Kaiser Wilhelm

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. 

Toluene. A mixt with toluene expld at the Kaiser Wilhelm Inst in 1917, and in 1920 at the Univ of M unster a massive iron gas burner containing a residue of lOg of a TeNMe/toluene mbit decompd suddenly. The deton splintered the container and of 300 students in the area,... 

Max-Planck-Institut fur Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1, D-45470 Miilheim/Ruhr, Germany... 

Max-Planck-Institut fiir Kohlenforschung Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1 45470 Miilheim an der Ruhr Germany... 

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. 

Max-Planck-lnstitut fur Kohlenforschung Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1 45470 Mtilheim an der Ruhr, Germany fuerstner mpi-muelheim.mpg.de... 

Although the imperial government wanted scientists to help Germany become economically competitive, it did not want to finance institutes. In fact, a few days before the inauguration of the first Kaiser Wilhelm Society institute, it was still unfunded. At the last minute, Leopold Koppel, chair of the German Gaslight Company, offered to finance a Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry with two conditions the Kaiser must thank him publicly, and Fritz Haber must be the institute s director. 

Although Jews or former Jews accounted for only 1 percent of Germany s population, Jewish bankers were soon underwriting one-fifth of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its institutes. Jews gravitated to new fields and institutions where established barriers did not prevent them from getting... 

Haber was slow to grasp the implications of the Nazis rise to power. As Germans boycotted Jewish businesses and Hitler s brownshirts removed Jewish students from university libraries and laboratories, the Nazis passed a law on April 7, 1933, to cleanse the civil service and universities of Jews. By this time, Haber s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute was financed by the government and its employees were treated as civil functionaries subject to the new law. Haber himself was exempt because of war work and seniority. Eager for a chemical warfare center, Nazi authorities singled out Haber s institute and ordered him to fire its Jews. At the same time, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society told Haber to somehow keep his important senior scientists. He had until May 2 to act. 

By the time Haber died, Otto Hahn, acting as provisional director of his institute, had carried out the orders that Haber had resigned over. A Nazi Party member became the institute s director and, in the subsequent Nazi takeover, no other institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society suffered as severely as Haber s. The military planned to make the institute a center for poison gas research, and former staff members were not needed. 

On January 29, 1935, the anniversary of Haber s death, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society held a memorial service. The Nazis forbade government and university employees from attending, so many officials sent their wives instead. In an audience of almost 500 women sat a few men, including Carl Bosch. It was the closest thing to a public protest that scientists as a group staged during the Third Reich. 

Alan D. Beyerchen. On the Stimulation of Excellence in Wilhelmian Science. In Another Germany A Reconsideration of the Imperial Era, Joachim Remak and Jack Dukes, eds. Boulder, CO. Westview Press, 1988, pp. 139-168. Source for role of technical schools chemical companies employ more chemists than universities funding of Kaiser Wilhelm institutes and Memorial Service only protest. 

Jeffrey Allan Johnson. The Kaiser s Chemists Science and Modernization in Imperial Germany. Chapel Hill, NC The University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Source for German professorate cold war atmosphere Boer war fight with Nernst and Jewish participation in Kaiser Wilhelm institutes. 

Kaiser Wilhelm Society. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. hl lp //www. fhi-berlin.mpg.de/history/found.html. Source for fact that Nazis politicized Haber s institute most of all society institutes. 

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. 

A second and greater opportunity came his way in the spring of 1922. Professor Fritz Haber, discoverer of the Haber ammonia synthesis process and head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry (now known as the Max Planck Institute), contacted Professor Schlenk. 

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