Editing Otto Hahn (section)

==Death and Legacy==
===Death===
[[File:Grave of Otto Hahn at Stadtfriedhof Göttingen 2017 01.jpg|thumb|Hahn's grave in Göttingen. The inscription refers to his discovery of nuclear fission.]]
Hahn was shot in the back in October 1951 by a disgruntled inventor who wished to highlight the neglect of his ideas by mainstream scientists. Hahn was injured in a motor vehicle accident in 1952, and had a minor heart attack the following year. In 1962, he published a book, ''Vom Radiothor zur Uranspaltung'' (''From the radiothor to Uranium fission''). It was released in English in 1966 with the title ''Otto Hahn: A Scientific Autobiography'', with an introduction by Glenn Seaborg. The success of this book may have prompted him to write another, fuller autobiography, ''Otto Hahn. Mein Leben'', but before it could be published, he fractured one of the vertebrae in his neck while getting out of a car. He gradually became weaker and died in Göttingen on 28 July 1968. His wife Edith survived him by only a fortnight.{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=300–301}} He was buried in the [[Stadtfriedhof (Göttingen)|Stadtfriedhof]] in Göttingen.<ref>{{cite web |title=Grab von Otto Hahn aus Göttingen |website=www.friedhofguide.de |url=https://www.friedhofguide.de/grab/deutschland/G%C3%B6ttingen/Stadtfriedhof+G%C3%B6ttingen/Otto+Hahn+08.03.1879_28.07.1968 |access-date=28 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629233454/https://www.friedhofguide.de/grab/deutschland/G%C3%B6ttingen/Stadtfriedhof+G%C3%B6ttingen/Otto+Hahn+08.03.1879_28.07.1968 |archive-date=29 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nobelpreisträger auf dem Stadtfriedhof |trans-title=Nobel Prize winners at the City Cemetery |publisher=City of Göttingen |lang=de |url=http://www.goettingen.de/pics/medien/1_1229606299/Nobel-Rondell.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924022846/http://www.goettingen.de/pics/medien/1_1229606299/Nobel-Rondell.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The day after his death, the Max Planck Society published the following obituary notice:
{{blockquote|On 28 July, in his 90th year, our Honorary President Otto Hahn passed away. His name will be recorded in the history of humanity as [[atomic age|the founder of the atomic age]]. In him Germany and the world have lost a scholar who was distinguished in equal measure by his integrity and personal humility. The Max Planck Society mourns its founder, who continued the tasks and traditions of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society after the war, and mourns also a good and much loved human being, who will live in the memories of all who had the chance to meet him. His work will continue. We remember him with deep gratitude and admiration.<ref>Quoted in {{cite journal |first1=Markos |last1=Sgantzos |first2=George |last2=Kyrgias |first3=Panagiotis |last3=Georgoulias |first4=Marianna |last4=Karamanou |first5=Gregory |last5=Tsoucalas |first6=George |last6=Androutsos |title=Otto Hahn (1879–1968): Pioneer in Radiochemistry and Discoverer of Radiotherapeutic Mesothorium |journal= Journal of BUON |date=2014 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=866–869 |pmid=25261683 |issn=1107-0625 }}</ref> }}
Fritz Strassmann wrote:
{{blockquote|The number of those who had been able to be near Otto Hahn is small. His behaviour was completely natural for him, but for the next generations he will serve as a model, regardless of whether one admires in the attitude of Otto Hahn his humane and scientific sense of responsibility or his personal courage.<ref>{{cite news |last=Strassmann |first=Fritz |date=29 July 1968 |title=Zum Tode von Otto Hahn |trans-title=On the Death of Otto Hahn |lang=de |newspaper=Die Welt |location=Hamburg}}</ref>}}
Otto Robert Frisch recalled:
{{blockquote|Hahn remained modest and informal all his life. His disarming frankness, unfailing kindness, good common sense, and impish humour will be remembered by his many friends all over the world.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Frisch |first=Otto R. |author-link=Otto Robert Frisch |title=Otto Hahn |journal=Physics Bulletin |issn=0031-9112 |volume=19 |issue=10 |year=1968 |page=354 |doi=10.1088/0031-9112/19/10/010}}</ref>}}
The Royal Society in London wrote in an obituary:
{{blockquote|It was remarkable, how, after the war, this rather unassuming scientist who had spent a lifetime in the laboratory, became an effective administrator and an important public figure in Germany. Hahn, famous as the discoverer of nuclear fission, was respected and trusted for his human qualities, simplicity of manner, transparent honesty, common sense and loyalty.{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=301–302}} }}

