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was a teenager when the marriage occurred, and he was always a strain on the relationship. As she wrote,
“My husband and I had our first disagreement about him after only two months of marriage. And
our last disagreement was also about Hermann. Between them lay countless frictions. This wore
down the bond of our marriage to the point that it finally tore…. All my efforts to reach a mutual
understanding with Hermann were unsuccessful. Certainly it was partly due to me. I could not give
him enough goodness and love. Jealousy over the father and the husband gnawed at both of us.”
6
One interpretation of this passage is that Haber often took his son‟s side over his wife‟s side, even at times when
it would have been advantageous for both parents to be united against the child. Charlotte even referred to the
relationship between Hermann and his father as “mental adultery”
7
. Considering this, the fact that Charlotte and
Hermann were constantly fighting over Haber, it‟s no surprise that the relationship that could be severed
eventually was.
What could the source of this somewhat unnatural relationship have been? It‟s true that Haber and his
son had many disagreements in their lives. For instance, Hermann wished to study law, but Haber convinced him
to study chemistry instead. Disagreements are an inevitable part of any parent-child relationship, yes, but that
specific one is particularly telling when considered in the greater context of Hermann and Haber‟s relationship.
Haber‟s possible refusal to side with his wife, which at first might seem contradictory to the father-son
relationship, follows the same path of logic.
As has been previously stated, Haber‟s first wife and Hermann‟s mother, Clara Immerwahr, killed
herself with Haber‟s service pistol on the night of May 1, 1915. Hermann found her covered in blood, and stayed
with her until she died. Haber left the next day, as he had to return to the front. The case has also previously been
made that Clara‟s suicide was partly the result of Haber‟s actions during the war and her opposition to them. The
party which took place the night of her death was in celebration of his promotion to the rank of captain; this
would have seemed to her like the nail in the proverbial coffin, the place from which there could be no turning
back. This would have been very clear to Haber.
Given these facts, one might suspect that Haber‟s possible preferential treatment of his son over his
second wife was a direct result of Clara‟s death. Haber might have decided that because it was his actions which
drove Clara to suicide, it was his fault that Hermann found Clara as she was dying, and his fault that Hermann no
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longer had his mother. After deciding this, it would have been a very short logical leap to the idea that he would
never do anything to wrong his son for the rest of his life if he could help it. The insistence upon chemistry as a
field of study can be attributed to the fact that Haber believed chemistry would be a better path in life than law
for his son. The reason that Haber sided with Hermann is equally as obvious: it would be easy to wrongly
assume that never doing anything wrong by his son meant that the two would never disagree.
Haber and Charlotte never spoke of what he did during the war, or the consequences which followed.
However, as we have discussed, his relationship with her and its eventual downfall was nonetheless indicative of
his feelings regarding his actions. Had he not regretted what he did, he would not have fostered a relationship
with his son which was perhaps unusual and unhealthy. If Haber and Charlotte had not been torn apart by
Hermann, it‟s possible that the marriage would have lasted, but is rather unlikely.
It is worth noting that examining the relationships Haber had with his wives shows a lesser-known side
of the man. It has been shown that Haber‟s friends and colleagues thought the world of him, as it were; they
clearly saw a good side of Haber. In private, however, Haber was a domineering, overbearing man, particular
about every aspect of life, and completely single-minded. Would he come to regret this, at the end of his life?
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Notes
1.
Charles, Daniel. Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the
Age of Chemical Warfare. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005, p.179.
2.
Stoltzenberg, Dietrich. Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew. Philadelphia, PA:
Chemical Heritage Press, 2004, p.185-186.
3.
Ibid, p.186.
4.
Goran, Morris. The Story of Fritz Haber. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967, pp.122-
123.
5.
Charles, Master Mind, 210-211.
6.
Stoltzenberg, Chemist, Nobel Laureate, 178.
7.
Ibid, 179.
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The Final Years: “The Tragedy of the German Jew”
1
1926-1934
By 1926, Fritz Haber‟s health was rapidly deteriorating. Having given up his work dealing with
chemical weaponry research and manufacturing, he turned his attention to “more general scientific themes”.
2
Although he could no longer spend all his energy at the institute, for he had accepted a variety of public
responsibilities, he was a large part in the bringing about of a sort of golden age at the institute.
Complaining that he felt as if he was “living underneath a boulder,” constantly plagued by his poor
health, Haber somehow found the strength to appear and act normally in front of his colleagues. One example of
this act that Haber performed is recounted by Rudolf Stern, who explains how he once had accompanied Haber
to a formal dinner. Haber was clearly very weak and depressed, feelings not eased by the fact that Finance
Minister Rudolf Hilferding and Hjalmar Schacht (president of the central bank) were not only attending the
dinner as well, but were seated at his table together. This arrangement created much tension because Schacht
would soon lead Hitler‟s economic ministry and had just recently harassed Hilferding in the press. Yet,
somehow, despite his physical pain, Haber “rose to the occasion like an old war horse which hears the drums of
battle. For two hours, he treated [his dining companions] to a choice sampling of his famous anecdotes with such
an irresistible charm that even Hilferding and Schacht could not help laughing and forgetting the dire facts and
politics.”
3
Many who knew Haber during this period of time do not recollect on the fact that he was so sick, they
most often exclaim how wonderfully quick-witted and clever he was. His coworker in Dahlem, James Frank,
once said that:
[Haber] simply could react incredibly quickly. With him, there were none of those things you
call „stairway jokes‟; Haber always knew what to say right away in the room, not later on the
stairs. I‟ve known even greater intellects – Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. But I knew no one
like Haber. This combination of – I‟m tempted to say provocative – quickness in assessing a
situation, along with good-heartedness and understanding, was quite remarkable.
4
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