Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's PactNazi Germany had a head start in the science and technologies that dramatically transformed armed conflict in the twentieth century, leading to ultimate weapons of mass destruction, and the means of delivering them, ballistic missiles. from Hitler's rise to power in 1933 to his fall in 1945. He describes the behaviour of researchers in the huge span of scientific disciplines in which Germany excelled and led the world. Some were Nazi enthusiasts, many more were fellow travellers. Few resisted or rebelled and their efforts prolonged the war. Their failure to translate leading-edge expertise into military success is a crucial feature of world history. Their degenerate exploitation of death-camp victims and slave labour brought lasting shame on the entire German scientific community. Cornwell's disturbing book, however, raises questions about the conduct of all scientists whatever their nationality or ideology. own ends, borrowing from pseudo-biology to develop his murderous racist theories, seizing on rocket science and jet propulsion as desperate last bids to terrify his enemies and stave off defeat. He explores the German quest for an atomic bomb, resolving the intriguing story of Werner Heisenberg and his trip to Copenhagen: the final truth about the failure of Germany's nuclear research. against the background of Germany's emergence as the technological powerhouse of Europe by the first decade of the century. In the final stages of his story he explores the record of scientists, East and West, since Hitler's fall. Have scientists behaved any better in the course of the Cold War and beyond? |
Contents
Understanding the Germans I | 1 |
Hitlers Scientific Inheritance | 19 |
Hitler the Scientist | 21 |
Copyright | |
41 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
academic aircraft Albert Speer Allied American anti-Semitism army atomic bomb Auschwitz Berlin Bohr Bohr's Braun Britain British cancer century chain reaction chemical chemist Churchill collaboration colleagues Copenhagen doctors Dornberger early Einstein electron energy engineers eugenic experiments explosion Farm Hall fission Frisch Fritz Haber funding German German science Germany's Göttingen Harteck Himmler historian Hitler human IG Farben industry involved Jewish Jews Kaiser Wilhelm Institute laboratory later Laue Lenard Lise Meitner London Luftwaffe machine mathematics Max Born Max Planck Meanwhile Meitner military missile moral Munich National Socialism National Socialist nature Nazi neutrons Nobel nuclear weapons Otto Frisch Otto Hahn Peenemünde physicist physics poison gas political prisoners production Professor quantum Quoted ibid race racial hygiene radar reactor regime research programme rocket Russians science and technology scientific slave labour Soviet Speer Stark Szilard theory Third Reich United University uranium Weizsäcker Werner Heisenberg wrote