Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, 1913, at the KWI for Chemistry in Berlin

Otto Hahn (March 8, 1879 – July 28, 1968) was a German chemist and received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is considered a pioneer of radioactivity and radiochemistry, and regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry" by Glenn T. Seaborg, who was also a Nobel prize winner in Chemistry and President of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Hahn was also called the "founder of the atomic age" by his contemporaries and, officially, by the senate and the scientists of the Max Planck Society. Image File history File links Otto_Hahn_und_Lise_Meitner. ... Image File history File links Otto_Hahn_und_Lise_Meitner. ... is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 209th day of the year (210th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... This is a list of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to 2006. ... Radioactivity may mean: Look up radioactivity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Glenn Theodore Seaborg (April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements,[1] contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, developed the actinide concept and was the first to propose the actinide series which led...

Childhood

Otto Hahn was born on March 8, 1879, in Frankfurt am Main, the youngest son of the glazier and entrepreneur Heinrich Hahn (1845-1922) ("Glasbau Hahn") and his wife Charlotte Hahn, née Giese (1845-1905). Together with his brothers Karl, Heiner and Julius, he 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. His father Heinrich, who became prosperous thanks to his hard work and thrift, and the originality of his ideas, would have liked Otto Hahn to study architecture, as he had built or acquired several residential and business properties. But his son Otto succeeded in persuading him that his ambition was to become an industrial chemist. For other uses, see Frankfurt (disambiguation). ...

Education

In 1897, after taking his Abitur at the Klinger Oberrealschule in Frankfurt, Hahn begun to study chemistry and mineralogy at the University of Marburg. His subsidiary subjects were physics and philosophy. Here, Hahn joined the Students' Association of Natural Sciences and Medicine, which was 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. In 1901, Hahn received his doctorate in Marburg for a dissertation entitled On Bromine Derivates of Isoeugenol, a topic from the field of classical organic chemistry. 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. University of Marburg - Department of Social Sciences and University library The old university The University of Marburg (German: Philipps-Universität Marburg Philips University, Marburg), was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (usually called the Magnanimous, although the updated meaning haughty is sometimes given) as the... Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (October 31, 1835 - August 20, 1917) was a German chemist who synthesized indigo, and was the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . ... Organic chemistry is a specific discipline within chemistry which involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of chemical compounds consisting primarily of carbon and hydrogen, which may contain any number of other elements, including nitrogen, oxygen, halogens as well... Theodor Zincke (May 19, 1843 - March 17, 1928) was a German chemist an the academic adviser of Otto Hahn. ...

Early research

Hahn's intention was 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, famous for his discovery of inert gases. Here Hahn worked on radiochemistry, which at that time was still a relatively new field. In 1905, in the course of his work with salts of the element radium, Hahn discovered a substance he called radiothorium (thorium 228), which at that time was believed to be a new radioactive element. (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 the autumn of 1905, Hahn transferred to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in order to pursue further research under Sir Ernest Rutherford. It was here that Hahn discovered the new radioactive elements thorium C, radium D and radioactinium (as he termed them). Affiliations University of London Russell Group LERU EUA ACU Golden Triangle G5 Website http://www. ... Categories: People stubs | 1852 births | 1916 deaths | Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners | Discoverer of a chemical element ... Frederick Soddy in 1922. ... McGill University. ... Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM PC FRS (30 August 1871 - 19 October 1937), widely referred to as Lord Rutherford, was a nuclear physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. ...

In the summer of 1906 Hahn returned to Germany, where he collaborated with Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin. Fischer placed at his disposal a former woodworking shop in the Chemical Institute to use as his own laboratory ("Holzwerkstatt"). 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. 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). In June 1907, by means of the traditional habilitation thesis, Hahn qualified to teach at the University of Berlin. 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. So began the thirty-year collaboration and lifelong close friendship between the two scientists. Hermann Emil Fischer (October 9, 1852 - July 15, 1919) was a German chemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1902. ... The surname Boltwood can refer to: Bertram Boltwood (1870-1927), American pioneer of radiochemistry Paul Boltwood, Canadian amateur astronomer Category: ... This article is about the chemist and physicist. ... Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (October 31, 1835 - August 20, 1917) was a German chemist who synthesized indigo, and was the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . ... Lise Meitner ca. ...

