Rudolf Fleischmann
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Fleischmann was a German
experimental nuclear physicist from Erlangen
, Bavaria
. He worked for Walther Bothe
at the Physics Institute of the University of Heidelberg and then at the Institute for Physics of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research. Through his association with Bothe, he became involved in the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; one of Fleischmann’s areas of interest was isotope separation techniques. In 1941 he was appointed associate professor of experimental physics at the newly established Reichsuniversität Straßburg
, in France
. Late in 1944, he was arrested under the American Operation Alsos and sent to the United States
. After he returned to Germany 1946, he became Director of the State Physical Institute at the University of Hamburg
and developed it as a center of nuclear research. In 1953, he took a position at the University of Erlangen and achieved emeritus status in 1969. He was a signatory of the Göttingen Manifesto in 1957.
in solid-state physics
.
, director of the I. Physikalische Institut (First Physics Institute) at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. There he continued his work on solid-state physics.
In 1932, Walther Bothe had succeeded Philipp Lenard
as Director of the Physikalische und Radiologische Institut (Physical and Radiological Institute) at the University of Heidelberg. It was then that Fleischmann became a teaching assistant to Bothe. When Adolf Hitler
became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, the concept of Deutsche Physik
took on more favor as well as fervor; deutsche Physik, was anti-Semitic and anti-theoretical physics, especially modern physics, including quantum mechanics
and both atomic and nuclear physics. As applied in the university environment, political factors took priority over the historically applied concept of scholarly ability, even though its two most prominent supporters were the Nobel Laureates in Physics
Philipp Lenard
and Johannes Stark
. Supporters of deutsche Physik launched vicious attacks against leading theoretical physicists. While Lenard was retired from the University of Heidelberg, he still had significant influence there. In 1934, Lenard had managed to get Bothe relieved of his directorship of the Physical and Radiological Institute at the University of Heidelberg, whereupon Bothe was able to become the Director of the Institut für Physik of the KWImF, replacing Karl W. Hauser, who had recently died. Ludolf von Krehl
, Director of the KWImF, and Max Planck
, President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG, Kaiser Wilhelm Society, today, the Max Planck Society
), had offered the directorship to Bothe to ward off the possibility of his emigration. Fleischmann went with Bothe and worked with him there until 1941.
Bothe was a principal in the German nuclear energy project
, also known as the Uranverein (Uranium Club), and Fleischmann was brought into the project through his affiliation with Bothe. Fleischmann worked on isotope separation techniques.
During the period in which deutsche Physik was gaining prominence, which started right after Adolf Hitler
came to power in 1933, a foremost concern of the great majority of scientists was to maintain autonomy against political encroachment. Some of the more established scientists, such as Max von Laue
, could demonstrate more autonomy than the younger and less established scientists. This was, in part, due to political organizations, such as the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB, National Socialist German University Lecturers League), whose district leaders had a decisive role in the acceptance of an Habilitationsschrift, which was a prerequisite to attaining the rank of Privatdozent
necessary to becoming a university lecturer. While some with ability joined such organizations out of tactical career considerations, others with ability and adherence to historical academic standards joined these organizations to moderate their activities. This was the case of Wolfgang Finkelnburg
. It was in the summer of 1940 that Finkelnburg became an acting director of the NSDDB at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. As such, he organized the Münchner Religionsgespräche, which took place on 15 November 1940 and was known as the “Munich Synod.” The Münchner Religionsgespräche was an offensive against deutsche Physik. While the technical outcome may have been thin, it was a political victory against deutsche Physik. After this, the pendulum began to swing back to standards of achievement being used as a basis for making academic appointments, rather than political considerations. This was the case at the newly established German university in Strasbourg
, France
.
