The Third Section, Chapter 13: The perfect German and Chlorine Gas

Fritz Haber became the perfect Germany. He had the look with his mustache, clothes, and shaved head, all his work was done for the government, and his life revolved around the kaiser. Many other Germans were like this. Since Germany was so young (made in 1871) it wanted power in education, buildings, science, technology, and especially military. The pride in Germany was very high because they all wanted power and to become a world leader. This very hard since they were right between powerful nations, France and England. Germany also had poor land and almost no natural resources. Their leader Kaiser Wilhelm the second was seen as delusional or the greatest leader of Germany.



Kaiser Wilhelm

Sometimes he impressed people with his problem solving, but he also threw tantrums. Haber was in the group that thought he was the best leader ever. Haber did everything for his leader including turning most of his research centers into military research centers. Haber wanted his research to help win the war. Everyone respected him even though he was a Jew he was welcome everywhere in Germany. Haber wasn’t the only Jew that was extremely dedicated to the war. Jews in Germany at this time wanted to be respected by the Germans and show them that they belonged here too. So the Jews worked hard to show their dedicated to the country.

As the war went on Haber’s wife Clara became less and less hopeful. Clara was very interested in Chemistry and since she had a successful family she was able to go to college for it. She went to Breslau University and was the first women from the university to get a doctorate in chemistry. Clara met Fritz Haber years back,but met him again when she was in college. She married a few months after her graduation. Soon after their marriage she regretted getting married because Haber was in love with his country and chemistry not her. Then she got pregnant with her son Hermann. She thought this would bring them closer, but Haber ended up leaving a few weeks after the birth for a tour of all the science facilities in the United States. When he came back he was very distant. Haber thought when he married Clara she would become a house wife and a perfect German wife. Clara should have kids, look good for him, make dinner, go to church,and give up chemistry. It got worse when she moved to Berlin with Haber. She started to never go out and she didn’t talk to anyone except her son. Haber went out drank partied and was at almost every event. He soon became close with Charlotte Nathan a clubs business manager.

To impress the Kaiser, Haber began working on a weapon that would win the war for them. Haber’s institute was rich and had thousands of workers. He worked on this weapon while the government put fencing and armed guards around the facility to keep it safe. The weapon that Haber finally thought of was gas warfare. He would choke out the soldiers. Gas warfare was banned at the time, but Haber wanted it to make it his secret weapon. This weapon made a new section in the Prussian War Ministry and he became captain of it. The weapon had to be a heavy gas so it wouldn’t dissolve in the air instead it would be like a fog. He also wanted the other soldiers to panic so he wanted the gas to kill. He decided to use chlorine gas. Once the gas was made his plan was to drop the bombs in a fifteen mile radius. This would make the enemies run for their lives. After they started running the German soldiers would march in with gas masks and kill the rest of the people. This is Habers way to get into Paris. Many scientists didn’t like his idea, but Haber said that the French already used gas before and it could end up saving more lives because the war would be over faster. When the tests for this gas started it was so dangerous Haber almost died from suffocation. When the gas was perfected the German officers didn’t want to use it because it wasn’t civil and the allied troops would come up with something just as evil soon enough. The gas would as be seen from a mile and the troops could just get away. Just as the officers said no the battles were getting worse the bodies were piling up and at the battle of Ypres the gas was finally used it was called Operation Disinfection. They used small amount of gas than Haber was using because the officers were worried it the gas couldn’t be contained. Some soldiers buried the canisters containing the gas at Ypres so the allied soldiers didn’t know what was coming. Battle after battle the gas couldn’t be sued because the wind would blow the gas into the faces for the Germans so Haber waited. Sometimes bullets from the battles would hit the canisters and injure the German troops. The Germans started to think the idea was a waste of time because the allies would just make a gas to hurt the Germans and it would work for them because they had the wind on their side. Haber nervously kept saying it will work and it would take the allied scientists months to get their own gas so the war would be won by then. Finally on April 22nd 1915 the gas was deployed in the evening toward the French. The French panicked and ran far from the gas making an opening into Paris for the Germans. The Germans ended up waiting their chance to win the war because they went slowly because they didn’t wanna die from the gas because they were very unsure if it would harm them. As the Germans slowly went thought the Canadians got there and surrounded them. The reservoir troops that were needed to make it through had been sent to the East because the Germans thought this gas technique wouldn’t work. More allied troops filled the gap and Paris was now secure again. When some Germans went to see if the gas worked how Haber wanted it to they saw that not many allied soldiers had died and this is how Haber wanted it. Even Though Haber did pick a deadly gas he didn’t want many people to actually die from it they just wanted them to panic and run away. For discovering this technique Haber got to meet the Kaiser and was praised by him and given a Iron Cross for his work. The British decided to make their own gas and gave wetted handkerchiefs so the gas wouldn’t affect their troops. The allied troops were still pushed back by the gas, but not by much. When The British made their own gas the first time they tried it it blew back in their faces and killed as many of them as it did Germans. Both sides needed stronger gases.

Clara hated that her husband was making these weapons with chemistry. Chemistry was suppose to help people not kill them. Also one of Clara’s friends were just killed in a chemical explosion now her husband was using this for fame. Haber decided to throw a party before he left for the East to make gas canisters to defeat the Russians. Clara went to the garden out back and wrote letters then shot herself. By the time Haber got to her she was dead. Haber then left for the East abandoning Hermann. Her suicide was due to her husband's role in the war and because she was disappointed that she couldn’t live up to what she wanted her life to be. Her family also was prone to depression her sister too committed suicide.

After the death of his wife Haber didn’t waste anytime being sad about Clara he just went back to work. Due to signing the “Manifesto to the Civilized World” and other nations finding out he made to gas attacks he became a war criminal in other nations.

While Haber had these things going on Karl Bosch was working on the factories being built in Luena. These machines were to be as big as small cities. BASF got all this money from the German government because they needed nitrates for explosives so bad. They were to start off making 5,000 tons of nitrates a month and soon make it 75,000 tons of nitrates a month. The Germans were suffering because the war wasn’t going well and if this plant didn’t work the Germans would lose. The deadline for the factory was one year to be built. BASF pretty much confiscated all the farmland in Luena to build the factory. The workers were some from BASF, but many volunteered for the war so many of the workers were new and unskilled. BASF even had to hire women which was new for them. April 27th 1917 the ammonia started to flow out of the machines to make nitrates. It started to make 36,000 tons a year to 160,000 a expansion was planned to make 240,000 tons a year. Luena is why the Germans were still in the war without it they would have lost. Historians say that World War One would have been a year or two shorter without to plant. But on November 9th 1918 Germany finally surrendered the war.