Pioneer 16 of 21 · 1868-1934

Fritz Haber

Contribution. He showed how to make ammonia directly from nitrogen and hydrogen, and the BASF engineer Carl Bosch scaled the method into the Haber-Bosch process for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Erisman et al. (2008) estimate that nitrogen from the Haber-Bosch process supported about 48% of the world's population in 2008. He received the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded in 1919.

Factor coverage

Favorable entries (helped or barrier absent) and adverse entries (barrier or not overcome) by factor. Factor tags are this site's classification.

Biological00 Psychological00 Economic20 Societal01 Cultural01 Social21 Environmental00 Educational10 Technological11

Barriers faced

Factors	Statement
Technological	Making ammonia directly from atmospheric nitrogen in a practical way had long eluded chemists. His process required pressures of 150 to 200 atmospheres and temperatures of about 500 degrees Celsius.
Social	The leading chemist Walther Nernst publicly criticized his ammonia results.

What helped

Factors	Statement
Educational Economic	An academic base. He held posts at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic from 1894 to 1911 and became a professor there in 1906.
Economic Social	Industry partnership. BASF partnered with him in 1908, and he demonstrated a working ammonia apparatus in 1909.
Technological Social	Carl Bosch and Alwin Mittasch. Bosch led the industrial scale-up and Mittasch the catalyst work. The first ammonia synthesis plant opened at Oppau in 1913.

Not overcome

Factors	Statement
Societal Cultural	Born to a Jewish family, he had converted to Protestantism in 1892, but in 1933 Nazi race laws forced most of his Jewish staff out. He resigned rather than agree to the dismissals, left Germany, and died in Basel in January 1934.

Notes

Factors	Statement
Societal Environmental	Haber also directed Germany's development of poison gas in World War I and supervised the first chlorine attack at Ypres in 1915. His wife, the chemist Clara Immerwahr, who is widely described as opposing gas warfare, took her own life days later. Nitrogen fertilizer has also contributed to water and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss (Erisman et al., 2008). Like Franklin's, his case shows that one person can make great benefits possible and also cause great harm.

Factors

Statement

Societal Environmental

Haber also directed Germany's development of poison gas in World War I and supervised the first chlorine attack at Ypres in 1915. His wife, the chemist Clara Immerwahr, who is widely described as opposing gas warfare, took her own life days later. Nitrogen fertilizer has also contributed to water and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss (Erisman et al., 2008). Like Franklin's, his case shows that one person can make great benefits possible and also cause great harm.

Pattern summary

Element	In this case
Door-opener	BASF and Carl Bosch
Knowledge source	German university training
Institutional support	Karlsruhe Polytechnic, BASF
Built on recent work	His own research on the thermodynamics of gas reactions
Setback overcome	Public criticism by Nernst
Barrier not overcome	Forced out of Germany in 1933
Related barriers	Discrimination and exclusion, conflict and violence, Earth's life-support systems

Sources

Also relevant: Bell, A., Chetty, R., Jaravel, X., Petkova, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2019). Who becomes an inventor in America? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(2), 647-713. All references