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 in the alpha transformation and interpreting it correctly. "...a profoundly significant discovery in physics with far-reaching consequences", as the physicist Walther Gerlach put it. Walther Gerlach (1 August 1889 - 10 August 1979) was a German physicist. ...

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). Succeeding Alfred Stock, Hahn was Director of the Institute from 1928 to 1946. 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). Einstein redirects here. ... This article is about Planck, the German physicist. ... Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development of synthetic ammonia, important for fertilisers and explosives. ... Max von Laue (October 9, 1879 in Pfaffendorf, Germany - April 24, 1960 in Berlin, Germany) was a German physicist, who studied under Max Planck. ...

In June 1911, while attending a conference in Stettin (today: Szczecin, Poland) Otto Hahn met the young and highly sensitive art student Edith Junghans (1887-1968). 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 until his early death in 1915 was President of the City Parliament. On April 9, 1922 the couple had their only son, Hanno, who would become 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, in memory of Hanno and Ilse Hahn and in support of talented young art historians, the internationally respected "Hanno and Ilse Hahn Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Italian Art History" was established. It is awarded biennally by the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, in Rome). Stettin redirects here. ...

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. 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. James Franck (August 26, 1882 - May 21, 1964) was a German-born physicist and Nobel laureate. ... Gustav Ludwig Hertz (July 22, 1887, Hamburg – October 30, 1975, Berlin) was a German physicist, and a nephew of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. ... Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development of synthetic ammonia, important for fertilisers and explosives. ...

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. 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. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, 1993 Carl Friedrich Freiherr (Baron) von Weizsäcker (28 June 1912, Kiel – 28 April 2007, Söcking near Starnberg) was a German physicist and philosopher. ...

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. 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. "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. 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. 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." These were the words of Glenn T. Seaborg, President of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, in 1966. In chemistry, coprecipitation (CPT) or co-precipitation is the carrying down by a precipitate of substances normally soluble under the conditions employed. ...

The discovery of nuclear fission

Jointly with Lise Meitner and his pupil and assistant Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980), Otto Hahn continued the research work that the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his team had started in 1934 when they bombarded uranium with neutrons. Until 1938 all scientists believed that the elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (which are known as transuranium elements) arise when uranium atoms are bombarded with neutrons. The German chemist Ida Noddack proposed an exception. She anticipated the paradigm change of 1938/39 when in the journal "Angewandte Chemie", Nr. 47, 1934, 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. Fritz Strassman (February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German physical chemist who, along with Otto Hahn, discovered the nuclear fission of uranium in 1938. ... Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, particle physics and statistical mechanics. ...

On July 13, 1938, with the preparatory help and support of Hahn, Lise Meitner emigrated illegally via Holland to Stockholm, Sweden, as she had lost her Austrian citizenship after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938, and as she was of Jewish origin she was particularly at risk.

Otto Hahn continued the work with Fritz Strassmann on elucidating the outcome of the bombardment of uranium with thermal neutrons. When in December 1938 Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann looked for transuranium elements in a uranium sample that had been bombarded with neutrons, they found traces of the element barium. 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. General Name, symbol, number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, period, block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Standard atomic weight 238. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Wilhelm Traube (10 January 1866 – 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.

Hahn's and Strassmann's radiochemical findings were first published on January 6, 1939, in the scientific journal "Die Naturwissenschaften" and were the the irrefutable proof, that the uranium nucleus had been split into fragments consisting of lighter elements. On February 10, 1939, Hahn's and Strassmann's second paper on the discovery of the so called "uranium fission" was published in the same journal "Die Naturwissenschaften". One day later, February 11, 1939 (Otto Hahn having previously informed his colleague and friend of the chemical experiments by letter) Lise Meitner and her nephew, the physicist Otto Robert Frisch, who had also emigrated to Sweden, published the first physical-theoretical explanation of the "uranium fission" in the English journal "Nature" under the title "A new type of nuclear reaction." This was when Otto Robert Frisch coined the term "nuclear fission", which subsequently became internationally known. Otto Robert Frisch (1 October 1904–22 September 1979), Austrian-British physicist. ...

