CLARA IMMERWAHR

Clara Immerwahr was born into a Jewish family, in present-day Poland, on a farm near Breslau, on June 21, 1870. She was the youngest of Anne and Philipp Immerwahr's four children. Her father was a chemist, and it was with him that Clara moved to Breslau after her mother's death in 1890. She was the first German woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry, from the University of Wrocław.[1]

In 1901 she married chemist Fritz Haber. She contributed to the advancement of her husband's research, however, due to the stereotype of the female role at the time, her participation was never recognized and her scientific research was hampered.

During the First World War, Haber collaborated intensely with German militarism and played an important role in the development of chemical weapons, especially poisonous gases. His efforts would culminate in the supervision of the Second Battle of Ypres, - in which there was the first gas attack in military history - in Flanders, Belgium on April 22, 1915. Haber later returned to Berlin.

Shortly after his return, Immerwahr, in possession of a Haber military pistol, committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. She died in her son's arms. The morning after his death Haber immediately left home to stage the first gas attack against the Russians on the Eastern Front.[2][3] Clara's suicide was never reported in the newspapers, and there is no evidence that there was an autopsy. The undocumented nature of his death led to controversy regarding the likely motives for suicide.

Grave at the Friedhof am Hörnli, Basel
Fritz Haber later remarried. He left Germany because of Nazi persecution. Fritz Haber died in Basel, Switzerland, in 1934.[4] Subsequently, Clara Immerwahr and Fritz Haber's son, Hermann Haber, emigrated to the United States and committed suicide in 1946.[4] One of his other sons, Ludwig ("Lutz") Fritz Haber (1921–2004, son of Fritz Haber and his second wife, Charlotte), published a book on the history of poisonous gas, The Poisonous Cloud (1986).

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