Smiljko Ašperger

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BOOK REVIEWDietrich StoltzenbergFritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate,German, JewChemical Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pa, 2004,326 pp, Illustrations xxv, hard cover, $40.00ISBN 0-941901-24-6This thoroughly researched biography of the Nobel Prizewinner Fritz Haber, coming 70 years after his death, isan excellent source of information about Haber's life andscientific achievements, but also about the situation inscience in Germany, notably in chemistry, before and af-ter World War I.Dietrich Stoltzenberg, the author of the book, is achemist himself. His biography of Haber (1868–1934) isbased on interviews with Haber’s family and on ar-chives. To write Haber’s biography, Stoltzenberg spenteight years doing research in archives, institutes, and li-braries in Germany, England, Israel, and the USA. In themeantime, some other Haber’s biographies appeared inthe German language, but Stoltzenberg’s English versionremains the only authoritative Haber’s biography forEnglish-reading scientists.In this English edition, Stoltzenberg prudentlyabridged his German edition, published by Wiley-VCHVerlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim (BundesrepublikDeutschland), 1998, ISBN 3-527-29573-9, from its 669to only 326 pages, retaining the essential features of theoriginal work. Thus, the English edition became accept-able to readers in a broad sense. The author of this re-view consulted the German original as well.Until recently, no adequate biography of Haber ex-isted in book form. In the meantime, some extensive bi-ographies appeared that Haber’s relatives considered notvery true. Further, the memoirs of Haber’s second wife,Charlotte Nathan, published in 1970 under the title MeinLeben mit Fritz Haber, did not treat adequately his sci-entific achievements.Haber is primarily known for his ammonia synthesisand poison gas involvement during World War I but, ac-cording to Stoltzenberg, to focus only on these aspectswould be an injustice to Haber.By 1905 Haber had reached the objective long at-tempted by chemists of fixing nitrogen from air. Usinghigh pressure and a catalyst, he carried out the reactionbetween nitrogen and hydrogen gases to obtain ammonia.Carl Bosch, a great chemist and engineer from the fa-mous BASF industry, soon scaled up the process - hencethe name »Haber-Bosch« process. The nitric acid pro-duced from the ammonia was then used to manufactureagricultural fertilizers as well as explosives.In Chapter 1, Forebears,(7 pp), Stoltzenberg shortly de-scribes the history of Haber’sfamily. The family name Haberis common among Eastern Eu-ropean Jews, especially in Po-land. Chapter 2, Childhood andYouth (14 pp + 19 pp), describesHaber’s youth. He was born onDecember 9, 1868 in Breslau,Prussia (now Wroclaw, Poland)in a well-to-do German-Jewishfamily. His father, Siegfried, wasa prosperous chemical merchantand for a short time he worked for his father. His mother,Paula, died three weeks after Fritz’s birth. When he waseighteen, he enrolled in the University of Berlin. From1886 until 1891 he studied chemistry at the Universityof Heidelberg under Robert W. Bunsen, at the Universityof Berlin under August Wilhelm von Hoffmann, and atthe Technical School at Charlottenberg under Carl Lie-bermann. In 1891 he received his doctorate from the Uni-versity of Berlin. Chapter 3, Years of Study and Travel (9pp + 10 pp) relates to his studies of chemical technologyat the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum, which is now thefamous ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule,Zürich); there he worked under Georg Lunge. All theseprofessors were leading world chemists of that time; ne-vertheless, he was disappointed and considered his workuncreative routine. He finally decided to take up a scien-tific career and worked for one and a half years at Jenawith Ludwig Knorr, a known organic chemist. Knorrhelped Haber to write his first paper on diacetosuccinicacid. Chapter 4, The Glorious Years in Karlsruhe (88 pp +83 pp) describes his research at the Technische HochschuleCROATICA CHEMICA ACTACCACAA 78 (3) A17–A19 (2005)Fritz HaberKarlsruhe where he worked as Hans Bunte’s assistant(1894–1896), Privat-Dozent (1896–1898) (no salary), As-sociate Professor (1898–1906) and finally as Professor ofPhysical Chemistry and Electrochemistry (1906–1911).Chapter 5, Nitrogen Fixation (30 pp + 65 pp) describesHaber’s contribution to the field, his patents, and alsoCarl Bosch’s contribution to scaling up the ammoniasynthesis. Chapter 6, Establishing the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute für Physikalische Chemie und Electrochemie inBerlin (13 pp + 24 pp) describes Haber’s rise in 1911 tothe position of Director of this Institute and its laborato-ries, the finest of its kind in the world. Chapter 7, WorldWar I (34 pp +103 pp) describes Haber’s efforts to helphis country in chemical warfare, his