"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" wrote Lise Meitner in a later appreciation. And in an interview on German television (ARD, March 8, 1959) she went on to say: "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." And Fritz Strassmann responded with this clarification: "Professor Meitner stated that the success could be attributed to chemistry. 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."

During the war, Otto Hahn - together with his pupils Hans Joachim Born, Siegfried Flügge, Hans Götte, Walter Seelmann-Eggebert and Fritz Strassmann - worked on uranium fission reactions. 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, Otto 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 and groceries for hiding Jewish people in Berlin. As early as 1934, Hahn resigned from the University of Berlin in protest against the dismissal of Jewish colleagues, notably Lise Meitner, Fritz Haber and James Franck.

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. 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. 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. Otto 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. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The German nuclear energy project was an endeavor by scientists during World War II in Nazi Germany to develop nuclear energy and an atomic bomb for practical use. ... Switzerland. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Max von Laue (October 9, 1879 - April 24, 1960) was a German physicist, who studied under Max Planck. ... Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics and acknowledged to be one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. ... Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, 1993 Carl Friedrich Freiherr (Baron) von Weizsäcker (28 June 1912, Kiel – 28 April 2007, Söcking near Starnberg) was a German physicist and philosopher. ... For other uses, see Hiroshima (disambiguation). ... Nagasaki ) ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ...

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry

In November 1945 the Royal Swedish Academy awarded Hahn the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, "for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei", as the official citation read. King Gustav V. of Sweden finally made the presentation to him on December 10, 1946.

"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. And Lise 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."

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. 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". 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, Otto Hahn was repeatedly proposed by international organizations, including the largest French trade union CGT, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Linus Pauling, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962, once described Otto Hahn as "an inspiration to me." The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. ... The Mainau Declaration was an appeal against the use of nuclear weapons. ... Lester B. Pearson after accepting the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ...

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). 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. In 1961 Pope John XXIII awarded him the Gold Medal of the Papal Academy. (In 1957 Hahn was elected a honorary citizen of the city of Magdeburg, German Democratic Republic, and in 1958 a honorary member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He declined both honours). For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ... Presumed portrait of Paracelsus, attributed to the school of Quentin Matsys. ... In physics, the faraday (not to be confused with the farad) is a unit of electrical charge; one faraday is equal to the charge of 6. ... Please post proper article, this page was tampered with, thank you. ... Chiang Kai-sheks Légion dhonneur. ... The Order Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max (German: Blauer Max), was Prussias highest military order until the end of World War I. The award was a blue-enameled Maltese Cross with eagles between the arms, the Prussian royal cypher, and the French legend Pour... See also: 15th-century Antipope John XXIII. Pope John XXIII (Latin: ; Italian: ), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (November 25, 1881 – June 3, 1963), known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City on October 28, 1958. ...

In 1966 US-President Lyndon B. Johnson and the US Atomic Energy Commission in Washington D.C. awarded Otto Hahn the Enrico Fermi Prize (together with Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann). This was the only time that foreign scientists were honoured with this award. The Enrico Fermi Award is a U.S. government Presidential award honoring scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. ...

Otto Hahn, honorary citizen of the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Göttingen and the land and the city of Berlin, died at July, 28th, 1968 in Göttingen. The next day, 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. 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." Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ... Göttingen marketplace with old city hall, Gänseliesel fountain and pedestrian zone Göttingen ( ) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ...

