Editing Lise Meitner (section)

===Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry===
[[File:Berliner Physiker u Chemiker 1920.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Physicists and chemists in Berlin in 1920. Front row, left to right: [[Hertha Sponer]], [[Albert Einstein]], Ingrid Franck, [[James Franck]], Lise Meitner, [[Fritz Haber]], and [[Otto Hahn]]. Back row, left to right: [[Walter Grotrian]], [[Wilhelm Westphal]], {{ill|Otto von Baeyer|de}}, {{ill|Peter Pringsheim|de}} and [[Gustav Hertz]]]]

In 1912, Hahn and Meitner moved to the newly founded [[Max Planck Institute for Chemistry|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for Chemistry]] in Berlin. Hahn accepted an offer from Fischer to become a junior assistant in charge of its [[radiochemistry]] section, the first laboratory of its kind in Germany. The job came with the title of "professor" and a salary of 5,000 marks per annum ({{Inflation|DE|5,000|1912|fmt=eq|cursign=€|r=-3}}). Unlike the universities, the privately funded KWI had no policies excluding women, but Meitner worked without pay as a "guest" in Hahn's section.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=44–45}}{{sfn|Sime|2005|p=11}} She may have encountered financial difficulties after the death of her father in 1910. Fearing she might return to Vienna, Planck appointed her as his assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in the Friedrich Wilhelm University. As such, she marked his students' papers. It was her first paid position. Assistant was the lowest rung on the academic ladder, and Meitner was the first female scientific assistant in Prussia.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=44–45}}{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=66}}

Proud officials presented Meitner to [[Kaiser Wilhelm&nbsp;II]] at the official opening of the KWI for Chemistry on 23 October 1912.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|pp=70–71}} The following year she became a {{lang|de|Mitglied}} ({{gloss|associate}}) like Hahn (although her salary was still less),{{sfn|Sime|2005|p=11}} and the radioactivity section became the Hahn-Meitner Laboratory. Meitner celebrated with a dinner party at the [[Hotel Adlon]]. Hahn and Meitner's salaries would soon be dwarfed by royalties from [[mesothorium]] ("middle thorium", radium-228, also called "German radium") produced for medical purposes, for which Hahn received 66,000 marks in 1914 ({{Inflation|DE|66,000|1914|fmt=eq|cursign=€|r=-3}}). He gave ten per cent to Meitner.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=47}} In 1914, Meitner was offered an academic position in [[Prague]], which was then part of her country of [[Austria-Hungary]]. Planck made it clear to Fischer that he did not want Meitner to leave, and Fischer arranged for her salary to be doubled to 3,000 marks ({{Inflation|DE|3,000|1914|fmt=eq|cursign=€|r=-3}}).{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=48}}

The move to new accommodation was fortunate, as the wood shop had become thoroughly contaminated by radioactive liquids that had been spilt, and radioactive gases that had vented and decayed then settled as radioactive dust, making sensitive measurements impossible. To ensure that their clean new laboratories stayed that way, Hahn and Meitner instituted strict procedures. Chemical and physical measurements were conducted in different rooms, people handling radioactive substances had to follow protocols that included not shaking hands, and rolls of toilet paper were hung next to every telephone and door handle. Strongly radioactive substances were stored in the old wood shop, and later in a purpose-built [[radium]] house on the institute grounds.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=48}}