Day of Women and Girls in Science – Clara Immerwahr-Haber

It is evening, May 1, 1915. A celebration is underway at the Haber house. Fritz, head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin, is celebrating another success and another dream fulfilled: promotion to the rank of captain – “instantaneously, disregarding the procedures in force – in appreciation of special services to the Vaterland.”

Barely two weeks earlier, on April 22, 1915, the German 35th regiment of sappers ( made up of chemists) had “successfully” carried out a battle gas attack at Ypres. A cloud of chlorine gas was released from around 6,000 gas cylinders dug into the ground on Haber’s command at the front line. The yellow-green death borne by the wind towards the enemy position reached six kilometers wide, causing widespread panic in the ranks of the unaware Entente soldiers. The attack claimed approximately six thousand civilian lives, largely Canadian soldiers. Haber returned to Berlin as a national hero.

This triumph is the beginning of the end of Clara. There is a severe quarrel between the couple. Clara threatens that if Fritz does not stop his work on war gases, she will commit suicide. In response, he accuses her of “betraying the fatherland.” Clara carries out her threat. On May 2, early in the morning, she steals her husband’s service weapon and goes to the garden. She fires the first shot in the air, and the second – aimed at the chest – proves fatal…

On May 8, 1915, a short note about Clara’s tragic death appears in the local press: “By shooting herself, the wife of the secret government counselor Dr. H. in Dahlem, who is currently at the front, took her own life. The reasons for the death of this unfortunate woman remain unknown.” On the day of his wife’s death, Fritz leaves Berlin for the eastern front, near Bolimów. He oversees preparations for another attack with the use of lethal gas weapons, this time on the Bzura and Rawka rivers against the Russian army (May 31 and June 12, 1915). He is accompanied by Max Wild, a German intelligence officer “assigned specifically to protect him.” Wild takes precise notes of the process of the attack and his conversation with Haber. “After taking a comfortable position to observe the attack, I asked the professor if he didn’t think it was deeply inhumane to attack people in this way. To this, the professor answered me in a serious but slightly indulgent tone: you are right from your point of view. But in this war that the entire world is involved in, moral scruples do not count. We cannot act any differently if we want to save our people.” After the gas cloud passed, German infantry moved on to the Russian positions, which were frozen in silence. The soldiers were followed by Haber, guarded by Wild. Wild wrote: “What I saw, walking, was the sum total of horror that baffled human imagination. People struggling in fatal battle crawled on all fours and tore at their clothing as if in madness.[…] The wheezing, poisoned breaths spoke of the immeasurable agony of the dying. […] On the road ahead, we saw the horror of gas death in an even more horrific form. Nowhere a breath of life. Dead officers, and dead soldiers, lay huddled together one next to the other. The agony of suffering was frozen in their faces.” Moved German soldiers tried to help the Russians. Wild recalled: “It wasn’t an assault, but compassion and help for a disgracefully treated enemy, for a tormented man. Such acts of pity were the only thing that kept them from doubting humanity on that day.” And what was Haber’s reaction? Unmoved, he roamed the battlefield, looking for examples to support his theories. “The deaths of hundreds of Russians made little impression on Haber,” Wild noted.

Clara Immerwahr

Clara Immerwahr is born on June 21, 1870, in the village of Polkendorf, near Wrocław, to a wealthy Jewish family, as the youngest of four children. Her father Philipp is a doctor of chemistry, and her grandfather David a well-known merchant. Clara begins to show interest in science quite early. When her sisters plan to marry, she wants, like her brother, to study at the university. Unfortunately, she has to settle for a teachers’ seminary – the only alternative in the social conditions of the time for girls who want to continue their education in order to gain as much economic independence as possible. When the German University of Breslau allows women to attend lectures as free listeners in the mid-1890s, 26-year-old Clara immediately seizes the opportunity. She gains permission from the lecturers to attend classes that interest her and passes a difficult test that opens the way to her future academic career. Despite the reluctance of the academic staff and the mockery and jokes of her fellow students, she persists on her way to turning her dreams into reality.

Clara’s situation changes when Professor Richard Abegg, who specializes in physical chemistry, arrives in Wrocław. Only a year older than her, the scientist treats her without prejudice, and with respect, encourages her to undertake research on the issue of the solubility of heavy metal salts, helps her prepare a publication, and he also becomes the supervisor of her doctoral thesis. The dissertation entitled “Contributions to the determination of the solubility of the hardly soluble salts of mercury, copper, lead, cadmium, and zinc,” Clara defends on December 22, 1900 – as the first woman in the history of the University of Wrocław. She receives the highest possible grade magna cum laude. The event is even reported in the Breslauer Zeitung, quoting the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Professor Kaufmann, as saying that “Miss Clara Immerwahr, who achieved her goal despite enormous obstacles, is clear proof that anyone regardless of gender, religion, race or nationality can be a scientist.”

The reality, however, is slightly different. Clara starts working as a lab technician for her supervisor – the only position she can hope for at the university, despite her high qualifications. She conducts lectures for women on the use of chemistry and physics in the household and participates in academic discussions and panels on several occasions.

