Fritz Haber

German chemist

• Born: December 9, 1868
• Birthplace: Breslau, Silesia, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland)
• Died: January 29, 1934
• Place of death: Basel, Switzerland

Haber developed a synthetic process, now named for him, for manufacturing ammonia directly from elemental nitrogen and hydrogen. This made the commercial production of artificial fertilizers possible and has had a profound effect on global agriculture and food production.

Early Life

Fritz Haber (HAHB-ehr) was born in what is the modern Polish city of Wrocław, which at that time was under Austrian control and known as Breslau. His father was the owner of a successful merchandising company that dealt in oils, resins, and natural dyestuffs, and was one of Germany’s largest importers of indigo. His mother died in childbirth, and young Fritz was reared by relatives until he was nine, when his father remarried. He showed an early interest in experimentation and was allowed by his father to work in the family attic. He entered the University of Berlin in the fall of 1886 and soon became interested in chemistry, taught there by Professors Hermann von Helmholtz and August Wilhelm von Hoffmann. As was then the vogue, Haber attended several universities as a student. He stayed in Berlin for one semester and then went to Heidelberg University for one and a half years. There he was influenced by the intensely practical and factual chemistry professor Robert Bunsen and also developed interests in physics and mathematics. He returned to Breslau for compulsory military service for one year and then entered the Charlottenburg Technische Hochschule in Berlin, the largest engineering college in Germany. There Carl Liebermann, one of the synthesizers of the dye alazarin, introduced him to chemical research, and his first study, done for Liebermann, became his first publication. He earned his doctorate in 1891. After several brief routine jobs outside Germany, Haber decided to enter the Federal Polytechnical School in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1892 to study with Georg Lunge, a very respected analytical chemist and teacher. This move was unusual, for few chemists of the time engaged in postdoctoral study. During his one semester there, he studied and experimented with the current chemical technology in dyes, metallurgy, and textiles. After a brief but stormy period working in his father’s business, he became an assistant in Ludwig Knorr’s laboratory at the University of Jena. Under the system of that day, he had little latitude for personal creativity and applied for a position as assistant in the Department of Chemical and Fuel Technology at the Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule, which he obtained in 1894. This marked the start of his long, broad, and productive career as a teacher, mentor, researcher, and industrial consultant.

Life’s Work

Haber was among the first to explore and define the newly developing discipline that would be called physical chemistry and to link university research with industrial production. His scientific interests were broad, but the main themes were the study of combustion processes, chemical phenomena at electrode surfaces, and catalysis. His practical bent was evident throughout his career and distinguished him from those academics of the time who considered practical applications beneath them. His first studies at Karlsruhe were on the breakdown of hydrocarbons by heating, which has become a very important process in the world’s oil industry for producing gasoline (thermal cracking). His third book, published in 1905 on the thermodynamics of gas reactions, showed how theoretical calculations could be used by industry and established both his reputation as a preeminent authority on science and technology and his academic career. His early papers dealt with fundamental chemical processes that occur during combustion of coal and gasoline, and the accompanying energy releases. He studied the complex chemical reactions of numerous materials burning in air or oxygen throughout his career.

In the 1890’s, Hans Luggin, a close friend of Haber who had studied with the Swedish scientist Svante August Arrhenius, suggested that he investigate the new field of electrochemistry. Electrochemistry thus became one of Haber’s main interests, such that he became one of the preeminent German names in electrochemistry along with Wilhelm Ostwald. He studied fuel cells for the direct conversion of chemical energy into electricity, the electrochemistry of organic compounds, and the electrochemical conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into useful chemicals, and he did early studies on the electrical production of aluminum metal, at that time an exotic material. This interest continued throughout his career, and he published more than fifty papers on electrochemistry, singly and with various coauthors.

There were forecasts at that time (1905) of an impending world shortage of nitrate fertilizer, and Haber was hired to study nitrogen fixation by several companies. Based on work he saw during an American tour in 1901, he tried various chemical and electrical experiments at increasingly higher temperatures and pressures. Numerous scientists had studied various ways to combine the elements hydrogen and nitrogen directly to form ammonia, with little success. Walther Hermann Nernst, an influential physical chemist, had made small amounts of ammonia using very high pressures, which were impractical for commercial use, and announced publicly that Haber’s early experiments were wrong. Haber redoubled his lab efforts, and, with the help of a talented staff, devised the necessary high-pressure apparatus and found a suitable catalyst that made the process a commercial success. He found the right combination of the two opposing variables of temperature and pressure, succeeding where others had failed. The first commercial ammonia plant started production in 1910 in Oppau. His ideas for pressure apparatuses and catalysts were also very useful contributions and were applied by others in several industrial processes.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, Haber’s chemistry laboratories at Karlsruhe enjoyed the reputation of being the best equipped in the world and employed more than forty researchers from around the world. He consulted with industry continuously and had several offers of employment in business and at other universities. His success in solving the ammonia-synthesis problem brought an unprecedented offer: The owner of a chemical company, being unable to hire Haber as director of research, offered to help build a research institute on the sole condition that Haber be appointed as its head. Haber accepted. Thus, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, located in Berlin, was started in 1911. During the tumultuous years of World War I, Haber continued his research with ammonia and chemical oxidation, and also developed and patented a whistle that miners could use to detect the presence of explosive mixtures of methane in the coal mines. Haber consulted for the German War Office. He found a method to prevent gasoline from freezing and, although he personally abhorred war, devised the chlorine-gas weapon first used at Ieper, Belgium, in April, 1915. His motivation was his belief that it would end the current stalemate caused by trench warfare, and he shared the belief of many of his fellow Germans that the war would end quickly. He supervised Germany’s war effort with chemical weapons, an effort that led to the suicide of his wife, Clara Immerwahr, and that caused his later selection for the Nobel Prize to be contested. He was awarded the prize for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements, which was recognized as “an exceedingly important means of improving the standards of agriculture and the well-being of mankind” by the Swedish Royal Academy.

