unlike Siegfried, Hermann was an optimist and modernistic. Things had
changed remarkably for Jews in Germany but Siegfried was locked into the
old ways, (Charles
6 ). But through Hermann’s advocacy Siegfried relented and
Fritz became the first of his family to go to University. In the autumn of 1886
aged 18, he entered Berlin’s Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (now the
Humboldt University) to study chemistry and physics, drawn to both fields
by the towering figures of August von Hofmann and Hermann von
Helmholtz.
2.3 His University Years
Berlin at the time was dynamic, quite different to Breslau or Germany’s
traditional university cities. It epitomised the 1880s; it was expanding,
re-developing and attracting workers and professionals from all over Europe.
Berlin ‘fizzed’ and Fritz Haber fell in love with it. But his experience at the
University fell far short of his expectations. Looking for intellectual stimulation he found only frustration and disappointment. Helmholtz was a particular culprit. His mumbled lectures failed to inspire whilst the chemistry
lectures were filled with practical demonstrations of experiments that Haber
found unchallenging. The repetition of the minutia of these established
‘recipes’ was never to attract the exuberant Fritz Haber and his first semester
was a complete disappointment. Being eclectic, seeking stimulation, and
‘jumping like a catfish on a pole’, Haber decided to exercise the freedom of
German students to move to another University to continue their studies
returning to their ‘alma mater’ only to take their final examinations. Such a
freedom was unheard of in Great Britain or the United States and it led to a
maturity amongst German students that the other Western countries could
only envy. Ironically, British universities have only recently embraced the
concept.
Disappointed with Berlin, Fritz Haber spent the summer semester of 1887
at Robert Bunsen’s Institute in Heidelberg, attracted there by Bunsen’s formidable reputation and possibly by the fact that he had previously been a
faculty member at Breslau University. Today Robert Bunsen is remembered
by generations of chemistry students for ‘his’ burner,
11 when his other
contributions are vastly more significant. These embraced organic chemistry,
the study of arsenic compounds, gas measurement and analysis, the galvanic
battery, elemental spectroscopy and geology. His study of dangerous arsenic
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
41
changed remarkably for Jews in Germany but Siegfried was locked into the
old ways, (Charles
6 ). But through Hermann’s advocacy Siegfried relented and
Fritz became the first of his family to go to University. In the autumn of 1886
aged 18, he entered Berlin’s Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (now the
Humboldt University) to study chemistry and physics, drawn to both fields
by the towering figures of August von Hofmann and Hermann von
Helmholtz.
2.3 His University Years
Berlin at the time was dynamic, quite different to Breslau or Germany’s
traditional university cities. It epitomised the 1880s; it was expanding,
re-developing and attracting workers and professionals from all over Europe.
Berlin ‘fizzed’ and Fritz Haber fell in love with it. But his experience at the
University fell far short of his expectations. Looking for intellectual stimulation he found only frustration and disappointment. Helmholtz was a particular culprit. His mumbled lectures failed to inspire whilst the chemistry
lectures were filled with practical demonstrations of experiments that Haber
found unchallenging. The repetition of the minutia of these established
‘recipes’ was never to attract the exuberant Fritz Haber and his first semester
was a complete disappointment. Being eclectic, seeking stimulation, and
‘jumping like a catfish on a pole’, Haber decided to exercise the freedom of
German students to move to another University to continue their studies
returning to their ‘alma mater’ only to take their final examinations. Such a
freedom was unheard of in Great Britain or the United States and it led to a
maturity amongst German students that the other Western countries could
only envy. Ironically, British universities have only recently embraced the
concept.
Disappointed with Berlin, Fritz Haber spent the summer semester of 1887
at Robert Bunsen’s Institute in Heidelberg, attracted there by Bunsen’s formidable reputation and possibly by the fact that he had previously been a
faculty member at Breslau University. Today Robert Bunsen is remembered
by generations of chemistry students for ‘his’ burner,
11 when his other
contributions are vastly more significant. These embraced organic chemistry,
the study of arsenic compounds, gas measurement and analysis, the galvanic
battery, elemental spectroscopy and geology. His study of dangerous arsenic
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
41