Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen was born in Munich, Germany, on April 6, 1911, the seventh of eight children, to Wilhelm and Frieda (Prym) Lynen. Lynen showed an early interest in his older brother's chemistry an eventually, enrolled in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Munich in 1930. There he studied with German chemist and Nobel laureate Heinrich Wieland, who was Lynen's principal teacher both as an undergraduate and graduate student. On February 12, 1937, Lynen received his doctorate degree. Three months later, on May 17, he married Wieland's daughter, Eva, with whom he would have five children: Peter, Annemarie, Susanne, Eva-Marie, and Heinrich.

Upon his graduation, Lynen stayed at the University of Munich in a postdoctoral research position. In 1942, he was appointed a lecturer, and eventually was made a full professor in 1953. A year later, he was named director of the newly established Max Planck Institute for Cell Chemistry. Throughout his years...