Frizt Haber - Murderer receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Throughout the history of the Nobel Prize, never before has the Council of Appraisals encountered the harsh reaction of public opinion as in 1919, when Fritz Haber, a German, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. That reaction came from Fritz Haber making poisonous Chlorine, Phosgene and Mustard gas , killing more than 100,000 Allied soldiers during World War I .

Invisible death

6 pm on April 22, 1915, a pale yellow cloud floated toward the line of the British, French and Algerian coalition in Ypres, western Belgium. Derived from the position of the German army a few hundred meters away, the cloud was nearly 2km long, carried by the winds, quickly flooding the trenches.

Almost immediately, the British, French, and Algerian soldiers, after inhaling the yellow gas, coughed and choked. A Canadian logistics soldier was lucky to escape because when he pushed the car to carry soup and bread to the trenches, he found his throat burning, his eyes teary and his head was fluttering, so he left his car to go to the back line.

Telling the military doctors, the soldier said, "I don't know what it is. It makes my lungs feel like fire and my throat is torn apart by someone. I think if I stay about 1, In 2 minutes, I might have difficulty living because I can't breathe. "

At 8:00 pm, when the yellow cloud was over, the military doctors and some soldiers came to see it. In front of their eyes, in the trenches are disordered corpses. The body of the skin is also gray, the mouth is wide open as if trying to swallow the last air. Trees around the leaves twitched, many birds happened to fly over and die. A total of nearly 6,000 soldiers in Ypres defensive position no one survived.

French military doctor Alain Courster wrote in his diary: "This is the first toxic gas attack, caused by the Germans during World War I. It caused the victim to die from suffocation and it was invisible death ".

Previously, under the Hague Convention, signed in 1899 by the countries of England, France, Germany and Russia, the use of "suffocation gas" was completely banned but when World War I broke out, the convention it has been ignored that in the beginning is Germany, in which the father of that invisible weapon is Fritz Haber , a brilliant German chemist, a close friend of the scientist.

Haber himself was the one who directed the poison gas attack at Ypres on April 22, 1915. By compressing 150 tons of Chlorine gas into 6,000 barrels. When the wind began to blow hard toward the Allies, Haber gave the soldiers - who had been wearing a gas mask also built by Haber - opened the box, and the result was exactly as Haber had calculated.

Fritz Haber (left) and Fritz Haber study to make toxic gas chlorine.

Born on December 9, 1868 in Bresau, Prussia, Haber graduated from natural chemistry at Heidenberg University and Berlin University. One of Haber's most important inventions is the synthesis of ammonia (the main component of chemical fertilizers) from air and hydrogen by high temperature and pressure.

Before that, in order to have ammonia, most fertilizer manufacturers in the world had to buy nitrate materials from Chile. In 1925, Chile's nitrate output was 2.5 million tons, sold at US $ 45 / ton, after Haber synthesized ammonia and then massively produced it, Chile's nitrate export figure was only 800,000 tons and prices also dropped to 19USD / ton.

According to agricultural experts, Haber's invention prevented the starvation of billions of people because of the source of grain and vegetables of half the world's population based on chemical fertilizers. They call Haber's ammonia "bread from the air".

Crime in white robes

In 1914, World War I broke out. Very quickly, Haber and 92 famous German scientists, scholars and writers signed the so-called "Declaration 93" , which supported the war against Britain, France and Russia. .

By his knowledge, Haber turned from agricultural nitrate to the production of trinitrat glycerin explosives, and German ammonia plants ran at full capacity. According to historians, Germany will run out of bombs in just two years without relying on Haber's invention.

At the end of 1914, when the war began to increase with increasing intensity, Haber suggested that Germany should have weapons of mass destruction but not much cost in production, and that weapon only may be toxic gas. It will break the German deadlock on the Western front.

At first, when he presented this opinion to the German Army Advisory Council, some generals protested because they did not believe it could kill very quickly at the same time thousands of people. However, according to Haber: "It is completely possible, and hundreds of thousands of our soldiers will return home because chemical weapons help end the war faster .".

Fritz Haber (pointing) and German officers with the first batch of chlorine gas.

