Although Meitner continued to assist her former colleagues in Nazi Germany for a time, most Jewish scientists were not so lucky or naïve. In a 1942 meeting with Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments and War Production, Heisenberg made a reference to the amount of U-235 necessary and caused a small sensation when he used the word “bomb” – many of the scientists and officials present were not aware that this was actually possible. For example, historians still debate why Hitler held off from using chemical weapons in combat, even though the Nazis had stockpiles of the stuff. Many of the world’s top nuclear physicists were German or Austrian, or worked closely with German or Austrian colleagues. In 1943, the United States launched the Alsos Mission, a foreign intelligence project focused on learning the extent of Germany’s nuclear program. Clearly, the German scientists did not believe they could extract sufficient U-235 to make a bomb and so did not urge Speer to commit German industry to … A search for the fate of the remaining pieces of an experiment that might have altered history. In April, 1945 – just three months before the world saw the first nuclear bomb test detonate in New Mexico – an allied mission into Nazi Germany discovered just how far behind the enemy was. Despite the continuing attacks on the heavy water supply line, by 1941 German scientists had come to several broad theoretical conclusions that mirrored American conceptions of how to build an atomic device: (1) an enriched uranium fission device, (2) a plutonium-based fission device, or (3) a “reactor bomb.” While the United States would build successful atomic reactors and both uranium and plutonium bombs by the end of the war, the German scientists never approached a working conception for actual production of a successful atomic machine. The truth is that National Socialist Germany could not possibly have built a weapon like the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Incredibly, in accord with Nazi policy, Hahn and other “German” academics had recently driven Meitner from her post at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry near Berlin to refuge in Sweden. What if Nazi Germany had managed to build their bomb? Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project. It could not develop them as war-winning weapons, both because of the demands of … Einstein's greatest role in the invention of the atomic bomb was signing a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging that the bomb be built. To have feasible nuclear bomb, you need plutonium, which has to be manufactured in a breeder nuclear reactor, which is easy to bomb target (and extremely expensive to build). Some scholars believe Japan could have made a nuclear bomb if it had succeeded in acquiring uranium and been able to enrich it. The German misjudgment about graphite was one of the things that slowed their progress toward a bomb. Because so many physicists were driven from the Reich, Allied governments were quickly able to form a relatively clear picture of German efforts. Einstein was by far the most famous among them, but only one of a great many. By Dan Charles. Germany was off to a fast, efficient, and productive effort to eventually perfect an atomic bomb. But there’s an argument to be made he wouldn’t have done, even if he could. By the late 1930s almost all of Germany and Austria’s Jewish physicists, along with many others who rejected Nazism, had fled, mostly to Britain or America. America’s program was sparked in part by Einstein’s warning to President Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning possible German successes. These five countries are called nuclear-weapon states - and are allowed to have weapons because they built and tested a nuclear explosive device before the treaty came into effect on … However, history is   Germany did not produce any atomic bombs. Given Hitler’s genocidal mania, we take it for granted he’d have wasted no time dropping atomic bombs on his enemies. Nevertheless, German politicians have continued to assert that their eventual goal is the "withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Germany and Europe. "If we had started this business soon enough we could have got somewhere," Weizsäcker said. At the end of the war in Europe, two and a half years after Fermi's pile went critical, the Germans did not yet have an operating reactor, much less any clear idea of how to build a bomb. There was even consideration of kidnapping Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland in 1942, although this plan never came to fruition. 1944 GERMAN ATOMIC BOMB. Enrichment would have been in quantities that could have supplied the bomb-grade uranium needed by the United States to complete its atomic bomb project. They researched the reactions necessary to produce both atomic weapons and nuclear reactors. Nazi academics began to take over Germany’s great educational institutions, hungrily seizing positions and offices previously held by Jews, foreigners, or anti-Nazi German academics. … In any event, V-2 rockets could not have carried the immensely heavy early atomic bombs. So did the U.S.S.R. and Britain. “I don't believe a word of the whole thing,” declared Werner Heisenberg, the scientific head of the German nuclear program, after hearing the news that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The 1938 discovery of nuclear fission in uranium by Otto Robert Frisch, Fritz Strassmann, Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, raised the possibility that an extremely powerful atomic bomb could be created. The bomb contained 64 kg (141 lb) of enriched uranium. The Manhattan Project was the Allied effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. info@nuclearmuseum.org          Contact Us. Each one said that the other was unimportant.” Furthermore, to be successful would have required an enormous logistical and financial push, as in the United States. A substantial number eventually came to the United States to work on the Manhattan Project. It’s the tale of 664 uranium cubes produced by researchers in Nazi Germany. 