Haber, Lutz

Her brother Lutz, being male and carrying his father s name, felt the burden of Fritz Haber s legacy more keenly. Instead of walking in his father s footsteps or simply ignoring them, he circled back around and studied them with great care. 

Lutz Haber became an economic historian and wrote two books on the rise of chemical industries in Europe and North America. One covered the nineteenth century, the other the years 1900-1930. There was a personal reason for ending in 1930, he confessed to his readers My father s work falls into the first thirty years of the century, and at the centre of his scientific achievement is the ammonia synthesis. . . which, in war as in peace, is essential to the modern state. But he devoted his attention only to... 

In 1968, when Lutz Haber already had established himself in his profession, he was invited to Karlsruhe for a ceremony honoring the memory of his father on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. To the embarrassment of the organizers, the ceremony was interrupted briefly by two young students who unfurled a banner with the following proclamation ... 

Lutz Haber s first reaction was simply to dismiss the protest as lies or at least grossly exaggerated. But the passion of the protestors intrigued him, and an ember of curiosity about the military side of his father s life began to smolder in his mind. 

Lutz Haber is still alive. He lives in Bath, close to his sister, but his mind, afflicted by Alzheimer s disease, lies beyond reach. 

Like Lutz Haber, Fritz Stern became a historian and explored the world of his parents, imperial Germany. He wrote about Ger-son von Bleichroder, a Jewish banker who managed the fortunes of Germany s political leaders during the nineteenth century, and about Germany s illiberalism —its rejection of democracy, individual freedom, and tolerance. 

Twenty-five years ago. Lutz Haber lamented that an account specifically devoted to the changing relations of academic and industrial chemistry in the leading countries has... 

There has been much written on I.G. Farben since Lutz Haber s account, which relied upon F. ter Meer, Die IG. Farben (Dusseldorf Econ, 1953) see, e.g., R.G. Stokes, Divide and Prosper I.G. Farben under Allied Authority, 1945-51 (Berkeley University of California, 1988) Gottfried Plumpe, Die I.G. Farbenindustrie AG Wirtschaft, Technik und Politik, 1904-1945 (Berlin Duncker and Humblot, 1990) and Peter Hayes, Industry and Ideology I.G. Farben in the Nazi Era (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1987). 

In Britain, papers concerning the major private firms that worked for the Ministry of Munitions survive within the public domain, but are scattered and difficult to correlate. To date, no one has attempted an integrative history of the Department of Explosives Supply, to match Lutz Haber s magisterial work on the Ministry s Trench Warfare Research and Supply Departments, and their affiliated agencies in the War Office. The Ministry s internal history, written immediately at the end of the war - and still unpublished - reflects more the administrative triumphs its officials achieved than the technical battles that its factories waged. We know well the outlines of Britain s great munitions feat. But as Europe now approaches the 80th anniversary of the Armistice, it is surely time for a full, comparative history of that feat to be written. 

Before 1914, the French industrial dyes sector was almost totally dependent upon German know-how, both in terms of imports and assembly plants on French soil. Lutz Haber estimates that France - in common with most industrialized countries of Europe - depended upon Germany for 85 per cent of its needs." Only one French company, the Socidtd Anonyme des Matibres Colorantes de Saint-Denis (Societd de Saint-Denis), was competitive. The war spelt an end to German imports and to shortages of dye products, especially aniline and alizarin. The French government reacted to this situation in two ways. 

Still, even if the quantitative indicators understate the industry s significance, it was important before the 1970s, too, but a few pioneering studies notwithstanding (e.g., John Beer, Lutz Haber, and Thomas Hughes)," scholars did not dwell on it. So, we are left with the question of why interest turned at that time to the history of chemicals in Germany. Again, lots of explanations are possible. 

For Haber s biography see SzoUosi-Janze 1998 Stolzenberg 2004 Charles 2005 see also the account by his son Lutz F. Haber in Haber 1986. 

Lutz F. Haber, The Chemical Industry 1900-1930, International Growth and Technological Change, Oxford University Press (1971). 

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