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Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn

Otto Hahn (March 8, 1879, Frankfurt am Main – July 28, 1968, Göttingen) was a German chemist who received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nuclear fission. Events 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Göttingen ( ˈgœtɪŋən, Low German: Chöttingen is a College town in Lower Saxony, Germany. A chemist is a Scientist trained in the Science of Chemistry. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry. Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing Free neutrons and other smaller nuclei which may He is considered a pioneer of radioactivity and radiochemistry. Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable Atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing particles and Radiation. Glenn T. Seaborg deemed Hahn "the father of nuclear chemistry". Glenn Theodore Seaborg ( Glenn Teodor Sjöberg) ( April 19, 1912 &ndash February 25, 1999) won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Hahn was also called the "founder of the atomic age" by his contemporaries and, officially, by the senate and the members of the Max Planck Society. The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e

Contents

Childhood

Hahn was the youngest son of Heinrich Hahn (1845-1922), a prosperous glazier and entrepreneur ("Glasbau Hahn"), and Charlotte Hahn, née Giese (1845-1905). Together with his brothers Karl, Heiner and Julius, Otto enjoyed a sheltered childhood. At the age of 15, he began to take a special interest in chemistry and carried out simple experiments in the laundry room of the family home. His father wanted Otto to study architecture, as he had built or acquired several residential and business properties. But Otto persuaded him that his ambition was to become an industrial chemist.

Education

In 1897, after taking his Abitur at the Klinger Oberrealschule in Frankfurt, Hahn began to study chemistry and mineralogy at the University of Marburg. Abitur (from Latin abire = go away go off is a designation used in Germany and Finland for final exams that young adults take at the end of Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the Chemistry, Crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of Minerals The University of Marburg (Philipps-Universität Marburg 'Philip's University Marburg' was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (usually His subsidiary subjects were physics and philosophy. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Hahn joined the Students' Association of Natural Sciences and Medicine, a student fraternity and a forerunner of today's Nibelungia Fraternity. He spent his third and fourth semester studying under Adolf von Baeyer at the University of Munich. Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (ˈbaɪɐ October 31, 1835 - August 20, 1917) was a German chemist who The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München also known as LMU, is a University in Munich and with more In 1901, Hahn received his doctorate in Marburg for a dissertation entitled On Bromine Derivates of Isoeugenol, a topic in classical organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is a discipline within Chemistry which involves the scientific study of the structure properties composition reactions, and preparation After completing his one year military service, the young chemist returned to the University of Marburg, where for two years he worked as assistant to his doctoral supervisor, Geheimrat Professor Theodor Zincke. A privy council is a body that advises the Head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically but not always in the context of a The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies Theodor Zincke (19 May 1843 - 17 March 1928 was a German Chemist and the academic adviser of Otto Hahn.

Early research

Hahn's intention had been to work in industry. With this in mind, and also to improve his knowledge of English, he took up a post at University College London in 1904, working under Sir William Ramsay, known for having discovered the inert gases. University College London ( UCL) is a multi-faculty university institution based in the United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London Sir William Ramsay (2 October 1852 &ndash 23 July 1916 was a Scottish chemist who discovered the Noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in "Inert gases" is also used in a narrower sense for Noble gases An inert gas is any Gas that is not reactive with elements Here Hahn worked on radiochemistry, at that time a very new field. Radiochemistry is the Chemistry of Radioactive materials where radioactive Isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and Chemical reactions In 1905, in the course of his work with salts of radium, Hahn discovered a substance he called radiothorium (thorium 228), which at that time was believed to be a new radioactive element. Radium (ˈreɪdiəm is a radioactive Chemical element which has the symbol Ra and Atomic number 88 Although Thorium ( Th) has multiple Isotopes, none of these isotopes are stable however one isotope is relatively stable ( 232Th Thorium (ˈθɔːriəm is a Chemical element with the symbol Th and Atomic number 90 Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable Atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing particles and Radiation. (In fact, it was a still undiscovered isotope of the known element thorium. The terms "isotopy" and "isotope" were only coined in 1913, by the British chemist Frederick Soddy). In Topology, two continuous functions from one Topological space to another are called homotopic ( Greek homos = identical Isotopes (Greek isos = "equal" tópos = "site place" are any of the different types of atoms ( Nuclides Frederick Soddy ( 2 September 1877 &ndash 22 September 1956) was an English radiochemist. In the autumn of 1905, Hahn transferred to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in order to pursue further research under Sir Ernest Rutherford. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Ernest Rutherford 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PC, FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937 was a New Zealand Physicist It was here that Hahn discovered the new radioactive elements thorium C, radium D and radioactinium (as he termed them). Actinium (ækˈtɪniəm is a radioactive Chemical element with the symbol Ac and Atomic number 89 which was discovered in 1899, the earliest