2) Theory 2, Scientific: The balance of (scientific) power was held by Jewish scientists like Einstein, Fermi (his wife was Jewish, not Fermi himself), and Bohr, meaning that Germany could have built the bomb if it had stayed on good terms with these people. The Farm Hall transcripts also show the ignorance of Walther Gerlach, the scientific liaison to the German government, an important link in coordinating the project. Nevertheless, the reaction of Heisenberg illustrates just how far the German program came from actually developing a nuclear weapon. Two major setbacks delayed progress, researchers and … the Wanderling "On Monday, July 16, 1945, a few weeks before their first meeting, during the very early pre-dawn hours my Uncle, who lived in New Mexico, was startled, along with many others no doubt, by a huge flash of light that filled the whole of the night sky in a giant half bubble arc across the desert toward White Sands. Furthermore, Speer was reluctant to bring up the bomb project with Hitler himself unless he could produce clear results. Such an attack was serious business in Nazi Germany and threatened internment in a concentration camp or worse. In 1932, Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the Uncertainty Principle, although the prize committee slighted several other physicists who arguably deserved as much credit as the charismatic Heisenberg. If we let any country build atomic bombs, we could potentially destroy much of the earth in one simple war. However, by the mid-1930s, experiments with the unstable element uranium revealed the potential to tap into its store of nuclear energy and create machines of awesome power. Known best for his work in quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle, Werner Heisenberg was the leader of the Nazi atomic bomb program, and most of the theories of failure circulate around him in one way or another. Uranium cubes on chains in the model of the reactor at Haigerloch. However it seems that many contradictory rules were repeatedly being put into place, which slowly diminished the progress of … Thereafter, nuclear bombs could be technically built: URENCO has already made Germany one of the world's leaders in uranium enrichment. It had nothing. By 1941, the Germans were operating two experimental reactor projects, but German success had in fact been limited. As Chief of Foreign Intelligence in the Manhattan Project, Robert Furman coordinated and was a part of the Alsos Mission, conducting epsionage missions across Europe to interrogate Italian and German scientists, locate uranium, and determine how far the Nazis had proceeded with their atomic bomb project. Strategically, things would be … German resources were allocated to other priorities. The allegations of sabotage carry little weight. The Soviet atomic program during the war was puny compared to the Manhattan Project, involving approximately twenty physicists and only a small number of staff. … Richard Rhodes recalled, “There was at least one speculation that one of the German scientists deliberately falsified the measurements in graphite, hoping to stop a German bomb program. Documents unearthed in an American archive suggest that Nazi Germany may have tested an operational nuclear bomb before the end of the Second World War.. The discussion held in 1943 is often seen by people as a clear sign that Japan was always going to be the target. Copyright © 2019 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Groves’ argument against using a bomb in the European theatre is also interesting.Essentially he is saying that the choice not to deploy B-29s in Europe, and the choice of the B-29 as the weapon for the atomic bomb (a decision made in late 1943), had profound practical consequences.It is easy to forget that the first atomic bombs could not be dropped out of just any old … These men and the Nazi hierarchy regarded Einstein’s relativity theories and their progeny as “Jewish physics.” For them, the only valid physics was “Deutsche” or “Volkish” physics, by which they apparently meant a classical experimental physics that could somehow ignore the realities Einstein described. Often forgotten in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that the Manhattan Project was originally conceived for the war in Europe, but the bomb was not ready for operational use in time. Although Hahn later tried to claim all the credit for his experiment, at the time he did not actually know what he had done. This was not because the country lacked the scientists, resources, or will, but rather because its leaders did not really try. A new book by a Berlin historian claims Nazi Germany built and tested nuclear weapons before the end of World War II. The full interview transcript can be found on "Voices of the Manhattan Project.". In his lecture it was clear he was talking to people who were quite ignorant… Apparently the other people didn’t know very much about fission…” (Powers 451). Hitler may have come close to building atomic bomb, … Following their invasion of Norway in 