Article ID: CBB001220407

The Politics of Forgetting: Otto Hahn and the German Nuclear-Fission Project in World War II (2012)

unapi

As the co-discoverer of nuclear fission and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Otto Hahn (1879--1968) took part in Germany`s nuclear-fission project throughout the Second World War. I outline Hahn's efforts to mobilize his institute for military-related research; his inclusion in high-level scientific structures of the military and the state; and his institute's research programs in neutron physics, isotope separation, transuranium elements, and fission products, all of potential military importance for a bomb or a reactor and almost all of it secret. These activities are contrasted with Hahn's deliberate misrepresentations after the war, when he claimed that his wartime work had been nothing but purely scientific fundamental research that was openly published and of no military relevance.

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Authors & Contributors
Dahn, Ryan
Wellerstein, Alex
Wang, Shiping
Vizgin, Vladimir P.
Strasser, Bruno J.
Sopka, Katherine Russell
Concepts
Science and war; science and the military
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Physics
Science and politics
National Socialism
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
Places
Germany
United States
Soviet Union
Ohio (U.S.)
Netherlands
Switzerland
Institutions
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, Berlin
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie
Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft
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