Fritz Shimon Haber was a German-born scientist and professor of
Jewish origin with a dual legacy, whose life illustrates the moral complexity facing scientists. Born and raised Jewish, his longing to be accepted as a true German and his intense ambition in his career led him to convert to
Lutheranism. In 1918, he won a
Nobel Prize, for developing an industrial scale process for the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere into
ammonia, used to both create
synthetic fertilizers used in agriculture, and explosives used in wars. Synthetic fertilizers themselves, while first seen as purely a positive development by increasing short term food productivity, have brought their own problems such as corporate
agribusiness and
soil depletion. The film turns on Haber's drafting by the German government to develop the chlorine gas used at
Ypres and elsewhere, an early form of chemical warfare, which was even then banned by the
Hague Conventions. Haber's wife
Clara Immerwahr was a promising chemist herself, who, in keeping with gender relations back in her time, had sacrificed her own career to support his, as well as raise a family. She felt oppressed by his domineering personality in their relationship, disapproved of Haber's use of science to engineer a horrible death for soldiers, and committed suicide. The day after she took her life, Haber left to supervise the introduction of chemical warfare to the
Eastern Front. ==Cast==