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The German Atomic Bomb Project

The German Atomic Bomb Project. A Timeline. January 1993: Hitler came to power December 1938: Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann discovered fission September 1939: WWII started and German military started uranium project with subsequent active participation by Heisenberg and other physicists

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The German Atomic Bomb Project

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  1. The German Atomic Bomb Project

  2. A Timeline • January 1993: Hitler came to power • December 1938: Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann discovered fission • September 1939: WWII started and German military started uranium project with subsequent active participation by Heisenberg and other physicists • 1941: German physicists discussed plutonium bomb, speculated critical mass (10-100kg); Heisenberg visited Bohr in Copenhagen • 1945: War in Europe ended without Germans succeeding in building a bomb

  3. Key Debates • Why did the Germans fail to make the bomb? • Did Heisenberg and his colleagues deliberately sabotage the German bomb project? • What was Heisenberg trying to tell Bohr in their meeting in Sept. 1941?

  4. Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen • Key point: both historical and epistemological • What did happen in Copenhagen? • Can we ever know what actually happened? • Release of Bohr letters: http://www.nba.nbi.dk/release.html

  5. Most Recent Developments • Farm Hall Transcript of conversations of Heisenberg and other German physicists upon hearing the news of Hiroshima: • http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=2320 • Claim of Germans testing a crude nuclear device during WWII: • http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=2320

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