Fric Gaber

Fric Gaber

Chemist
Date of Birth: 09.12.1868
Country: Poland

Content:
  1. Biography of Fritz Haber
  2. Significant Laboratory Experiments
  3. World War I and Controversial Contributions
  4. Nobel Prize and Later Life

Biography of Fritz Haber

Fritz Haber, a German chemist, was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) as the only son of Siegfried Haber and his first wife, Paula Haber. Paula tragically died during childbirth. When Fritz was nine years old, his father, a successful dye merchant, remarried to Hedwig Hamburger, with whom he had three daughters. While his father was strict and distant, Fritz had a warm relationship with his stepmother.

After completing his local primary school, Fritz enrolled in the Elizabethan Gymnasium in Breslau, where his love for literature, especially the works of Goethe, blossomed. As a boy, he enjoyed writing poetry and aspired to become an actor, but eventually, his passion for chemistry took over. In 1886, Fritz entered the University of Berlin to study chemistry, but after the first semester, he transferred to the University of Heidelberg, where he studied under Robert Bunsen, the inventor of the Bunsen burner. Bunsen's interest in physical chemistry inspired Fritz to delve into mathematics and physics, subjects he continued to study at the Berlin Technical University. In 1891, he obtained his doctorate degree, primarily working in applied chemical laboratories with limited interest in theory.

He then moved to the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, where he acquainted himself with new chemical and industrial processes that would later make Germany a leader in chemical technology. After two years working with his father, Fritz continued his research at the University of Jena, followed by the University of Karlsruhe, where he became an assistant to Hans Bunte, a professor of chemical technology. The results of his work, summarized in his book "Experimental Investigations on the Decomposition and Combustion of Hydrocarbons" in 1896, earned him a lecturer position at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1906, he became a professor of physical and electrochemistry and was appointed director of the university's institute for research in these disciplines. In Karlsruhe, Fritz conducted various studies ranging from fuel electrochemistry and heat loss in steam engines to the creation of multiple types of electrodes for oxidation-reduction processes. He documented his findings in the book "Principles of Technical Electrochemistry Based on Theory" in 1898. His third book, "Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions," published in 1905, established Fritz as a world authority in the field of science and technology. In this book, he demonstrated how theoretical thermodynamic calculations of gas free energy changes at equilibrium could be practically applied for industrial purposes.

Significant Laboratory Experiments

In 1905, Fritz embarked on his most significant laboratory experiments, focusing on the production of ammonia for further conversion into nitrates. The world was facing a severe problem of increasing population and dwindling natural sources of nitrogen-rich fertilizers. Fritz attempted to combine atmospheric nitrogen with hydrogen to produce ammonia. Other chemists had already tried to synthesize ammonia through a direct reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen, but this method required temperatures above 1000°C, making it economically unfeasible. After several experiments, Fritz discovered that ammonia could be synthesized at temperatures below 300°C. German chemist Walter Nernst had previously demonstrated that ammonia could be obtained by the interaction of hydrogen and nitrogen under extremely high pressure. Fritz combined the techniques of low temperatures and high pressure. He also found that replacing the standard iron catalyst with osmium and uranium significantly increased the yield of ammonia. Furthermore, he improved the method's efficiency by utilizing the heat released during gas interaction to maintain the reaction temperature.

Fritz's research on ammonia synthesis was financed by the German industrial corporation BASF. Engineer Carl Bosch, representing BASF, further developed Fritz's method and implemented it in ammonia production plants in Oppau and Leuna in 1910. This process, known as the Haber-Bosch process, remains the foundation of large-scale ammonia production worldwide. The following year, Fritz and Richard Willstätter were appointed co-directors of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin.

World War I and Controversial Contributions

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Fritz served the German government. As a consultant for the German Ministry of War, he was tasked with creating a non-lethal irritant gas that would force enemy troops out of trenches. Within a few months, Fritz and his team developed a weapon utilizing chlorine gas, which went into production in January 1915. It was deployed against the Allied forces in Ypres, Belgium, resulting in the poisoning of 150,000 individuals.

Although Fritz despised war, he believed that the use of chemical weapons could save many lives by ending the exhausting trench warfare on the Western Front. His wife Clara (nee Immerwahr), also a chemist, strongly opposed his involvement in military work. In 1915, after a serious disagreement with Fritz, Clara tragically took her own life. They had married in 1901 and had one son. In 1917, Fritz married Charlotte Nathan, with whom he had a son and a daughter. They divorced in 1927.

In 1916, Fritz was appointed head of the chemical service responsible for all chemical weapons research and production. The nitrogen fixation process he developed for the production of artificial fertilizers served primarily for Germany's military purposes in the manufacturing of explosives.

Nobel Prize and Later Life

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1918 was initially reserved for Fritz's ammonia synthesis work. However, due to his controversial contributions to chemical warfare, the prize was not awarded that year. In 1919, Fritz was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize "for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements." In his speech during the presentation, A.G. Ekestrand, a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, recognized Fritz's discoveries as tremendously important for agriculture and the prosperity of humanity. The award sparked sharp criticism from scientists in the Allied countries, who viewed Fritz as a war criminal involved in the creation of chemical weapons.

Germany's defeat, the suicide of his first wife, and the condemnation by English, American, and French scientists plunged Fritz into severe depression. Additionally, he developed non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Despite these hardships, he successfully reorganized the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin under the stringent restrictions of post-war Germany. In 1920, he began research on the extraction of gold from seawater, hoping it would help Germany repay reparations to the Allied countries if successful. However, after six years of work, this project, based on overly optimistic estimates of gold content in seawater from the 19th century, ended in failure.

During his time at the institute, Fritz's work contributed significantly to atomic physics, biology, and chemistry. The scientific colloquium he organized attracted the most distinguished scientists of the time, including Niels Bohr, Otto Warburg, Otto Meyerhof, Peter Debye, and many others. By the early 1930s, the institute had become one of the world's most renowned research centers and educational institutions.

In 1933, following Hitler's rise to power, Fritz's situation became perilous due to his parents being considered Jews by race, rather than religious affiliation. One of the first actions of the Nazi government was to issue civil code laws that prevented Jews from holding positions in academic and governmental institutions. However, as Fritz had served in the German military during World War I, an exception was made for him. In April of the same year, he chose to resign and refused to dismiss Jewish staff from his institute. He sent a letter of resignation to the Ministry of Art, Science, and National Education, stating, "For over forty years, I have selected my colleagues based on their intellectual development and character, not on their grandmothers' origins, and I do not wish to change this principle in the final years of my life."

Fleeing from the Nazis to England, Fritz worked with his former assistant William Pope at the University of Cambridge for four months. Chemist and future first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, offered Fritz a position at the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot, Palestine. Fritz's health deteriorated rapidly. He suffered a heart attack but recovered and traveled to Basel, Switzerland, where he died during a rest stop in January 1934. His friend Richard Willstätter delivered the eulogy at his funeral. A year later, on the first anniversary of his death, more than 500 of his former students and colleagues defied Nazi threats and gathered at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute to pay tribute to Fritz's life and work.

© BIOGRAPHS