In the summer of 1906 Hahn returned to Germany, where he collaborated with Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin. Emil Fischer may refer to Emil Fischer (bass (1838-1914 famous German dramatic basso Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (1877-1947 German Fischer placed at his disposal a former woodworking shop ("Holzwerkstatt") in the Chemical Institute to use as his own laboratory. There, in the space of a few months, using extremely primitive apparatus, Hahn discovered mesothorium I, mesothorium II and - independently from Boltwood - the mother substance of radium, ionium. Although Thorium ( Th) has multiple Isotopes, none of these isotopes are stable however one isotope is relatively stable ( 232Th In subsequent years, mesothorium I (radium 228) assumed great importance because, like radium 226 (discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie), it was ideally suited for use in medical radiation treatment, while costing only half as much to manufacture. (In 1914, for the discovery of mesothorium I, Otto Hahn was first nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Adolf von Baeyer). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry. Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (ˈbaɪɐ October 31, 1835 - August 20, 1917) was a German chemist who In June 1907, by means of the traditional habilitation thesis, Hahn qualified to teach at the University of Berlin. Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries On September 28, 1907 - something of a historic date in the history of atomic research - he made the acquaintance of the young Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, who had transferred from Vienna to Berlin. Lise Meitner (7 or 17 November 1878 &ndash 27 October 1968 was an Austrian born later Swedish physicist who studied Radioactivity and So began the thirty-year collaboration and lifelong close friendship between the two scientists.

After the physicist Harriet Brooks had observed a radioactive recoil in 1904, but interpreted it wrongly, Otto Hahn succeeded, in the winter of 1908/09, in demonstrating the radioactive recoil incident to alpha particle emission and interpreting it correctly. Harriet Brooks ( January 1, 1876 - April 17, 1933) was the first Canadian woman Nuclear physicist. Alpha particles (named after and denoted by the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α consist of two Protons and two Neutrons bound together into a ". . . a profoundly significant discovery in physics with far-reaching consequences", as the physicist Walther Gerlach put it. Walt(her Gerlach ( 1 August 1889 - 10 August 1979) was a German Physicist who co-discovered space quantization in

In 1910 Hahn was appointed professor, and in 1912 he became head of the Radioactivity Department of the newly founded "Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry" in Berlin-Dahlem (since 1956 "Otto Hahn Building of the Free University", Berlin, Thielallee 63). The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft is a German entity formally known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e Succeeding Alfred Stock, Hahn was Director of the Institute from 1928 to 1946. Alfred Stock ( July 16 1876 – August 12 1946) was a German inorganic chemist. As early as 1924, Hahn was elected to full membership of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin (proposed by Einstein, Planck, Fritz Haber, Schlenk and von Laue). The Prussian Academy of Sciences (Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften was an Academy established in Berlin on July 11 1700. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 &ndash 29 January 1934 was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for Max Theodor Felix von Laue ( October 9, 1879 &ndash April 24, 1960) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics

In June 1911, while attending a conference in Stettin (today: Szczecin, Poland) Otto Hahn met Edith Junghans (1887-1968), an art student. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland On March 22, 1913 the couple married in Edith's native city of Stettin, where her father, Paul Ferdinand Junghans, was a high-ranking law officer and President of the City Parliament until his 1915 death. Their only child, Hanno, born in 1922, became a distinguished art historian and architectural researcher (at the Hertziana in Rome). In 1960, while on a study trip in France, Dr Hanno Hahn was involved in a fatal car accident, together with his wife and assistant Ilse Hahn, née Pletz. They left a fourteen-year-old son, Dietrich. In 1990, the "Hanno and Ilse Hahn Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Italian Art History" was established to support talented young art historians and in memory of Hanno and Ilse Hahn. It is awarded biennally by the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, in Rome.

During the First World War, Hahn was conscripted into the army, where he was assigned, together with James Franck and Gustav Hertz, to the special unit for chemical warfare under the direction of Fritz Haber. James Franck ( August 26, 1882 &ndash May 21, 1964) was a German -born Physicist and Nobel laureate from Gustav Ludwig Hertz ( July 22 1887, Hamburg &ndash October 30 1975, Berlin) was a German Experimental Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 &ndash 29 January 1934 was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for The unit developed, tested and produced poison gas for military purposes, and was sent to both the western and eastern front lines. In December 1916, Hahn was transferred to the "Headquarter of His Majesty" in Berlin, and was able to resume his radiochemical research in his institute. In 1917/18 Hahn and Lise Meitner isolated a long-lived activity, which they named "proto-actinium". Already in 1913, Fajans and Göhring had isolated a short-lived activity from uranium X2 and called the substance "brevium". The two activities were different isotopes of the same undiscovered element no. 91. Finally in 1949, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named this new element protactinium and confirmed Hahn and Meitner as discoverers. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry ( IUPAC) (aɪjuːpæk or ay-yoo-pec) is an international Non-governmental organization Protactinium (ˌproʊtækˈtɪniəm is a Chemical element with the symbol Pa and Atomic number 91

In February 1921, Otto Hahn published the first report on his discovery of uranium Z, the first example of nuclear isomerism. ". . . a discovery that was not understood at the time but later became highly significant for nuclear physics", as Walther Gerlach remarked. And, indeed, it was not until 1936 that the young physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker succeeded in providing a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon of nuclear isomerism. Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker ( June 28, 1912 &ndash 28 April 2007) was a German Physicist and Philosopher For this discovery, whose full significance was recognized by very few, Hahn was again proposed, in 1923, for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, this time by Max Planck, among others.

In the early 1920s, Otto Hahn created a new field of work. Using the "emanation method", which he had recently developed, and the "emanation ability", he founded what became known as "Applied Radiochemistry" for the researching of general chemical and physical-chemical questions. Applied radiochemistry was an important collection of lectures by German Chemist Otto Hahn published in English in 1936 by the Cornell University In 1933 he published a book in English (and later in Russian) entitled "Applied Radiochemistry". It contains the lectures given by Hahn when he was a visiting professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1933. In 1966, Glenn T. Seaborg, President of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, wrote about this book as follows:

"As a young graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley in the mid-1930s and in connection with our work with plutonium a few years later, I used his book "Applied Radiochemistry" as my bible. Glenn Theodore Seaborg ( Glenn Teodor Sjöberg) ( April 19, 1912 &ndash February 25, 1999) won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry This book was based on a series of lectures which Professor Hahn had given at Cornell in 1933; it set forth the "laws" for the co-precipitation of minute quantities of radioactive materials when insoluble substances were precipitated from aqueous solutions. In Chemistry, coprecipitation (CPT or co-precipitation is the carrying down by a Precipitate of substances normally soluble under the conditions employed I recall reading and rereading every word in these laws of co-precipitation many times, attempting to derive every possible bit of guidance for our work, and perhaps in my zealousness reading into them more than the master himself had intended. I doubt that I have read sections in any other book more carefully or more frequently than those in Hahn's Applied Radiochemistry. In fact, I read the entire volume repeatedly and I recall that my chief disappointment with it was its length. It was too short. "

