Carl
von Weizsäcker was born in Kiel in 1912. He studied physics
at Leipzig and in 1938 he proposed the theory for stellar evolution
that explained the production of ironizing and particulate radiation
by stars.
In
1940 Weizsäcker joined the
German atomic bomb research team led by Werner
Heisenberg. In April, 1945, Allied forces arrested
Weizsäcker
and Heisenberg as well as other German scientists such as Otto
Hahn, Max von Laue, Karl
Wirtz, and Walter Gerlach. These
men were now taken to England where they were questioned to see
if they had discovered how to make atomic
weapons.
After
the war Weizsäcker returned to Germany
where he became director of a department in the Max Planck Institute
of Physics in Gottingen. He was also professor of philosophy at
Hamburg (1957-69).
(1)
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War
Carl von Weizsacker commented to a friend on Nazi
Germany.
People whose political judgment I respect, my own father chief
and foremost among them, do not believe that Hitler has the least
chance of winning the war. My father has always looked upon Hitler
as a fool and a criminal who is bound to come to a bad end, and
he has never wavered in this belief. But if that is the whole truth,
how can we possibly explain Hitler's successes so far? Hitler's
liberal and conservative critics have completely failed to grasp
one decisive factor: his hold over the minds of the masses. I don't
understand it myself, but I can certainly feel it. He has often
enough confounded all his critics with his success, and - who knows
- perhaps he will do it again.
(2)
Carl von Weizsacker had a long discussion with Werner
Heisenberg in 1939 about the morality of scientific research.
We must make a clear distinction between the discoverer and
the inventor. As a rule, the former cannot predict the practical
consequences of his contribution before he actually makes it, the
less so as many years may go by before it can be exploited. Thus
Galvani and Volta could have had no conception of the subsequent
course of electrical engineering, nor can the slightest responsibility
be attached to them for the uses and abuses of subsequent developments.
Inventors seem to be in quite a different position. They have a
definite, practical goal in view, and ought to be able to judge
its merits. Hence we can apparently hold them answerable to their
contributions. Yet it is precisely the inventor who can be seen
not to act mot so much on his own behalf as for society at large.
The inventor of the telephone, for instance, knew that society was
anxious to speed up communication. In much the same way the inventor
of firearms may be said to have acted on the orders of a society
desirous of increasing its military strength.
(3)
While in England the captured German scientists were secretly taped
to discover how much they knew about atomic weapons. This included
Weizsäcker, Otto Hahn, Werner
Heisenberg, Max von Laue and Karl
Wirtz.
Otto Hahn: If the Americans have a uranium bomb then you're
all second-raters.
Werner
Heisenberg: Did they use the word uranium in connection with this
atomic bomb?
Otto
Hahn: No.
Werner
Heisenberg: Then it's got nothing to do with atoms, but the equivalent
of 20,000 tons of high explosive is terrific. All I can suggest,
is that some dilettante in America knows it has the equivalent of
20,000 tons of high explosive and in reality, it doesn't work at
all.
Otto
Hahn: At any rate Heisenberg, you're just second-raters, and you
may as well pack up.
Werner
Heisenberg: I quite agree. I am willing to believe that it is a
high pressure bomb and I don't believe that it has anything to do
with uranium but that it is a chemical thing where they have enormously
increased the whole explosion.
Karl
Witz: I'm glad we didn't have it.
Carl
von Weizsacker: I think it's dreadful of the Americans to have done
it. I think it is madness on their part.
Werner
Heisenberg: One can't say that. One could equally well say, "That's
the quickest way of ending the war."
Otto
Hahn: That's what consoles me.
Werner
Heisenberg: I believe the reason we didn't do it was because all
the physicists didn't want to do it, on principle. If we had all
wanted Germany to win the war we could have succeeded.
Otto
Hahn: I don't believe that, but I am thankful we didn't succeed.
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