HS, part 2

KWP59 at aol.com KWP59 at aol.com
Sun Oct 15 02:48:30 CDT 2006


This odd neglect may have a logic behind it; a closer look  reveals that
Cornwell's real focus is the physical sciences--three-quarters  of the
book deals with physics and technology: engineering, rocketry,  radar,
cryptology and, above all, nuclear fission. Within the physical  sciences,
the much-contested figure of Werner Heisenberg receives by far  the
most attention.

The Heisenberg debate seems an ideal test case for  Cornwell's questions
about the moral neutrality of science. Two typical  positions characterize
the debate, which surrounds the problem of why  Heisenberg remained
in Germany. The first--espoused by some journalists and  playwright
Michael Frayn--points to Heisenberg's failure to join the NSDAP  and
the dislike for his "non-Aryan" physics among National Socialists  as
evidence that Heisenberg was practicing a form of passive  resistance.
This interpretation follows Austrian journalist Robert Jungk, who  argued
in an early account of Heisenberg's behavior in _Heller als  tausend
Sonnen_ (1956) that German nuclear physicists chose not to build  the
bomb. Only later did Jungk discover that their failure to develop the  bomb
was due to ignorance. Jungk drew on evidence from interviews  he
conducted with the physicists themselves (notably Carl von  Weizsäcker),
and retroactively accused them, in a revised edition of the book  (1990),
of whitewashing themselves. Journalist Thomas Powers confirmed  Jungk's
original thesis in _Heisenberg's War_ (1994), arguing that  Heisenberg
fought his own personal war against the Nazis by consciously  delaying
the construction of a bomb. Powers's view is heavily based on  his
interpretation of Heisenberg's fateful meeting with Niels Bohr in  occupied
Copenhagen in 1941, during which Heisenberg gave a suspiciously  vague
report on the progress of German nuclear research. Bohr interpreted  the
conversation as an attempt at exploitation, but Power reads it as a  hidden
cry for help. British playwright Michael Frayn, who acknowledges  basing
his work on Powers, has similarly focused on the meeting: in the  beginning
of his play _Copenhagen_ (1998), Bohr's wife Margrethe asks: "Why  did
[Heisenberg] come to Copenhagen?"[5] Frayn suggests Heisenberg's
moral  status is subject to uncertainty--much like his physics.
An alternative  explanation, held mostly by historians and scientists,
suggests that by  staying in Germany, Heisenberg sacrificed moral and
political scruples for  the benefit of science--or for his scientific career.
His loss of the race  for the bomb is a sign of intellectual failure, not 
moral
superiority.  Scholars who espouse this position follow Samuel Goudsmit,
who attributed the  failure to "certain stupidities on the part of German
scientists and their  government" (p. 232).[6] Paul Lawrence Rose is
convinced that Heisenberg  miscalculated the required amount of U-235
for the reaction. His conclusion  that the necessary quantity could not be
procured during wartime caused him  to attempt to tease scientific advice
from and thus alienate Bohr, his former  mentor and close friend.[7] David
Cassidy suggests Heisenberg acted for the  German government when
visiting Bohr, arguing that Heisenberg hoped to use  Bohr's connections
to Allied nuclear physicists to make them believe that  Germany was still
a long way from building the bomb.[8] Cassidy and Rose base  their
argument on a postwar letter by Heisenberg to his colleague B. L.  van
der Waerden and on the newly released Farm Hall  transcripts--secret
recordings of conversations of ten German nuclear  scientists interned
near Cambridge, England, made in order to discover  whether they
collaborated with the Soviets after the war. Rose criticizes  Powers's
failure to take into account this "damning evidence," released in  1992
and recently published in an annotated edition (p. 70).[9] Among  the
most coherent and successful chapters in Cornwell’s book are  those
treating these transcripts (chapter 29) and the subsequent  chapter-long
evaluation of the figure of Heisenberg ("Heroes, Villains and  Fellow
Travelers").

Kurt-Werner  Pörtner


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20061015/9227947d/attachment.html>


More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list