13.7 The End Game
After the armistice was signed in November 1918, the Allies produced a list of
900 alleged war criminals. Haber’s name was amongst them. When Germany
ratified the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919—which required the surrender
of those accused—they demanded his extradition. Convinced by the patriotic
nature of his role in the war, Haber did everything he could to remain in
Germany. But in late July 1919, after sending his family to Switzerland and
giving power of attorney (30 July 1919) to Max Meyer,
61 he put aside his
military uniform, grew a beard, and fled to Lucerne. From there on 01
August he followed his family to the Alpine resort of St. Moritz where he
acquired Swiss citizenship in an attempt to secure immunity from prosecution.
62 After a few months however, the Allies dropped all their charges
against him and he returned to his Institute in Berlin. The war years for
Haber were the greatest period of his life. But we shouldn’t suppose that he
enjoyed war per se. He hated the suffering, the waste of life, the pointlessness
of it all, for in his emotional ‘ground state’ he was kindly, helpful, generous
and benevolent. No-one had to ‘worship at the altar of Haber’s ego’. But it is
equally true that the excitation of war transformed him into a ruthless
autocrat, a side of him which in peace-time he either suppressed or made
manifest as his ‘strength of purpose’. He gave his whole being over to the
struggle for victory and nothing was allowed to deflect him; neither family,
human suffering, nor international law. He brought a vitality to all the
positions he held and he always placed Germany first, declaring that, ‘Science
is for the world … but for your country in time of war!’
63 For three or four
generations past, his family had fought for, or served, Germany and he was
proud to have become a Prussian officer and such an influential military man,
so when defeat finally came it weighed heavily upon him, as did the personal
repercussions of his role in chemical warfare. His already fragile health was
permanently damaged by overwork during the war years and when he
returned to Berlin to reconstruct his Institute it was as an utterly disillusioned
and broken man.
But in the immediate post-war years his spirits rose again as he re-modelled
the Institute to take advantage of the scientific experiences that had been
gained during the war, applying them now to beneficial ends. Along-side the
established areas of physical chemistry, physics and colloid chemistry, he
introduced additional sections for organic chemistry, pharmacology, insect
pest control
64 and textile chemistry, and there is little doubt that the eventual
award of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1918 for ‘… improving the
13 Haber and the Chemist’s War 1914–18
265
After the armistice was signed in November 1918, the Allies produced a list of
900 alleged war criminals. Haber’s name was amongst them. When Germany
ratified the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919—which required the surrender
of those accused—they demanded his extradition. Convinced by the patriotic
nature of his role in the war, Haber did everything he could to remain in
Germany. But in late July 1919, after sending his family to Switzerland and
giving power of attorney (30 July 1919) to Max Meyer,
61 he put aside his
military uniform, grew a beard, and fled to Lucerne. From there on 01
August he followed his family to the Alpine resort of St. Moritz where he
acquired Swiss citizenship in an attempt to secure immunity from prosecution.
62 After a few months however, the Allies dropped all their charges
against him and he returned to his Institute in Berlin. The war years for
Haber were the greatest period of his life. But we shouldn’t suppose that he
enjoyed war per se. He hated the suffering, the waste of life, the pointlessness
of it all, for in his emotional ‘ground state’ he was kindly, helpful, generous
and benevolent. No-one had to ‘worship at the altar of Haber’s ego’. But it is
equally true that the excitation of war transformed him into a ruthless
autocrat, a side of him which in peace-time he either suppressed or made
manifest as his ‘strength of purpose’. He gave his whole being over to the
struggle for victory and nothing was allowed to deflect him; neither family,
human suffering, nor international law. He brought a vitality to all the
positions he held and he always placed Germany first, declaring that, ‘Science
is for the world … but for your country in time of war!’
63 For three or four
generations past, his family had fought for, or served, Germany and he was
proud to have become a Prussian officer and such an influential military man,
so when defeat finally came it weighed heavily upon him, as did the personal
repercussions of his role in chemical warfare. His already fragile health was
permanently damaged by overwork during the war years and when he
returned to Berlin to reconstruct his Institute it was as an utterly disillusioned
and broken man.
But in the immediate post-war years his spirits rose again as he re-modelled
the Institute to take advantage of the scientific experiences that had been
gained during the war, applying them now to beneficial ends. Along-side the
established areas of physical chemistry, physics and colloid chemistry, he
introduced additional sections for organic chemistry, pharmacology, insect
pest control
64 and textile chemistry, and there is little doubt that the eventual
award of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1918 for ‘… improving the
13 Haber and the Chemist’s War 1914–18
265