The discovery of nuclear fission

Jointly with Lise Meitner and his pupil and assistant Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980), Otto Hahn furthered the research begun by Enrico Fermi and his team in 1934 when they bombarded uranium with neutrons. Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassman ( February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German chemist who with Until 1938, it was believed that the elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (known as transuranium elements) arise when uranium atoms are bombarded with neutrons. In Chemistry, transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the Chemical elements with Atomic numbers greater than 92 (the atomic The German chemist Ida Noddack proposed an exception. Ida Noddack ( 25 February 1896 - 1978 Née Ida Tacke, was a German Chemist and Physicist. She anticipated the paradigm shift of 1938/39 in her article published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, Nr. 47, 1934, in which she speculated:

"It is conceivable that when heavy nuclei are bombarded with neutrons these nuclei could break down into several fairly large fragments, which are certainly isotopes of known elements, but not neighbours of the irradiated elements. "

But no physicist or chemist really took Noddack's speculation seriously or tested them, not even Ida Noddack. The idea that heavy atomic nuclei could break down into lighter elements was regarded as a totally inadmissible theory and impossible to test experimentally.

On July 13, 1938, with the help and support of Hahn, Lise Meitner, who was at great risk as she was of Jewish ancestry and had lost her Austrian citizenship after the Anschluss, emigrated to Stockholm, Sweden by crossing the German-Dutch border illegally. Events 1174 - William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173-1174, is captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Lise Meitner (7 or 17 November 1878 &ndash 27 October 1968 was an Austrian born later Swedish physicist who studied Radioactivity and Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi ('stɔkhɔlm is Sweden 's Capital and its largest City. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the parliament, and the "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. [1]

Nuclear fission experimental setup, reconstructed at the Deutsches Museum, Munich.
Nuclear fission experimental setup, reconstructed at the Deutsches Museum, Munich.

Hahn continued to work with Strassmann on elucidating the outcome of bombardment of uranium with thermal neutrons. Uranium (jʊˈreɪniəm is a silvery-gray Metallic Chemical element in the This article is a discussion of neutrons in general For the specific case of a neutron found outside the nucleus see Free neutron. In December 1938, when Hahn and Strassmann looked for transuranium elements in a uranium sample that had been bombarded with neutrons, they found traces of barium. In Chemistry, transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the Chemical elements with Atomic numbers greater than 92 (the atomic This article is a discussion of neutrons in general For the specific case of a neutron found outside the nucleus see Free neutron. Barium (ˈbɛəriəm is a Chemical element. It has the symbol Ba, and Atomic number 56 The barium was detected by the use of an organic barium salt constructed by Wilhelm Traube, a Jewish chemist who was later arrested and murdered despite Hahn's efforts to save him. Wilhelm Traube ( 10 January 1866 &ndash 28 September 1942) was a German Chemist.

On the evidence of the decisive experiment on December 17, 1938 (the celebrated "radium-barium-mesothorium-fractionation"), Otto Hahn concluded that the uranium nucleus had "burst" into atomic nuclei of medium weight. This was the discovery of nuclear fission.

On December 22, 1938, Hahn and Fritz Strassmann sent a manuscript to Naturwissenschaften reporting their radiochemical results, which were the irrefutable proof that the uranium had been split into fragments consisting of lighter elements;[2] simultaneously, they communicated these results to Lise Meitner, who had escaped out of Germany earlier that year and was then in Sweden. Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassman ( February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German chemist who with Die Naturwissenschaften ( The Natural Sciences) is a weekly publication of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Lise Meitner (7 or 17 November 1878 &ndash 27 October 1968 was an Austrian born later Swedish physicist who studied Radioactivity and [3] Meitner, and her nephew, the young physicist Otto Robert Frisch, correctly interpreted these results as being nuclear fission, a term coined by Frisch, which subsequently became internationally known. Otto Robert Frisch ( 1 October 1904 &ndash 22 September 1979) Austrian British Physicist. Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing Free neutrons and other smaller nuclei which may [4] Frisch confirmed this experimentally on 13 January 1939. [5]

