Ludwig F. Haber

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Ludwig Fritz Haber , also Lutz F. Haber (born July 21, 1921 in Berlin , † February 19, 2004 in Bath ), was a German-British economist and economic historian who wrote several books on the history of the chemical industry and the history of the gas war wrote in the First World War .

Life

Youth and education

Ludwig F. Haber was the son of the chemist Fritz Haber and his second wife Charlotte Haber, née Nathan. Together with his older sister Eva, he attended the Schloss Salem boarding school , which was run by reform pedagogue Kurt Hahn . Even before the National Socialists came to power in 1933, his father Fritz Haber decided that it was safer for his ex-wife and children to live in Switzerland. Therefore, Charlotte moved to Lausanne with the two children , where Ludwig F. Haber quickly learned French. In 1934 the mother went to London with the two children . There Haber attended St. Paul's School , a private school, where he quickly learned English. He graduated from school with very good grades, which enabled him to study at the London School of Economics (LSE) from 1938 .

Due to his German nationality, he was initially regarded as an " enemy alien " at the beginning of the Second World War and interned in 1940 on the Isle of Man and later in Canada . His sister Eva emigrated to Kenya before the outbreak of World War II , where she lived for several years. Soon after, however, was Haber as a "friendly alien" (friendly alien) classified and could return to England. He completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in economics at the LSE. After the war, conducted research partner for his doctorate at the LSE, where he in 1949 received his doctorate .

He was naturalized in Great Britain and married Pamela Alice Browne on May 12, 1949.

Economic history work

After completing his doctorate, he worked for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Since he was fluent in German, English and French, it was easy for him to undertake extensive studies in economic history. His first book, The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century, was based on his dissertation and was first published in 1958. He switched to the company ESSO ; During this time he began work on his second book on the history of the chemical industry between 1900 and 1930; Both books are still standard literature on the history of the chemical industry in Europe.

In the early 1970s, he moved to the National Economic Development Office (NEDO). Soon thereafter, in 1973, he became a part-time reader for economic history at the University of Surrey. There he began his third, extensive book: The Poisonous Cloud (1986), the first complete scientific history of the gas war during the First World War , which his father Fritz Haber had significantly advanced on the German side. After his retirement he published several papers on the history of his home town Bath.

The toxicologist and poison gas expert Alastair Hay rated The Poisonous Cloud as an “outstanding history of chemical warfare” and as a “brilliant analysis” of the use of the various warfare gases in the journal Nature . As an assessment of his father's work during the First World War, Haber wrote in a foreword: “Responsibility for the gas weapon weighed on him like a ghost - and it still weighs on his name today. It neither had the expected success nor was it glorious. "

Awards

  • 1988: American Chemical Society's Dexter Award for Chemical History

Fonts (selection)

  • The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century: A Study of the Economic Aspect of Applied Chemistry in Europe and North America (1958, 2nd ed. 1969).
  • The Chemical Industry 1900-1930: International Growth and Technological Change (1971).
  • The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1986, ISBN 0-19-858142-4 .

Web links, source

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The Poisonous Cloud is an outstanding history of chemical warfare in the First World War. Using previously unavailable archive material from Britain, France and Germany, Haber has written a brilliant analysis of the successive use of chlorine, phosgene, mustard gas and arsenicals. " Alastair Hay: Chemists' conflict . In: Nature , Vol. 320, April 17, 1986, p. 666, ISSN  0028-0836 .
  2. ^ Dietrich Stolzenberg: Foreword In: Ders .: Fritz Haber, chemist, Nobel laureate, Jew. A biography . VCH-Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim 1994, ISBN 3-527-29206-3 , page VII.
personal data
SURNAME Haber, Ludwig F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haber, Ludwig Fritz (full name); Haber, Lutz F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British economist and economic historian
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 2004
Place of death Bath