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chemistry - biography ☞ fritz haber
From Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare by Daniel Charles.
ONE - Young Fritz
• Born December 9, 1868
• Parents: Paula and Siegfried Haber -> cousins
• Paula died three weeks later on New Year's Eve.
• Seven years before Siegfried remarried to Hedwig Hamburger
• Three daughters - Else, Helene, Frieda
• Talkative, energetic, enthusiastic student, but not particularly gifted
• Fought with father
• Fritz wanted to move away from father, and believed that going to university is the way to do it
• Father didn't want him to because he feels that as a Jew, there will be failure. Uncle called Hermann (brother of Paula) convinced father to let him
• Chose to specialize with chemistry
• Jewish, but Jewish ritual practically absent from the Haber household
TWO - Diversions and Conversions
• Went to Berlin
• Found Helmholtz's physics lectures trivial and unchallenging
• Went to Heidelberg, but Robert Bunsen's strict lab training almost made him lose interest in chemistry
• Found himself inadequate. Complained of "nervousness" (like anxiety disorders)
• Left a scar from the corner of his mouth down to left side of his chin
• Approached 20th birthday, and with it, military duty
• Father paid the bills which allows him to serve for only one year instead of three
• Went back to Breslau (field artillery regiment)
• Renewed old friendships (Max Hamburger), pursued (attempted) Julie Hamburger
• Military's style and supreme self-confidence left a mark. His personal habits (walked, stood, spoke) paid unconscious homage to military custom and discipline
• Attempted to become an officer in reserves, but failed because he was a Jew
• Went back to Berlin, and during his final months, took up organic chemistry
• May 29, 1891, Haber took his final examinations in physics, chemistry and philosophy. Admirably in philosophy, adequately in chemistry, and poorly in physics
• Met Richard Abegg in his final year, and became friends. Abegg introduced Haber to physical chemistry
• Abegg and Haber wrote to Wilhelm Ostwald (leading teacher of physical chemistry) to join Ostwald's lab in Leipzig. Abegg's was accepted, Haber's wasn't
• Seigfried arranged appointments with his business contacts to let Fritz visit factories: cellulose factory near Breslau, a distillery in Budapest, chemical plant in Poland (near the camp to be called Auschwitz)
• Fall 1891, went back to university in Zurich, but left after one semester
• Half year later, 23 years old, resigned to become a dye merchant
• Around 1891, Fritz Haber went to a sanatorium to seek relief from his "nerves"
• Spring 1892, went to work for his father, but lasted only half a year and ended badly
• Moved to Jena, stayed for two years taking chemistry lessons and worked as a lab assistant. Baptized at St. Michael's and became a Christian.
• Reason being an essay by Theodor Mommsen called One More Word on Judaism. Heinrich von Treitschke wrote an essay about anti-Jewish, Mommsen retaliated a year later by saying that German unity comes with a price and that's for everyone to give up their loyalties and affiliations that divided them (religion)
• December 16, 1894, 26 years old, hired as an assistant at the Technical University of Karlsruhe
THREE - Ambition
• 1896, he became friends with Hans Luggin (coming from Svante Arrhenius in Stockholm), and Luggin helped him with physical chemistry
• 1898, at the fifth annual congress of the German Electrochemical Society, Fritz (29, Privatdozent, newly hired assistant professor) gave a presentation
• The next day a more senior scientist from Bonn announced that Fritz's conclusions were overblown and contradicted other evidence
• People found that Fritz was too full of himself
• Fritz was able to master a field overnight (re: a few years ago in Karlsruhe, a teaching slot opened up in field of dyes and fibers, and Fritz became the university's expert on that field by studying every night until 2am)
• Took tours of factories and labs. First: synthetic dye industry, second: electrochemistry
• Luggin died 1899, and Luggin's father allowed Fritz to continue his experiments which he did and published the results
• Published a new textbook on electrochemistry which established him as a force within German chemistry
• Became an auBerordentlicher Professor, one step away from full professorship
• Karlsruhe had received permission to establish a new head in physical chemistry, Haber applied, but in 1900, the position went to Max Julius Le Blanc
• 1899, Richard Abegg took a job to teach at Breslau
• Together with Nernst, Abegg edited Germany's scientific journal of electrochemistry
• Haber heard others' opinions of him through Abegg, and Abegg managed to always get Haber to "do the right thing" for the journal articles