In early 1915, the German army established two chemical units. Under Haber's guidance, soldiers in the unit learned how to use chlorine containers and then Phosgene and Mustard gas. They also learn first aid if they accidentally inhale. Haber's first "victory" was nearly 6,000 soldiers in the Ypres defensive position on April 22, 1915, no one survived.

Haber's actions caused him to be accused of war crimes by both England and France. They called Haber the "Death Doctor" and the Germans honored Haber as "Father of Chemical Warfare". In Haber's office, there was a photo of a cloud of chlorine gas with the words: "I just wanted to make my limit."

After information about the chlorine gas attack in Ypres spread on newspapers and radio stations, Clara Immerwahr, wife Haber and also a talented chemist, had heated disputes. with her husband morally right in the party held at her home, congratulated Haber on being promoted to Director of the Institute of Chemistry.

According to those present at the party, Clara Immerwahr loudly said: "Mass murder with poison gas is the most cruel and terrible crime among crimes. It is barbaric behavior, breaking. "All the rules of life. It caused the world order to turn upside down. Things that my husband does are nothing to be proud of, if not disgraceful."

However, Haber was determined to defend his position by telling his wife: "Time, scientists belong to mankind but during the war, they belong to their country." Desperate, in early May 1915, just over a week after the Chlorine gas attack in Ypres, Clara committed suicide by using Haber's shotgun, shooting it in the head. When Clara's 13-year-old son saw her mother lying on her stomach in a pool of blood, she was dying.

Despite his wife's death, Haber remained calm with his research on new chemical weapons. By August, Phosgene gas was put into use on the Western front, killing 1,500 Allies in just 40 minutes. In retaliation, the Allies also rushed into the race to produce poison gas against German soldiers. Until World War I ended with the surrender of the Germans, there were more than 100,000 soldiers on both sides died of Chlorine gas, Phosgene gas and Mustard gas.

Nobel Prize for murderers

At 11:00 am on 11/11/1918, the ceasefire command went into effect. World War 1 ended, Germany surrendered. Hearing that he will be arrested for war crimes, Haber fled to Switzerland but a few months later, he returned to Germany because of "unfounded rumors".

In November 1919, Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on synthesis of ammonia. The decision of the Nobel Council caused endless controversy about Haber's role in World War I, even two French scientists who received the Nobel Prize refused to honor it to oppose Haber.

They declared: "By awarding the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to a serial killer, the Nobel Prize has lost its morality and honor to those who receive it .".

After the war, still a German lover, Haber continued to support his homeland by studying gold from the sea - a work he hoped would help Germany pay off its debts. However, the study failed because the cost to recover once gold from the sea, can buy 3 times gold in the market.

The photo shows the cloud of chlorine poison in Haber's office.

In 1933, Hitler became prime minister of Nazi Germany. Later that year the dictator issued a law, the content does not allow any Jew to work in state agencies or civil organizations. And although Haber was Jewish, he was exempted from "victories" in World War I. Haber, however, anticipated his fate so he resigned from the Director of the Institute of Chemistry and went to Switzerland.

For a few months, this neutral state advised Haber to leave quickly because they did not guarantee that the relatives of those who died because of the poison gas in World War I would not retaliate!

In the final days of his life, Haber wandered across Europe to find work, but he was shunned and refused. In 1934 Haber died of heart failure in a public toilet. When World War II broke out, Nazi Germany once again relied on Haber's research on chemical weapons to produce Zyklon B gas - the infamous gas used in concentration camps, to kill died 11 million Jews.

Years after Haber died, his name continued to be controversial in the scientific world. Some scientists argue that Haber's "synthetic ammonia invention saved hundreds of millions of people out of hunger by providing the world with an abundant fertilizer production technology" , on the contrary, many scientists. He called Haber "a hero and also a murderer who demonstrated his ability to nourish life while also destroying life".

Even Haber's close friend, the famous Albert Einstein scientist, the father of "Relativism," also said: "Haber's life is a tragedy. He is not simply a German, he is. He has both a saint and a demon, and he is creative and destructive, and when he holds millions of German markings, he rejoices at the painful death of hundreds of thousands of people. He lives rich and luxurious but dies alone in the isolation of humanity. History has no way to easily judge his sins and contributions . ".

Today, it is estimated that Haber's ammonia synthesis process continues to supply nitrogen as fertilizer to more than half of the world's crops, but that still does not erase the nickname "Dr. Death." ".