HAHN, Professor Dr Otto (1879-1968)

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form. Typescript text in German entitled 'Beziehungen zu Nichtariern' ('Relationships with non-Aryans'), dated Jul 1945, relating to the treatment of Hahn's Jewish friends and colleagues in Germany, 1933-1945. Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and published in hard copy in the Centre's reading room. Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services. Born 1879; educated at Klinger Oberrealschule, Frankfurt, University of Marburg an der Lahn and University of Munich, Germany; Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry, 1901; military service with 81 Infantry Regt, Frankfurt, Germany, 1901-1902; Assistant to Professor Theodor Zincke, 1902-1904; Sir William Ramsay's Institute, University College London, 1904-1905; discovered Radiothorium, 1905; works with Professor Ernest Rutherford, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1905-1906; discovered Radioactinium, 1906; joins Emil Fischer's Institute, Berlin, Germany, 1906-1907; discovered Mesothorium, 1907; Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Berlin, Germany, 1907; Professor, 1910; Member of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry, 1912; served in German Army Engineering Corps, Western Front, World War One, 1914-1918; discovered, with Lise Meitner, radioactive metallic element Protactinium, 1918; discovered Uranium-Z, the first nuclear isomer, 1922; awarded Emil Fischer Medal by Society of German Chemists, 1922; Direktor, Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fr Chemie, Berlin-Dahlem, 1928; Visiting Professor, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, 1933; awarded Canizzaro Prize by Royal Academy of Science, Rome, Italy, 1938; announcement, with Fritz Strassman, of fission of Uranium, 1939; awarded Copernicus Prize by the University of Knigsberg, 1941; awarded Cothenius Medal by German Academy of Naturalists, 1943; arrested by Allied forces and interned in UK, 1945; awarded 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1945; President, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft), 1946-1960; awarded Golden Paracelsus Medal from the Swiss Chemical Society, 1953; awarded Faraday Medal by the British Chemical Society, 1956; Hon President, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 1960-1968; Hon Fellow, University College London, 1968; died 1968. Publications: Was lehrt uns die Radioaktivitt ber die Geschichte der Erde? (Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1926); Applied Radiochemistry (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA, 1936); Natrliche und knstliche Umwandlungen der Atomkerne (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Rome, 1941); Umwandlungen der chemischen Elemente und die Zerspaltung des Urans (Chalmers tekniska Hgskola Handlingar, Gteborg, Sweden, 1944); Knstliche Atomumwandlungen und die Spaltung schwerer Kerne (German Scientific Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, 1944); Die Kettenreaktion des Urans und ihre Bedeutung (Deutscher Ingenieur-Verlag, Dsseldorf, Germany, 1948); New atoms. Progress and some memories (Elsevier, New York, USA, 1950); Nutzbarmachung der Energie der Atomkerne (Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany, 1950); Atomenergie und Frieden by Lise Meitner and Hahn (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Vienna, Austria, 1954); Cobalt 60. Gefahr oder Segen fr die Menschheit (Musterschmidt Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Gttingen, Germany, 1955); Vom Radiothor zur Uranspaltung (Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig, Germany, 1962); Otto Hahn: a scientific autobiography (MacGibbon and Kee, London, 1967); Mein Leben (Bruckmann, Munich, Germany, 1968); My life, translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins (Macdonald, London, 1970).