Justus Mühlenpfordt
Justus Mühlenpfordt | |
---|---|
Born | Nuclear Physics | 22 April 1911
Institutions | Institute for Physics Stofftrennung Academic Research Center for Isotopic Technologies (ARIT) Research Laboratories for Electrical Physics (EPRL) German-Physics Directorate, Nazi Party Institute G |
Justus Mühlenpfordt (22 April 1911 – 2 October 2000) was a German
Early years
Mühlenpfordt was born in
Education
Mühlenpfordt received his doctorate, in 1936, from the Technische Hochschule Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig.[2][3]
Career
In Germany
In 1935, Mühlenpfordt, went to work for
In the Soviet Union
How Mühlenpfordt got to the Soviet Union and his activities there are best understood in the context of four prominent Berlin scientists.
After Mühlenpfordt's successful work at Institute G, he became chief of a design bureau in Leningrad, no earlier than 1950.[19]
In preparation for release from the Soviet Union, it was standard practice to put personnel into quarantine for a few years if they worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project. Mühlenpfordt spent his quarantine at a facility in Agudzery (Agudseri), as did other German scientists. Additionally, in 1954, in preparation sending the German scientists to the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, German Democratic Republic), the DDR and the Soviet Union prepared a list of scientists they wished to keep in the DDR, due to their having worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project; this list was known as the "A-list". On this A-list were the names of 18 scientists; nine, possibly 10, of the names were associated with the Nikolaus Riehl group which worked at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal' (Электросталь[21]). Mühlenpfordt was on the list.[15][22][23]
Back in Germany
Mühlenpfordt arrived in the DDR in 1955. He was appointed director of the Institut für physikalische Stofftrennung of the Academy of Sciences, in Leipzig; in 1964, the institute was renamed the Institut für stabile Isotope (Institute for Stable Isotopes). In 1960, he was also appointed a professor of the Academy of Sciences. In 1968, he was additionally appointed Beauftragter (Representative) of the Academy of Sciences.[3][24]
From 1969 until his retirement in 1974, Mühlenpfordt was director of the Forschungsbereiches Kern- und Istopentechnik der Akademie der Wissenschaften (Research Division for Nuclear and Isotope Technology of the Academy of Sciences); the organization was later renamed the Forschungsbereich Kernwissenschaften der Akademie der Wissenschaften (Nuclear Science Research Division of the Academy of Sciences), and still later renamed the Forschungsbereich Physik der Akademie der Wissenschaften (Physics Research Division of the Academy of Sciences).[3][4]
Upon his retirement, Mühlenpfordt devoted his interests to art, history, and philosophy, while still retaining active interests in scientific research – improvement of television and investigating methods of earthquake prediction.[4]
Professional Honors & Memberships
- Corresponding Member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften (Academy of Sciences) since 1969[25]
- Member of the Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften zu Berlin e.V.[26]
- Nationalpreis der Deutsche Demokratische Republik in 1961[3]
Literature
- Justus Mühlenpfordt The Importance of Stable Isotopes [In German], Kernenergie Volume 3, 816-822 (1960). Institutional affiliation: Institut für physikalische Stofftrennung, Leipzig.
- Justus Mühlenpfordt Obtention, Application, and Analysis of Stable Isotopes in the German Democratic Republic [In German], Kernenergie Volume 5, 208-211 (1962). Institutional affiliation: Institut für Physikalische Stofftrennung, Leipzig.
- Justus Mühlenpfordt The Institute of Stable Isotopes at Leipzig [In German], Isotopenpraxis Volume 2, 113-116 (1966)
- Justus Mühlenpfordt Refinement of Industrial Products by Substituting Hydrogen by Deuterium. Part I. [In German], Isotopenpraxis Volume 2, 119-121 (1966). Institutional affiliation: Institut für Stabile Isotope, Leipzig Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin.