In a later appreciation, Meitner wrote:

"The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann opened up a new era in human history. It seems to me that what makes the science behind this discovery so remarkable is that it was achieved by purely chemical means. "

In an interview on German television (ARD, March 8, 1959), Meitner said:

"Hahn and Strassmann were able to do this by exceptionally good chemistry, fantastically good chemistry, which was way ahead of what anyone else was capable of at that time. The Americans learned to do it later. But at that time, Hahn and Strassmann were really the only ones who could do it. And that was because they were such good chemists. Somehow they really succeeded in using chemistry to demonstrate and prove a physical process. "

Fritz Strassmann responded with this clarification:

"Professor Meitner stated that the success could be attributed to chemistry. Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassman ( February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German chemist who with I have to make a slight correction. Chemistry merely isolated the individual substances, it did not precisely identify them. It took Professor Hahn's method to do this. This is where his achievement lies. "

(Citation sources: Lise Meitner - Recollections of Otto Hahn. Stuttgart 2005).

In their second publication on nuclear fission (Die Naturwissenschaften, February 10, 1939) Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, which was proofed as chain reaction by Frédéric Joliot and his team in March 1939. Die Naturwissenschaften ( The Natural Sciences) is a weekly publication of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. A chain reaction is a sequence of Reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie born Joliot ( March 19, 1900 &ndash August 14, 1958) was a French Physicist and

During the war, Otto Hahn - together with his assistants Hans-Joachim Born, Siegfried Flügge, Hans Götte, Walter Seelmann-Eggebert and Fritz Strassmann - worked on uranium fission reactions. Hans-Joachim Born was a German radiochemist trained and educated at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie. Siegfried Flügge ( 16 March 1912 in Dresden &ndash 15 December 1997 in Hinterzarten) was a German Theoretical Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassman ( February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German chemist who with By 1945 he had drawn up a list of 25 elements and about 100 isotopes whose existence he had demonstrated.

Thanks to his determined intervention, Hahn, who had always been an opponent of the Nazi dictatorship, was able to support numerous members of his institute whose lives were in danger or were suffering persecution, and prevent them from being sent to the front line or deported. In this, he was assisted by his courageous wife Edith, who had for years collected food for Jews hiding in Berlin. As early as 1934, Hahn resigned from the University of Berlin to protest the dismissal of Jewish colleagues, notably Lise Meitner, Fritz Haber, and James Franck. Lise Meitner (7 or 17 November 1878 &ndash 27 October 1968 was an Austrian born later Swedish physicist who studied Radioactivity and Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 &ndash 29 January 1934 was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for James Franck ( August 26, 1882 &ndash May 21, 1964) was a German -born Physicist and Nobel laureate from

At the end of World War II in 1945 Hahn was suspected of working on the German nuclear energy project to develop an atomic reactor or an atomic bomb. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The German nuclear energy project in Nazi Germany was informally known as the Uranverein (Uranium Club and it began in April 1939 just months This article is a subarticle of Nuclear power. A nuclear reactor is a device in which Nuclear chain reactions are initiated controlled A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. But his only connection was the discovery of fission, he did not work on the program. Hahn and nine German physicists (including Max von Laue, Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker) were interned at Farm Hall, Godmanchester, near Cambridge, England. Max Theodor Felix von Laue ( October 9, 1879 &ndash April 24, 1960) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics Werner Heisenberg (5 December 1901 in Würzburg &ndash1 February 1976 in Munich) was a German theoretical physicist best known for enunciating the Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker ( June 28, 1912 &ndash 28 April 2007) was a German Physicist and Philosopher Operation Epsilon was the Codename of a program in which Allied forces near the end of World War II detained ten German scientists who were thought Godmanchester is a small town in England, immediately south of the larger town of Huntingdon on the southern bank of the River Great Ouse. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England While they were there, the German scientists learned of the dropping of the American atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9. The Japanese city of ( is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest of Japan 's ( is the Capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. Hahn was on the brink of despair, as he felt that because he had discovered nuclear fission he shared responsibility for the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people. Early in January 1946, the group was allowed to return to Germany.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry

