Berlin Dahlem

P. Deuflhard, M. Dellnitz, O. Junge, and Ch. Schiitte. Computation of essential molecular dynamics by subdivision techniques I. Basic concepts. Technical Report SC 96-45, Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fiir Informationstechnik Berlin, Takustra/3e 7, D-14195, Berlin-Dahlem, December 1996. 

Probably the first to take up this technique for purposes of scientific research was Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) who in 1922-1923, with the metallurgist Erich Schmid (1896-1983) and the polymer scientist-to-be Hermann Mark (1895-1992), studied the plastic deformation of metal crystals, at the Institute of Fibre Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem in those days, good scientists often earned striking freedom to follow their instincts where they led, irrespective of their nominal specialisms or the stated objective of their place of work. In a splendid autobiographical account of those... 

F. Haber (Berlin-Dahlem) the synthesis of ammonia from its elements. 

P. Debye (Berlin-Dahlem) contributions to knowledge of molecular stmcture... 

O. Hahn (Berlin-Dahlem) discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei. 

Wliile continuing work with Flahn at the new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem, beginning in 1912 Meitner served as assistant to Max Planck at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Berlin, and in 1918 was appointed head of the physics department at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute. 

Heyn, E. and Bauer, O., Mitteilungen Koniglichen Materialprufungsamt Berlin-Dahlem, 26, 74 (1908)... 

In 1919, he resumed his position as assistant in the Berlin Institute and, in 1920, obtained his Habilitation with a thesis on the ring-chain tautomer-ism of y- and 5-hydroxyaldehydes. In 1922, Helferich was called to the position of Departmental Head at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fibre Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. However, he never actually occupied this position, for, in the autumn of that year, he accepted a personal chair in organic chemistry at the University of Frankfurt in the Institute headed by Julius von Braun. 

Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin (Dahlem), Germany... 

The First World War interrupted his brilliant ascent as a scientist. He served as lieutenant in the field artillery, in France and on the Russian front. In 1917, he was called by Fritz Haber to the Kaiser-Wilhelm In-stitut in Berlin-Dahlem, as associate professor to work on problems of chemical warfare. He formed a lasting friendship with Haber. His stay in Berlin-Dahlem was also of personal importance, for there he met his wife. 

M. Che Paris, France D.D. Eley Nottingham, England G. Ertl Berlin/Dahlem, Germany... 

Forschungsstelle Vennesland der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem... 

H. G. Wittmann (1), Max-Planck-Institut fiir Molekulare Genetik, D-1000 Berlin-Dahlem 33, Federal Republic of Germany... 

Professor Hahn is a native of Frankfort-on-the Main. He collaborated with Sir William Ramsay, and later with Miss Lise Meitner, and in 1944 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on atomic fission. He is a member of the German Atomic Weight Commission and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. Miss Meitner, who was also on the staff of this Institute, is a native of Vienna. 

Koenen et al, "Safety Characteristic Data of Explosive Substances, Part I. Methods of the Bundesanstalt fur Materialpriifung (BAM)", Berlin-Dahlem, Explosivst 9,... 

Berlin/Dahlem, Germany Moscow, Russia Evanston, Illinois... 

Bathe, R., L. Ullmann, and K. Sachsse (1973). Determination of pesticide toxicity to fish. Schriftenr. Ver. Wasser-Boden-Lufthyg. (Berlin-Dahlem) 37 241-256. 

Grewe, F., Btichel, K.H., Mitt. Biol. Bundesanst. Land-Forst-wirtsch. (Berlin-Dahlem), 59, 652-655 (1975). 

Schwinn, F.J., Staub, T., and Urech, P.A. 1977. Die BekHmpfung Falscher Mehltaukrankheiten mit einem Wirkstoff aus der Gruppe der Acylalanine. Mitt. Biol. Bundesantalt Land Forstwirtsch. Berlin-Dahlem 178. 145-146. 

Schmidt, G. (1975) Von problematik der verhaltenspriifung von pflanzenschtzmitteln im ober-flachenwasser, schriftenr. des Ver Wasser-, Boden-, Lufthyg. Berlin-Dahlem 46, 155. 

Martens, R. (1972) Decomposition of endosulfan by soil microorganisms. Schrifter Ver Wasser-. Bodden-, Luftig, Berlin-Dahlem 37, 167-173. 

Most scientists involved in radioactive research had a background in chemistry or physics, and up to World War I little distinction was made between the physical and chemical aspects of radioactive research. As Ruth Sime points out, radioactivity split after the war. In 1917, to give an example, the radioactive section at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem split into a physical section (headed by Meitner) and a chemical section (headed by Hahn). In some sense, however, the field retained its unity radiochemistry was kept much alive at the Institut du Radium in Paris, and this expertise helped in the discovery of artificial radioactivity, when phosphorus had to be isolated in three minutes. The subdisciplinary divide was informed by a common interest in radioactive substances. This division did not so much reflect the independence of radiophysics and radiochemistry, as the mutual confidence of their practitioners. As Sime puts it Physicists and chemists collaborated across a pronounced disciplinary divide... they trusted each other s expertise without always understanding each other s limitations . 

H (Reproduced with permission of Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem )... 

Late in 1938, in Berlin-Dahlem, an experimenter in nuclear chemistry touched off a wave of excitement throughout the world which even reached the front pages of the most conservative newspapers. At the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, only a few miles from Hitler s Chancellery, three researchers had proceeded to repeat some experiments first performed by Enrico Fermi in Rome in 1934. The Italian scientist, in an attempt to produce the Curies artificial radioactivity in the very heavy elements by bombarding them with neutrons, believed he had created an element (No. 93) even heavier than uranium. 

Two of these scientists in Berlin-Dahlem, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, had already confirmed Fermi s results, when Fritz Strassmann joined the team and together they continued with these experiments. On January 6, 1939, they observed a strange result which they published two months later in Die Naturwissenschaften. According to Hahn and Strassmann, the bombardment of uranium with neutrons had split the uranium atom almost in half The smash-up had produced what they had reason to believe were two different and lighter elements, isotopes of barium and krypton (U Ba -J-Kr88). Hitherto only bits of the heavier atoms had been chipped away. 

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