Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Fritz Haber

December 1868, Breslau – 29 January 1934, Basel

Fritz Haber studied chemistry in Berlin, Heidelberg and Zurich. In 1906 he came as a professor to Berliner Universität, where he became an honorary professor of physical chemistry in 1912 and a full professor of chemistry in 1920. In 1911 he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physical Chemistry. He was forced to vacate these positions in 1933 because of his Jewish origin. He emigrated to England.

Haber is the inventor of a method by which ammonia can be extracted from nitrogen and hydrogen. The Haber-Bosch process for the production of reactive nitrogen, which was developed to application maturity by Carl Bosch, is not only used in fertilizer production; it was also used to produce chlorine gas in both world wars.

Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918 for the discovery of ammonia synthesis.