Koppel, Leopold

Keller, Hans, 102 Knietsch, Rudolf, 75, 86, 91 Knorr, Ludwig, 67 Konig, A., 74, 77 Koppel, Leopold, 226, 231 Kranz, Julius, 81 Krassa, Paul, 78, 81 Krauch, Carl, 98, 105, 225 Kuhlmann, Charles F., 99... 

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. 

One man in the room on that day, the reclusive banker Leopold Koppel, listened to the proposal with particular interest. He saw an opportunity to earn the gratitude of the emperor while also creating a scientific powerhouse for his own benefit. And Koppel knew just the man to carry out his plan. Upon returning to his office, he summoned Fritz Haber to Berlin. 

Haber already knew Leopold Koppel he d worked as a technical consultant for one of the companies that Koppel controlled, the Auergesellschaft, which manufactured gas lamps and electric fights. That company, in fact, had been Haber s secret source of osmium, the crucial catalyst in Haber s first successful attempt to make ammonia. Koppel had once offered Haber an extravagant salary to take over the company s in-house research, but Haber had turned down the offer, preferring the freedom and prestige of university life. 

As he had done with Willstatter, Haber agreed to act as an intermediary. On one of his regular trips to a Swiss resort, he met with Einstein in Zurich, hoping to learn what might attract the young genius to Berlin. He also helped loosen Leopold Koppel s purse strings the banker offered to cover half of Einstein s salary for twelve years. 

Stern remembered the trip as an idyllic time, filled with walks and conversation. Haber s patron, the wealthy banker Leopold Koppel, now an old man but still a delightful companion, also showed up. Charlotte, meanwhile, sat at home and cried. I wasn t able to get over the bitterness created by this sad Christmas Eve, not for a long, long, time, she wrote. 

With these words I depart from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute that was built by the Leopold Koppel Foundation. . . and which under my leadership for 22 years was dedicated to serving humanity in times of peace, and the fatherland in times of war. As far as I can... 

In order to support a large number of projects, a foundation would need much more capital than Schmidt s proposed endowment of 250,000 marks At an interest rate of 5%, this would yield only 12,500 marks per year. However, since neither the government nor the KWG would add significantly to an endowment, money would have to be found another way. A time-consuming public fund drive was out of the question. In the end, Schmidt-Ott and Haber must have hit upon the idea not to solicit anonymous donors known to Schmidt, with total pledges of 250,000 marks, but rather to ask the Jewish banker and industrialist, Leopold Koppel. Koppel had endowed, among other things, Haber s KWI for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. 

The banker and entrepreneur Leopold Koppel was bom into a Jewish family in Dresden. After attending high school (Gymnasium) and completing a banking apprenticeship, he founded a banking house, Koppel Et Co., which became the basis of his future wealth. A report from... 

Association explicitly for the construction of an institute for chemistry and an endowment from the Berlin banker Leopold Koppel for the foundation of an institute for physical chemistry and electrochemistry under the directorship of Fritz Haber. 

Hoffmann, Koppel] Hoffmann, Dieter Leopold Koppel (1854-1933). Bankier, Phi-lantrop, Wissenschaftsmazen, Berlin 2011. 

With special thanks to David Vandermeulen Box Chap. 1, Leopold Koppel. 

On October 1, 1933, the date he was officially pensioned, Otto Hahn, who five years later with Fritz Strassmann demonstrated the possibility of nuclear fission, posted Haber s parting words to the Institute s staff With these words I take the leave of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute which was established for you according to my proposals by the late Oberbaurat Leopold Koppel, and which has tried for 22 years under my leadership to serve the mankind in peace and the fatherland in war. ... 

---