Being 100 years since the birth of macromolecular science, 2020 was meant to be the “Year of Polymers,” but instead it turned into the year of the pandemic. Actually the two are not unrelated —most PPE is made of polymer, and without it the health-care response to COVID-19 would have looked completely different and been far more treacherous. But that’s another story, one with which the IUPAC Polymer Division is engaging [1]. Here is the story behind the centenary year that wasn’t. It all centers on Hermann Staudinger, who changed everything in 1920.