Henry Theodore (or Theodor) Böttinger (from 1907, von Böttinger; 10 July 1848 – 9 June 1920) was a prominent German industrialist in the chemical sector, trade-association leader, science patron, and National Liberal (later German National) politician. Born in Burton-upon-Trent, England, to German parents (his father was a brewery chemist), he was educated partly in Britain and studied natural sciences in Freiburg and Würzburg. After inheriting and successfully expanding the Würzburger Hofbräuhaus brewery in 1874, he married Adele Bayer (daughter of Friedrich Bayer, co-founder of what became Bayer AG) in 1878. He joined the board of Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co. around 1882–1883, focused on sales and international expansion, and served as chairman of the supervisory board from 1907 until his death. He played a major role in turning Bayer into a global enterprise alongside figures such as Carl Duisberg, Friedrich Bayer Jr., and Carl Rumpff. He was ennobled in 1907, received the title Geheimer Regierungsrat, held honorary doctorates (Göttingen 1896; TH Braunschweig 1918), owned the estate Schloss/Herrenhaus Arensdorf (in what is now Poland), and was a major capital holder with interests in banking and industry. He is also linked to an early proposal for German “Sommerzeit” (daylight saving/summer time): around 1907 he drafted a memorandum advocating its introduction (framed around economic and energy benefits) and presented related ideas at an International Chamber of Commerce congress in Paris. This predated the wartime adoption of DST in Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1916. Social and professional circles - Chemical industry and business elite: Core leadership at Bayer (sales/internationalization focus); supervisory roles and associations including the Verein der chemischen Industrie, Berufsgenossenschaft der chemischen Industrie, Centralverband deutscher Industrieller, Deutscher Handelstag, Handelskammer Elberfeld, and Deutscher Brauer-Bund. He maintained strong Rhineland/Wuppertal-Elberfeld industrial networks and international commercial ties through extensive travel for Bayer. - Politics and high officialdom: Prussian House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus, 1889–1909, for the Mettmann district) and House of Lords (Herrenhaus, 1909–1918, by royal appointment). National Liberal Party member until resigning in 1912 over the election of a Social Democratic Reichstag president; later affiliated with the German Nationals (1918). He moved in the circles of Kaiserreich industrial-political influence and received honors from Wilhelm II. - Science, technology, and patronage networks: Leading roles in the Deutsche Elektrochemische Gesellschaft (later Bunsen-Gesellschaft für physikalische Chemie; he was a chairman and received its medal), the Göttinger Vereinigung für angewandte Physik und Mathematik (long-time chairman, collaborating with mathematicians/physicists such as Felix Klein), early involvement with the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (senator and board roles from its founding era), Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI), and the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Flugtechnik (first chairman, 1912–1919). He actively promoted industry–science links and applied research. - Broader social milieu: Upper industrial bourgeoisie that intermarried with established business families (Bayer connection) and entered the nobility; landowning circles via his estate; scientific and technical societies; and the cosmopolitan commercial world of late Imperial Germany (including Anglo-German ties from his background and Bayer’s export business). He belonged to the interconnected world of big chemical industry, industrial lobbying, Prussian parliamentary politics, and organized science patronage that characterized the German Kaiserreich’s economic and cultural elite in the decades before and during World War I. A modern scholarly biography by Josef Wilhelm Knoke examines him as an “entrepreneur and economic citizen” spanning world economy and science.