the ‘honourable separation’ might be achieved but offering Pope a possible
solution,
24 he finally added; ‘as soon as I have this permission, I will accept
your generous invitation …’. After posting this conditional letter of acceptance, he left Paris for the meeting of the International Chemical Union at
Santander in Spain.
At the conference, which was marked only for its mediocrity, Haber’s health
worsened. His presentation—well prepared but poorly attended—was a
shambles, with Haber often having to reach for his nitroglycerine spray as he
gasped for breath. In late August with his heart problems worsening, he left
Spain for Berlin to try and facilitate his ‘separation’, but just before entering
Germany, as the train reached the Swiss city of Basel, he suffered an attack of
total exhaustion and had to rest a while. In Basel, he heard again from Chaim
Weizmann, and having recovered somewhat, but against the advice of his
doctors, he travelled to Zermatt to discuss the Palestine position once more.
This time, Weizmann recalls, Haber accepted the idea with enthusiasm,
25
then left again for Germany. Homeward bound, he suffered another physical
collapse which his doctor, Rudolph Stern, thought was probably a heart attack.
Whatever, he never made it into Germany and was taken to a sanatorium in
the Swiss town of Mammern where he was joined by his sister Else. As the
effective date of his resignation grew closer, he remained in Switzerland leaving
Else to return briefly to Berlin to clear the Villa at Dahlem. But on 21
September 1933—only a few days before the effective date of his resignation—
Haber wrote to the Deutsches Museum in Munich with a remarkable offer
which expressed his desire that, after his departure, Germany retain something
‘physical’ regarding the historical significance of the work conducted by
himself and Le Rossignol at Karlsruhe. This letter, provided to the author by
Dr Stefan Wolff at the Museum and annotated by the author, is reproduced
below;
To the German Museum in Munich.
Years ago, [1922] upon request, I sent my laboratory apparatus to the
Deutsches Museum. [The apparatus] was essentially the same as the small
apparatus built for the laboratory, which I had used together with my
younger friend Le Rossignol in Karlsruhe. I then developed this apparatus
into the larger model that BASF took over and gloriously designed into a
large-scale industrial process. I have described the Karlsruhe piece, with
the permission of the company, in detail in the Journal of Electrochemistry,
(Chap. 8) but [the original apparatus] was not included in the transition to
Berlin-Dahlem, and it has been lost. During the 22 years in Dahlem, the
work of the institute’s workshop has always been more urgent than the
378
D. Sheppard
solution,
24 he finally added; ‘as soon as I have this permission, I will accept
your generous invitation …’. After posting this conditional letter of acceptance, he left Paris for the meeting of the International Chemical Union at
Santander in Spain.
At the conference, which was marked only for its mediocrity, Haber’s health
worsened. His presentation—well prepared but poorly attended—was a
shambles, with Haber often having to reach for his nitroglycerine spray as he
gasped for breath. In late August with his heart problems worsening, he left
Spain for Berlin to try and facilitate his ‘separation’, but just before entering
Germany, as the train reached the Swiss city of Basel, he suffered an attack of
total exhaustion and had to rest a while. In Basel, he heard again from Chaim
Weizmann, and having recovered somewhat, but against the advice of his
doctors, he travelled to Zermatt to discuss the Palestine position once more.
This time, Weizmann recalls, Haber accepted the idea with enthusiasm,
25
then left again for Germany. Homeward bound, he suffered another physical
collapse which his doctor, Rudolph Stern, thought was probably a heart attack.
Whatever, he never made it into Germany and was taken to a sanatorium in
the Swiss town of Mammern where he was joined by his sister Else. As the
effective date of his resignation grew closer, he remained in Switzerland leaving
Else to return briefly to Berlin to clear the Villa at Dahlem. But on 21
September 1933—only a few days before the effective date of his resignation—
Haber wrote to the Deutsches Museum in Munich with a remarkable offer
which expressed his desire that, after his departure, Germany retain something
‘physical’ regarding the historical significance of the work conducted by
himself and Le Rossignol at Karlsruhe. This letter, provided to the author by
Dr Stefan Wolff at the Museum and annotated by the author, is reproduced
below;
To the German Museum in Munich.
Years ago, [1922] upon request, I sent my laboratory apparatus to the
Deutsches Museum. [The apparatus] was essentially the same as the small
apparatus built for the laboratory, which I had used together with my
younger friend Le Rossignol in Karlsruhe. I then developed this apparatus
into the larger model that BASF took over and gloriously designed into a
large-scale industrial process. I have described the Karlsruhe piece, with
the permission of the company, in detail in the Journal of Electrochemistry,
(Chap. 8) but [the original apparatus] was not included in the transition to
Berlin-Dahlem, and it has been lost. During the 22 years in Dahlem, the
work of the institute’s workshop has always been more urgent than the
378
D. Sheppard