A documentary about nuclear physicists in Nazi Germany and their attempt to produce an atomic bomb upon discovering nuclear fission, featuring interviews with some of these scientists working on the research.
The names Uranverein (Uranium Club) or Uranprojekt (Uranium Project) came to be applied in Nazi Germany to research into nuclear technology - including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors - before and during World War II. Development took place in several phases, but in the words of historian Mark Walker, it ultimately became "frozen at the laboratory level" with the "modest goal" to "build a nuclear reactor which could sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction for a significant amount of time and to achieve the complete separation of at least tiny amount of the uranium isotopes". The scholarly consensus is that it failed to achieve these goals, and that despite fears at the time, the Germans had never been close to producing nuclear weapons.
The first effort started in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin in December 1938, but ended only months later, shortly ahead of the September 1939 German invasion of Poland, when many notable German physicists were drafted into the Wehrmacht.
A second effort began under the administrative purview of the Wehrmacht's Heereswaffenamt on 1 September 1939, the day of the invasion of Poland. The program eventually expanded into three main efforts: the Uranmaschine (nuclear reactor), the production of uranium and heavy water, and uranium isotope separation. Eventually, it was assessed by the German military that nuclear fission would not contribute significantly to ending the war, and in January 1942 the Heereswaffenamt turned the program over to the Reich Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat) while continuing to fund the activity. The program was split up among nine major institutes where the directors dominated the research and set their own objectives. Subsequently, the number of scientists working on applied nuclear fission began to diminish, with many researchers applying their talents to more pressing wartime demands.
The most influential people in the Uranverein included Kurt Diebner, Abraham Esau, Walther Gerlach, and Erich Schumann. Schumann was one of the most powerful and influential physicists in Germany. Diebner, throughout the life of the nuclear weapon project, had more control over nuclear-fission research than did Walther Bothe, Klaus Clusius, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, or Werner Heisenberg. Esau was appointed as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's plenipotentiary for nuclear-physics research in December 1942; Walther Gerlach succeeded him after Esau resigned in December 1943.
Politicization of German academia under the Nazi régime of 1933-1945 had driven many physicists, engineers, and mathematicians out of Germany as early as 1933. Those of Jewish heritage who did not leave were quickly purged from German institutions, further thinning the ranks of researchers. The politicization of the universities, along with the German armed forces' demands for manpower (many scientists and technical personnel were conscripted, despite possessing technical and engineering skills), substantially reduced the number of able German physicists.
With the war in Europe coming to an end in 1945, various Allied powers competed with each other to obtain surviving components of the German nuclear industry (personnel, facilities, and material), as they did with the pioneering V-2 SRBM program.
Thanks for tuning into the EPIC WWII channel! This channel was developed out of my fascination with WWII and the magnitude of this historic era. This documentary collection covers all aspects of the war - before, during and after.
Like, subscribe, share, comment, and get notifications! Your support of this channel is much appreciated.
Check out my other channel about my firewood business:
[ Ссылка ]
#NUCLEARWEAPONS #ATOMBOMB #GERMANATOMICBOMB
