Fritz Haber

The father of chemical warfare

" Haber will go down as [...] the man who by this means won bread from air and achieved a triumph in the service of his nation and all of humanity."

Max von Laue

Index

1. Childhood

8. First job

2. Judaism

3. Education

4. Adult life

5. After University

6. Working with his father

7. Changing religion

9. Clara Immerwahr

10. Trapped in a Mysagynistic society

11. Haber`s further career

12. The greatest period of Haber`s life

13. Post world war and his death

14. Long-term impact

Dreams of a German Jew

Childhood

1

Childhood

• Born 9.12.1868 in Breslau
  
• Jewish upper middle class family
• Siegfried and Paula were cousins
• Siegfried Haber- Tradesman for color and chemicals
• Mother died after giving birth
• Father was devastated

• Fritz was given away

• Father remarried and had three daughters
• Stepmother was very affectionate
• Father could never fully accept him
• Fritz hated Breslau
• He was enthusiastic and funny

Childhood

• German unification 1871 Judaism changed
• Judaism wasn`t a burden
• National identity
• Germany = strong industrial society
• Some anti-jewish campaigns
• All doors seemed open

Judaism

Education

• St. Elisabeth School in Breslau
• Suffered from anxiety
• Desire to go to university
• Wanted to study chemistry
• Siegfried disapproved, prefered him to take over the family business
• Siegfrieds cousin convinced him

Education

1886 -1891

Went to university in Heidelberg and Berlin

Received doctorate from Carl Liebermann

1891

1891 -1894

Military service in Preslau

1894

• Richard Abegg introduced him to physical chemistry
• Both applied to the leading teacher
• Only Abegg was accepted
• Felt unseen by his teachers
• Had bigger dreams than a profession

Adult life

• Had no concrete plans
• Father arranged appointments with his business partners
• Got an impression of modern capitalism
• Went to university again in Zurich
• Left after one semester

After University

• Returned to Breslau to work with his father
• Disagreed on everything
• Fritz convinced Siegfried to buy chemicals against cholera
• Cholera breakout was smaller then expected- the chemicals were useless
• Siegfried was furious- threw him out

• Moved to Jena
• Got baptised by the leading church
• Wanted to become more "german"
• Turned his back on his father
• His father was deeply hurt
• Strong loyalty towards his fatherland

Changing religion

• 1894 Fritz Haber got a job as an assistant at the Karlsruhe University
• He was very ambitous but didn`t take criticism well

• Felt unneeded in Karlsruhe
• Knew what people said about him through Richard Abegg
• Abegg (teacher) introduced him to Clara Immerwahr

First Job

both grew up in Breslau

gratuated Gymnasium

became the first woman having gotten a doctor in chemistry in Germany

educated by private tutors

visited University lectures

Clara Immerwahr

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• marriage in August 1901
• Fritz continues his research
• provocation of a crisis
  

• became a professor's wife
• couldn't persue her intellectual passions

Trapped in a misogynistic society

• continued to work at university
• wasn't an ,,ordentlicher'' professor
• nitrogen crisis
• invented the Haber-Bosch process in 1909
• duty to the German Reich

Haber's further career

The greatest period of Haber's life

World War I and the use of chemical warfare

nitrate shortage two months into war in September 1914

beginning of the development of gas weapons

testing of toxic chemicals mid-December

gas warfare as a symbol of union

suicide of Clara in May 1915

the first gas attacks from the Germans in Ypres

-physical collapse in Switzerland

-fear of warcrime procecution

-rising of national socialism in Germany

Post-world war and his death

Long-term impact

1. saved millions of lifes with the extraction of ammonia

Sources

Photos in chronological order:

https://www.pinterest.de/pin/304274518559893793/

https://www.geni.com/people/Siegfried-Haber/6000000017074806480

https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/11119925/150th_Birthday_Richard_Abegg/

https://miro.medium.com/max/730/1*zWKWbOEvv7WisoubK0GrgQ.jpeg

https://mujeresconciencia.com/2014/06/21/clara-immerwahr-primera-doctora-en-quimica-de-breslau/

https://www.stoccolmaaroma.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Fritz-Haber.jpg