5. The early years after the Second World War
In the early post-war years the
institute was supported by the Berlin City Council. However, scientific
work was only barely possible. Robert Havemann, who had held a scholarship
at the institute in 1932 and 1933, was appointed head of the institute by
the City Council. In Hitler Germany time Havemann had played a key role in
the antifascist group "European Union". He was caught by the
Nazis, and in 1943 sentenced to death. The execution was postponed, and he
was luckily freed from prison by the Soviet troops in 1945. I. N.
Stranski, K. Molière and K. Ueberreiter resumed their work at the
institute as best as possible considering the external conditions. Hartmut
Kallmann, who had worked with Haber for many years before 1933, returned
to the institute from his industrial refuge for a short time. In 1948,
however, he accepted an offer to become Professor of Physics at the New
York University.
The districts within the U.S.
occupation zone did not resume responsibility and financing of the
institute until June 1947. At that time the institute received a grant for
the "German Research Colleges of Berlin-Dahlem". This
organization included the institute together with Otto Warburg's Institute
for Cell Physiology and a group of several other Kaiser-Wilhelm
Institutes. In January 1948 R. Havemann was charged with being an active
member of the communist party, and by order of the American authorities he
was dismissed as director of the institute, but was still retained as a
Department Head. His department, however, was closed in the beginning of
1950, when he was accused of communist propaganda and banned from the
institute. He subsequently moved to East Berlin, where he already had held
a professorship for physical chemistry at the Humboldt university since
1947.
In the spring of 1948 a
department was set up in the institute for Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer who
was at the same time director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry at
the Humboldt-University of East-Berlin. In December 1948 he was appointed
director of the institute, but in 1949 he accepted the invitation of the
newly founded Max-Planck Society to become director of the new Max-Planck
Institute for Physical Chemistry in Göttingen. Nevertheless, he
continued to lead the institute until March 31, 1951. He brought Ernst
Ruska, the inventor of the electron microscope, to the institute as leader
of a Department of Electron Microscopy. Ruska was to set up this new
department (while still retaining his employment at Siemens) in order to
encourage fundamental research and further development in the field of
electron microscopy.
In his Department of Physical
Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Bonhoeffer attracted young scientists to
work in new fields of research. Georg Manecke developed new ion and
electron exchange type polymers, and produced the first immobilized
enzymes, i. e. enzymes coupled to polymer matrices, which are now of great
importance in biotechnology. Klaus J. Vetter built up a successful team in
electrochemistry. He developed new methods for the analysis of the
kinetics of electrochemical reactions and made an important contribution
to the understanding of the resistance of metals to corrosion. In 1961
both Manecke and Vetter moved to the Free University, as Professors of
Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, respectively, but they still
kept some institute laboratories as External Scientific Fellows of the
institute.
Apart from the department of
the institute director there was a large department headed by Iwan N.
Stranski who held also a position as Professor of Physical Chemistry at
the Technical University of Berlin. His department focused on
investigations concerning crystal structure, nucleation and crystal growth
processes. At a later stage, also studies on properties of zeolites and of
catalytic processes in such microporous solids were performed. In 1954 I.
N. Stranski became Deputy Director of the institute.
Erwin W. Müller, the
inventor of the field electron microscope, had been working as an
assistant in Stranski's department since 1947. During this period he
developed the field ion microscope which could achieve extremely high
resolution of atomic structures. In 1950 E. W. Müller was given his
own department in the institute but in 1952 he took up an appointment in
the USA. He remained connected with the institute as an External
Scientific Fellow until his death in 1977.
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