Kurt Diebner

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Kurt Diebner
Army Ordnance Office
University of Göttingen
Max-Planck Gesellschaft
Doctoral advisorGerhard Hoffmann

Kurt Diebner (13 May 1905 – 13 July 1964) was a German

German nuclear weapons program, a secretive program aiming to build nuclear weapons for Nazi Germany during World War II. He was appointed the project's administrative director after Adolf Hitler
authorized it.

Diebner was also the director of the Nuclear Research Council and a Reich Planning Officer for the

surrender to Allied Powers in 1945. After the war, he was incarcerated in the United Kingdom and repatriated back to West Germany
in early 1946. Shortly after his return, he became director and joint owner of DURAG-Apparatebau GmbH, and was a member of the supervisory board of the Gesellschaft zur Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt m.b.H

Education

Diebner was born in 1905 in

alpha particles.[1]

Academic career

From 1931 to 1934, Diebner was Gerhard Hoffmann's teaching assistant at Halle University.[1]

From 1934, Diebner was a part-time employee of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR, Reich Physical and Technical Institute; today, the

Heereswaffenamt (HWA, Army Ordnance Office) on nuclear physics.[1]

German nuclear program

On 22 April 1939, after hearing a paper by

Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG, after World War II renamed the Max-Planck Gesellschaft) in January 1942 and control of the project was relinquished to the RFR that year. However, the HWA did maintain its testing station in Gottow and continue research there under Diebner's direction until the end of the war. During Diebner's directorship at the KWIP, considerable personal animosity had developed between Diebner and Werner Heisenberg and his scientific circle, which included Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Karl Wirtz; when Diebner left the KWIP, Heisenberg became the acting director.[2][3][4][5]

It was at the Gottow facility that

University of Leipzig.[5] Work was also done to explore the initiation of a nuclear reaction through the detonation of explosives.[8]

In the latter part of World War II, in addition to his other responsibilities, Diebner was a Reich Planning Officer.[9]

Program collapsed

Diebner was rounded up on 2 May 1945 as part of the Allied

Farm Hall, with nine other scientists thought to be involved in nuclear research and development. The nine others incarcerated were Erich Bagge, Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Werner Heisenberg, Horst Korsching, Max von Laue, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Karl Wirtz. All were involved with nuclear research except for von Laue. They were repatriated to Germany in early 1946.[10]

From 1947/1948, Diebner was director and joint owner of DURAG-Apparatebau GmbH in Hamburg.[1]

Postwar career

From 1956, Diebner was a member of the supervisory board of the Gesellschaft zur Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt m.b.H (GKSS, Company for the Commercial Exploitation of Nuclear energy in Ship Building and Shipping); Erich Bagge, was the general director. From 1957, Diebner was also a lecturer at the state School of Naval Engineers in Flensburg.[11]

Internal reports

The following reports were published in

Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics.[12][13]

  • F. Berkei, W. Borrmann, W. Czulius, Kurt Diebner, Georg Hartwig, K. H. Höcker, W. Herrmann, H. Pose, and Ernst Rexer Bericht über einen Würfelversuch mit Uranoxyd und Paraffin G-125 (dated before 26 November 1942)
  • Kurt Diebner, Werner Czulius, W. Herrmann, Georg Hartwig, F. Berkei and E. Kamin Über die Neutronenvermehrung einer Anordnung aus Uranwürfeln und schwerem Wasser (G III) G-210
  • Kurt Diebner, Georg Hartwig, W. Herrmann, H. Westmeyer, Werner Czulius, F. Berkei, and Karl-Heinz Höcker Vorläufige Mitteilung über einen Versuch mit Uranwüfeln und schwerem Eis als Bremssubstanz G-211 (April 1943)
  • Kurt Diebner, Georg Hartwig, W. Herrmann, H. Westmeyer, Werner Czulius, F. Gerkei, and Karl-Heinz Höcker Bericht über einen Versuch mit Würfeln aus Uran-Metall und schwerem Eis G-212 (July 1943)

Selected literature

  • Kurt Diebner Der deutsche Forscheranteil, Die Zeit (18 August 1955) as cited in Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, References, LX.
  • Kurt Diebner (alias Werner Tautorus) Die Deutschen Geheimarbeiten zur Kernenergieverwertung während des zweiten Weldkrieges 1939-1945, Atomkernenergie Volume 1, 368–370 and 423–425 (1956) as cited in Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, References, LX.

Books

  • Kurt Diebner and Eberhard Grassmann, Künstliche Radioaktivität (Hirzel, 1939)
  • Dieter Bagge, Kurt Diebner, and Kenneth Jay Von der Uranspaltung bis Calder Hall (Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1957)
  • Erich Bagge and Kurt Diebner 10 Jahre Kernenergie-Studiengesellschaft 1955-1965 (Thiemig, 1965)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Diebner.
  2. ^ Kant, 2002, Reference 8 on p. 3.
  3. ^ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, 363–364 and Appendix F; see the entries for Diebner, Döpel, and Joos. See also the entry for the KWIP in Appendix A and the entry for the HWA in Appendix B.
  4. ^ Macrakis, 1993, 164.
  5. ^ a b Walker, 1993, 94–104.
  6. ^ F. Berkei, W. Borrmann, W. Czulius, Kurt Diebner, Georg Hartwig, K. H. Höcker, W. Herrmann, H. Pose, and Ernst Rexer Bericht über einen Würfelversuch mit Uranoxyd und Paraffin G-125 (dated before 26 November 1942).
  7. ^ Kurt Diebner, Werner Czulius, W. Herrmann, Georg Hartwig, F. Berkei and E. Kamin Über die Neutronenvermehrung einer Anordnung aus Uranwürfeln und schwerem Wasser (G III) G-210.
  8. ^ W. Herrmann, Georg Hartwig, H. Rockwitz, W. Trinks, and H. Schaub Versuche über die Einleitung von Kernreaktionen durch die Wirkung explodierender Stoffe G-303 (1944).
  9. ^ Kurt Diebner Listing of Nuclear Research Commissions Enclosed with a Letter to the President of the Reich Research Council [April 18. 1944] in Document #104 in Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Birkhäuser, 1996) 322–324. The document was issued by direction of Kurt Diebner as a Reich Planning Officer.
  10. ^ Bernstein, 2001, 51 and 363–365.
  11. ^ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Diebner. Also see the entry for GKSS in Appendix D.
  12. ^ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix E; see the entry for Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte.
  13. ^ Walker, 1993, 268–274.

References

  • Bernstein, Jeremy, Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall (Copernicus, 2001)
    ISBN 0-387-95089-3
  • 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
  • Walker, Mark, German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939–1949 (Cambridge, 1993)
    ISBN 0-521-43804-7
  • Walker, Mark, Eine Waffenschmiede? Kernwaffen- und Reaktorforschung am Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, Forschungsprogramm "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" Ergebnisse 26 (2005)

External links

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