Volume 43, Number 11 · June 20, 1996
The Cabinet of Dr. Haber
By M.F. Perutz
Fritz Haber, Chemiker, Nobelpreisträger, Deutscher, Jude: Eine Biografie
by Dietrich Stoltzenberg
Weinheim and New York: VCH, 669 pp., $60.00
Der Fall Clara Immerwahr: Leben für eine humane Wissenschaft
by Gerit von Leitner
Munich: C.H. Beck, 232 pp., DM 39.80
These lines from Tony Harrison's play Square Rounds, which was recently produced in London, epitomize the ambiguous personality and career of Fritz Haber. He was a German chemist, born in 1868, famous for being the first scientist to have synthesized ammonia from the nitrogen in the air; this opened the way to the synthesis of the nitrogen fertilizers that have dramatically increased agricultural production throughout the world. He is also infamous for having introduced poison gas in the First World War.
Review, 5543 words
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