One Hundred Years of the Fritz Haber Institute

Abstract

We outline the institutional history and highlight aspects of the scientific history of the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) of the Max Planck Society, successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, from its founding in 1911 until about the turn of the 21st century. Established as one of the first two Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the Institute began as a much‐awaited remedy for what prominent German chemists warned was the waning of Germany’s scientific and technological superiority relative to the United States and to other European nations. The history of the Institute has largely paralleled that of 20th century Germany. It spearheaded the research and development of chemical weapons during World War I, then experienced a “golden era” during the 1920s and early 1930s, in spite of financial hardships. Under the National Socialists it suffered a purge of its scientific staff and a diversion of its research into the service of the new regime, accompanied by a breakdown in its international relations. In the immediate aftermath of World War II it suffered crippling material losses, from which it recovered slowly in the postwar era. In 1952, the Institute took the name of its founding director and the following year joined the fledgling Max Planck Society, successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Institute supported diverse research into the structure of matter and electron microscopy in its geographically isolated and politically precarious location in West Berlin. In subsequent decades, as Berlin benefited from the policies of détente and later glasnost and the Max Planck Society continued to reassess its preferred model of a research institute, the FHI reorganized around a board of coequal scientific directors and renewed its focus on the investigation of elementary processes on surfaces and interfaces, topics of research that had been central to the work of Fritz Haber and the first “golden era” of the Institute. Throughout its one‐hundred‐year history, the Institute’s pace‐setting research has been shaped by dozens of distinguished scientists, among them seven Nobel laureates. Here we highlight the contributions made at the Institute to the fields of gas‐phase kinetics and dynamics, early quantum physics, colloid chemistry, electron microscopy, and surface chemistry, and we give an account of the key role the Institute played in implementing the Berlin Electron Synchrotron (BESSY I and II). Current research at the Institute in surface science and catalysis as well as molecular physics and spectroscopy is exemplified in this issue [Angew. Chem. 2011, 123, 10242; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 10064].

One Hundred Years of the Max‐Planck‐Institut für Kohlenforschung

“…Most recently, the direction of this Institute took yet another turn to become the MPI CEC, with Robert Schlögl of the Fritz Haber Institute4 as provisional founding Director. Together with Wolfgang Lubitz and Frank Neese, he forms the board of directors of the new MPI CEC, the mission being the exploration of the basic physical and chemical phenomena underlying chemical energy conversion processes.…”

“…In the group of KWG founding fathers, several personalities were internationally renowned scientists active in basic research, including Emil Fischer (Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1902) 1. Within a short time the first three Institutes were established in Berlin, including the Kaiser‐Wilhelm‐Institute for Physical Chemistry headed by Fritz Haber 4…”

125 Jahre Chemie im Spiegel der “Angewandten”

“…Der Abschwung der Zeitschrift im ersten Weltkrieg war anfangs vor allem durch die Zensur bedingt, da viele technische und industrielle Betriebe und auch die Institute der 1911 gegründeten Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, wie das von Haber geleitete Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (das heutige Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft), [47] kriegsrelevante Forschung und Entwicklung betrieben. Mit fortwährender Kriegsdauer wurden auch immer mehr Forscher eingezogen, und so kamen den Forschungseinrichtungen zunehmend die Belegschaften abhanden.…”

125 Years of Chemistry in the Mirror of “Angewandte”

“…The downturn of the journal in the First World War was initially mainly a consequence of censorship, as many technical and industrial companies, as well as the institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (founded in 1911), such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physical Chemistry directed by Haber (now the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society), [47] were engaged in research and development relevant to the war. As the war continued, more researchers were also drafted, and thus research institutes lost more and more staff.…”