We examine the life of Clara Haber, nee Immerwahr (1870–1915), including her tragic suicide and its possible relation to the involvement of her husband, Fritz Haber, in chemical warfare. Clara earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Breslau, in 1900, as the first woman ever, and married the physical chemist Fritz Haber within a year of her graduation. With no employment available for female scientists, Clara freelanced as an instructor in the continued education of women, mainly housewives, while struggling not to become a housewife herself. Her duties as the designated head of a posh household hardly brought fulfillment to her life. The outbreak of WWI further exacerbated the situation, as Fritz Haber applied himself in extraordinary ways to aid the German war effort, which included his initiative to develop chemical weapons. The night that he celebrated the “success” of the first chlorine cloud attack and his promotion to the rank of captain, Clara committed suicide. However, we found little evidence to support express claims that Clara was an outspoken pacifist who took her life because of her disapproval of her husband’s engagement in chemical warfare. We examine the origin of this “myth of Clara Immerwahr” that took root in the 1990s from the perspective offered by the available scholarly sources, including those that have only recently come to light.
...MoreBook Bretislav Friedrich; Dieter Hoffmann; Jürgen Renn; Florian Schmaltz; Martin Wolf (2017) One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences.
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Baeyer, Adolf von;
Zott, Regine;
Ostwald, Wilhelm;
Abegg, R.;
(2002)
Gelehrte im für und wider: Briefwechsel zwischen Adolf v. Baeyer und Wilhelm Ostwald (mit Briefen von und an Victor Meyer) sowie: Briefwechsel zwischen Wilhelm Ostwald und Richard Abegg (mit Briefen oder Briefausschnitten von Fritz Haber und Clara Immerwahr sowie an Svante Arrhenius)
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Charles, Daniel;
(2005)
Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare
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Article
Ivan Martines;
(2021)
Ciência e Ética: Fritz Haber e a Guerra Química
(/isis/citation/CBB356289667/)
Chapter
Wolfgang U. Eckart;
(2017)
The Soldier’s Body in Gas Warfare: Trauma, Illness, Rentennot, 1915–1933
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Palló, Gábor;
(2010)
The Advantage and Disadvantage of Peripheral Ignorance: The Gas Adsorption Controversy
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Deri Sheppard;
(2017)
Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976: Engineer of the ‘Haber’ Process
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Evans, Rob;
(2001)
Gassed: British Chemical Warfare Experiments on Humans at Porton Down
(/isis/citation/CBB000410848/)
Article
Ede, Andrew;
(2002)
The Natural Defense of a Scientific People: The Public Debate over Chemical Warfare in Post-WWI America
(/isis/citation/CBB000740542/)
Book
Johnson, Jeffrey Allan;
MacLeod, Roy M.;
(2006)
Frontline and Factory: Comparative Perspectives on the Chemical Industry at War, 1914--1924
(/isis/citation/CBB000774356/)
Chapter
Steffen Bruendel;
(2020)
Chemistry as a Weapon, Biology as an Argument: Professional Expertise and Intellectual Interventions of Fritz Haber and Georg Friedrich Nicolai in World War I
(/isis/citation/CBB227056644/)
Article
Vilensky, Joel A.;
Sinish, Pandy R.;
(2006)
Blisters as Weapons of War: The Vesicants of World War I
(/isis/citation/CBB000741392/)
Book
Stoltzenberg, Dietrich;
(2002)
Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew
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Mauskopf, Seymour H.;
(2014)
Alfred Nobel, “Creative Bricoleur” Who Invented a Smokeless Military Powder (Ballistite)
(/isis/citation/CBB001510089/)
Chapter
Johannes Preuss;
(2017)
The Reconstruction of Production and Storage Sites for Chemical Warfare Agents and Weapons from Both World Wars in the Context of Assessing Former Munitions Sites
(/isis/citation/CBB033465072/)
Chapter
Margit Szöllösi-Janze;
(2017)
The Scientist as Expert: Fritz Haber and German Chemical Warfare During the First World War and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB970702810/)
Chapter
Bretislav Friedrich;
Jeremiah James;
(2017)
From Berlin-Dahlem to the Fronts of World War I: The Role of Fritz Haber and His Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in German Chemical Warfare
(/isis/citation/CBB491994379/)
Book
Remers, William A.;
(2000)
Chemists at War: Accounts of Chemical Research in the United States During World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB000740203/)
Book
Freemantle, Michael;
(2012)
Gas! Gas! Quick, Boys!: How Chemistry Changed the First World War
(/isis/citation/CBB001450640/)
Article
Wisniak, Jaime;
(2002)
Fritz Haber---A Conflicting Chemist
(/isis/citation/CBB000200440/)
Book
James, Jeremiah;
(2011)
One Hundred Years at the Intersection of Chemistry and Physics: The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, 1911--2011
(/isis/citation/CBB001252398/)
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