• Abegg was also Clara Immerwahr's (first wife) academic adviser
FOUR - Clara
• Clara was also Jewish
• She went to university, which was considered impossible for females at that time
• Converted to Christianity
• While she was doing her research (measuring the extent to which certain salts dissolve in liquid solution, thereby forming ions), she exchanges letters with Abegg
• Became Germany's first female Doctor
• Fritz invited Clara to join in in Freiburg, where the German Electrochemical Society was planning to meet
• Clara went, and there Fritz persuaded her to marry him
• Clara was reluctant, but Fritz persistant
• August 1901, Fritz and Clara married
• Clara didn't enjoy being a wife (when discussing chemistry she writes lively, but when it turns to domestic and personal affairs she seems frustrated)
• 1902 Clara was pregnant
• June 1902, Clara gave birth to a son, Hermann
• Fritz had colitis soon after
• August 18th, 1902 - Fritz left to tour US as the official representative of the GES (four month long, information gathering)
FIVE - The Enthusiast
• Fritz talked about how America was a great rival
• He didn't regard the people he met as rivals, more like friends
• He talked about company secrets, and did a quick and accurate assessment of USA's economy
• The book talks about how Germans saw innovation as a weapon, a tool of national survival and supremacy
• Germans adapted to machinery very quickly
• 1904 - 1905, published seventeen different papers in half a dozen different journals (some scientific, some practical)
• Wrote one last book - Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions, talking about how useful energy gets lost in the course of any chemical reactions
• A year after, Walther Nernst published his "heat theorem", now known as the third law of thermodynamics (absolute zero)
• Jealous of Nernst, as Haber felt that he should have been the discoverer of the law, as he wrote his book he came close to it. Jealousy added fuel to a rivalry
• Haber couldn't become a full professor and it made him uncomfortable
• Le Blanc left Karlsruhe for Leipzig, and Haber applied for the job, which was given to Fritz Foerster because Haber made enemies in Karlsruhe
• Carl Engler did some stuff and made Haber the education ministry of Baden
• August 10, 1906, Fritz Haber became a professor
• Haber was outgoing and enjoyed teaching his students, occasionally talking to them a lot
• Clara was the opposite of Fritz, and this led to his home life not being too happy (disturbed by constant nagging from Clara)
• Fritz couldn't take it easy and his body/nerves rebelled -- went to doctors and sanatoriums
SIX - Fixation
• At first nitrogen was imported from Chile to various parts of the world. Chile had rocks called caliche which held concentrated nitrogen
• Nitrogen then was only available from nature, cold not be man-made. Nitrogen fixation made by lightning and bacteria, but was needed for life
• William Crookes, president of British Association for the Advancement of Science told his audience at the annual meeting of the British Association that nitrogen is running out, and that chemists would have to one day find a way to break the triple bonds and fix it into more useful chemical forms
• 1900, Wilhelm Ostwald thought that he had created NH3 by combining nitrogen and hydrogen, but Carl Bosch (26) proved him wrong
• 1903 or 1904 Haber was contacted by the Margulies brothers of Vienna, managers and part owners of the Austrian Chemical Works to see if he could someone create ammonia
• Haber tried using pressure compression, but also received a negative verdict
• Nernst wrote to Haber that his results didn't agree with the predictions based on his heat theorem, and told a student to make an experiment with it, and said that he planned to correct Haber at a meeting with chemists
• Nernst labelled Haber's results Haber's highly inaccurate numbers and that made Haber angry
• Robert Le Rossignol joined Haber's lab (gift for solving practival problems of engineering)
• Haber required a compressor that was able to squeeze gases into a steel reaction chamber
• Acquired a new and powerful industrial partner, Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), thanks of Carl Engler (Haber's mentor)
• March 6 1908 Haber and BASF signed their deal: Haber was to work for them to find a way to capture nitrogen, Haber needed fundings
• 2 months later Nernst announced that he thinks it might be possible to create ammonia and that he was working on a solution
• Le Rossignol created a new valve that tolerated pressures up to 200 "atmospheres" (200 times the normal pressure at sea level), and one that also cooled the compressed mixture of H and N as it leaves the compressor chamber