Marriage to Fritz Haber, or a slippery slope

In April 1901, Clara travels with her supervisor to Freiburg for the congress of the German Electrochemical Society. There she meets again her teenage love from her dance lessons – Fritz Haber – now a well-known and respected researcher and professor of chemistry at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Fritz, who has asked for her hand before, renews his efforts. Clara hesitates, delays her answer for a long time, but finally agrees. Why? Perhaps she is afraid of loneliness, the stereotype of an “old maid,” or perhaps she does not want to give up her role as a wife and mother. In France, the Curie couple successfully reconciles family life with a scientific career. Why should it be different with them… However, when suffragettes in France are moving to the barricades and “taking the universities by storm,” women in Germany are not yet challenging the traditional role assigned to them in society, at least not openly, in public.

“The Habers are most likely the first married couple of scientists in Germany. And indeed, the beginning of their life together does not foretell a tragic ending. Both of them fulfill themselves scientifically. However, when their first and only child – son Hermann – is born a year after their marriage, Fritz completely loses interest in his wife’s work-related needs. He expects her to sacrifice herself, like an exemplary German woman, to raise his ill son and run the house. Focused on his own career, he spends less and less time with his family and refuses to involve his wife in his research, graciously allowing her only to translate his articles into English. At about the same time, in 1903 Marie Curie-Skłodowska receives her first Nobel Prize with her husband for her research on radioactivity. The Curie spouses, however, work closely together scientifically from the beginning, and when Pierre gets a full-time lecturer position at the Sorbonne, Marie becomes head of research in his laboratory. For Clara, this must have been a painful comparison. Soon Haber and Carl Bosch develop a method for synthesizing ammonia, then work to implement the technology on an industrial scale (Haber is awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918 for this invention). In 1913, the production of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen from the atmosphere begins at a plant in Ludwigshafen, built by BASF. The press writes that Haber “made bread out of the air.” His career is flourishing, he possesses money, fame, and honors. Clara is still trying to continue lectures for women, but she is increasingly confronted with the opinion that the author of the lectures is her famous husband. Haber becomes more and more closely associated with the industry, seeming to forget that it is extremely important for a scientist to decide whom to work for. Clara recognizes this and is afraid of these associations. After all, she remembers the words of her own vow: “Never in speech or writing preach what is against my beliefs. Strive for the truth and elevate science to the height of dignity it deserves. For the evil lies not in the truth of discovery but in the unethical use of that discovery” [Prof. Vetulani].

When World War I begins, Fritz begins work on behalf of the German General Staff on the use of chemistry for the needs of the army – on a volunteer basis, according to the maxim he adheres to, that in time of peace, he serves humanity and in time of war he serves his homeland. He begins research on war gases. Clara openly condemns her husband’s work. She considers the production of chemical weapons a “perversion of science,” a distortion of her ideals. “If you were really a happy person, you couldn’t do this”. – she repeats to her husband. The conflict between them grows, and their paths diverge.

In April 1915, under the personal supervision of Fritz Haber, the 35th sapper regiment delivers 150 tons of liquid chlorine in steel cylinders to the front in the Ypres area, which are then set in the trenches and prepared for use exactly according to his instructions. On April 22, 1915, German soldiers unscrew the valves of the cylinders. The gas released from them, which is heavier than air, reaches first those who try to protect themselves in the trenches and natural depressions of the area. After a “successful” attack, Haber personally tests the effectiveness of chlorine under military conditions, observes the reactions of the dying, and methodically takes notes. When he returns home in the glory of a national hero, with the rank of captain, Clara already knows about the great number of those poisoned at Ypres. Fritz proudly marches around in his new uniform during the dinner party, celebrating his success. When the guests leave, Clara goes to her room and writes farewell letters. She protests in the ultimate and most eloquent way. She becomes one of the many thousands of victims of the gas war conducted by her own husband.

Marta Kuc

Footnotes:

1. Quoted by: M. Urbanek, Żona Doktora Śmierć, [w:] „Wysokie Obcasy”, dodatek do „Gazety Wyborczej”, 11.01.2009.
2. Quoted by: J. Hrytek-Hryciuk, Życie nie całkiem udane. Clara Immerwahr-Haber (1870–1915), quarterly magazine„Pamięć i Przyszłość”, no. 17 (3/12).

Literature:

1. Gerit v. Leitner, Der Fall Clara Immerwahr: Leben für eine humane Wissenschaft , [extracts].
2. M. Urbanek, Żona Doktora Śmierć [in:] „Wysokie Obcasy”, dodatek do „Gazety Wyborczej”, 11.01.2009.
3. J. Hytrek-Hryciuk, Życie nie całkiem udane. Clara Immerwahr-Haber (1870–1915), quarterly magazine „Pamięć i Przyszłość”, no. 17 (3/12).
4. P. Rozdżestwieński, M. Wojewoda, Bzura Rawka 1914–1915, Sochaczew 2013.
5. M. Dunikowska, L. Turko, Fritz Haber – ein verfemter Gelehrter, Angew. Chem. 2011, 123, 10226–10240.
6. Canada.com
7. Quotes from Max Wild’s statement are taken from the website Dobroni.pl

The author would like to thank Mr Paweł Rozdżestwieński for his valuable factual assistance on issues relating to military action with gas weapons.

This article originally appeared in „Przegląd Uniwersytecki” no. 3/2015 (208), p. 26–28 on the occasion of the centenary of Clara Immerwahr-Haber’s death.

Translated by Paulina Rześniowiecka (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.