Why did the Nazis fail in their efforts to develop an atomic bomb that could have tipped the scales in the war?
The dumping was already a matter that could be discussed in the past tense, and the messenger who brought the telegram, riding a bicycle, made his way through brown-yellow-red leaves that covered the ground. An important guest was about to arrive. So it was written on the rustling paper.
The end of September 1941 in Copenhagen occupied by the Nazis, just before winter. It was the time when Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, drafter of the uncertainty principle and director of the nuclear project of the Third Reich, chose to visit his teacher and his good friend, the nuclear physicist, creator of quantum theory, Niels Bohr.
But he showed up in front of his door wearing a military uniform, accompanied by two other uniformed men. The question, what brought Heisenberg to Bohr's door in the midst of World War II, when they both stood on both sides of the barricade, one conquering and the other conquered, occupied Bohr and Heisenberg until their last days. In fact, it employed, and still employs quite a few scientists and historians of science. In the end, the world would be completely different than it is today, if the Germans had managed to build a nuclear bomb at the end of World War II. The Nazis were well aware of the nuclear weapon's ability to tip the scales in their favor, and they invested a lot of resources and effort in efforts to develop it. Why did this tremendous effort, made by world-class scientists led by Werner Heisenberg, fail?
Do not want? Or can't?
Opinions on this matter are divided. After the war, the German scientists were not ready to admit that they helped, or tried to help their country in the war. They therefore argued that their failure was not scientific but stemmed from a lack of research resources, and from their own reluctance to give Germany the bomb. Did the German scientists really "drag their feet" on purpose?
.
Some light on the truth of this question was shed when the transcripts of the conversations between several German nuclear physicists who were held captive by the Allies after the Second World War at a British country estate, Farm Hall, near Cambridge, were released, their conversations recorded using microphones embedded in their rooms. Among the ten were Otto Hahn, the discoverer of nuclear fission, Walter Gerlach, physicist and director of the German atomic project, as well as Werner Heisenberg, the scientific director of nuclear research in Germany.
Releases of the talks say that the German scientists were amazed by the fact that the Americans had developed nuclear fission bombs - and used them. They were convinced that they, the Germans, were far ahead of their American counterparts. The exciting news led them to lively conversations that focused on two issues: How exactly did the American bombs work? And why was Germany unable to produce nuclear weapons?
Heisenberg tried to convince anyone who would listen that he was deliberately delaying Germany's nuclear development effort, hiding its progress from the authorities and even leaking information to the Allies. But the preliminary conversations between the German scientists lead to a possible conclusion that at that time they simply did not know how an atomic bomb worked and raised their moral reservations as a disguise and an excuse for their scientific-professional failure.
critical mass
One question remains unanswered: did Heisenberg know how much of the fissile isotope uranium-235 was needed to create the chain reaction that leads to a nuclear explosion. If he knew the truth, according to which a relatively small amount of Uranium 235 is necessary for this purpose, then, obviously, he knew that the Germans could obtain this amount if they only really tried. If he knew this, and did not lead a move to obtain the material, then it is clear that he did indeed deliberately sabotage the German war effort.
I never considered it
Heisenberg, as recorded in Petrem Hall: "Honestly, I never calculated it, since I did not believe that it was even possible to obtain pure uranium 235." On the other hand, he knew that a nuclear reactor would produce plutonium, which is also suitable for use as a "nuclear explosive".
In February 1942, Heisenberg met with senior administration officials in the Nazi ruling system. In the records of these conversations that reached Allied intelligence, Heisenberg is recorded as explaining that a reactor could be built, that an atomic explosion was possible, and that the reactor would produce plutonium.
The drama inherent in the meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr - a few months before this recorded conversation with the representatives of the Nazi government - ripened into a play on the table of the English author, journalist and playwright Michael Frayn. The play "Copenhagen" was staged for the first time in May 1998 at the British National Theatre, directed by Michael Blakemore, and was performed more than 300 times. In April 2000, an American production was staged on Broadway, and won three "Tony" awards: for best play; for Best Actress (Blair Brown, in the role of Margaret); and for Best Director (Michael Blakemore).
Since then the play has been translated into different languages and staged in many countries. In 2002 the play was adapted into a TV movie produced by the BBC.
The play takes place in nowhere, where the characters of Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and his wife Margaret meet, and try to clarify, first of all to themselves, what exactly happened there, between them, in Copenhagen in 1941. Did Heisenberg try to steal information from Bohr to use it to build a nuclear bomb in the service The Germans? Did he try to reach an understanding with him that scientists on both sides of the fence would refrain from building nuclear bombs? Was he trying to convey a message that he, Heisenberg, was deliberately slowing down the German project?
Is the affinity of thought between the two great physicists really stronger than blood affinity and patriotic loyalty? How important is it for a person to be understood by others? Because Bohr and Heisenberg knew very well that there is no one in the world who can understand them better than "the other side". The drama, in this case, is completely internal, a rare mixture of emotions, sensations, ambitions - and physical formulas that are incomprehensible to "mortals".
