18.5 September 1959, the Visit of Johannes
Jaenicke
We know little of Robert and Emily’s life over the next few years. One can
only assume that with progressing age and Emily’s condition worsening it was
at best quiet, ‘comfortable’ and filled with the kinds of things that elderly
retired couples do, but as for many, painfully punctured by the depressing
inevitability of another conflict involving British servicemen and women, this
time at Suez in 1956. But towards the end of the decade, Robert was afforded
another opportunity to contribute to the history of fixation when ‘out of the
blue’, Johannes Jaenicke, a friend of Haber and a former co-worker on
Haber’s ‘gold from seawater’ project, contacted him with a request for his
recollections of his time with the ‘great man’—Jaenicke having in mind a
biography to right what he saw as the serious injustice to Haber’s reputation
which had persisted over the years. Jaenicke’s letter to Robert was ‘couched’
in quite familiar terms, viz., from one ‘Haberian’ to another, and his intention
was to use his annual holiday to come to the UK to speak to Robert personally about his memories, thereby affording him as little inconvenience as
possible. Jaenicke frequently referred to Robert as ‘Doktor’ Le Rossignol in
his correspondence, the first of which was dated 25 August 1959. A rather
clumsy translation of his letter (by this author) appears below.
August 25
th 1959,
Dear Herr Doktor Le Rossignol,
There is a rumour here in Germany that a biography of
Fritz Haber is about to appear. A number of magazines
have called for information about Haber but they have
unfortunately found only a very weak echo, so that in the
light of the devastation caused by the Second World War
and its consequences regarding the German archives,
there are still wide gaps in the documents.
We have both had the good luck to acquire Haber as a
common boss and friend, and I wonder if you were willing
to share your memories of him with me. I know that I am
not the first to bother you with such curiosity, but I
would be delighted if you tried to help me remove the
serious injustice which has cast a shadow on his legacy,
and restore a dignified and true image of his personality
and his work.
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
467
Jaenicke
We know little of Robert and Emily’s life over the next few years. One can
only assume that with progressing age and Emily’s condition worsening it was
at best quiet, ‘comfortable’ and filled with the kinds of things that elderly
retired couples do, but as for many, painfully punctured by the depressing
inevitability of another conflict involving British servicemen and women, this
time at Suez in 1956. But towards the end of the decade, Robert was afforded
another opportunity to contribute to the history of fixation when ‘out of the
blue’, Johannes Jaenicke, a friend of Haber and a former co-worker on
Haber’s ‘gold from seawater’ project, contacted him with a request for his
recollections of his time with the ‘great man’—Jaenicke having in mind a
biography to right what he saw as the serious injustice to Haber’s reputation
which had persisted over the years. Jaenicke’s letter to Robert was ‘couched’
in quite familiar terms, viz., from one ‘Haberian’ to another, and his intention
was to use his annual holiday to come to the UK to speak to Robert personally about his memories, thereby affording him as little inconvenience as
possible. Jaenicke frequently referred to Robert as ‘Doktor’ Le Rossignol in
his correspondence, the first of which was dated 25 August 1959. A rather
clumsy translation of his letter (by this author) appears below.
August 25
th 1959,
Dear Herr Doktor Le Rossignol,
There is a rumour here in Germany that a biography of
Fritz Haber is about to appear. A number of magazines
have called for information about Haber but they have
unfortunately found only a very weak echo, so that in the
light of the devastation caused by the Second World War
and its consequences regarding the German archives,
there are still wide gaps in the documents.
We have both had the good luck to acquire Haber as a
common boss and friend, and I wonder if you were willing
to share your memories of him with me. I know that I am
not the first to bother you with such curiosity, but I
would be delighted if you tried to help me remove the
serious injustice which has cast a shadow on his legacy,
and restore a dignified and true image of his personality
and his work.
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
467