His research was used by others at his institute to create a pesticide called zyklon. Later the nazis developed that into zyklon B which was used in the camps.
He never supported the nazis, never worked with them, was scared of them and left Germany out of his fear especially when he realised not even having converted to Christianity and his WW1 service would prevent him from discrimination. Given he died in the mid 30s wouldn't have known what they did with that gas. He never saw how bad things would get.
He was significant in developing the use of chlorine gas in ww1 though.
He also invented a process that enabled much easier production of fertiliser which will have increased food for people worldwide. So a complicated legacy!
Reminds me of Person of Interest, which basically deals with creating an AI able to determine if a person is reponsible of a crime or not : his creator brings up the story of Thomas Midgley, inventor of freon.
The AI says that such creation saved a lot of lives by being a safer refrigeration compound and was done it good intent, he's not a criminal. The programmer adds that 50 years after his death, he was considered one of the main responsible people for damage done to the ozone layer, and as such is one of the biggest destructor of our planet.
The point in-story is if the AI was mandated to shape the future, such AI would be tasked to judge two different kinds of massive damage, at a level even HE couldn't know what would be the AI decision
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u/Littleloula Jul 17 '24
His research was used by others at his institute to create a pesticide called zyklon. Later the nazis developed that into zyklon B which was used in the camps.
He never supported the nazis, never worked with them, was scared of them and left Germany out of his fear especially when he realised not even having converted to Christianity and his WW1 service would prevent him from discrimination. Given he died in the mid 30s wouldn't have known what they did with that gas. He never saw how bad things would get.
He was significant in developing the use of chlorine gas in ww1 though.
He also invented a process that enabled much easier production of fertiliser which will have increased food for people worldwide. So a complicated legacy!