===Legacy===
Hahn is considered the father of radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=ix}} He is chiefly remembered for the discovery of nuclear fission, the basis of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|pp=x–xi}} Glenn Seaborg wrote that "it has been given to very few men to make contributions to science and to humanity of the magnitude of those made by Otto Hahn".{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=ix}} His award of the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was in recognition of this discovery but was attainted by sexism and antisemitism in Meitner being overlooked.<ref name="Antisemitism">{{cite magazine|title=How Antisemitism and Professional Betrayal Marred Lise Meitner's Scientific Legacy |first1=Katie |last1=Hafner |first2=Ashraya |last2=Gupta |magazine=Scientific American |date=14 September 2023 |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-antisemitism-and-professional-betrayal-marred-lise-meitners-scientific-legacy/ |access-date=4 November 2024}}</ref> Conflict between chemists and physicists and the theorists and experimentalists also played a role.{{sfn|Crawford|Sime|Walker|1997|pp=27–32}} Hahn's efforts to rehabilitate the image of Germany after the war also became problematic. He was no Nazi, but tolerated those who were.{{sfn|Walker|2006|p=124}}{{sfn|Sime|2004|p=48}} He was not culpable, but was complicit.<ref name="Antisemitism" /> In a letter to [[James Franck]] dated 22 February 1946, Meitner wrote:{{blockquote|Hahn is without doubt a decent man with many good traits. He only lacks thoughtfulness and perhaps also a certain strength of character, things that in normal times are minor flaws, but in the complicated times of today have deeper implications.<ref name="Antisemitism" />}}

===Honours and awards===
During his lifetime Hahn was awarded orders, medals, scientific prizes, and fellowships of Academies, Societies, and Institutions from all over the world. At the end of 1999, the German news magazine ''[[Focus (German magazine)|Focus]]'' published an inquiry of 500 leading natural scientists, engineers, and physicians about the most important scientists of the 20th century. In this poll Hahn was elected third (with 81 points), after the theoretical physicists [[Albert Einstein]] and Max Planck, and thus the most significant chemist of his time.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Focus |title=Die Allmacht Der Unschärfe |trans-title=The Omnipotence of Blurring |language=de |first=Ernst Peter |last=Fischer |author-link=Ernst Peter Fischer |issue=52 |date=27 December 1999 |pages=103–108 |url=https://www.focus.de/wissen/mensch/focus-liste-die-50-top-forscher-die-allmacht-der-unschaerfe_aid_179705.html |access-date=28 June 2020 }}</ref>

As well as the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ([[List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry#1944|1944]]), Hahn was awarded:
* the [[Emil Fischer Medal]] of the Society of German Chemists (1922),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the Cannizaro Prize of the Royal Academy of Science in Rome (1938),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the Copernicus Prize of the [[University of Konigsberg]] (1941),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the Gothenius Medal of the [[Akademie der Naturforscher]] (1943),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the [[Max Planck Medal]] of the [[German Physical Society]], with Lise Meitner (1949),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the [[Goethe Medal]] of the city of Frankfurt-on-the-Main (1949),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the Golden Paracelsus Medal of the Swiss Chemical Society (1953),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the [[Faraday Lectureship Prize]] with Medal from the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] (1956),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the Grotius Medal of the Hugo Grotius Foundation (1956),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* the [[Wilhelm Exner Medal]] of the Austrian Industry Association (1958),<ref>{{cite web |title=Alle Medaillenträger |publisher=Wilhelm Exner Medaillen Stiftung |url=https://wilhelmexner.wordpress.com/die-medaillentraeger-seit-1921/ |access-date=28 June 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322095103/https://wilhelmexner.wordpress.com/die-medaillentraeger-seit-1921/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* the [[Helmholtz Medal]] of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1959),
* and the [[Harnack medal]] in Gold from the Max Planck Society (1959).<ref>{{cite web |title=Harnack Medal |publisher=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft |url=https://www.mpg.de/188634/Harnack_Medal |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Hoffmann|2001|pp=243–244}}

[[File:Otto Hahn (Frankfurt).jpg|thumb|right|upright|Bust by Knud Knudsen]]
Hahn became the honorary president of the Max Planck Society in 1962.{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=300}}
* He was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1957|Foreign Member of the Royal Society]] (1957).{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=279}}
*His honorary memberships of foreign academies and scientific societies included:
** the Romanian Physical Society in Bucharest,{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=302–303}}
** the Royal Spanish Society for Chemistry and Physics and the [[Spanish National Research Council]],{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=302–303}}
** and the Academies in [[Allahabad]], [[Bangalore]], Berlin, [[Boston]], [[Bucharest]], Copenhagen, Göttingen, Halle, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Mainz, Munich, Rome, Stockholm, the Vatican, and Vienna.{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=302–303}}