On November 15, 1945 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Hahn had been awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[6] "for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei". The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. [7][8] Some historians have documented the history of the discovery of nuclear fission and believe Meitner should have been awarded the Nobel Prize with Hahn. [9] [10] [11] Hahn was still being detained at Farm Hall when the announcement was made, thus, his whereabouts were a secret and it was impossible for the Nobel committee to send him a congratulatory telegram. Operation Epsilon was the Codename of a program in which Allied forces near the end of World War II detained ten German scientists who were thought Instead, he learned about his award through the Daily Telegraph newspaper. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. [12] His fellow interned German scientists celebrated his award on November 18 by giving speeches, making jokes, and composing songs. [13] On December 4, Hahn was persuaded by two of his captors to write a letter to the Nobel committee accepting the prize but also stating that he would not be able to attend the award ceremony. [14] He could not participate in the Nobel festivities on December 10 since his captors would not allow him to leave Farm Hall.

"There is no doubt at all that Hahn fully deserves the Nobel Prize in Chemistry" wrote Lise Meitner to her friend Eva von Bahr-Bergius in November 1945. Meitner's former assistant Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker later added: "He certainly did deserve this Nobel Prize. He would have deserved it even if he had not made this discovery. But everyone recognized that the splitting of the atomic nucleus merited a Nobel Prize. "

(Citations source: Lise Meitner - Recollections of Otto Hahn. Stuttgart 2005)

Hahn attended the Nobel festivities the year after he was awarded the prize. On December 10, 1946, King Gustav V of Sweden finally presented him with his Nobel Prize medal and diploma. [8]

Founder of the Max Planck Society

From 1948 to 1960 Otto Hahn was the founding President of the newly formed Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, which through his tireless activity and his worldwide respected personality succeeded in regaining the renown once enjoyed by the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e Immediately after the Second World War, Hahn reacted to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by coming out strongly against the use of nuclear energy for military purposes. He saw the application of his scientific discoveries to such ends as a misuse, or even a crime. Consequently, among other things, he initiated the Mainau Declaration of 1955, in which a large number of Nobel Prize-winners called attention to the dangers of atomic weapons and warned the nations of the world urgently against the use of "force as a final resort". The Mainau Declaration was an appeal against the use of Nuclear weapons. He was also instrumental and one of the authors of the Göttingen Declaration of 1957, in which, together with 17 leading German atomic scientists, he protested against the nuclear arming of the new German armed forces (Bundeswehr). In January 1958, Otto Hahn signed the Pauling Appeal to the United Nations for the "immediate conclusion of an international agreement to stop the testing of nuclear weapons", and in October he signed the international Agreement to call a meeting to draw up a world constitution. Right up to his death, he never tired of warning urgently of the dangers of the nuclear arms race between the great powers and of the radioactive contamination of the planet. From 1957, Hahn was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a number of organizations, including the largest French trade union, the Compagnie Generale du Travail. The Nobel Peace Prize ( Swedish, Danish and Nobels fredspris is one of five Nobel Prizes Bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Linus Pauling, the 1962 Nobel Peace laureate, once described Otto Hahn as "an inspiration to me. Linus Carl Pauling (February 28 1901 – August 19 1994 was an American Scientist, Peace activist, Author and educator. "

