(Warning: Graphic description ahead)
"Haber-Bosch, the great alliance
Where’s the contradiction?
Fed the world by ways of science
Sinner or a saint?"
-"Father" performed by Sabaton, 2022
It has been said that every human that ever lived has two sides of themselves. One is for public consumption to be explored and analyzed, the other is reserved for themselves, far away from the preying eyes of the masses. But never in history has a man is known both as a saving grace of humanity, and a cold-blooded monster responsible for millions of lives lost during a conflict. And as the words above have stated, he can be viewed either as a sinner or a saint.
Since the end of the Renaissance era, scientific breakthroughs have been used to the advantage of mankind, agriculture is one of them. Two German scientists instantly came up to mind when it comes to this, thanks to the Haber-Bosch process. As the name suggests, one of the responsible scientists was the man named Fritz Haber. The Breslau, Prussia (present day Wrocław, Poland) native was born into a well-off Jewish family on the 9th of December 1868. Upon young Fritz being brought into the world, he lost his mother exactly three weeks after childbirth; his parents are first cousins as well. As a result, Fritz never experienced paternal love from his own dad, and consequently grew close to his stepmother and his three stepsisters. Despite his family's deep religious background, that of Judaism, The Haber family are fully assimilated to the German society; Fritz himself even identified more as German than a Jewish.
The young Fritz Haber was always interested in chemistry, so much so, his father eventually sent him to Berlin to attend Humboldt University. Felling dissatisfied with his winter semester, he switched to Heidelberg University for his summer semester, and eventually earned his degree from the Technical University of Berlin. But this is also costing his familial relationship with his father, whom, after working together, decided that he and his son were not suited to work together. Siegfried Haber even noted that Fritz never belonged to the business world.
Eventually, Haber began his academic career at the University of Jena, working as an assistant to fellow chemist Ludwig Knorr. His tenure with Knorr ended up beneficial to Haber's career down the line, as he was recommended by Knorr to Carl Engler of the University of Karlsruhe. From Engler, came Hans Bunte, who advised Haber to study hydrocarbons as part of his thesis. There are many areas of chemistry that involved Haber over the years, but it was his collaboration study with Carl Bosch, about the use of ammonia and its role as synthetic fertilizers that made his name a legend among chemists, even earning him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. The process, known as the Haber-Bosch process, sought to convert ammonia and from the catalyst process were to be used as fertilizers. Their reasoning being the speed of the crops to grow were too slow, whilst population kept on increasing.
But with this man, there was a dichotomy. During his lifetime, World War 1 erupted as a result of several diplomatic tensions in the back of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Haber, along with 92 other German intellectuals, formed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, to support the German Empire's war efforts. And low and behold, Haber's work on ammonia was weaponized as chlorine gas to be used by German troops on the Western Front. He actually helped develop the non-ballistic use of chemical warfare, a fairly new technology at the time. It was first deployed on the Second Battle of Ypres, fought on 22 April to 25 May 1915 against the French. It was also this type of weapon responsible for the grisliest battle in the history of the first world war, the Osowiec Fortress Offensive, otherwise known as "The Attack of the Dead Men", where heavily gassed Russian soldiers managed to deal a heavy blow to the German army despite their near-death condition, with bloody rags, pieces of damaged lung being spit out, and damaged skin and other soft tissues.
Granted, the use of Haber's gas weapons was heavily criticized when he was announced as the recipient of the Nobel Prize, citing his involvement during prior war. Hell, one of the critics was his own friend Albert Einstein. And this is not limited to his academic career either. Haber was married twice, first to Clara Immerwahr and had a son, Hermann, and to Charlotte Nathan, fathering two more children, a daughter, and a son. His first marriage with Clara also full of turbulence. Clara Haber was known as a pacifist and opposed his involvement in the war. She committed suicide by shooting her won heart with a revolver after a nasty argument with Fritz. His second marriage with Charlotte didn't end well either, although there was no blood spilled from either party.
During the last years of his life, with the rise of the National Socialist Movement (subsequently known as the Nazi Party), Haber traveled extensively, having spent his time briefly in France, Spain, and Switzerland. Fritz Haber died in Basel, Switzerland on 29 January 1934 at the age of 65, after his health failing significantly over the last two years of his life due to angina attacks, which is a common symptom of coronary heart disease. Per his last wishes, Fritz Haber's remains were cremated and reunited with his first wife's ashes and buried at Hörnli Cemetery in Basel 29 September 1934.
Fritz Haber's tale is like two sides of the same coin, each with its own dichotomy. On one side, he was a hero of the chemistry and agricultural world, responsible for the creation of synthetic fertilizers used to grow crops, and subsequently fed the entire world. But on the other side, Fritz Haber was a monster capable of evil by developing the same creation, but as a devastating weapon used by the Germans during the Great War. He was, and always be the most polarizing figure ever lived, and normally, I want nothing to do with this man, but the story is so fascinating, I can't help but to dissect this man. Even if it means uncovering more of his heinous underbelly beyond his legacy as the one who fed the world.
"Father of toxic gas, and chemical warfare
His dark creation has been revealed
Flow over no man's land, a poisonous nightmare
A deadly mist on the battlefield!"
"During times when there's peace he belonged to the world
During times when there's war he belonged to his place of birth."
-"Father", performed by Sabaton, 2022
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