Legacy

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 intention is, however, that element no. 108, Hassium should be renamed Hahnium in the future. 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. 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2076x1279, 352 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2076x1279, 352 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The names for the chemical elements 104 to 108 have been the subject of a major controversy starting in the 1960s which was only finally resolved in 1997. ... General Name, Symbol, Number dubnium, Db, 105 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 5, 7, d Appearance unknown, probably silvery white or metallic gray Atomic mass (262) g/mol Electron configuration perhaps [Rn] 5f14 6d3 7s2 (guess based on tantalum) Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 11... 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. ... General Name, Symbol, Number hassium, Hs, 108 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 7, d Appearance unknown, probably silvery white or metallic gray Atomic mass (269) g/mol Electron configuration perhaps [Rn] 5f14 6d6 7s2 (guess based on osmium) Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 14... The names for the chemical elements 104 to 108 have been the subject of a major controversy starting in the 1960s which was only finally resolved in 1997. ... The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Prizewinner Professor Dr. Dr. h. ...

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, 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 (rhododendrum luteum Otto Hahn), Dutch rose growers named a new variety of rose "Otto Hahn".

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).

Appreciations and Opinions

"Hahn is a capital fellow, and has done his work admirably. I am sure that you would enjoy having him to work with you." (Prof. Dr. Sir William Ramsay, London, to Prof. Ernest Rutherford, Montreal, 1905).

"He is a pleasant fellow, unassuming, completely trustworthy and highly talented - and I have come to like him very much. I can strongly recommend him as one of the best workers I know." (Prof. Dr. Sir William Ramsay, London, to Prof. Dr. Emil Fischer, Berlin, 1905).

"Hahn has a special nose for discovering new elements." (Prof. Dr. Ernest Rutherford, Montreal, 1906).

"He is doing the best work in Germany at present." (Prof. Dr. Ernest Rutherford, Manchester, 1910).

"Dr. Hahn is not reliable of speech, when speaking of himself. He says he is not learned, not distinguished, not famous as a scientist. He sacrifices truth to modesty - and I sympathize with him in his temptation." (Dr. Ronald E. Knowles, Toronto, 1933).

"Your discovery has caused a huge sensation in the whole scientific world, and every laboratory which has the necessary means is now working on the consequences of your discovery." (Prof. Dr. Rudolf Ladenburg, Princeton, February 22nd, 1939).

"It must certainly be a great joy for you and Strassmann that you have made the whole world of physics excited. That is really wonderful!" (Prof. Dr. Lise Meitner, Stockholm, to Otto Hahn, February 24th, 1939).

"Otto Hahn's humane and scientific personality is an indivisible whole. A very lively intellectual intuition, a very sound ability, an exceptional and critical ability for observation, an unshakeable dependability and doggedness next to great inner modesty and natural kindness mark the man as they do his work." (Prof. Dr. Lise Meitner, Stockholm, 1939).

"A man of the world. He has been the most helpful of the professors and his sense of humour and common sense has saved the day on many occasions. He is definitely friendly disposed to England and America." (Major Terence H. Rittner, Farmhall near Cambridge, summer 1945).

"Never has a Nobelprize-winner been in the outward sense so absent at a Nobel festival as Professor Hahn. And I suppose, too, that no Nobelprize-winner has ever, through the consequences of his discoveries, been so intensely present to our consciousness. Alfred Nobel hoped that in dynamite he had discovered such a powerful explosive that future wars would be impossible. The hope was not fulfilled; but dynamite is used today mostly for peaceful purposes. May we venture to hope the same of atomic energy? Hahn's discovery of the cleavage of atoms is the crowning feat, so far, in a series of discoveries for which Nobelprizes have been awarded. We acclaim today this celebrated researcher's scientific achievements." (Prof. Dr. Axel Hugo Theorell at the Nobelprize ceremony, Stockholm, December 10th, 1945).

"No living man has so successfully spanned the world of discovery from radiothorium to fission, one of the greatest - if not the greatest - discovery of all times." (Prof. Dr. Samuel C. Lind, Minneapolis, 1951).

"With his humour and his sound humanity Otto Hahn quickly gained ground at the Geneva Conference to which we other members of the German delegation became very indebted. We even went to the official Soviet reception, at which we were also able to bask in Hahn's fame. This visit took place against resistance from the Foreign Office, for the Federal Republic of Germany had no diplomatic relations with Moscow." (Prof. Dr. Karl Winnacker, Bonn, 1955).