1940, the Germans assumed control of the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant at Vemork. I don’t think there’s really evidence to support that. Do you have, say, ten years to spare? While being held at Farm Hall, physicist Horst Korsching noted, “the Americans are capable of real cooperation on a tremendous scale.” He added, however, that it “would have been impossible in Germany. Later, British submarines interdicted further shipments. Werner Heisenberg: Germany’s Top Physicist. Some of these newcomers were marginal teachers and scientists, envious of successes by those they considered racially or ideologically inferior. Heisenberg did however tell Bohr that the German project was underway, and drew a simple sketch, which Bohr thought to be a bomb. The bomb, except for the uranium payload, was ready at the beginning of May 1945. General Groves remembered, “Unless and until we had positive knowledge to the contrary, we had to assume that the most competent German scientists and engineers were working on an atomic program with the full support of their government and with the full capacity of German industry at their disposal. Groves’ argument against using a bomb in the European theatre is also interesting.Essentially he is saying that the choice not to deploy B-29s in Europe, and the choice of the B-29 as the weapon for the atomic bomb (a decision made in late 1943), had profound practical consequences.It is easy to forget that the first atomic bombs could not be dropped out of just any old … But there remains little evidence of this. He was a brilliant theorist and mathematician and prided himself on his practical abilities as a physicist, although in fact these were suspect. J. Robert Oppenheimer later recalled, “Bohr had the impression that they came less to tell what they knew than to see if Bohr knew anything that they did not; I believe it was a standoff.” As his son Aage Bohr explained, “He had the impression that Heisenberg thought that the new possibilities could decide the outcome of the war if the war dragged on” (Rhodes 385). Key Point: Thankfully, Hitler's scientists got several things wrong. British intelligence had learned the basic outline of the German reactor project and realized that the Norwegian heavy water supply was a weak link. That, the Germans unwittingly did themselves. It likely depends on when the Atomic bomb was developed and how many they have… For my answer I’ll break it down by years and assume they have between 3–5 during that given time frame. But... Germany invested itself specifically one of the many different theories then existing on how to make a bomb. Germany could develop nuclear weapons as nation asks itself: 'Do we need the bomb?' Led by Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer, it developed research facilities across the United States. The American bomb that exploded over Hiroshima was a uranium fission device. Not only was heavy water a less effective moderator than graphite, it made the German program reliant on the Norwegian plant. The loss of so much heavy water set the German project back but did not derail it. The potential power of atomic energy is a corollary of Einstein’s famous Theory of Relativity equation, E = MC2. The timing of this cut fits with the pressures Germany faced in the war at the time, as resources had to be allocated to the immediate war effort. If Germany had the Atomic bomb and some of the other advanced weaponry as you suggest, I think the Germans would have started by using a jet bomber to attack Moscow. A pensioner in Brandenberg, Germany, was casting about with his metal detector last week when it gave an unusual ‘bleep’. 1939–1940: Yes. Heisenberg’s team in particular made certain engineering decisions that put the German program almost immediately at risk. There have been several previous books on Fuchs and also on the other spies working on the atomic bomb. In the closing months of World War II, the United States was producing as many atomic bombs as it could. Although Germany has the technical capability to produce weapons of mass destruction, since World War II it has generally refrained from producing those weapons. Nazi Germany’s Rejection of “Jewish Physics”. Certainly the brain drain which led many of their best physicists to migrate to the west in the late 20s and into the 30s was a factor but there were others. ", The German experimental nuclear pile at Haigerloch. After later hearing a 1942 lecture given by Heisenberg to scientists and government officials, Hans Bethe remarked, “My first reaction is that Heisenberg knew a lot more than I have always thought – the fact he reached many of these conclusions in one evening is most remarkable. While the Germans later rebuilt parts of the plant, it remained the target of Allied bombings and never returned to its full operational capacity. Joachim Ronneberg, the leader of the commando team that blew up the plant, recalled, “There were so many things that were just luck and chance. In 1940, the Germans captured a heavy water plant in Vermok, a Norwegian town 100 miles north of Oslo. It was Lise Meitner, an Austrian Jewish colleague, who realized the significance of Hahn’s discovery and described the processes involved. By 1944, however, the evidence was clear: the Germans had not come close to developing a bomb and had only advanced to preliminary research. Refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries were particularly alarmed by the notion of a German nuclear weapon project. To begin with, communications between different areas were extremely poor. Fearing