Acknowledgments and Awards

Hahn received many governmental honours and academic awards from all over the world. He was elected member or honorary member in 45 Academies and scientific societies (among them the Royal Society in London and the Academies in Allahabad (India), Bangalore (India), Boston (USA), Bucharest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna) and received 37 of the highest national and international orders and medals (among them the Golden Paracelsus Medal from the Swiss Chemical Society and the Faraday Medal from the British Chemical Society). The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 Paracelsus (11 November or 17 December 1493 in Einsiedeln Switzerland – 24 September 1541 in Salzburg, Austria) was an alchemist, Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English In 1959 President Charles de Gaulle of France made him an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur, he was made a knight of the Peace Class of the Order Pour le Mérite, received the Distinguished Service Order and the Grand Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany. Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle ( ( 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French General and statesman who led the Free French The Pour le Mérite, known informally during World War I as the Blue Max (Blauer Max was the Kingdom of Prussia 's highest military order until In 1961 Pope John XXIII awarded him the Gold Medal of the Papal Academy. Pope John (numberingBlessed (In 1957 Hahn was elected an honorary citizen of the city of Magdeburg, German Democratic Republic, and in 1958 an honorary member of the Soviet Academy of Science in Moscow. Magdeburg ( Low Saxon: Meideborg ˈmaˑɪdebɔɐx the Capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of He declined both honours).

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson of the USA, and the USA Atomic Energy Commission awarded Hahn (together with Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann) the Enrico Fermi Prize. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Enrico Fermi Award is a US government "Presidential" award honoring scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development use or production This was the only time the Fermi Prize has been awarded to non-Americans.

Hahn was made an honorary citizen of the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Göttingen, and of the land and the city of Berlin. Göttingen ( ˈgœtɪŋən, Low German: Chöttingen is a College town in Lower Saxony, Germany. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. The day after his death, the Max Planck Society published the following obituary notice in all the major newspapers:

"On July 28, in his 90th year, our Honorary President Otto Hahn passed away. The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e His name will be recorded in the history of humanity as the founder of the atomic age. In him Germany and the world have lost a scholar who was distinguished in equal measure by his integrity and personal humility. The Max Planck Society mourns its founder, who continued the tasks and traditions of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society after the war, and mourns also a good and much loved human being, who will live in the memories of all who had the chance to meet him. His work will continue. We remember him with deep gratitude and admiration. "

Legacy

Otto Hahn on a stamp of the German Democratic Republic, 1979
Otto Hahn on a stamp of the German Democratic Republic, 1979

Proposals were made at different times, first in 1971 by American chemists, that the newly syntheticized element no. 105 should be named Hahnium in Hahn's honour, although in 1997 the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) finally named it Dubnium, after the Russian research center in Dubna (see Element naming controversy). The names for the Chemical elements 104 to 109 were the subject of a major Controversy starting in the 1960s which was finally resolved in 1997 Dubnium (ˈduːbniəm is a Chemical element in the Periodic table that has the symbol Db and Atomic number 105 The names for the Chemical elements 104 to 109 were the subject of a major Controversy starting in the 1960s which was finally resolved in 1997 The intention is, however, that element no. 108, Hassium should be renamed Hahnium in the future. Hassium (ˈhæsiəm or /ˈhɑːsiəm/ is a Synthetic element in the Periodic table that has the symbol Hs and Atomic number 108 The names for the Chemical elements 104 to 109 were the subject of a major Controversy starting in the 1960s which was finally resolved in 1997 In addition, in 1964 the only European and one of the world's three nuclear-powered civilian ships, the freighter NS Otto Hahn, was named in his honour. Otto Hahn is one of only four nuclear-powered cargo vessels ever built. In 1959 there were the opening ceremonies of the "Otto Hahn Institute" in Mainz and the "Hahn Meitner Institute for Nuclear Research (HMI)" in Berlin. There are craters on mars and moon, and the asteroid No. 19126 "Ottohahn" named in his honour, as well as the "Otto Hahn Prize" of both the German Chemical and Physical Societies, the "Otto Hahn Medal" of the Max Planck Society and the "Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold" of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin. The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Laureate Otto Hahn, a honorary citizen of Berlin.