work on the produc-tion of nitrogen compounds for explosives and fertiliz-ers. Chapter 8, Haber’s Research on Chemical Warfareafter World War I speaks about his participation in thepreparation of chemical weapons, which he consideredequally inhumane as other modern warfare methods.Chapter 9, Family and Friends (41 pp + 76 pp) describeshis marriage and relation with Clara Immerwahr, his firstwife, his relationship with their son Hermann (b. 1902),Clara’s suicide in 1915, his marriage in 1917 to Char-lotte Nathan (28 years his junior), their divorce after tenyears of marriage, and his relations with their children,Eva (b. 1918) and Lugwig-Fritz (Lutz) (b. 1921). Chap-ter 10, The Nobel Prize and Succession to Emil Fischer’sPosition (8 pp + 10 pp) describes the circumstances ofawarding (in 1919) the 1918 Nobel Prize for chemistryto Haber, in the light of the Allies’ stand that Haber wasa war criminal. But British and French army used poi-son gases as well; and what to say about the famousatomic physicist and Nobel Prize winners who took partin the production of two atomic bombs with frightfulconsequences – the comment of the writer of this arti-cle.Chapter 11, Haber’s Institute and Scientific Work from1919 to 1933 (32 pp + 88 pp) describes Haber’s unsuc-cessful attempt to extract gold from seawater to helpGermany repay war reparations. Chapter 12, Haber’sPromotion of the Sciences, 1920–1933 (16 pp + 45 pp)speaks about his contributions to scientific educationand science policies and his attempt to connect Germanscientists with their colleagues in other countries. Chap-ter 13, Emigration and Death (27 pp + 64 pp) describesHaber’s problems after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power andhis resignation to all his positions on May 2, 1933, aswell as his relations with Chaim Weizmann’s PalestineProject. He left Germany for good, stayed shortly in Eng-land and in Switzerland, where he died from a heart at-tack in Basel on January 29, 1934. Chapter 14, Epilogue(8 pp + 9 pp) describes the funeral and memorial addres-ses and naming Haber’s institute as the Fritz-Haber-In-stitute of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.Carl Bosh and Friedrich Bergius shared the NobelPrize for 1931 »in recognition of their contribution to theinvention and development of chemical high-pressuremethods«, which enabled production of ammonia byHaber’s nitrogen fixation process in the industrial prac-tice.Like many German Jews, Haber converted to Chris-tianity (Protestantism) at the age of 24. In a way, Haberadopted German nationalism as his religion, but he wasalways aware of his Jewish roots and never denied orneglected them.The writer of this article recalls a secondary schoollesson given by Dr. Antun Hurm, a known Croatian Ger-manist, in Osijek, a Croatian city of high secondaryschooling reputation. The lesson was devoted to Hein-rich Heine and his poem Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar (Pil-grimage to Kevlaar). Commenting on this lovely poem,Dr. Hurm said that German Jews most often felt prima-rily as Germans while the religion was in the secondplace. Heine, though a Jew, had obviously much under-standing for Christianity, otherwise he would not havebeen able to write such a beautiful poem, glorifying theMother of God, commented Dr. Hurm. All this helps tounderstand the behaviour of many German Jews duringWorld War I. They were faithful to Germany, and thegreat injustice done to them by the Nazi regime appearsadditionally greater.In the first decade of the twentieth century, theworld demand for nitrogen, needed for fertilizers, wasmuch larger than the available supply. The main sourceof the chemicals necessary for fertilizers was found inthe huge guano deposit (sea bird droppings), which was220 miles in length and a few feet thick, along the coastof Chile. Unfortunately, this natural source of ammoniawas disappearing relatively fast.The Haber-Bosch process enabled Germany to besupplied with fertilizers and munitions during WorldWar I, after the British naval blockade cut off supplies ofnitrates from Chile. During the war, Haber invested hisenergies into further support for Germany. He developeda new weapon – poison gas – the first sample being chlo-rine, and supervised its initial deployment on the West-ern Front at Ypres, Belgium, in 1915. He deeply believ-ed that Germany was not responsible for the war. He wasan example of Prussian pride, and he unquestionably anduncritically accepted the State’s policy, believing that Ger-many was unjustly landlocked during the war and depriv-ed of supplies necessary for life. Ironically, Zyklon B, oneof the gases developed by Haber around 1920 as a fumi-gant (a means of disinfection, consisting of HCN adsorb-ed into a carrier), was later used to kill concentration campprisoners, including members of Haber’s own family.In many ways, as Stoltenberg’s book describes, Ha-ber helped the German war-machinery to run for fouryears. Feeling some responsibility for