Karl Heinrich Emil Becker

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Karl Becker
Chief of the Heereswaffenamt
In office
1 March 1938 – 8 April 1940
Preceded byKurt Liese [de]
Succeeded byEmil Leeb
President of the Reichsforschungsrat
In office
1937 – 8 April 1940
Appointed byBernhard Rust
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byBernhard Rust
Personal details
Born
Karl Heinrich Emil Becker

(1879-09-14)14 September 1879
General of the Artillery
UnitRoyal Bavarian 2nd Foot Artillery Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II

Karl Heinrich Emil Becker (14 September 1879 – 8 April 1940) was a

weapons engineer and artillery general. He advocated and implemented close ties of the military to science for purposes of advanced weapons development. He was the head of the Army Ordnance Office, Senator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
, first president of the Reich Research Council, the first general officer to be a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, as well as being a professor at both the University of Berlin and the Berlin Technical University.

In the late 1920s, he realised that a loophole in the Treaty of Versailles allowed Germany to develop rocket weapons.[1] The military-scientific infrastructure he helped implement supported the German nuclear energy program, known as the Uranium Club. Being depressed over heavy criticism from Hitler for shortfalls in munitions production, he committed suicide in 1940. He was given a State funeral.

Career

From 1898, Becker was a military engineer.[2]

From 1901 to 1903, Becker studied at the Munich Artillery and Engineering School. From 1906 to 1911, he studied at the Berlin Military Engineering Academy, specializing in ballistics under Carl Julius Cranz; from 1908 to 1911, he was a teaching assistant at the Ballistics Laboratory there. From 1911 to 1914, he was a member of the Artillery Examining Board.[2] In 1913, Becker co-authored a revision of Cranz' classic text, Lehrbuch der Ballistik.

During

Heereswaffenamt (HWA, Army Ordnance Office).[2][3]

From 1919 to 1923, Becker studied chemistry and metallurgy. He was awarded a doctorate of engineering in 1922, with a thesis on cathodic change of phenol.[2]

From 1922, Becker was an advisor to the HWA inspections office.[2]

Becker was aware of the advantages of a close relationship between the military and science in the development of future weapons technology. As early as 1924, he recommended the establishment of a central laboratory of chemistry and physics. But only when he was director of the Ballistics and Ammunition Department of the Weapons and Equipment Inspection (Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät) was he able to implement his recommendation. The Central Office of Army Physics and Army Chemistry (Zentralstelle für Heeresphysik und Heereschemie) was formed in 1926 and recognized as an Armed Forces department in 1929. When

German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranverein (Uranium Club).[4]

Becker, head of the ballistics and munitions section of the HWA Weapons Testing Division, was a key early supporter of Germany's development of the rocket as a weapon. In 1929, Becker got permission of the Reichswehrministerium (RWM, Reich Ministry of Defense) to do so. He was interested in the development of both solid-fuel and liquid-fuel rockets. Later, one of his subordinates, Colonel Dr

V2 rocket program. Wernher von Braun was hired in 1932.[5]

From 1932, Becker was an Honorary Professor of military sciences at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (later, the

Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft, the umbrella organization for numerous technical institutes. From 1935, he was the first general officer to be a member of the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften (PAW, Prussian Academy of Sciences). In 1937, Becker significantly expanded the Wehrtechnische Fakultät.[2][6][7][8]

From November 1933, Becker was head of the research department and the Weapons Testing Office, and from February 4, 1938, head of the HWA, in addition to his positions at the Technische Hochschule Berlin and the University of Berlin. From 1937, he was also first president of the

Reichserziehungsministerium (REM, Reich Ministry of Education).[2][9][10]

On 8 April 1940, just one day before the invasion of Denmark and Norway (Operation Weserübung), Becker committed suicide. Becker had been depressed for months, as he had been heavily criticized by Hitler and others for shortfalls in munitions production. Becker's suicide was covered up by a State funeral on 12 April 1940.[2][11][12]

Notes

  1. ^ Barber 2017, p. 11.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Carl Becker
  3. ^ Document 75. E. Schumann: Armed Forces and Research p. 209, in Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 207–220.
  4. ^ Document 75. E. Schumann: Armed Forces and Research pp. 208-211 and 211n10, in Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 207–220.
  5. ^ Michael J. Neufeld The Guided Missile and the Third Reich: Peenemünde and the Forging of a Technological Revolution p. 56, in Renneberg & Walker 2002, pp. 51–71.
  6. ^ Document 52. B. Rust: Creation of a Research Council [March 16, 1937] p. 144n7, in Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 143–145.
  7. ^ Document 75. E. Schumann: Armed Forces and Research pp. 208n6 and 211n11, in Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 207–220.
  8. ^ Andreas Heinemann-Grüder Keinerlei Untergang: German Armaments Engineers during the Second World War and in the Service of the Victorious Powers p. 34, in Renneberg & Walker 2002, pp. 30–50.
  9. ^ Document 52. B. Rust: Creation of a Research Council [March 16, 1937] p. 144n7, Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 143–145.
  10. ^ Document 75. E. Schumann: Armed Forces and Research p. 211n11, in Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, pp. 207–220.
  11. ^ Neufeld 2007, pp. 120–121
  12. ^ Ciesla, 2000[permanent dead link], 489.

Bibliography

External links
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