• 1908 Auergesellschaft of Berlin (manufactured gas lamps and electric lights) asked Haber to help find new materials for filaments, and supplied Haber with hard-to-find compounds, which he began trying out as ammonia catalysts
• Third week, March 1909, Haber used osmium as the catalyst and created liquid ammonia
• BASF was skeptical about Haber's method, and came for an inspection, and Carl Bosch helped them out by saying that he thinks that it will work
• July 1-2, 1909 was the demonstration, and the BASF was convinced, and brought Haber's idea
SEVEN - Myths and Miracles
• Clara was still increasingly bitter over her life
• Richard Abegg died in April 1910, in a hot-air balloon crash (41 years old)
EIGHT - Empire Calls
• May 14, 1910, leaders of Prussia called a group of very rich Germans to Wilhelmstrasse 63 in DT Berlin
• Wilhelm II wanted to create a series of elite research establishments but needed money and help of the people to do it
• Leopold Koppel (a banker) had plans to make one, but wanted Fritz Haber to be in charge
• Koppel was ready to finance the construction of a Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for physical chemistry and electrochemistry and cover a large chunk of its annual operating cost, only if Fritz became the founding director
• September 1910, Haber was called to accept being the head of the institute
• July 1911, Clara and Hermann moved to Berlin
• Just days before Haber's move, the Panther, a German gunship appeared at Morocco, trying to provoke France into turning over colonial territories to Germany
• Throughout summer and fall 1911, the Morocco incident continued, but after negotiations, German chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg acquired only economic rights in Morocco and a piece of the Congo, which outraged many Germans
• The Germans wanted war (not all though) and was confident in themselves and their ability to win
• Fritz didn't thirst for blood or believed in the superiority of Germany's spirit, but was bound by duty and as a German citizen and member of the imperial elite to serve Germany
• Dahlem was the "German Oxford"
• Haber persuaded Richard Willstatter (soul mate and defender) and Albert Einstein (friendly antithesis) to join him in Dahlem
• Haber read Willstatter's analysis of chlorophyll and enjoyed it,and when other scientific leaders tried to persuade him to lead the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Haber helped out with discussions which formed friendship
• Willstatter agreed, and came over, becoming Haber's neighbour as well
• Walther Nernst and Max Planck wanted to bring Einstein over as the director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and Haber agreed to help out
• Einstein and Mileva (Einstein's wife) confided in Fritz throughout their domestic affair, and Fritz & Einstein had a tight friendship
• Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, Germany declared war on Russia and France
EIGHT - Empire Calls
• During the first week of war, Haber (45) volunteered for military duty
• Germany had not planned far ahead and therefore had no idea where its ammunition would come from now that their route to Chile was blocked (ammunition needed nitrogen)
• 2 weeks later after the war started, Haber went to a meeting of scientists and industrialists at the War Ministry, to look for a way to help out the war
• Haber's thoughts went back to ammonia, and he guessed that it was able to transform ammonia to nitric acid in large amounts, he told it to BASF officials, but Bosch rejected the idea
• 2 months into the war, Germany was running out of ammunition, and Bosch asked Alwin Mittasch (man who was there to see Haber's ammonia experiments) and asked if it was possible to build a factory to produce nitric acid to which Mittasch said yes
• May 1915, the machine was completed
• Manifesto of the Ninety-three: 4th October, 1914, numerous (famous) people signed a manifesto stating that it was not Germany's fault for the war
• November 28, Haber signed a document that made him a part of German 1914 Society, a group that sought to embody the kaiser's vision of German unity, irrespective of political spectrum
• In 1899, delegates to the Hague Peace Conference had banned the use of chemical gas warfare
• September 1914, Max Bauer proposed to use gas to drive enemy forces from the trenches
• Mid-December 1914, Haber went to see the tests, and days after, his institute began working on new toxic chemicals
• December 17, Haber's two oldest friends died in an experiment involving the gas
• Soon after (~2 weeks), Haber proposed to use chlorine gas to kill soldiers and in mid-Jan, High Command approved of the tests
•
•
ONE - Young Fritz
• Born December 9, 1868
• Parents: Paula and Siegfried Haber -> cousins
• Paula died three weeks later on New Year's Eve.
