Heisenberg And The Nazi Atomic Bomb Project

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Overview

No one better represents the plight and the conduct of German intellectuals under Hitler than Werner Heisenberg, whose task it was to build an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany. The controversy surrounding Heisenberg still rages, because of the nature of his work and the regime for which it was undertaken. What precisely did Heisenberg know about the physics of the atomic bomb? How deep was his loyalty to the German government during the Third Reich? Assuming that he had been able to build a bomb, would he have been willing? These questions, the moral and the scientific, are answered by Paul Lawrence Rose with greater accuracy and breadth of documentation ...

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Overview

No one better represents the plight and the conduct of German intellectuals under Hitler than Werner Heisenberg, whose task it was to build an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany. The controversy surrounding Heisenberg still rages, because of the nature of his work and the regime for which it was undertaken. What precisely did Heisenberg know about the physics of the atomic bomb? How deep was his loyalty to the German government during the Third Reich? Assuming that he had been able to build a bomb, would he have been willing? These questions, the moral and the scientific, are answered by Paul Lawrence Rose with greater accuracy and breadth of documentation than any other historian has yet achieved.
Digging deep into the archival record among formerly secret technical reports, Rose establishes that Heisenberg never overcame certain misconceptions about nuclear fission, and as a result the German leaders never pushed for atomic weapons. In fact, Heisenberg never had to face the moral problem of whether he should design a bomb for the Nazi regime. Only when he and his colleagues were interned in England and heard about Hiroshima did Heisenberg realize that his calculations were wrong. He began at once to construct an image of himself as a "pure" scientist who could have built a bomb but chose to work on reactor design instead. This was fiction, as Rose demonstrates: in reality, Heisenberg blindly supported and justified the cause of German victory. The question of why he did, and why he misrepresented himself afterwards, is answered through Rose's subtle analysis of German mentality and the scientists' problems of delusion and self-delusion. This fascinating study is a profound effort to understand one of the twentieth century's great enigmas.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
Rose addresses several important and interrelated historiographical questions. He analyzes how Heisenberg and other prominent physicists dealt with the moral issues of working for the Nazis and how Nazi ideology intersected, and influenced, their work. Rose argues that Heisenberg misunderstood several key physical principles; consequently, Nazi scientists were directed away from the development of atomic weaponry. Interestingly, Rose uses this information as part of his analysis of Heisenberg's post-war 'confessions,' in which the scientist described himself not only as apolitical but claimed he never intended to build an atomic bomb. Rose concludes that Heisenberg was attempting to cloud his support of the Nazi state, much as Albert Speer did when he claimed to be an apolitical technocrat. -- Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio
Kirkus Reviews
One of the most frightening 'what-ifs' of history is the Nazi effort to build a nuclear bomb. Here is a close-up look at that failed attempt. Rose (Modern European History/Penn State Univ.; Wagner: Race and Resolution, 1992) focuses his study on Werner Heisenberg, leader of the German A-bomb project. One of the giants of modern physics, Heisenberg remained in Germany despite his differences with Nazism (he never joined the party and defended 'Jewish physics,' i.e., Einstein's work, when the Nazis denounced it), heading a project that he must have known had the potential to insure German victory. Rose argues that Heisenberg's actions, including his failure to make a fundamental determination of the mass of uranium required to build a bomb, can be understood only in the context of the moral, cultural, and scientific attitudes of the German scientific establishment. Among these attitudes was a persistent self-delusion, endemic in German culture from the mid-1800s through the end of the Nazi era. Rose begins with a detailed critical analysis of Heisenberg's account of the bomb project, drawing on contemporary documents and subsequent revelations. The book's second part examines Heisenberg's fundamental inability to grasp the principle of an atomic explosive, a failure that ultimately allowed the U.S.' Manhattan Project to win the race for the bomb. This failure has been painted by Heisenberg's apologists as a subterfuge to undercut the project; Rose finds little reason to grant his subject that escape hatch. Finally, Rose examines the moral issues of Heisenberg's willingness to work with the Nazi regime, and his post-war accounts of that work, which the author terms 'historicallyfalse and morally corrupt.' While heavily footnoted for the benefit of an academic readership, this meticulously detailed and definitive book should also appeal to any reader intrigued by the moral dimension of scientific work.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780520229266
  • Publisher: California Princeton Fulfillment
  • Publication date: 1/7/2002
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 372
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.83 (d)

Meet the Author

Paul Lawrence Rose is Mitrani Professor of Jewish Studies and European History at Pennsylvania State University. His recent books include Wagner: Race and Revolution (1992) and German Question/Jewish Question (1990).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
A Note on Three New Sources
Preface: Why Heisenberg?
A Note on Historical Terminology of the First Nuclear Age, 1939-45
Prologue: The Heisenberg Problem: Deception and Self-Deception 1
Pt. I History: The Heisenberg Version and Its Critics 7
Ch. 1 The Heisenberg Version and Its First Critic, 1945-49 9
Ch. 2 Elaborating the Heisenberg Version, 1945-76 39
Ch. 3 Criticizing the Version, 1948-94 62
Pt. II Science: Conceptions and Misconceptions of Physics 79
Ch. 4 The Atomic Bomb Problem, 1939 81
Ch. 5 The Frisch-Peierls Solution, 1940 99
Ch. 6 Heisenberg's False Foundations, 1939 106
Ch. 7 The Bomb as Reactor: The U[subscript 235] Bomb Misconceived, 1940 115
Ch. 8 The Reactor as Bomb: Explosive Reactor-Bombs, 1940 123
Ch. 9 The Reactor and the Bomb: Plutonium, 1940-41 131
Ch. 10 The Reactor-Bomb Patent and the Heisenberg/Bohr Drawing, 1941 146
Ch. 11 The Weapons Research Office Report of 1942: Plutonium and the Reactor-Bomb 167
Ch. 12 The Two Conferences of 1942: Loose Details, Non-decisions, and Pineapples 173
Ch. 13 Reactor-Bombs, Plutonium Bombs, and the SS: The Report of Activities of 1944 185
Ch. 14 The Truth: Farm Hall, August 1945 206
Pt. III Culture: German Patriotism, German Morality, and the Truth of Physics 223
Ch. 15 The German Context: Unpolitical Politics 225
Ch. 16 The Unpolitical Heisenberg: Patriot and Physicist, 1918-33 236
Ch. 17 Collusion and Compromise under Hitler, 1933-37 246
Ch. 18 The Himmler Connection: Heisenberg's "Honor," 1937-44 262
Ch. 19 Justifying Nazi Victory, 1941-45 271
Ch. 20 Decency and Indecency at Farm Hall, 1945 292
Ch. 21 Heisenberg's Peculiar Way, 1945-48 304
Select Bibliography 325
Index 347

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