks at Brandenburg. At Stockholm King Charles XI made him a baron (1693) and member of the council of mines.

He discovered a method of making ruby glass and studied putrefaction, fermentation, the nature of salts, and the preparation of pure metals. He derided the idea of the universal solvent (alkahest) and denounced the deceptions of alchemists but apparently believed it possible to transmute metals.