his country’s fail-A18 BOOK REVIEWCroat. Chem. Acta 78 (3) A17–A19 (2005)ure in the war, Haber’s life took an unhappy turn, and hewas near a nervous breakdown. Despite the great hon-ours bestowed on him, his role in chemical warfare hadisolated him from the foreign scientific community, atleast for some time. When Hitler became Chancellor,Haber tried to cope with the new reality that his enor-mous contributions to German industry were disre-garded by the Nazi regime. He realized that it was timeto emigrate. He was offered a position at Cambridge andleft Germany for good in 1933. Because of his heartproblems he did not stay long in England. On route toSwitzerland, he suddenly died of a heart attack in Baselin 1934 at the age of 65.Stoltzenberg describes in detail a variety of otherHaber’s important findings (quinone-hydroquinone equi-librium at the cathode, invention of the glass electrode,electrolysis of crystalline salts, study of the loss of en-ergy by steam engines, turbines and gas motors, hisquartz thread manometer for low gas pressure measure-ments, determination of flame temperatures, his fire-damp whistle for the protection of miners, to mentiononly a few of his findings) which prove Haber’s brillianttalent.Haber’s private life was a tragedy. His first wifeClara Immerwahr (1870–1915) was also a chemist, anda very intelligent and sensitive person (her surname lit-erally translated means »always true«). She wanted to bea good housewife to Haber, but he did not show muchunderstanding for her feelings. Haber was not a particu-larly devoted family man. He excluded Clara from beinginvolved in his research and teaching at Karlsruhe. Aftera dinner party at Haber’s home, aimed to praise the ef-fectiveness of poison gas application, Clara and her hus-band had a furious argument. She, supposedly, accusedher husband of perverting science, but the actual reasonsfor their conflict will never be known, says Stoltzenberg.That night, Clara took her husband’s army pistol andshot herself in their garden in Berlin. Two shots wereheard. The first was obviously a test shot and the secondpassed through her heart. She did not die immediately.Her son Hermann, who heard the shot in the early morn-ing, found his mother dying and called his father. Detailsare not known but Clara might have still lived for sev-eral minutes to a few hours. Haber left the next day forthe Eastern front, not even staying for the funeral. In1917, two years after Clara’s death, Haber remarriedwith Charlotte Nathan. She was much less demandingthan Clara. One year later they got a daughter and in thesummer of 1920 their son Ludwig Fritz was born.There are several possible reasons for Clara’s sui-cide: the promotion party for the new weapon – poisongas – by her husband at their home, which she could nottolerate; jealousy (Charlotte, who was Haber’s secretary,was 26 years younger than Clara), hereditary streak inthe family (Clara’s sister committed suicide, and the old-est son of Haber and Clara committed suicide in 1946).Clara Haber was buried at the cemetery in Dahlem(Berlin). Later, Haber expressed his wish that after hisdeath Clara should repose beside him. This was fulfilledin 1934 and both, Fritz and Clara Haber, repose togetherat the cemetery in Basel. These lines in Stolltzenberg’sbook are moving.Stoltzenberg succeeded in painting a vivid picture ofHaber. No doubt, Haber lived for science. He had manyfriends. Richard Willstätter (Nobel Prize laureate forChemistry for 1915) was his life-long closest friend. Healso worked closely with Emil Fischer, a great Germanchemist. He was friends with Albert Einstein, CarlBosch, Herbert Freundlich, Michael Polanyi, and manyothers.The worldwide fixation of nitrogen is nowadays ofthe order of 100,000,000 tonnes per year, which, in thebest way, illustrates the great importance of Haber’s dis-covery. According to G. J. Leigh, thanks to Haber, theworld food problem seems to be solved for those whocan afford to buy ammonia. It still remains a problem forthose who cannot. (G. J. Leigh, The World’s GreatestFix, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004).According to the British chemist J. E. Coates: »Allwho knew Haber will remember with lasting affectionthe man who enriched their lives. He will live on as agreat chemist and will be honoured for his services tohumanity. He deeply wished to be remembered as some-one who served his country in war and peace«. (J.Chem. Soc. (1937) 1642–1672.)Stoltzenberg’s book is more than just a carefullydocumented biography. It provides an insight into thescientific, social, and political events in Germany in thefirst quarter of the 20th century, and will be definitelyrecognized as an invaluable document of the relevanttime.Smiljko A{pergerBOOK REVIEW A19Croat. Chem. Acta 78 (3) A17–A19 (2005)

Dietrich Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew, Chemical Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pa, 2004

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