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Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key piece of evidence necessary to identify the previously unknown phenomenon of nuclear fission, as was subsequently recognized and published by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch.
In their second publication on nuclear fission in February 1939, Strassmann and Hahn predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening up the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction.
Strassmann began his formal chemistry studies in 1920 at the Technical University of Hannover, supporting himself financially by working as a tutor for other students. He received a diploma in chemical engineering in 1924, and his PhD in physical chemistry in 1929. His doctoral research was on the solubility and reactivity of iodine in carbonic acid in the gas phase, which gave him experience in analytical chemistry. Strassmann's doctoral advisor was .
Subsequently, Strassmann received a partial scholarship to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem, beginning in 1929. There he studied radiochemistry with Otto Hahn, who arranged twice for his scholarship to be renewed. When his scholarship expired in September 1932, Strassmann continued to work as a research student in Hahn's laboratory, without a stipend but without having to pay tuition.
Strassman's wife Maria supported his refusal to join the Nazi Party. During World War II they concealed a Jewish woman, musician Andrea Wolfenstein, in their apartment for months, putting themselves and their three-year-old son at risk especially considering the housekeeper and downstairs neighbors were Nazi supporters.
Strassmann continued his research in radiochemistry during World War II, although he did not work on weapons development. He disdained the Nazi regime and is reported to have said, "If my work would lead to Hitler having an atomic bomb I would kill myself."
In 1937 and 1938, scientists Irène Joliot-Curie and Paul Savič reported results from their investigations on irradiating uranium with neutrons. They were unable to identify the substances that formed as a result of the uranium irradiation. Strassmann, with Hahn, identified the element barium as a major end product in the neutron bombardment of uranium, through a decay chain. The result was surprising because of the large difference in atomic number of the two elements, uranium having atomic number 92 and barium having atomic number 56.
In December 1938, Hahn and Strassmann sent a manuscript to Die Naturwissenschaften reporting the results of their experiments on detection of barium as a product of neutron bombardment of uranium. Robert Frisch confirmed Strassman and Hahn's report experimentally on 13 January 1939. Frisch and Meitner explained Strassman's and Hahn's findings as being from nuclear fission, which they named. In 1944, Hahn received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission, although Fritz Strassmann had been acknowledged as an equal collaborator in the discovery.
"Zur Folge nach der Entstehung des 2,3 Tage-Isotops des Elements 93 aus Uran" "Following G-151 (27 February 1942) by Hahn and Strassmann was published in Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte Research, an internal publication of the German Uranverein. Reports in this publication were classified as "Top Secret" and therefore had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. They were confiscated by the Allied Operation Alsos in 1945. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. They are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics., See Appendix E; entry for Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte. (1993). 9780521438049, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521438049
On 15 February 1944 and again on 24 March 1944, the Institute suffered severe bombing damage. For this reason, the institute was temporarily relocated to Tailfingen (now Albstadt) in the Württemberg district, in a textile factory belonging to the Ludwig Haasis company.
The Institute consisted of two departments: Mass Spectrometry and Nuclear Physics were Josef Mattauch's departments, while Nuclear Chemistry was Strassmann's department. Mattauch was appointed director of the institute. Mattauch developed tuberculosis, and, in his absence, Strassman became acting director in 1948. As of 1949, the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute was renamed the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and moved from Tailfingen to Mainz, Germany. In 1950 Strassmann became the official director of the institute. After Mattauch returned in 1951, there was considerable conflict over the allocation of resources to their respective departments.
In 1957, Strassmann was one of the Göttingen Eighteen (Göttinger Achtzehn), a group of leading nuclear researchers of the Federal Republic of Germany who wrote a manifesto (Göttingen Manifesto, Göttinger Erklärung) opposing chancellor Konrad Adenauer and defense secretary Franz-Josef Strauß's plans to equip the Bundeswehr, Western Germany's army, with tactical nuclear weapons.
Strassmann retired in 1970. He died on 22 April 1980 in Mainz.
On 16 July 1985, Professor Fritz Strassmann was posthumously recognized by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations (חסיד אמות העולם).
Maria died of cancer in 1956. In 1959, Strassmann married journalist Irmgard Hartmann. He had known Hartmann for many years, as she was a member of the same group of young musicians to which Strassmann and his wife Maria had belonged.
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