After the Franco-German Armistice in 1940, the Reichsuniversität Straßburg
(Reich’s University of Strassburg) in Strasbourg was founded in 1941. The newly founded research institute of the medical school at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg was modeled after the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für medizinische Forschung (KWImF, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research; today, the Max-Planck Institut für medizinische Forschung
), in Heidelberg
; it included institutes for internal medicine, physics, and chemistry. In the physics institute, there were to be two extraordinarius professors in experimental physics and one extraordinarius professor in theoretical physics; Fleischmann and Finkelnburg received the appointments in experimental physics and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
received the appointment in theoretical physics. They held these positions until late in 1944, when the Allied military forces liberated Strasbourg from German occupation.
By the time the American Operation Alsos
forces had entered Strasboug in late November 1944, von Weizsäcker had already escaped back to Germany. Fleischmann was arrested by the Alsos forces and incarcerated in a local jail until Samuel Goudsmit
, chief scientific advisor to Operation Alsos, arrived and made other arrangements for his incarceration. Fleischmann was sent to the United States for interrogation on the Uranverein and to exploit his scientific expertise in nuclear and atomic physics.
After Fleischmann’s return to Germany in 1946, he accepted the appointment to the Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Chair for Experimental Physics) at the Universität Hamburg
and he became Director of the Physikalische Staatsinstitut (State Physical Institute) and ordinarius professor (ordentlicher Professor) for experimental physics. Initially, due to restrictions by the Allied occupying powers in Germany, nuclear research was forbidden. During this time, Fleischmann developed a new method for determining the optical constants of thin metal layers. As the Cold War
developed, this restriction was eased and Fleischmann was able to make the University of Hamburg a center for nuclear physics research. This was done with the able assistance of colleagues such as Erich Bagge
, H. Neuert, and Rodolf Kollath.
In 1953, Fleischmann became an ordinarius professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He achieved emeritus status in 1969.
In 1957, Fleischmann was a signatory of the manifesto of the Göttinger Achtzehn
(Göttingen Eighteen). The 18 eminent scientists were opposed to arming the West German military with tactical nuclear weapons.
(Research Reports in Nuclear Physics), an internal publication of the German Uranverein
. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied Operation Alsos
and sent to the United States Atomic Energy Commission
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
experimental nuclear physicist from Erlangen
Erlangen
Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. He worked for Walther Bothe
Walther Bothe
Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was a German nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born....
at the Physics Institute of the University of Heidelberg and then at the Institute for Physics of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research. Through his association with Bothe, he became involved in the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; one of Fleischmann’s areas of interest was isotope separation techniques. In 1941 he was appointed associate professor of experimental physics at the newly established Reichsuniversität Straßburg
Reichsuniversität Straßburg
The Reichsuniversität Straßburg was founded 1941 by the National Socialists in Alsace while the regular University of Strasbourg had moved to Clermont-Ferrand since 1940. The purpose was to create a continuity to the German character of the German Imperial University of Strasbourg, that had been...
, in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Late in 1944, he was arrested under the American Operation Alsos and sent to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. After he returned to Germany 1946, he became Director of the State Physical Institute at the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
and developed it as a center of nuclear research. In 1953, he took a position at the University of Erlangen and achieved emeritus status in 1969. He was a signatory of the Göttingen Manifesto in 1957.
Education
From 1922 to 1926, Fleischmann studied at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He received his doctorate in 1929 under Bernhard Gudden, director of the Physics Institute at Erlangen; the subject of his thesis was on the photoelectric effectPhotoelectric effect
In the photoelectric effect, electrons are emitted from matter as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, such as visible or ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner may be referred to as photoelectrons...
in solid-state physics
Solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from...
.
Career
In 1931, Fleischmann became a teaching assistant to Robert PohlRobert Pohl
Robert Wichard Pohl was a German physicist.In 1938 Robert Pohl and Rudolf Hilsch, from the University of Göttingen, built the first functioning solid-state amplifier using salt as the semiconductor ....
, director of the I. Physikalische Institut (First Physics Institute) at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. There he continued his work on solid-state physics.