"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." (Prof. Dr. Lise Meitner, Stockholm, 1955).

"The significance accorded to the outcome from the scientific point of view becomes clear when one reads in the first publication of nuclear fission that Professor Hahn, who had over thirty years of practical and theoretical experience in the sphere of radioactivity and whose judgement unquestionably commanded the greatest weight among fellow scientists both in Germany and the whole world, announced the new discovery only hesitatingly. The radiochemical methods he applied, which were partly developed by him, tested out hundreds of times in the course of thirty years, and found to be reliable, did not permit any doubt about the finding." (Prof. Dr. Fritz Strassmann, Mainz, 1956).

"Otto Hahn is a figure of world history. But he possesses none of the attributes of the traditional luminaries in history books. His slight, somewhat bowed figure, which with its high brow has the effect of his features having been carved, with his expression of searching honesty and critical inviolability, have something of a boundless nobility about them." (The Observer, London, June 9th, 1957).

"Hahn is an old wally who can not hold back his tears or sleep at night if he thinks of Hiroshima." (Franz Josef Strauss, German Minister of Defence, Bonn, 1957).

"His father city Frankfurt am Main thus honours a scholar of worldwide fame, who, as a result of his trail-blazing discoveries in the sphere of atomic research, radioactivity and radiochemistry, enjoys a surpassing reputation in the world. The city at the same time stresses its bonds with a personality of exceptional talent and creative energy, whose scientific and administrative work serve progress and the well-being of the whole of humanity." (The attestation of honorary citizenship in the diploma of the city of Frankfurt am Main, 1959).

"Hahn and Strassmann were able to discover nuclear fission by exceptionally good chemistry, fantastically good chemistry, which was way ahead of what anyone else was capable of at that time. The Americans learned it to do later. But at that time, in 1938, Hahn and Strassmann were really the only ones who could do it, because they were such good chemists." (Prof. Dr. Lise Meitner in an interview with the German television, ARD, 1959).

"Professor Meitner stated that nuclear fission could be attributed to chemistry. I have to make a slight correction. Chemistry merely isolated the individual substances, but did not precisely identify them. It took Professor Hahn's method to do this. This was his achievement." (Prof. Dr. Fritz Strassmann in the same interview with the German television, ARD, 1959).

"Otto Hahn was also in Geneva. He was small and quiet, with a retiring manner. Little tufts of thin white hair framed his face, and there was often a bewildered expression in his blue eyes, as if he were still astonished at the great things that had come from his discovery of fission." (Dr. Laura Fermi, widow of Prof. Dr. Enrico Fermi, Chicago, 1961).

"I must emphasise, that this proof of fission with such a low presence of the identifying preparation was in actuality a masterpiece of radiochemistry, in which at that time hardly anybody else other than Otto Hahn and Strassmann would have been able to succeed." (Prof. Dr. Lise Meitner, Cambridge, 1963).

"Can one, may one, hold the researcher responsible for the consequences of his work? Everyone who knew Otto Hahn knew with what unsparing clarity he had put this question to himself. We admire him, who as a researcher in his work, just as much as a man in his thought and deed, was ever a model of uprightness and conscientiousness, and even more so by the questions and answers he raised and gave by virtue of his personal conduct." (Prof. Dr. Max Steenbeck, Berlin, 1964).

"It has been given to very few men to make contributions to science and to humanity of the magnitude of those made by Otto Hahn. He has made those contributions over a span of nearly two generations, beginning with a key role in the earliest days of radiochemistry in investigating and unraveling the complexities of the natural radioactivities and culminating with his tremendous discovery of the nuclear fission of uranium. I believe that it is fair to refer to Otto Hahn as the father of radiochemistry and of its more recent offspring, nuclear chemistry. For his special genius the world of science will be forever grateful." (Prof. Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, President of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, 1966).

