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Fritz Haber (9 December 1868, Breslau – 29 January 1934 Basel) was a German chemist and a pioneer of chemical warfare. Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for the synthesis of ammonia from the chemical elements hydrogen and nitrogen.

Life

Fritz Haber was born into a Jewish family. His father, Siegfried Haber, ran a business for fabrics, paints, and drugs. At Fritz's birth, serious complications occurred and his mother, Paula, died three weeks later. Fritz's father never could overcome his wife's death "for which Fritz was the cause". This led in later life to tensions between father and son.

Haber attended the humanistic gymnasium St. Elizabeth in Breslau, where he learned Latin and Greek and also mathematics, but not chemistry. He had a keen interest in chemistry, as a school boy he already performed chemical experiments. Upon instigation of his father Haber first studied business, but in 1886 he switched to chemistry, first at the University of Heidelberg under R. W. Bunsen and then in Berlin under A.W. Hoffmann. Haber received his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1891 at the University of Berlin for work performed under Carl Liebermann at the Technische Hochschule of Charlottenburg (now the Technical University Berlin) with a thesis entitled On certain derivatives of Piperonals.

In 1893, Haber converted to the Protestant-Christian faith against his father's wishes.

After completing his University studies he voluntarily worked for a time in his father's business and, being interested in chemical technology, he also worked for a while under Professor Georg Lunge at the Institute of Technology at Zurich. He then finally decided to take up a scientific career and went for one and a half years to work with Ludwig Knorr at Jena, publishing with him a joint paper on diacetosuccinic ester. Still uncertain whether to devote himself to chemistry or physics, he accepted, an assistantship at the Technical University of Karlsruhe under the Professor of Chemical Technology there, Hans Bunte. He took his Habilitation in 1896 with the dissertation entitle Experimental Studies on the Decomposition of Hydrocarbons. This hydrocarbon work had induced in him a liking for thermodynamics, which soon expanded into a liking for the then emerging area of physical chemistry. Haber's colleague and friend Hans Luggin, a former student of Svante Arrhenius, acted as catalyst. Haber rapidly metamorphosed into an extraordinary physical chemist who dominated and shaped the subject for the rest of his life. Bunte was especially interested in combustion chemistry and Carl Engler, who was also there, introduced Haber to the study of petroleum and Haber's subsequent work was greatly influenced by these two colleagues. Haber remained in Karlsruhe until 1911.

Two years later in 1898, Haber published the textbook "Fundamentals of practical electrochemistry" in Karlsruhe and was appointed extraordinary professor of Chemical Technology. In 1906 he succeeded Max Le Blanc to the chair of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Karlsruhe.

From 1904 on Haber worked on the catalytic formation of ammonia. In 1905 he published his book "Thermodynamics of technical gas reactions", which treats the foundations of his subsequent thermo-chemical work. Haber applied on 13 October 1908 at the German Imperial Patent Office in Berlin for patent regarding a "method for synthetic preparation of ammonia from its elements" that was granted on the 8th of June 1911. Meanwhile, Haber had signed an employee contract with the BASF and you leave the patent to the economic recovery.. From 1919, he tried vainly for six years to win from the sea gold in order to pay the German reparations too. In April 1917 Haber had taken over the management of a technical committee pesticide, which was to deal with the disinfestation of accommodation (bed bugs and lice) and silos (moth). This was done with hydrogen cyanide gas, which was produced in the so-calledproceduraltun, was by sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide placed in an open wooden vat of dilute sulfuric acid. Fritz Haber had since the founding of the IG Farben 1925] in their [[Board].

After the Nazi 1933 at the Kaiser Wilhelm institutes the Aryan paragraph s penetrated and dismissed the Jewish people, which even he could not prevent Haber in May 1933 could be put into retirement. He emigrated in the late fall of 1933 after the Cambridge, where he had not yet received a professorship at the University and died shortly after 1934 on his way through Basel.

Impact

The research results show the Haber Janus-faced of his scientific work: On one hand, through the development of ammonia synthesis (to manufacture explosive) or a technical process for the production and use of poison gas warfare, as it has become possible on an industrial basis. Nor would it be without these skills, the diet of mankind today is not possible. The world annual production of synthesized nitrogen fertilizer is currently more than 100 million tons. Without this production makes possible the Haber-Bosch process accounted for half of the current world population, the food base.

Literature

• Joerg Albrecht:Bread and wars from the air. In the 77th: Frankfurter Allgemeine

Zeitung Sunday 41/2008, p.

• Adolf Henning fruit, Joachim Zepelin:The tragedy of the despised love .In: Mannheimer Forum1994/95. Piper, Munich 1995.
• Adolf Henning Frucht:Fritz Haber and pest control during the 1st World War II and during the inflation. In:Dahlem Archive discussions. Volume 11, 2005, p. 141-158.
• ((NDB | 7 | 386 | 389 | Haber, Fritz Jacob | Erna and Johannes Jaenicke))
• Fritz Richard Stern:Five Germany and a life: memories. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55811-5.
• Dietrich Stoltzenberg:Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 1998, ISBN 3-527-29573-9.
• Margit Szollosi-Janze:Fritz Haber. 1868-1934. A Biography. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN -406-43548-3. Commonscat