In 1932, Walther Bothe had succeeded Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
as Director of the Physikalische und Radiologische Institut (Physical and Radiological Institute) at the University of Heidelberg. It was then that Fleischmann became a teaching assistant to Bothe. When Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, the concept of Deutsche Physik
Deutsche Physik
Deutsche Physik or Aryan Physics was a nationalist movement in the German physics community in the early 1930s against the work of Albert Einstein, labeled "Jewish Physics"...
took on more favor as well as fervor; deutsche Physik, was anti-Semitic and anti-theoretical physics, especially modern physics, including quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
and both atomic and nuclear physics. As applied in the university environment, political factors took priority over the historically applied concept of scholarly ability, even though its two most prominent supporters were the Nobel Laureates in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
and Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark was a German physicist, and Physics Nobel Prize laureate who was closely involved with the Deutsche Physik movement under the Nazi regime.-Early years:...
. Supporters of deutsche Physik launched vicious attacks against leading theoretical physicists. While Lenard was retired from the University of Heidelberg, he still had significant influence there. In 1934, Lenard had managed to get Bothe relieved of his directorship of the Physical and Radiological Institute at the University of Heidelberg, whereupon Bothe was able to become the Director of the Institut für Physik of the KWImF, replacing Karl W. Hauser, who had recently died. Ludolf von Krehl
Ludolf von Krehl
Albrecht Ludolf von Krehl was a German internist and physiologist who was a native of Leipzig. He was the son of Orientalist Christoph Krehl...
, Director of the KWImF, and Max Planck
Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, ForMemRS, was a German physicist who actualized the quantum physics, initiating a revolution in natural science and philosophy. He is regarded as the founder of the quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.-Life and career:Planck came...
, President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG, Kaiser Wilhelm Society, today, the Max Planck Society
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes publicly funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany....
), had offered the directorship to Bothe to ward off the possibility of his emigration. Fleischmann went with Bothe and worked with him there until 1941.
Bothe was a principal in the German nuclear energy project
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
, also known as the Uranverein (Uranium Club), and Fleischmann was brought into the project through his affiliation with Bothe. Fleischmann worked on isotope separation techniques.
During the period in which deutsche Physik was gaining prominence, which started right after Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power in 1933, a foremost concern of the great majority of scientists was to maintain autonomy against political encroachment. Some of the more established scientists, such as Max von Laue
Max von Laue
Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals...
, could demonstrate more autonomy than the younger and less established scientists. This was, in part, due to political organizations, such as the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB, National Socialist German University Lecturers League), whose district leaders had a decisive role in the acceptance of an Habilitationsschrift, which was a prerequisite to attaining the rank of Privatdozent
Privatdozent
Privatdozent or Private lecturer is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...
necessary to becoming a university lecturer. While some with ability joined such organizations out of tactical career considerations, others with ability and adherence to historical academic standards joined these organizations to moderate their activities. This was the case of Wolfgang Finkelnburg
Wolfgang Finkelnburg
Wolfgang Karl Ernst Finkelnburg was a German physicist who made contributions to spectroscopy, atomic physics, the structure of matter, and high-temperature arc discharges...
. It was in the summer of 1940 that Finkelnburg became an acting director of the NSDDB at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. As such, he organized the Münchner Religionsgespräche, which took place on 15 November 1940 and was known as the “Munich Synod.” The Münchner Religionsgespräche was an offensive against deutsche Physik. While the technical outcome may have been thin, it was a political victory against deutsche Physik. After this, the pendulum began to swing back to standards of achievement being used as a basis for making academic appointments, rather than political considerations. This was the case at the newly established German university in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
After the Franco-German Armistice in 1940, the Reichsuniversität Straßburg
Reichsuniversität Straßburg
The Reichsuniversität Straßburg was founded 1941 by the National Socialists in Alsace while the regular University of Strasbourg had moved to Clermont-Ferrand since 1940. The purpose was to create a continuity to the German character of the German Imperial University of Strasbourg, that had been...
