Fritz Strassmann

Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann was a German chemist. In 1938, he worked with Otto Hahn. They discovered that when uranium is hit by tiny particles called neutrons, it can break apart. This creates a new element called barium. This discovery was an important clue about something called nuclear fission.

In 1939, Strassmann and Hahn shared more ideas about nuclear fission. They suggested that when fission happens, more neutrons could be released. This helped scientists understand how a nuclear chain reaction could be possible. This idea later helped create nuclear power and other important technologies.

Early life

Friedrich Wilhelm (Fritz) Strassmann was born in Boppard, Germany, and grew up in Düsseldorf. He was the youngest of nine children. He liked chemistry a lot and even did experiments at home. His family did not have much money, especially after his father passed away when Fritz was young.

Strassmann began studying chemistry in 1920 at the Technical University of Hannover. He worked as a tutor to help pay for school. He got a diploma in chemical engineering in 1924 and later earned his PhD in physical chemistry in 1929. His research was about iodine in carbonic acid. He then joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem to study radiochemistry with Otto Hahn. Even after his money ran out, he kept working in Hahn's laboratory without getting paid.

Activities during Nazi rule

Fritz Strassmann left the Society of German Chemists in 1933 when the Nazi government took control. He was blacklisted and could not work in the chemical industry or do research on his own. Lise Meitner helped Otto Hahn find him a job as an assistant. Strassmann and his wife Maria chose not to join the Nazi Party. During World War II, they even hid a Jewish musician in their home, putting themselves in danger.

Strassmann kept working on radiochemistry during the war but did not help make weapons. In 1937 and 1938, he and Hahn found that barium was made when uranium was hit with neutrons. This surprising discovery led to the finding of nuclear fission, which was later explained by Meitner and Robert Frisch. Hahn won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 for this work, and Strassmann was recognized as an equal partner.

During World War II, Strassmann worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute from 1939 to 1946. He studied the products of fission in thorium, uranium, and neptunium, which helped learn more about the radiochemistry of actinide elements. He also created ways to date minerals using radioactive elements. In 1942 and 1943, he kept working on radiometric dating. The institute was bombed in 1944 and moved for a while to Tailfingen in Württemberg.

Post-war

In April 1945, Otto Hahn and other German scientists were taken away for safety. Fritz Strassmann led the chemistry section of their institute.

In 1946, Strassmann became a professor of inorganic and nuclear chemistry at the University of Mainz.

Strassmann helped build the university's nuclear chemistry department with very little money and space. He worked closely with students and asked for more funding. He also pushed for the university to get special equipment for research, including a neutron generator and a nuclear reactor. In 1967, the Institute for Nuclear Chemistry officially opened.

In 1957, Strassmann joined other scientists in Germany who spoke out against plans to use nuclear weapons. He retired in 1970 and passed away in 1980. In 1966, he received a major award in the United States, and in 1985, he was honored in Jerusalem for his good work.

Personal life

Fritz Strassmann married a fellow chemist named Maria Heckter in 1937. They met through a group of young musicians and had a son named Martin. Sadly, Maria passed away from illness in 1956. In 1959, Strassmann married again, this time to a journalist named Irmgard Hartmann, whom he had known for many years through the same musician group. Strassmann also enjoyed playing the violin.