Looking at the impressive success story of transition metalcatalysed coupling chemistry over the last four decades,finally crowned with the Nobel Prize in chemistry for theUS chemist Richard F. Heck and the Japanese researchers EiichiNegishi und Akira Suzuki in 2010, preceded by the earlierNobel Prizes for Chauvin, Grubbs and Schrock (2005, ringclosing metathesis) and Knowles, Noyori and Sharpless (2001,metal catalysed hydrogenation and oxidation reactions), itis worthwhile to remember the beginnings of the aryl halidecoupling methodology in general. The very early breakthroughexperiments in this field date back as far as 1901-1906, whenFritz Ullmann, a German chemist, and Irma Goldberg, hisprivate assistant and later wife, used copper as the mediatingmetal to couple phenol, ortho-amino benzoic acids andortho-hydroxy-benzoic amides to bromobenzene (1-3).This general methodology is still used in 21st century chemistryand is continuously developed further by the top players in thefield of catalytic coupling chemistry, especially for the formationof diaryl ethers (4). ...