that the Germans would use the heavy water for their atomic bomb program, Allied forces conducted a series of strategic bombings against the plant. Days away from having another bomb … So the german scientists tried to … Michael Perrin, John Lansdale Jr., Samuel Goudsmit, and Eric Welsh search for uranium in a field in Haigerloch, Germany. A popular theory for the failure of the German project is that Heisenberg deliberately aborted it so that Hitler would not have the atomic bomb. Germany wasn't on the verge of a nuclear weapon, or even salvaging its reputation as a leader in the physics community by making a nuclear power station. The United States government became aware of the German nuclear program in August 1939, when Albert Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, warning "that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated." by. Documents unearthed in an American archive suggest that Nazi Germany may have tested an operational nuclear bomb before the end of the Second World War.. Heisenberg recalled in his memoir, “The government decided that work on the reactor project must be continued, but only on a modest scale. Finally, on February 28, 1943, a Norwegian commando raid destroyed the facility’s heavy water section in Operation Gunnerside, resulting in the loss of 500kg of heavy water. There are many arguments as to why Nazi Germany was unable to develop an atomic bomb during World War II. Join Today as an Atomic History Patron Member, Alex Wellerstein "Historical thoughts on Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen". But there remains little evidence of this. The Atomic Bomb That Never Was: Germany s Atomic Bomb Project. Germany began its secret program, called Uranverein, or “uranium club,” in April 1939, just months after German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had inadvertently discovered fission. The Germans never achieved a successful chain reaction, had no method of enriching uranium, and never seriously considered plutonium as a viable substitute. 1944 GERMAN ATOMIC BOMB. Now, the reason why we don’t want Iran and North-Korea developing nuclear weapons, is because this weapons are extremely dangerous to the global world. A popular theory for the failure of the German project is that Heisenberg deliberately aborted it so that Hitler would not have the atomic bomb. Then you could probably design a functional nuclear weapon. As one German scientist exclaimed, it must have taken "factories large as the United States to make that much uranium-235!". © Copyright 2021 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Very basically, a nuclear reactor operates by inducing a chain reaction in masses of Uranium 238 within the reactor. Even if the German scientists had known what they were doing, they still lacked suitable radioactive material to produce a weapon. A study by Greenpeace has shown what could happen if Germany were attacked with nuclear weapons. A discovery by nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany, in 1938 made the first atomic bomb possible, after Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission. Herken argues that the Soviet invasion may have had at least as great an effect on Japanese morale as the first atomic bomb. The play explores three scenarios where Heisenberg discusses his dilemma with Bohr, but leaves the matter for audiences to decide what Heisenberg actually believed and intended to do. The Manhattan Project was characterized by an incredible coordinated effort between science, government, and industry. To determine the energy contained in any bit of matter, one need only multiply its mass times the square of the speed of light. Significant work on the German project was halted in June of 1942. The British were concerned enough about the plant to mount another operation. American scientists, not German, created the first atomic pile. in Germany a lot of people are searching in the "Jonastal" (ex DDR area) for the laboratories under the earth in which the first atomic bomb should have been built. They had 80 scientists working on the project, and much progress was being made. A daring team of Norwegian commandos infiltrated the plant and blew up the water tanks. the Wanderling "On Monday, July 16, 1945, a few weeks before their first meeting, during the very early pre-dawn hours my Uncle, who lived in New Mexico, was startled, along with many others no doubt, by a huge flash of light that filled the whole of the night sky in a giant half bubble arc across the desert toward White Sands. Like many German academics and professional soldiers of his time, he considered himself above politics, and so was willing to serve whatever government ruled Germany, even Hitler’s. Early in the 20th century, physicists realized that if it was possible to release the atomic energy in a piece of matter, say a brick, they could create a doomsday weapon. Realistically, based on the timeline of the atomic bomb creation, there seemed little chance that Germany would be a viable target. In his letter clearing Heisenberg, Himmler permitted him to continue with his work, but with the proviso that Heisenberg could only apply relativity theory and the work of Jewish scientists without acknowledging them. Hitler reportedly had a research facility to build an atomic bomb (AP) An amateur treasure hunter in Germany has stumbled upon what could be radioactive material from a … However if they would not succeed in two years, they would all be doomed to end in on of the infamous concentration camps. The countries that are allowed to produce nuclear weapons, already have them. The effort led to the invention of atomic bombs, including the two that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing or injuring over 200,000 people.These attacks forced Japan to surrender and brought an end to World War II, but they also marked a crucial turning point in the early Atomic Age, raising enduring questions about the implications of nuclear warfare. Heisenberg's disbelief after hearing that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima confirmed in the minds of the Allies that the German effort was never close. He would be afraid, thats for certain. For a time he was Germany’s youngest full professor. 