Books
- Justus Mühlenpfordt Untersuchung über die Möglichkeit, auf photoelektrischem Wege die Messempfindlichkeit des Interferentialrefraltors nach Jamin zu Erhöhen, Doctoral Dissertation Thesis (Technische Hochschule Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 1937)
- Aleksandr I. Brodskij and Justus Mühlenpfordt Isotopenchemie (Akademie-Verl., 1961)
Bibliography
- Hartkopf, Werner, editor Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften: Ihre Mitglieder und Preisträger 1700-1990 (Akademi Verlag, 1992)
- Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Birkhäuser, 1996) ISBN 0-8176-5312-0
- Heinemann-Grüder, Andreas Keinerlei Untergang: German Armaments Engineers during the Second World War and in the Service of the Victorious Powers in Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (editors) Science, Technology and National Socialism 30-50 (Cambridge, 2002 paperback edition) ISBN 0-521-52860-7
- Kruglov, Arkadii The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry (CRC, 2002)
- Maddrell, Paul "Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany 1945–1961" (Oxford, 2006) ISBN 0-19-926750-2
- Naimark, Norman M. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949 (Belknap, 1995)
- Obituary: Professor Dr.-Ing. Justus Mühlenpfordt, Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, Volume 36, Issue 4, 319-322 (2000)
- Oleynikov, Pavel V. German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project, The Nonproliferation Review Volume 7, Number 2, 1 – 30 (2000). The author has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70).
External links
- Leibniz Society – Obituary Justus Mühlenpfordt
Notes
- ^ See the pages for Mühlenpfordt’s mother and father on the German Wikipedia Website.
- ^ Justus Mühlenpfordt Untersuchung über die Möglichkeit, auf photoelektrischem Wege die Messempfindlichkeit des Interferentialrefraltors nach Jamin zu Erhöhen, Doctoral Dissertation Thesis (Technische Hochschule Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 1937).
- ^ a b c d Hartkopf, 1992, 251.
- ^ a b c Leibniz Society Archived 9 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine – Obituary Justus Mühlenpfordt.
- ^ sachen.de Archived 25 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine - Zur Ehrung von Manfred von Ardenne.
- ^ Heinemann-Grüder, 2002, 44.
- ^ Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Thiessen.
- ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 5.
- ^ a b Oleynikov, 2000, 11-12.
- ^ a b Naimark, 1995, 213.
- ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 12-13 and 18.
- ^ Kruglov, 2002, 131.
- ^ Naimark, 1995, 209.
- ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 13 and 18.
- ^ a b Maddrell, 2006, 179-180.
- ^ Goals of Manfred von Ardenne’s Institute A included: (1) Electromagnetic separation of isotopes, for which von Ardenne was the leader, (2) Techniques for manufacturing porous barriers for isotope separation, for which Peter Adolf Thiessen was the leader, and (3) Molecular techniques for separation of uranium isotopes, for which Max Steenbeck was the leader. In his first meeting with Lavrentij Beria, von Ardenne was asked to participate in building the bomb, but von Ardenne quickly realized that participation would prohibit his repatriation to Germany, so he suggested isotope enrichment as an objective, which was agreed to. By the end of the 1940s, nearly 300 Germans were working at the institute, and they were not the total work force. See Oleynikov, 2000, 10-11.
- ^ Institute A was used as the basis for the Sukhumi Physical-Technical Institute. See Oleynikov, 2000, 12.
- ^ Today, NII-9 is the Bochvar All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials, Bochvar VNIINM. See Oleynikov, 2000, 4.
- ^ a b Oleynikov, 2000, 13.
- ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 11.
- ^ "Электросталь" is sometimes transliterated as "Elektrostal". A one-to-one transliteration scheme transliterates the Cyrillic letter "Э" as "Eh", which distinguishes it from that for the Cyrillic letter "Е" given as "E". Transliterations often also drop the soft sign "ь".
- ^ The A-list, prepared by East Germany and the Soviet Union in 1954, had 18 names on it. These Germans were to be encouraged to stay in East Germany, as they had done work on the Soviet atomic bomb project. At least nine members worked in Riehl’s group at Elektrostal':
- Hans-Joachim Born, Alexander Catsch, Werner Kirst, Przybilla, Nikolaus Riehl, Herbert Thieme, Tobein, Günter Wirths, and Karl Zimmer.
- Schmidt may be a tenth Riehl group member Herbert Schmitz, or the name may refer to Fritz Schmidt, another nuclear scientist who was returned to Germany.
- Gustav Hertz,
- Ingrid Schilling and Alfred Schimohr, who both worked at Institute A headed by Manfred von Ardenne,
- Willi Lange, Gerhard Siewert, and Ludwig Ziehl.
- ^ Riehl and Seitz, 1996, 137-139.
- ^ Wissenschaftspark-Leipzig
- ^ Leibniz Society Archived 9 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine – Obituary Justus Mühlenpfordt
- ^ Leibniz-Sozietät - Bekannte Mitglieder