Paul Daniel Hahn

Hahn was born 5 January 1849 in Bethanien, German South West Africa and was the youngest son of Johannes Samuel Hahn, a missionary with the Rhenish Missionary Society, and his wife, Helene Langenbeck. When he was about four years old, the family returned to Germany, where he attended the gymnasium in Soest, Westphalia. He then attended the University of Halle where he received his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in 1874. He also studied at the universities of London and Edinburgh.

Hahn returned to South Africa in September 1875. In January 1876 he was appointed the Jamison Professor in Experimental Physics and Practical Chemistry at the South African College, Cape Town. In 1893 he also became the Professor of Chemistry. He held this chair until his death and, together with Professors C.E. Lewis and W. Ritchie, formed a triumvirate that controlled the college until the end of the nineteenth century.

In 1876 he was elected to the council of the University of the Cape of Good Hope, of which the SA College (forerunner of the University of Cape Town and from which SACS also arose) is a constituent college, and remained a member for the rest of his life member.

On assuming his post, Hahn immediately began campaigning for better facilities. In 1881 a new chemistry laboratory was built after a £1,500 donation from Mrs S.B.E. Jamison. Under his watch the natural sciences became an important part of the curriculum. Mrs Jamison also donated the £5,000 for the establishment of the Jamison Chair. Hahn prevented the state's efforts to introduce regular visits to the college by school inspectors. Hahn was also instrumental in persuading the college authorities to agree in 1887 that women could be admitted to all classes. Prior to this, Hahn had already admitted four women to his chemistry class as a trial trun the preceding year. Thanks to the exceptionally high standard of the women's work, the college decided to admit women students full-time in 1887 in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.^[1]

Hahn also played a leading role in the establishment of a mining school at the college, which later merged with the Johannesburg School of Mines. In 1894, Hahn and Professor Lewis undertook a successful tour of the Transvaal and Kimberley in order to raise money for a new physics laboratory. He was also active in the movement that led to the establishment of a medical school at the college in 1911. In 1900 Hahn and Professor J.C. Beattie (later Sir Carruthers Beattie) were recognised as non-academic lecturers by the Scottish universities.

He was voted secretary of the college senate several times, and in 1897 he and Lewis became the first two senate assessors in the collegiate council. He played an important role in the college's struggle for university status, which resulted in it becoming the University of Cape Town on 2 April 1918, a year before his death.

The chemistry building at University of Cape Town was named in his honour, PD Hahn. In 2011, a display was curated at the south-side entrance of the building to commemorate his life, the history of the building and his role in accepting women on campus.^[2]