Notes
1. An observation taken from J. E. Coates’ ‘Haber Memorial Lecture’. After a
brilliant career as a student at Bangor, London and Karlsruhe, followed by
distinguished service during the First World War in the Royal Naval Air
Service, J. E. Coates was called to the Chair of Chemistry at the newly
established Swansea College of the University of Wales in 1920. At
Karlsruhe, Coates was a student of Haber’s and a contemporary of Le
Rossignol, and on 29 April 1937 he delivered the Haber Memorial Lecture
before the Chemical Society (J. E. Coates, ‘The Haber Memorial Lecture’,
J. Chem. Soc., 1642–1672, (1939)). The text is available from the on-line
archive of the Royal Society of Chemistry at http://www.rsc.org. The reference to Haber’s dislike of the minutia of experimentation appears on page
1671. The paper is referred to throughout this chapter and indeed
throughout the whole book.
2. Richard Willstätter, Aus meinem Leben, Ed. A. von Stoll, Weinheim Verlag
Chemie, (1958).
3. Rudolf Stern, Fritz Haber, Personal recollections, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook
8, 1, 70–102, (1969).
4. Johannes Jaenicke was a student of Haber’s during the ‘Gold from sea water’
episode of Haber’s life, (Chap. 13).
5. Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Berlin. http://www.
mpg.de/english/aboutTheSociety/.
6. Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth, MIT Press, (2001). http://mitpress.mit.udu.
ISBN-978-0-262-693134. Here, a partial biography of Haber helps to contextualise the technology of ‘fixation’. Daniel Charles, Between Genius and
Genocide, Jonathan Cape, London, (2005). ISBN-0-224-06444-4. Dietrich
Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber. Chemist, Noble Laureate, German, Jew. Chemical
Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (2004). ISBN-0-941901-24-6.
Margit Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber 1868-1934: Eine Biographie. C. H. Beck,
Munich, (1998). ISBN-3-40643548-3.
7. I have relied heavily on the authors in notes 1 and 6 for my interpretation of
Haber’s early life. I hope I have provided adequate attribution. I apologise for
any omission I may have made.
8. Today, Polish Wroclaw.
9. The family did not practise Jewish ritual however. According to Haber’s
(half) sister Else it would be a mistake to over-emphasise her brother’s
Jewishness. Christmas, for example, was more important to the family than
Yom Kippur, but the tree, presents and the Christmas lunch were the focus,
not the infant Jesus. Charles, op. cit. (note 6).
10. For example, he became an Alderman of Breslau.
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
71
1. An observation taken from J. E. Coates’ ‘Haber Memorial Lecture’. After a
brilliant career as a student at Bangor, London and Karlsruhe, followed by
distinguished service during the First World War in the Royal Naval Air
Service, J. E. Coates was called to the Chair of Chemistry at the newly
established Swansea College of the University of Wales in 1920. At
Karlsruhe, Coates was a student of Haber’s and a contemporary of Le
Rossignol, and on 29 April 1937 he delivered the Haber Memorial Lecture
before the Chemical Society (J. E. Coates, ‘The Haber Memorial Lecture’,
J. Chem. Soc., 1642–1672, (1939)). The text is available from the on-line
archive of the Royal Society of Chemistry at http://www.rsc.org. The reference to Haber’s dislike of the minutia of experimentation appears on page
1671. The paper is referred to throughout this chapter and indeed
throughout the whole book.
2. Richard Willstätter, Aus meinem Leben, Ed. A. von Stoll, Weinheim Verlag
Chemie, (1958).
3. Rudolf Stern, Fritz Haber, Personal recollections, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook
8, 1, 70–102, (1969).
4. Johannes Jaenicke was a student of Haber’s during the ‘Gold from sea water’
episode of Haber’s life, (Chap. 13).
5. Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Berlin. http://www.
mpg.de/english/aboutTheSociety/.
6. Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth, MIT Press, (2001). http://mitpress.mit.udu.
ISBN-978-0-262-693134. Here, a partial biography of Haber helps to contextualise the technology of ‘fixation’. Daniel Charles, Between Genius and
Genocide, Jonathan Cape, London, (2005). ISBN-0-224-06444-4. Dietrich
Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber. Chemist, Noble Laureate, German, Jew. Chemical
Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (2004). ISBN-0-941901-24-6.
Margit Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber 1868-1934: Eine Biographie. C. H. Beck,
Munich, (1998). ISBN-3-40643548-3.
7. I have relied heavily on the authors in notes 1 and 6 for my interpretation of
Haber’s early life. I hope I have provided adequate attribution. I apologise for
any omission I may have made.
8. Today, Polish Wroclaw.
9. The family did not practise Jewish ritual however. According to Haber’s
(half) sister Else it would be a mistake to over-emphasise her brother’s
Jewishness. Christmas, for example, was more important to the family than
Yom Kippur, but the tree, presents and the Christmas lunch were the focus,
not the infant Jesus. Charles, op. cit. (note 6).
10. For example, he became an Alderman of Breslau.
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
71