• Seven years before Siegfried remarried to Hedwig Hamburger
• Three daughters - Else, Helene, Frieda
• Talkative, energetic, enthusiastic student, but not particularly gifted
• Fought with father
• Fritz wanted to move away from father, and believed that going to university is the way to do it
• Father didn't want him to because he feels that as a Jew, there will be failure. Uncle called Hermann (brother of Paula) convinced father to let him
• Chose to specialize with chemistry
• Jewish, but Jewish ritual practically absent from the Haber household
TWO - Diversions and Conversions
• Went to Berlin
• Found Helmholtz's physics lectures trivial and unchallenging
• Went to Heidelberg, but Robert Bunsen's strict lab training almost made him lose interest in chemistry
• Found himself inadequate. Complained of "nervousness" (like anxiety disorders)
• Left a scar from the corner of his mouth down to left side of his chin
• Approached 20th birthday, and with it, military duty
• Father paid the bills which allows him to serve for only one year instead of three
• Went back to Breslau (field artillery regiment)
• Renewed old friendships (Max Hamburger), pursued (attempted) Julie Hamburger
• Military's style and supreme self-confidence left a mark. His personal habits (walked, stood, spoke) paid unconscious homage to military custom and discipline
• Attempted to become an officer in reserves, but failed because he was a Jew
• Went back to Berlin, and during his final months, took up organic chemistry
• May 29, 1891, Haber took his final examinations in physics, chemistry and philosophy. Admirably in philosophy, adequately in chemistry, and poorly in physics
• Met Richard Abegg in his final year, and became friends. Abegg introduced Haber to physical chemistry
• Abegg and Haber wrote to Wilhelm Ostwald (leading teacher of physical chemistry) to join Ostwald's lab in Leipzig. Abegg's was accepted, Haber's wasn't
• Seigfried arranged appointments with his business contacts to let Fritz visit factories: cellulose factory near Breslau, a distillery in Budapest, chemical plant in Poland (near the camp to be called Auschwitz)
• Fall 1891, went back to university in Zurich, but left after one semester
• Half year later, 23 years old, resigned to become a dye merchant
• Around 1891, Fritz Haber went to a sanatorium to seek relief from his "nerves"
• Spring 1892, went to work for his father, but lasted only half a year and ended badly
• Moved to Jena, stayed for two years taking chemistry lessons and worked as a lab assistant. Baptized at St. Michael's and became a Christian.
• Reason being an essay by Theodor Mommsen called One More Word on Judaism. Heinrich von Treitschke wrote an essay about anti-Jewish, Mommsen retaliated a year later by saying that German unity comes with a price and that's for everyone to give up their loyalties and affiliations that divided them (religion)
• December 16, 1894, 26 years old, hired as an assistant at the Technical University of Karlsruhe
THREE - Ambition
• 1896, he became friends with Hans Luggin (coming from Svante Arrhenius in Stockholm), and Luggin helped him with physical chemistry
• 1898, at the fifth annual congress of the German Electrochemical Society, Fritz (29, Privatdozent, newly hired assistant professor) gave a presentation
• The next day a more senior scientist from Bonn announced that Fritz's conclusions were overblown and contradicted other evidence
• People found that Fritz was too full of himself
• Fritz was able to master a field overnight (re: a few years ago in Karlsruhe, a teaching slot opened up in field of dyes and fibers, and Fritz became the university's expert on that field by studying every night until 2am)
• Took tours of factories and labs. First: synthetic dye industry, second: electrochemistry
• Luggin died 1899, and Luggin's father allowed Fritz to continue his experiments which he did and published the results
• Published a new textbook on electrochemistry which established him as a force within German chemistry
• Became an auBerordentlicher Professor, one step away from full professorship
• Karlsruhe had received permission to establish a new head in physical chemistry, Haber applied, but in 1900, the position went to Max Julius Le Blanc
• 1899, Richard Abegg took a job to teach at Breslau
• Together with Nernst, Abegg edited Germany's scientific journal of electrochemistry
• Haber heard others' opinions of him through Abegg, and Abegg managed to always get Haber to "do the right thing" for the journal articles
• Abegg was also Clara Immerwahr's (first wife) academic adviser
FOUR - Clara
• Clara was also Jewish