A great many cities and districts in the German speaking countries have named secondary schools of all types after him, and countless streets, squares and bridges throughout Europe bear his name. Several states have honoured Otto Hahn by issuing coins, medals and stamps (among them the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Austria, Romania, Angola, Cuba, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Madagascar, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Chad, Ghana, Guinea and Bissau). An island in the Antarctic (near Mt. Discovery) was also named after him, as were two Intercity trains of the German Federal Railways in 1971, running between Hamburg and Basel SBB, and the "Otto Hahn Library" in Göttingen. In 1974, in appreciation of the special contribution of Otto Hahn to German-Israeli relations, a wing of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, was given the name "Otto Hahn Wing". In several cities and districts busts, monuments and memorial plaques were unveiled, including Berlin (East and West), Boston (USA), Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, Gundersheim, Mainz, Marburg, Munich (in the hall of honour in the Deutsches Museum), Rehovot (Israel), San Vigilio (Lake Garda) and Vienna (in the foyer of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA). A special honour in 1997 was conferred on Hahn in the Netherlands: after an azalea already bore his name (Rhododendron luteum var Otto Hahn), Dutch rose growers named a new variety of rose "Otto Hahn". Rhododendron luteum ( Yellow Azalea or Honeysuckle Azalea) is a species of Rhododendron native to southeastern Europe

At the end of 1999 the German newsmagazine FOCUS published an inquiry of 500 leading natural scientists, engineers and physicians about the most important scientists of the 20th century. In this poll the experimental chemist Otto Hahn - after the theoretical physicists Albert Einstein and Max Planck - was elected third (with 81 points) and thus the most significant empiric researcher of his time. (FOCUS, No. 52, 1999, p. 103-108).

Publications

- A selection -

Notes

  1. ^ Ruth Lewin Sime Lise Meitner’s Escape from Germany, American Journal of Physics Volume 58, Number 3, 263- 267 (1990).
  2. ^ O. Hahn and F. Strassmann Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (On the detection and characteristics of the alkaline earth metals formed by irradiation of uranium with neutrons), Naturwissenschaften Volume 27, Number 1, 11-15 (1939). The authors were identified as being at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie, Berlin-Dahlem. Received 22 December 1938.
  3. ^ Ruth Lewin Sime Lise Meitner’s Escape from Germany, American Journal of Physics Volume 58, Number 3, 263- 267 (1990).
  4. ^ Lise Meitner and O. R. Frisch Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction, Nature, Volume 143, Number 3615, 239-240 (11 February 1939). The paper is dated 16 January 1939. Meitner is identified as being at the Physical Institute, Academy of Sciences, Stockholm. Frisch is identified as being at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Copenhagen.
  5. ^ O. R. Frisch Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment, Nature, Volume 143, Number 3616, 276-276 (18 February 1939). The paper is dated 17 January 1939. [The experiment for this letter to the editor was conducted on 13 January 1939; see Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb 263 and 268 (Simon and Schuster, 1986). ]
  6. ^ Bernstein 2001, p.  281
  7. ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944. Nobel Foundation. The Nobel Foundation (Nobelstiftelsen is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. Retrieved on 2007-12-17. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 546 - Gothic War (535–554: The Ostrogoths of King Totila
  8. ^ a b The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944: Presentation Speech. Nobel Foundation. The Nobel Foundation (Nobelstiftelsen is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. Retrieved on 2008-01-03. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
  9. ^ Ruth Lewin Sime From Exceptional Prominence to Prominent Exception: Lise Meitner at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry Ergebnisse 24 Forschungsprogramm Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus (2005).
  10. ^ Ruth Lewin Sime Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics (University of California, 1997).
  11. ^ Elisabeth Crawford, Ruth Lewin Sime, and Mark Walker A Nobel Tale of Postwar Injustice, Physics Today Volume 50, Issue 9, 26-32 (1997).
  12. ^ Bernstein 2001, pp.  283, 323
  13. ^ Bernstein 2001, pp.  286, 323-235
  14. ^ Bernstein 2001, pp.  311, 325

References

A selection of books in English

See also

External links

Persondata
NAME Hahn, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1968
PLACE OF DEATH Göttingen
Events 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Göttingen ( ˈgœtɪŋən, Low German: Chöttingen is a College town in Lower Saxony, Germany.
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