Clara Immerwahr

Clara Helene Immerwahr (; 21 June 1870 – 2 May 1915) was a German chemist. She was the first German woman to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Breslau, and is credited with being a pacifist as well as a "heroine of the women's rights movement". From 1901 until her suicide in 1915, she was married to the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Fritz Haber. Early life and education Immerwahr was born on the Polkendorff Farm near Breslau (then in eastern Prussia; now known as Wojczyce, in western Poland). She was the youngest daughter of Jewish parents, chemist Philipp Immerwahr and his wife Anna (née Krohn). She grew up on the farm with her three older siblings, Elli, Rose and Paul. In 1890, her mother died of cancer; while Elli and her husband Siegfried stayed at the farm, Clara moved with her father to Breslau. Immerwahr studied at the University of Breslau, attaining her degree and a PhD in chemistry under Richard Abegg in 1900, after 8 semesters of study (two more than required for male doctoral candidates). Her dissertation was entitled (Contributions to the Solubility of Slightly Soluble Salts of Mercury, Copper, Lead, Cadmium, and Zinc). She was the first woman Ph.D. at the University of Breslau and received the designation magna cum laude. Her thesis defense was held in the main hall of the university and was attended by many young women of the city, interested in seeing "" ("our first female doctor"). A few months after obtaining her degree, she gave a public lecture entitled "Chemistry and Physics in the Household." Marriage and work Immerwahr married Fritz Haber in August 1901, four years after she had converted to Christianity in 1897. The two had met years earlier at a dance lesson and started a brief romance, but Immerwahr turned down his marriage proposal at the time because she wanted to remain financially independent.