• She went to university, which was considered impossible for females at that time
• Converted to Christianity
• While she was doing her research (measuring the extent to which certain salts dissolve in liquid solution, thereby forming ions), she exchanges letters with Abegg
• Became Germany's first female Doctor
• Fritz invited Clara to join in in Freiburg, where the German Electrochemical Society was planning to meet
• Clara went, and there Fritz persuaded her to marry him
• Clara was reluctant, but Fritz persistant
• August 1901, Fritz and Clara married
• Clara didn't enjoy being a wife (when discussing chemistry she writes lively, but when it turns to domestic and personal affairs she seems frustrated)
• 1902 Clara was pregnant
• June 1902, Clara gave birth to a son, Hermann
• Fritz had colitis soon after
• August 18th, 1902 - Fritz left to tour US as the official representative of the GES (four month long, information gathering)
FIVE - The Enthusiast
• Fritz talked about how America was a great rival
• He didn't regard the people he met as rivals, more like friends
• He talked about company secrets, and did a quick and accurate assessment of USA's economy
• The book talks about how Germans saw innovation as a weapon, a tool of national survival and supremacy
• Germans adapted to machinery very quickly
• 1904 - 1905, published seventeen different papers in half a dozen different journals (some scientific, some practical)
• Wrote one last book - Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions, talking about how useful energy gets lost in the course of any chemical reactions
• A year after, Walther Nernst published his "heat theorem", now known as the third law of thermodynamics (absolute zero)
• Jealous of Nernst, as Haber felt that he should have been the discoverer of the law, as he wrote his book he came close to it. Jealousy added fuel to a rivalry
• Haber couldn't become a full professor and it made him uncomfortable
• Le Blanc left Karlsruhe for Leipzig, and Haber applied for the job, which was given to Fritz Foerster because Haber made enemies in Karlsruhe
• Carl Engler did some stuff and made Haber the education ministry of Baden
• August 10, 1906, Fritz Haber became a professor
• Haber was outgoing and enjoyed teaching his students, occasionally talking to them a lot
• Clara was the opposite of Fritz, and this led to his home life not being too happy (disturbed by constant nagging from Clara)
• Fritz couldn't take it easy and his body/nerves rebelled -- went to doctors and sanatoriums
SIX - Fixation
• At first nitrogen was imported from Chile to various parts of the world. Chile had rocks called caliche which held concentrated nitrogen
• Nitrogen then was only available from nature, cold not be man-made. Nitrogen fixation made by lightning and bacteria, but was needed for life
• William Crookes, president of British Association for the Advancement of Science told his audience at the annual meeting of the British Association that nitrogen is running out, and that chemists would have to one day find a way to break the triple bonds and fix it into more useful chemical forms
• 1900, Wilhelm Ostwald thought that he had created NH3 by combining nitrogen and hydrogen, but Carl Bosch (26) proved him wrong
• 1903 or 1904 Haber was contacted by the Margulies brothers of Vienna, managers and part owners of the Austrian Chemical Works to see if he could someone create ammonia
• Haber tried using pressure compression, but also received a negative verdict
• Nernst wrote to Haber that his results didn't agree with the predictions based on his heat theorem, and told a student to make an experiment with it, and said that he planned to correct Haber at a meeting with chemists
• Nernst labelled Haber's results Haber's highly inaccurate numbers and that made Haber angry
• Robert Le Rossignol joined Haber's lab (gift for solving practival problems of engineering)
• Haber required a compressor that was able to squeeze gases into a steel reaction chamber
• Acquired a new and powerful industrial partner, Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), thanks of Carl Engler (Haber's mentor)
• March 6 1908 Haber and BASF signed their deal: Haber was to work for them to find a way to capture nitrogen, Haber needed fundings
• 2 months later Nernst announced that he thinks it might be possible to create ammonia and that he was working on a solution
• Le Rossignol created a new valve that tolerated pressures up to 200 "atmospheres" (200 times the normal pressure at sea level), and one that also cooled the compressed mixture of H and N as it leaves the compressor chamber
