The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz is a key player in atmospheric and Earth system research within the Max Planck Society and Germany. This study explores the history of these scientific fields at the MPIC, detailing the institute's re-orientation from the late 1950s to 1968, when Christian Junge became the director of the atmospheric chemistry department, which remains active today. It examines the evolution of Junge’s department in the context of German research during the 1970s, highlighting the new integrative research approach linked to the collaborative research program 73 on “atmospheric trace-gases,” funded by the German Research Foundation. The final chapter is divided into two parts, focusing on the expansion of Earth system science at the MPIC post-Junge. The first part discusses the establishment of biogeochemistry in the mid-1980s under Meinrat O. Andreae, emphasizing large-scale biomass-burning campaigns and feedback-loop mechanisms in the Earth system. The second part is dedicated to Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen’s investigations into human impacts on the Earth system from the early 1970s to 2000, covering topics such as supersonic air transport, chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone layer, nuclear winter, and the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch.