3. Following their invasion of Norway in 1940, the Germans assumed control of the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant at Vemork. All rights reserved. Heisenberg’s mother, who had been an acquaintance of Heinrich Himmler’s father, passed on a personal letter from the physicist to the SS Reichsführer. The article accused Heisenberg of being a part of a “white Jewish” establishment that sought to keep true Germans from positions of importance, promoted Einstein’s relativity theory, and by implication sought to undermine the Nazi Party. Nevertheless, different accounts of this meeting suggest otherwise. It was a German scientist, Otto Hahn, who first split the atom in 1938. No orders were given to build atomic bombs” (Powers x). Infuriated by Heisenberg, who he thought “is not being honest, or he is being used by the Nazi government,” Bohr refused to speak with him more and eventually turned the sketch over to Manhattan Project scientists, who identified it as the outline of a reactor (Powers 126). Heisenberg sought the assistance of friends and associates within the establishment, including Nazi Party members, to clear his name. Three different contractors were used to produce the components so that no one would have a copy of the complete design. Theoretically, by the 1930s Germany had a jump on the rest of the world in atomic research. In fact, by the spring of 1945, when America’s massive nuclear program was reaching its culmination, the Nazi atomic program consisted of one experimental reactor in … Similar to the answers provided before, it all depends on when exactly the Atomic Bomb is developed. Perhaps the most fascinating discussion was a hypothetical. Meitner was a brilliant scientist, but evidently socially and politically inept enough that she continued to assist Hahn despite his treatment of her and Nazi Germany’s policies toward Jews in general. The design specifications for ‘Little Boy’ were completed in February 1945. One of World War II’s most remarkable and controversial stories is just how the Nazi atomic program came to this sorry pass. The German government ultimately decided that with the uncertainty surrounding the bomb project, it was not worth the gamble. ... an analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations said it was "crucial' for Germany to have … The Nazis did not have … Many of the world’s top nuclear physicists were German or Austrian, or worked closely with German or Austrian colleagues. 2) Theory 2, Scientific: The balance of (scientific) power was held by Jewish scientists like Einstein, Fermi (his wife was Jewish, not Fermi himself), and Bohr, meaning that Germany could have built the bomb if it had stayed on good terms with these people. In fact, by the spring of 1945, when America’s massive nuclear program was reaching its culmination, the Nazi atomic program consisted of one experimental reactor in a cave in southern Germany, operated by scientists who lacked a clear conception of how to build an atomic weapon. Relieved, Heisenberg readily agreed to the conditions and began working in earnest on the German atomic project. Two factors which had deleterious effects on the nuclear weapon project were the politicization of the education system under National Socialism and the rise of the Deutsche Physik movement, which was anti-Semitic and had a bias against theoretical physics, especially quantum mechanics. and expense required to build the atomic bomb-the fear that Hitler’s Germany would do it first” (Powers VII). Fortunately, the atoms in bricks, and in almost all ordinary matter, are quite stable and not likely to erupt in an atomic chain reaction. Heisenberg’s wife Elizabeth described a “vague hope” that Heisenberg had to halt bomb development in the United States by passing reassurances through Bohr. Many top German scientists had left Germany, some of them Jewish émigrés fleeing the new laws of German National Socialism. There was no plan. Following the German defeat, the Allies detained ten German scientists, at Farm Hall, a bugged house in Godmanchester, England, from July 3, 1945 to January 3, 1946. Two major setbacks delayed progress, researchers and … While the United States would build successful atomic reactors and both uranium and plutonium bombs by the end of the war, the German scientists never approached a … By mid-1942, the Norwegian factory was producing up to 10,000 pounds of heavy water per year for Heisenberg’s teams in Leipzig and Berlin. Robert Furman, assistant to General Leslie Groves and the Chief of Foreign Intelligence for the Manhattan Project, described how “the Manhattan Project was built on fear: fear that the enemy had the bomb, or would have it before we could develop it. To initiate a reaction, the flow of neutrons around the radioactive isotope must be moderated by another substance, such as graphite or deuterium (heavy water). 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