He was an honorary fellow of University College London,{{sfn|Spence|1970|pp=302–303}}
* and an honorary citizen of the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Göttingen in 1959, and of [[Berlin]] (1968).{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* Hahn was made an Officer of the ''Ordre National de la [[Légion d'Honneur]]'' of France (1959),{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* and was awarded the Grand Cross First Class of the [[Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]] (1959).{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
* In 1966, US President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) awarded Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann the [[Enrico Fermi Award]]. The diploma for Hahn bore the words: "For pioneering research in the naturally occurring radioactivities and extensive experimental studies culminating in the discovery of fission."<ref>{{cite web |title=Otto Hahn, 1966 Citation |url=https://science.osti.gov/fermi/Award-Laureates/1960s/hahn |website=U.S. Department of Energy |date=28 December 2010 |access-date=14 December 2019}}</ref>
* He received honorary doctorates from
** the [[University of Gottingen]],{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
** the [[Technische Universität Darmstadt]],{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
** the [[Goethe University Frankfurt]] in 1949,{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}
** and the [[University of Cambridge]] in 1957.{{sfn|Spence|1970|p=302}}

Objects named after Hahn include:
* [[Otto Hahn (ship)|NS ''Otto Hahn'']], the only European nuclear-powered civilian ship (1964);<ref>{{cite web |title=Schornstein des Kernernergie Forschungsschiffes ''Otto Hahn'' |publisher=Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum |lang=de |url=https://www.dsm.museum/museum/museumshafen/schornstein-des-kernernergie-forschungsschiffes-otto-hahn |access-date=8 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= NS ''Otto Hahn'' – The First German Nuclear Ship |date=1981 |publisher=International Atomic Energy Agency |url=https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:12629968 |access-date=8 October 2024}}</ref>
* a [[Hahn (crater)|crater on the Moon]] (shared with his namesake [[Friedrich von Hahn]]);<ref>{{cite web |title=Moon – Hahn  |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/2314 |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref>
* and the asteroid ''[[19126 Ottohahn]]'';<ref>{{cite web |title=IAU Minor Planet Center |website=minorplanetcenter.net |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=19126 |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref>
* the [[Otto Hahn Prize]] of both the German Chemical and Physical Societies and the city of Frankfurt/Main;<ref>{{cite web |title=GDCh-Preise  |publisher= Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker |url=https://www.gdch.de/gdch/preise-und-auszeichnungen/gdch-preise.html |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref>
* the [[Otto Hahn Medal]] – An Incentive for Young Scientists – and the Otto Hahn Award of the Max Planck Society;<ref>{{cite web |title=Otto Hahn Medal |publisher=Max-Planck -Gesellschaft |url=https://www.mpg.de/prizes/otto-hahn-medal |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Otto Hahn Award |publisher=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft |url=https://www.mpg.de/prizes/otto-hahn-award |access-date=28 June 2020}}</ref>
* and the [[Otto Hahn Peace Medal]] in Gold of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin (1988).<ref>{{cite web |title=Verleihung der Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille |trans-title=Award of the Otto Hahn Peace Medal |lang=de |publisher=Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen e.V. |url=https://dgvn.de/aktivitaeten/einzelansicht/verleihung-der-otto-hahn-friedensmedaille/ |access-date=28 June 2020 |archive-date=2 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702000534/https://dgvn.de/aktivitaeten/einzelansicht/verleihung-der-otto-hahn-friedensmedaille/ |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

Proposals were made at various times, first in 1971 by American chemists, that the newly synthesised element 105 should be named ''hahnium'' in Hahn's honour, but in 1997 the IUPAC named it [[dubnium]], after the Russian research centre in [[Dubna]]. In 1992 element 108 was discovered by a German research team, and they proposed the name [[hassium]] (after [[Hesse]]). In spite of the long-standing convention to give the discoverer the right to suggest a name, a 1994 IUPAC committee recommended that it be named ''hahnium''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iupac.org/publications/pac/1994/pdf/6612x2419.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228023225/http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1994/pdf/6612x2419.pdf |archive-date=28 February 2008 |url-status=live |title=Names and Symbols of Transfermium Elements (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)|publisher=IUPAC |access-date=23 June 2020}}</ref> After protests from the German discoverers, the name hassium (Hs) was adopted internationally in 1997.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iupac.org/publications/pac/1997/pdf/6912x2471.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060302044100/http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1997/pdf/6912x2471.pdf |archive-date=2 March 2006 |url-status=live |title=Names and Symbols of Transfermium Elements (IUPAC Recommendations 1997)|publisher=IUPAC |access-date=23 June 2020}}</ref>