History - The Early Years

...Otto Hahn was born in Frankfort, Germany in March of 1879. He was the youngest of 3 children. There was a building boom in Frankfort due to the foundation of the German Empire, and Otto Hahn’s father was able to benefit from this boom as his personal glazier building thrived. This thriving business allowed the family to have a high standard of life. Consequently, Otto was able to pursue a secondary education in Germany. Although chemistry and physics bored Otto while in secondary school, he studied chemistry at the University of Marburg (one of the best in Germany!) and also minored in physics and math. Hahn wrote a doctoral thesis on organic chemistry, and after submitting this to his Professor Zincke, passed his examinations to become Dr. Otto Hahn.

... Hahn then served in the army for a year before returning to Professor Zincke to become his assistant. When he was done his term with Professor Zincke, he was offered a desirable position at a firm for organic chemistry, but was required to speak other languages. Because of this, Otto Hahn travelled to England. When he arrived and met William Ramsay (recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904) his future path was formed; as per the instructions of Ramsay, Hahn would be working with radioactivity.

... After discovering radiothorium with the help from Ramsay, Ramsay tried more and more to help Hahn stay in the field of radioactivity. He told Hahn that he should go and study with Ernest Rutherford in Canada, then go to a well-respected university in Berlin where he would gain vital and irreplaceable knowledge. Otto went to Canada, and while working with Rutherford, discovered another unknown radioactive element, radioactinium. After this, Otto Hahn worked with many other notable scientists in Europe such as Lise Meitner, Gustav Hertz, and James Franck. For more information about Otto Hahn’s specific discoveries, check out the “what else they did” section. ¹

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