Engler. Carl

Ehrlich, Paul, 103 Einstein, Albert, 103, 231 Engelhom, Eriedrich, 75 Engler, Carl, 76 Erdmann, Otto, 62 Eyde, Samuel, 53... 

Germans, more often than Americans, subscribed to a kind of technological militarism. They saw innovation as a weapon, a tool of national survival and supremacy. Carl Engler, rector of the Technical University in Karlsruhe and Fritz Haber s most powerful mentor, put it this way in a speech in 1899 No nation can withdraw from economic competition, the pursuit of technology and advancement of industry, without putting its very existence at risk.. . . [T]he struggle for existence—the fate of the nation—is decided not just on bloody battlefields, but also in the field of industrial production and economic expansion. ... 

Yet Haber also had powerful friends, none more well-connected than former university rector Carl Engler, director of the chemistry institute and former member of the parliament in the German... 

At one point in the negotiations, Carl Engler felt compelled to intervene with BASF executives on Haber s behalf, apparently to smooth feathers that Haber had ruffled with his various demands. I must emphasize that I have no personal interest in the firm s acquisition of Prof Haber s services, he wrote. Prof Haber is a highly industrious fellow, and I expect much further success from his talent and vigor.. . . And since he s conscious of his own worth and—just like the Ostwald school—likes to earn some money, he naturally can t be had on the cheap. If the BASF turned away from Haber, Engler reminded the company s executives, the young chemist s talents might be snapped up quickly by one of its competitors. 

In that light, Fritz Haber s rush back to the front lines, into the devouring frenzy of warfare, seems less an act of callousness than of emotional numbness. The world was filled with death. One expression of emotion survives—a letter that Haber sent by military mail from General Command Post 17 to his former mentor in Karlsruhe, Carl Engler. Haber wrote the letter in June 1915, six weeks after Clara s death. 

The combination of basic research, applied research, and practical use of chemistry is exemplified in the careers of Justus von Liebig, August Wilhelm von Hofmann, and Carl Engler. 

In Karlsruhe his superiors turned his research in different directions. Bunte s main interest was in combustion chemistry, and Carl Engler (1842-1925) introduced him to the study of the decomposition and combustion of hydrocarbons (the topic of Haber s Privatdozent habilitation). Shortly after his arrival in Karlsruhe Haber also began working on electrochemistry, and by 1898 he had published a textbook on the subject featuring his preferred combination of theory and appfication. ... 

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