The American and the German Atomic Bomb Projects and Their Legacies

This seminar will showcase new and important work on the German and the American atomic bomb and, by providing context and comparing the two cases, yield new insights and understanding of both these two very important historical events and their legacies for
science, technology, politics, and culture.

The fear of a German atomic bomb drove the efforts by Americans, British and émigres to build the first American atomic bombs. The Soviet Union responded to the Manhattan Project and detonation of nuclear devices over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by creating their own atomic bomb. The American president Harry Truman reacted to the Soviet atomic bomb by ordering the development of an American hydrogen bomb, which led in turn to a Soviet hydrogen bomb and an escalating nuclear arms race. The postwar rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union also became a political competition for the “peaceful uses” of the atom, which in turn led to nuclear proliferation.

This has all had a profound influence on the development of physics in America and Germany. Both governments have sought to steer scientists and scientific institutions towards specific types of research through investments in grants, equipment, and certain types of research centers. By both comparing the German and American work on the atomic bomb and placing them in context, this seminar will shed light on these weapons and their consequences.

The conference language will be English. The Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Foundation bears the cost of full-board accommodation for all participants.