The name Fritz Haber today exemplifies the triumph and failure of science in the twentieth century. His large-scale process developed with Carl Bosch for the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and air opened the way for virtually unlimited production of artificial fertilizers. However, this Haber-Bosch process also made possible the mass production of explosives for the First World War. Visiting Scholar Dieter Hoffmann publishes this article in Der Tagesspiegel on the 150th anniversary of Fritz Haber's birth in Wroclaw, December 9, 1868.