Otto Hahn was a German chemist and pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. In 1938, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered nuclear fission . He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for the discovery and the radiochemical proof of nuclear fission. This process is exploited by nuclear reactors and is one of the basics of nuclear weapons that were developed in the U.S, Britain, and Canada, during World War II.
He served as the last President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1946 and as the founding President of the Max Planck Society from 1948 to 1960. Considered by many to be a model for scholarly excellence and personal integrity, he became one of the most influential and respected citizens of the new postwar country West Germany.
Hahn was an opponent of national socialism and the persecution of Jews by the Nazi Party. Albert Einstein wrote that Hahn was "one of the very few who stood upright and did the best he could in these years of evil". After World War II, Hahn became a passionate campaigner against the use of nuclear energy as a weapon.
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Gewönlich wird eine Entdeckung nicht auf den einfachsten, sondern auf einem komplizierten Wege gemacht; die einfachen Fälle zeigen sich erst später.
Vom Radiothor zur Uranspaltung. Eine wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (1962).
