Traube was inventive and held many patents in cellulose chemistry and salts of metal complexes.

The TRAUBEsche Synthese (Traube purine synthesis) was important for the pharmacological industry.

In December 1938, Otto Hahn used an organic salt that Traube had constructed in order to detect barium in the products of nuclear fission.

Traube had planned to commit suicide with cyanide before deportation, but Hahn had asked him not to do so.

Hahn and Walter Schoeller had knowledge of the forthcoming deportation and tried to rescue him on the same day, but arrived a mere few hours too late.