(Reich’s University of Strassburg) in Strasbourg was founded in 1941. The newly founded research institute of the medical school at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg was modeled after the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für medizinische Forschung (KWImF, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research; today, the Max-Planck Institut für medizinische Forschung
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is a facility of the Max Planck Society for basic medical research. Since its foundation, six Nobel Prize laureates worked at the Institute: Otto Fritz Meyerhof , Richard Kuhn , Walther Bothe , André Michel Lwoff , Rudolf...
), in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
; it included institutes for internal medicine, physics, and chemistry. In the physics institute, there were to be two extraordinarius professors in experimental physics and one extraordinarius professor in theoretical physics; Fleischmann and Finkelnburg received the appointments in experimental physics and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership...
received the appointment in theoretical physics. They held these positions until late in 1944, when the Allied military forces liberated Strasbourg from German occupation.
By the time the American Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
forces had entered Strasboug in late November 1944, von Weizsäcker had already escaped back to Germany. Fleischmann was arrested by the Alsos forces and incarcerated in a local jail until Samuel Goudsmit
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925.-Biography:...
, chief scientific advisor to Operation Alsos, arrived and made other arrangements for his incarceration. Fleischmann was sent to the United States for interrogation on the Uranverein and to exploit his scientific expertise in nuclear and atomic physics.
After Fleischmann’s return to Germany in 1946, he accepted the appointment to the Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Chair for Experimental Physics) at the Universität Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
and he became Director of the Physikalische Staatsinstitut (State Physical Institute) and ordinarius professor (ordentlicher Professor) for experimental physics. Initially, due to restrictions by the Allied occupying powers in Germany, nuclear research was forbidden. During this time, Fleischmann developed a new method for determining the optical constants of thin metal layers. As the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
developed, this restriction was eased and Fleischmann was able to make the University of Hamburg a center for nuclear physics research. This was done with the able assistance of colleagues such as Erich Bagge
Erich Bagge
Erich Rudolf Bagge was a German scientist. Bagge, a student of Werner Heisenberg for his doctorate and Habilitation, was engaged in German Atomic Energy research and the German nuclear energy project during the Second World War. He worked as an Assistant at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik...
, H. Neuert, and Rodolf Kollath.
In 1953, Fleischmann became an ordinarius professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He achieved emeritus status in 1969.
In 1957, Fleischmann was a signatory of the manifesto of the Göttinger Achtzehn
Göttinger Manifest
The Göttingen Manifesto was a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany against arming the West German army with tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s, the early part of the Cold War, as the West German government under chancellor Adenauer had suggested.-Historical situation:In...
(Göttingen Eighteen). The 18 eminent scientists were opposed to arming the West German military with tactical nuclear weapons.
Internal Reports
The following reports were published in Kernphysikalische ForschungsberichteKernphysikalische Forschungsberichte
Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte was an internal publication of the German Uranverein, which was initiated under the Heereswaffenamt in 1939; in 1942, supervision of the Uranverein was turned over to the Reichsforschungsrat under the Reichserziehungsministerium...
(Research Reports in Nuclear Physics), an internal publication of the German Uranverein
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
and sent to the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics promotes science, the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies...
.
- Rudolf Fleischmann Ein mögliches Verfahren zure Isotopentrennung von Uran G-27 (3 July 1940)
- G-343. Excerpts from a document presumably authored by Fleischmann and found in Strassburg by Operation Alsos. Only a rough translation made by Samuel Goudsmit, chief scientific advisor to Alsos, is available.
- R. Flieschemann [in Strassburg] Über den zweckmäßigsten Bau von Trennrohranlagen für kontinuierlichen Betrieb G-350 (ca. 1942)
Books
- Rudolf Fleischmann Einführung in die Physik (Verlag Chemie, 1973)
- Rudolf Fleischmann Spezielle Relativitätstheorie und Längenmessung (Verlag Palm & Enke, 1998)