Fritz Haber

On 3 August 1901, Haber married Clara Immerwahr, a German chemist and also the first woman to be awarded doctorate in chemistry. However, she never worked independently; instead she silently contributed to Haber’s work without any expectation of reward and it made her immensely unhappy. The couple had one son, named Hermann.

On 2 May 1915, Clara committed suicide; purportedly as a protest against her husband’s involvement in chemical weaponry.

On 25 October 1917 Haber married Charlotte Nathan. The couple had two children, Eva-Charlotte and Ludwig-Fritz. This marriage was also full of conflicts and they divorced on 6 December 1927.

Fritz Haber was born on 9 December 1868, in Wroclaw, then known as Breslau, in Western Poland into one the ancient Jewish families of that region. His father, Siegfried Haber, was a well-known merchant dealing in dye pigments, paints and pharmaceuticals.

Fritz lost his mother, Paula Haber, three weeks after his birth. His father later remarried Hedwig Hamburger. From this union, Fritz had three half sisters; Else, Helene and Frieda. Although his association with his father was always strained he enjoyed cozy relationship with his stepmother and sisters.

Fritz began his education at Johanneum School, a primary institution attended by students of all religion and sects. At eleven, he enrolled at St. Elizabeth classical school, graduating from there in 1886. Next he enrolled at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (now known as Humboldt University of Berlin) to study chemistry.

In 1887, he shifted to the University of Heidelberg to study under Robert Bunsen. After completing one semester there, he went back to Berlin to study at Technical College of Charlottenburg (now Technical University of Berlin), finally graduating in 1889.

In 1889, he joined the Sixth Field Artillery Regiment for one year’s compulsory service. Afterwards, he rejoined Technical College of Charlottenburg to work for his doctoral thesis under Carl Liebermann. On Liebermann’s advice he chose to work on Piperonal, an organic compound found in fragrance and flavors.

Haber started his academic career in 1892 as an independent assistant to Ludwig Knorr at the University of Jena. His knowledge in dye impressed Knorr and through his reference Haber joined Hans Bunte at the University of Karlsruhe in 1894.

On the advice of Bunte, Haber started working on thermal decomposition of hydrocarbons. He submitted his findings as his Habilitation thesis. Later, he was appointed as a Privatdozent and took up teaching along with his research works.

He spent 1896 travelling around Europe studying advances in dye technology. The next year he made a similar trip, but this time he chose to study on development of electrochemistry and especially on the reduction of nitrobenzene.

In 1898, he was appointed as an Extraordinarius and Associate Professor at the University of Karlsruhe and continued working on various projects.

Around 1904, he undertook electrochemical preparation of number OF important organic compounds. Even today these works are taken as important milestone in the field of electrochemistry.

Although Haber had worked in different fields he is best known for his work on synthesis of ammonia using atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Known as ‘Haber-Bosch Process’, it enabled industrial production of fertilizers, which in turn enhanced agriculture production considerably.

In addition to ‘Haber-Bosch Process’, Haber is equally known for the ‘Born Haber Cycle’. The cycle developed by Haber and Max Born is used mainly for calculating lattice energies of an ionic solid.