"In postwar Germany, Otto Hahn became the most revered elder statesman of what had once been Europe's proudest scientific establishment. He collected many awards, including a Nobelprize in Chemistry for his discovery of fission. But he always accepted such honours with characteristic humility. Visiting an atomic reactor or nuclear power station, he would shrug modestly: 'It has all been the work of others.' In a soon-to-be-published 300-page memoir, he brushed off his historic workin fewer than five pages. Last week, at he age of 89, the father of fission died peacefully in his beloved Göttingen." (TIME Magazine, New York, August 9th, 1968).

"There are occurrences far removed from social and political events, let alone any sensation, and without relation to the course of history - and yet their taking place leads the world, deeply moved, to hold its breath for a moment, and people, far and wide, to halt for a moment of reflection amid the rush of the everyday: Otto Hahn, almost 90 years old, has left the world. A good, a simple man has entered his name in both the history of the natural sciences and the history of humanity. As long as intellect and character, scholarship and humanity maintain their value, Otto Hahn will be of relevance to the coming generations." (Prof. Dr. Walther Gerlach, Munich, 1968).

"Hahn remained modest and informal all his life. His disarming frankness, unfailing kindness, good common sense and impish humour will be remembered by his many friends all over the world." (Prof. Dr. Otto Robert Frisch, Cambridge, 1968).

"The number of those who had been able to be near Otto Hahn is small. His behaviour was completely natural to him, but for the next generations he will serve as a model, regardless of whether one admires in the attitude of Otto Hahn his humane and scientific sense of responsibility or his personal courage." (Prof. Dr. Fritz Strassmann, Mainz, 1968).

"Otto Hahn's achievements are known universally and will hold a special place in the history of science. He is remembered too for his whole character, his generosity of spirit, his belief in the proper use of scientific discovery and for his humanity." (The Royal Society, London, 1970).

"He had an honesty and integrity which commanded the respect and trust of all." (Prof. Dr. Sir James Chadwick, Cambridge, 1970).

"It was remarkable, how, after the war, this rather unassuming scientist who had spent a lifetime in the laboratory, became an effective administrator and an important public figure in Germany. Hahn, famous as the discoverer of nuclear fission, was respected and trusted for his human qualities, simplicity of manner, transparent honesty, common sense and loyalty." (Prof. Dr. Robert Spence, London, 1970).

"I often thought, that he would have deserved a second Nobelprize - the Nobelprize for peace." (Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Rona, Miami, 1978).

"He was one of my models." (Prof. Dr. Linus Pauling, Pasadena, at the Nobel conference in Lindau, Bavaria, 1981).

"Otto Hahn is widely portrayed as a warm, considerate, charming person. The characterization is accurate. In fact, precisely because the personality of this decent human being suffered no great changes throughout his career, he offers us a touchstone to determined the extent of changes in scientists' perceptions of their obligations to society during the twentieth century. The important thing is not that scientists may disagree on where their responsibility to society lies, but that they are conscious that a responsibility exists, are vocal about it, and when they speak out they expect to affect policy. Otto Hahn, it would seem, was even more than just an example of this twentieth-century conceptual evolution; he was a leader in the process." (Prof. Dr. Lawrence Badash, Santa Barbara, California, 1983).

"The discovery by Otto Hahn that the uranium nucleus could be split marks, on the one hand, the culmination of one of the most fascinating periods in the history of physics and, on the other, heralds the advent of a new age in Man's understanding and mastery of nature." (Prof. Dr. William R. Shea, Montreal, 1983).

"Ever since my early youth, I have admired Otto Hahn as a scientist and a human being. The reason for Hahn's peace work was simply that, knowing more than other citizens about atomic weapons, he felt it his duty to speak about this issue that was so crucial for mankind. He could make things clear, he had to use his knowledge. And it is why Otto Hahn, with atomic weapons in mind, wrote shortly before his death of 'the necessity of world peace'." (Prof. Dr. Sir Karl Popper, Kenley near London, 1993).