He worked in the 1920’s on behalf of Germany’s efforts to make reparation payments to other countries. He tried to obtain gold from seawater, based on estimates of its concentration by others, but abandoned the effort after careful and innovative analytical work showed the earlier estimates to be too large. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1933 was one of the world’s foremost research and training centers and hosted colloquia for such notables as Niels Bohr, Otto Warburg, Peter Debye, Albert Einstein, and others. Haber resigned his directorship that year, when the Nazis came to power, stating that he would not choose his collaborators “on the basis of their grandmothers,” and thus created a significant split between government and science. After making detailed arrangements for positions for all of his staff, he briefly moved to Switzerland, then to the University of Cambridge in England. There he occupied the laboratory of his friend of many years Sir William Jackson Pope (who developed the mustard-gas weapon for Great Britain). Before going to England, he had earlier accepted a position at the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Palestine, offered by the chemist and first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann. He left England, whose weather he did not find agreeable, for Israel in January, 1934, and, in failing health, stopped for a brief holiday in Switzerland and the Riviera with his sister and a son. He died in his sleep in Lugano (Basel), Switzerland, on January 29 of coronary sclerosis.

Significance

Haber was a kind, humorous, dramatic man who regarded his friends and associates as a larger family. His patriotism derived from faith and devotion to Germany, not politics. As one example, during the dire times of 1919, he organized the Emergency Society for German Science, which was created to save the country’s scientific research institutions. This organization united the government, the technical societies, universities, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute into one national body to foster science and distribute supporting funds. Haber loved an intellectual challenge and had an extremely wide range of interests: He was an innovative scientist, an excellent administrator, an extraordinary organizer, a soldier, an outstanding public speaker and conversationalist, and was well versed in economics, politics, human affairs, and the classics.

As he was a talented leader, his laboratory produced many outstanding physical chemists. He was unprecedented in his efforts to foster links between academic and industrial research, and in the industrial application of theory. His scientific life parallels and reflects the main developments in the early years of physical chemistry. His contributions were quite varied, and included the ammonia synthesis for agricultural chemistry, thermal cracking for petroleum chemistry, new instruments for the measurement of gas concentrations and acidity (pH), heterogeneous catalysts for industrial chemistry, new standards for electrical cell measurements, new processes for textile dying, and new dyestuffs. He worked tirelessly to use science to assist technological advance in Germany and, as his international reputation grew, expanded this work to other countries.

Bibliography

Appl, Max. “The Haber-Bosch Process and the Development of Chemical Engineering.” In A Century of Chemical Engineering, edited by William F. Furter. New York: Plenum, 1982. A historical view of the industrial implementation of Haber’s ammonia process and its place in the development of the chemical industry.

Charles, Daniel. Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, a Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare. New York: Ecco, 2005. Sympathetic and readable biography, recounting Haber’s life and scientific achievements.

Coates, J. E. “The Haber Memorial Lecture.” Journal of the Chemical Society, November, 1939: 1642-1672. Perhaps the best English-language summary of Haber’s life and scientific accomplishments. Revealing insights are given into Haber’s character and career as a scientist and public figure. His contributions are placed in clear scientific perspective and linked to other concurrent developments in chemistry. For advanced readers.

Goran, Morris. “The Present Day Significance of Fritz Haber.” American Scientist, July, 1947, 400-403, 406. This article, written as a communication, explains to post-World War II readers the general importance of Haber’s scientific works and addresses criticisms of his involvement in chemical-weapons development.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Story of Fritz Haber. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967. This biography gives many details of Haber’s personal life and places his scientific achievements in the historical context of the world events of his time. His personal character is emphasized, and his chemical achievements are summarized in a nontechnical manner.

Haber, L. F. “Fritz Haber and the Nitrogen Problem.” Endeavour 27, no. 102 (1968): 150-153. An article for the general science reader, describing the chemical problems Haber faced in devising the ammonia synthesis.

Medeiros, Robert W. “Of Swords and Plowshares.” Chemistry 48 (July, 1975): 12-14. A short article for students, relating the history of the development of the Haber process for producing ammonia.

Nachmansohn, David. German-Jewish Pioneers in Science, 1900-1933. New York: Springer, 1979. A brief cameo of Haber’s life and main contributions. This book covers Jewish notables in the fields of chemistry, physics, and biochemistry at a time when Germany was the leading center for the development of science and technology. Provides information about many scientists who knew Haber and gives highlights of the people and the tremendous scientific activity of that period.

Stoltzenberg, Dietrich. Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew. Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Press, 2004. An abridged and English-language version of a biography originally written in German.

Willstätter, Richard. From My Life: The Memoirs of Richard Willstätter. Translated by Lilli S. Hornig, edited by Arthur Stoll. New York: W. A. Benjamin, 1965. Willstätter was a Nobel laureate in organic chemistry and one of Haber’s longtime friends and neighbors. He offers personal insights about Haber’s life and work and gives firsthand accounts of the intellectual development, excitement, and aspirations in the European scientific community.