• 1908 Auergesellschaft of Berlin (manufactured gas lamps and electric lights) asked Haber to help find new materials for filaments, and supplied Haber with hard-to-find compounds, which he began trying out as ammonia catalysts
• Third week, March 1909, Haber used osmium as the catalyst and created liquid ammonia
• BASF was skeptical about Haber's method, and came for an inspection, and Carl Bosch helped them out by saying that he thinks that it will work
• July 1-2, 1909 was the demonstration, and the BASF was convinced, and brought Haber's idea
SEVEN - Myths and Miracles
• Clara was still increasingly bitter over her life
• Richard Abegg died in April 1910, in a hot-air balloon crash (41 years old)
EIGHT - Empire Calls
• May 14, 1910, leaders of Prussia called a group of very rich Germans to Wilhelmstrasse 63 in DT Berlin
• Wilhelm II wanted to create a series of elite research establishments but needed money and help of the people to do it
• Leopold Koppel (a banker) had plans to make one, but wanted Fritz Haber to be in charge
• Koppel was ready to finance the construction of a Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for physical chemistry and electrochemistry and cover a large chunk of its annual operating cost, only if Fritz became the founding director
• September 1910, Haber was called to accept being the head of the institute
• July 1911, Clara and Hermann moved to Berlin
• Just days before Haber's move, the Panther, a German gunship appeared at Morocco, trying to provoke France into turning over colonial territories to Germany
• Throughout summer and fall 1911, the Morocco incident continued, but after negotiations, German chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg acquired only economic rights in Morocco and a piece of the Congo, which outraged many Germans
• The Germans wanted war (not all though) and was confident in themselves and their ability to win
• Fritz didn't thirst for blood or believed in the superiority of Germany's spirit, but was bound by duty and as a German citizen and member of the imperial elite to serve Germany
• Dahlem was the "German Oxford"
• Haber persuaded Richard Willstatter (soul mate and defender) and Albert Einstein (friendly antithesis) to join him in Dahlem
• Haber read Willstatter's analysis of chlorophyll and enjoyed it,and when other scientific leaders tried to persuade him to lead the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Haber helped out with discussions which formed friendship
• Willstatter agreed, and came over, becoming Haber's neighbour as well
• Walther Nernst and Max Planck wanted to bring Einstein over as the director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and Haber agreed to help out
• Einstein and Mileva (Einstein's wife) confided in Fritz throughout their domestic affair, and Fritz & Einstein had a tight friendship
• Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, Germany declared war on Russia and France
EIGHT - Empire Calls
• During the first week of war, Haber (45) volunteered for military duty
• Germany had not planned far ahead and therefore had no idea where its ammunition would come from now that their route to Chile was blocked (ammunition needed nitrogen)
• 2 weeks later after the war started, Haber went to a meeting of scientists and industrialists at the War Ministry, to look for a way to help out the war
• Haber's thoughts went back to ammonia, and he guessed that it was able to transform ammonia to nitric acid in large amounts, he told it to BASF officials, but Bosch rejected the idea
• 2 months into the war, Germany was running out of ammunition, and Bosch asked Alwin Mittasch (man who was there to see Haber's ammonia experiments) and asked if it was possible to build a factory to produce nitric acid to which Mittasch said yes
• May 1915, the machine was completed
• Manifesto of the Ninety-three: 4th October, 1914, numerous (famous) people signed a manifesto stating that it was not Germany's fault for the war
• November 28, Haber signed a document that made him a part of German 1914 Society, a group that sought to embody the kaiser's vision of German unity, irrespective of political spectrum
• In 1899, delegates to the Hague Peace Conference had banned the use of chemical gas warfare
• September 1914, Max Bauer proposed to use gas to drive enemy forces from the trenches
• Mid-December 1914, Haber went to see the tests, and days after, his institute began working on new toxic chemicals
• December 17, Haber's two oldest friends died in an experiment involving the gas
• Soon after (~2 weeks), Haber proposed to use chlorine gas to kill soldiers and in mid-Jan, High Command approved of the tests
•
•