"Thanks to his moral integrity Otto Hahn was trusted everywhere. He used it to point uncompromisingly to three important goals. For him the cessation of nuclear weapon tests, not transferring atomic weapons in order not to let the number of atomic powers become larger, and general disarmament were the essential challenges. Hahn occasionally emphasised that he was not a politician. Yet his speeches, appeals, warnings, and his appearance in public betrayed a purposeful political engagement. His distinctively humanitarian convictions directed him logically to this path. - As we must conclude, Otto Hahn is not to be held personally responsible for the consequences of his discovery, but he suffered from them and because of the constantly smouldering conflicts of conscience became a tireless watchman for the world of a life worth living, at peace, without anxiety caused by the atom. His engagement with science, humanity and peace is exemplary and to be remembered for following generations." (Dr. Klaus Hoffmann, Dresden, author of 'Otto Hahn - Achievement and Responsibility', New York etc. 2001.

Publications

- A selection -

• Otto Hahn: Applied Radiochemistry. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1936. Humphrey Milford, London 1936. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1936.

• Otto Hahn: New Atoms - Progress and some memories. Edited by W. Gaade. Elsevier Inc., New York-Amsterdam-London-Brussels 1950.

• Otto Hahn: A Scientific Autobiography. Introduction by Glenn T. Seaborg. Translated and edited by Willy Ley. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1966. British edition: McGibbon and Kee, London 1967.

• Otto Hahn: My Life. Preface by Sir James Chadwick. Translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins. Macdonald & Co., London 1970. American edition: Herder and Herder, New York 1970.

Further reading

- A selection of books in English -

• Laura Fermi: The Story of Atomic Energy. Random House, New York 1962.
• Ernst H. Berninger: Otto Hahn 1879-1968. (English edition) Inter Nationes, Bonn 1970.
• R. W. Reid: Tongues of Conscience. Constable & Co., London 1969.
• Robert Spence: Otto Hahn - Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. Volume 16, London 1970.
• Hans D. Graetzer, David L. Anderson: The Discovery of Nuclear Fission. A documentary history. Van Nostrand-Reinhold, New York 1971.
• Glenn T. Seaborg: Nuclear Milestones. San Francisco 1972.
• Alan D. Beyerchen: Scientists under Hitler. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1977.
• David Nachmansohn: German-Jewish Pioneers in Science 1900-1933. Highlights in Atomic Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry. Springer Inc., New York etc. 1979.
• Anthony Feldman, Peter Ford: Otto Hahn - in: Scientists and Inventors. Aldus Books, London 1979.
• Ronald W. Clark: The Greatest Power on Earth. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1980.
• William R. Shea (Ed.): Otto Hahn and the Rise of Nuclear Physics. Reidel, Dordrecht-Boston-Lancaster 1983.
• Alwyn McKay: The Making of the Atomic Age. Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 1984.
• Richard Rhodes: The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon and Schuster, New York 1988.
• J.A. Revill, Sir Charles Frank (Ed.): Operation Epsilon. The Farmhall Transcripts. IOP Publishing, Bristol-Philadelphia 1993.
• Klaus Hoffmann: Otto Hahn - Achievement and Responsibility. Springer Inc., New York-London-Paris-Singapore-Tokyo etc. 2001.
• Horst Kant: Otto Hahn and the Declarations of Mainau and Göttingen. Berlin 2002.
• Jim Whiting: Otto Hahn and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission. Mitchell Lane, Hockessin 2004.
• Lise Meitner: Recollections of Otto Hahn. S. Hirzel. Stuttgart 2005.

See also

• Hahn Meitner Institute (HMI), Berlin
• Otto Hahn Prize
• Otto Hahn Medal
• Otto Hahn Peace Medal

The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Prizewinner Professor Dr. Dr. h. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Otto Hahn

• Annotated bibliography for Otto Hahn from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• (German) Biography of Otto Hahn
• (German) Biography of Otto Hahn
• Hahn is a German noun meaning "Rooster".
• R. Spence (1970). "Otto Hahn. 1879-1968". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 16 (1): 279-313. 

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References