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Quite possibly, it was this kindly way in which he presented himself that may have enticed many
scholars and researchers to attend his institute, hence enabling the institute to enter into this period of
productiveness. Haber has often also been described as a generous and encouraging instructor, while still
maintaining “full intellectual control over the whole enterprise (the institute).”
5
His scientific work and his acclaim as a scientist reached far out of Germany. He worked tirelessly
towards the end of his life to strengthen the relationship not only between the state and the scientific community,
but also between Germany and her fellow nations. A few years earlier, in 1923, Haber had described the bond
between society, the state, and science when stating:
This social state [the Weimar Republic], which the revolution set up in the place of the previous
one, this state, whose whole existence affirms the claims of the broad working class for a higher
quality of life and that sees as just compensation for the unheard-of achievements of the people
during the war that it should give equal opportunities for improvement to those with equal
abilities and provide its support to all those in need, such a state is an extraordinarily costly one.
Tormented from the outside for reparations and pressured by internal demands that it must fulfill
if it is not to quit, it must make constant advances in its modes of operation and activities, and it
can achieve that only through advances in the sciences.
6
Creating strong international bonds seems to become more of a priority to Haber beginning at the end of
1924, when and his wife, Charlotte Nathan, travelled to Japan. There they were received by Hajime Hoshi and
Wilhelm Solf (Hoshi was a Japanese industrialist and businessman, who from 1920-21 donated about 160,000
gold marks to Solf for the promotion of the sciences in Germany. Solf then gave the donation to the Foreign
Office in Berlin. Around this time, Hoshi also visited Berlin and while there invited Haber to visit Japan.) It was
on this trip that Haber first began to realize the potential that lay in the countries of the Far East. Once he
returned to Berlin, he expressed his new thoughts when saying, “Just as it is sure that at present the world‟s
center of gravity lies in the United States, so I am certain that the future of world development lies on the shores
of the Pacific.”
7
For this reason, Haber thought it prudent for Germany to create a bond, both technical and
economic with Japan.
Haber decided that a German-Japanese cultural institute would be the best way to help people
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understand Japanese culture, and therefore be more open to technical collaborations. Over the next several years
he worked with Solf to make this idea a reality. Then from March to May 1925 he met with representatives from
the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the ministries to present his idea. Haber was successful in this venture and on
December 4, 1926, the Japanese Institute officially opened in Berlin. The next year, a parallel institute was
opened in Tokyo. This work with the Japanese would prove to be quite beneficial to Haber in only a few years,
when Hitler gained power. (Haber would decided that he must leave Germany and would then be invited back to
Japan. At this point though, he was too ill to make such a journey.)
8
Hitler‟s rise to power seems to correlate with Haber‟s own demise. In a letter to his son, Haber stated,
bitterly, that Hitler‟s National Social Party had gained “a few millions” in campaign funding. So when, in the
1932 election, the Nazis became the single largest party in Germany, Haber must have felt some sense of an
impending crisis. The Nazi party had already been affecting Haber‟s life for some time. For the last few months,
he would have been a witness to the increased hostility amongst those around him. In fact, employees who were
National Socialists had begun throwing accusations at their co-workers, accusing them of communist activities.
Yet even with all this going on, it is doubtful that Haber fully understood how far and how fast the Nazi‟s would
turn against those of Jewish heritage.
In early 1933, Haber expressed the growing depression that the
situation around him, the increasing anti-
Semitic feelings, was causing. “I have to learn not to read the newspaper. It depresses me, because I see a view
of life and the world taking over that is completely at odds with the thinking to which I‟m accustomed.”
9
His
worst fears were soon to be confirmed, when on April 7, 1933, when the Law for the Restoration for the Civil
Service became effective. Haber‟s own institute was a specific target of this, for in the Zeitschrift für die
Gesamte Naturwissenschaft (the science newspaper for the national student body), students published one of the
new Nazi slogans, which said: “The founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes In Dahlem was the prelude to an
influx of Jews into the physical sciences. The directorship of the Kaiser Institute for Physics and
Electrochemistry was given to the Jew F. Haber, the nephew of the big-time Jewish profiteer Koppel. The work
was reserved almost exclusively for Jews.”
10
Having once worked tirelessly as an advocate
of the German nation,
continuously trying to strengthen her both her internal and international standings, to now be singled-out and
regarded as nothing more than a Jew must have broken Haber‟s heart.