Bretislav Friedrich and Martin Wolf (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the successor institution of Haber’s institute) together with Dieter Hoffmann, Jürgen Renn, and Florian Schmaltz (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) organised an international symposium to commemorate the centenary of the infamous chemical attack. The symposium examined key aspects of chemical warfare from the first research on and deployment of chemical weapons in WWI to the development and use of chemical warfare during the century hence. The focus was on ethical, legal, and political issues of chemical weapons research and deployment — including the issue of dual use — as well as the ongoing effort to control the possession of chemical weapons and to ultimately achieve their elimination.
The symposium culminated in a Public Event that included a Minute of Silence, an address by Ghislain D’hoop (the Belgian Ambassador to Germany), a talk by Gerhard Ertl (2007 Chemistry Nobel Laureate) on the role of Fritz Haber and his institute in the development and deployment of chemical weapons in WWI, as well as a lecture by Paul Walker (Laureate of the 2013 Right Livelihood Award) on building a world free of chemical and other weapons.
The Public Event also featured an excerpt from Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Thomas Hennig’s composition to the words of Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce et decorum est, sung by Vernon Kirk (tenor) and Ralf Lukas (baritone).
Dulce et decorum est
Gerhard Ertl
Paul Walker