An Israeli production of the play, translated by Ehud Menor, was staged at the Chamber Theater in April 2001, directed by Micah Levinson. Oded Taomi enters the character of Nils Bohr. A fan of Shahar was Werner Heisenberg, and Sarah von Schwarz was Margaret. The show received rave reviews. Levinson won the award in May of this year named after Yosef Milo. Von Schwarz was awarded the Israel Theater Award for supporting actress of the year.
.
Letters to the drawer
.
The success of the play led to the early opening of Niels Bohr's archive, which at his request was only supposed to open in 2012. There, letters that he wrote - but did not send - to Heisenberg were revealed, in which he expressed the hope that Heisenberg would finally explain why exactly he came to visit Copenhagen. Answers, of course, were not found there.
.
And yet, after all, after in-depth historical analyses, and extensive archival investigations, Bohr and Heisenberg remained in the shining solitude of geniuses that mortals are unable to understand. Nevertheless, only Heisenberg understood Bohr, and only Bohr could, perhaps, understand Heisenberg, and offer an answer (simple, as he was), to the mystery of the controversial visit to Copenhagen. Was this understanding offered by Frein in "Copenhagen" born only of the artistic-dramatic need? Or was it also the property of the real physicists, in their lifetime? This is a question that will probably remain pending.
.
A possible explanation for the German failure can be based on the fact that they were going in several directions at the same time. The possibility of producing energy from nuclear sources received no less attention than the possibility of building a nuclear bomb. Because the Germans assumed that they were much more advanced than their American counterparts, they avoided "stepping on the gas pedal." They believed that it is better to be in a situation where the bomb is within reach, so that "when necessary" they can develop it with a concentrated effort in a short time. In other words, the free world may have owed its life to the same old, clichéd and almost boring story about arrogance and complacency that fail the powers that be and lead to the victory of the "angradog".
So why did Heisenberg end up on Bohr's doorstep in Copenhagen? Here are the closing words of the play:
Margareta: But why did he come? What was he trying to tell you?
Bohr: Later he actually explained it.
Margareta: He explained over and over and over, and each time he explained, it got more and more vague.
Bohr: Most likely he came for a simple reason, if you think about it: he just wanted to talk.
The article was published on the blog of Bisham Azgad in the article azgad.com
8 תגובות
Why did Heisenberg come to visit Niels Bohr? What is the question .
He came to find out how to measure the height of a building with a barometer.
This hypothesis is no less good than all the other hypotheses
He came to ask Bohr to join the Nazi research team but Bohr refused. Perhaps one of the reasons for the refusal was the Jewish blood that flowed in him.
Bohr chose to join the team of Manhattan Software. He escaped from Denmark and with him heavy water disguised as a beer bottle.
Scientists who didn't like the Nazi regime and didn't want to cooperate with it, escaped, and found ways to escape from Germany at different stages of the Nazi regime.
Those who remained either consciously decided to cooperate with this regime, or they didn't care at all. The talented among them did not lose at all in this bet, because after the war they were kidnapped to the USA and the Soviet Union where they received good conditions for continuing research and living in scientific communities.
Therefore, mixing stage drama and theater with the truth, does a historical injustice. German scientists did not delay the German bomb, and if they could they would have brought it to a practical stage.
The German scientist's name was Heiselberg, as far as I remember.
As always there is more than one reason, but it's hard to say that friendship was there but more project management:
1. Building an atomic bomb is not easy (see Iran), German nuclear research was at a much more basic stage than the West, Schafer offered them help (and he is the only one, except for the SS, who was capable of building a project of this magnitude) but they rejected the idea of establishing a combination Such on the grounds that it is too early, later the research was entrusted to the German Post Office compared to the Western research which was entrusted to the army and of course did not receive the necessary resources.
2. A considerable number of scientists fled from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to the Allies, (including Bohr himself later).
2. Starting in 1942, Germany had very few resources available to allocate to a project on the scale of the Manhattan Project.
3. Starting in 1944, even if the Germans had allocated the resources and built the huge complex needed to build the bomb, the British and American bombers would have destroyed it.
On the other side, the one who was responsible for the Allied project was the American army which used all the resources of the USA which was not bombed in the war at all and the head of the project was a bulldozer (Groves) and not a scientist.
And it is worth reading the book Julius by the person who headed the American team whose job it was to check how far the Germans had advanced.
One important thing to consider in their meeting is that Heisenberg came wearing a Nazi uniform accompanied by Nazi soldiers. Did he not try in advance to imply/dissuade Bohr from cooperating with the hated occupier? It must be remembered that then Germany was at its militant peak.
Good Day
Yehuda Sabdarmish
And every time he explained, it got more and more vague.
smile