On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:58:22 -0700, Allen Esterson wrote: >Mike Palij writes: >>It's an interesting story but, of course, Deutsche Physik fell out of >>favour even with the Nazis, Werner Heisenberg (yes, the uncertainty >>Heisenberg, not the "Breaking Bad" Heisenberg) was a proponent >>of Einstein's theory (as well as being well connected to high ranking >>Nazi Heinrich Himmler) and, ironically, (quoting from the Wikipedia >>entry:) > >Mike writes that Heisenberg was "well connected to high ranking Nazi >Heinrich Himmler". Well, it depends on what one means by "well >connected". Heisenberg's grandfather had belonged to a hiking club of >Bavarian Gymnasium (grammar school) rectors, and one of the members of >this group was Himmler's father. Heisenberg's mother had become >acquainted through her father with Heinrich Himmler's mother. And >that's the "connection". (David C. Cassidy, *Uncertainty: The Life and >Science of Werner Heisenberg*, 1991, pp. 385-386) None of this >indicates any direct connection of Heisenberg to Himmler, and certainly >not that he was "well connected".
Well, as you say, it depends upon what one means by "well connected". It probably also depends upon what sources one relies on. I had relied on the Wikipedia entry (yada-yada) on Deutsche Physik for my interpretive phrase "well connected". Quoting from the Wikipedia entry on Heisenberg, one find a description similar to that used by Allen from Cassidy but with additional detail: |The deutsche Physik movement | |On 1 April 1935, the eminent theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, |Heisenberg's doctoral advisor at the University of Munich, achieved |emeritus status. However, Sommerfeld stayed in his chair during the |selection process for his successor, which took until 1 December 1939. | |The process was lengthy due to academic and political differences |between the Munich Faculty's selection and that of the Reichserziehungsministerium |(REM, Reich Education Ministry.) and the supporters of Deutsche Physik, |which was anti-Semitic and had a bias against theoretical physics, |especially quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. | |In 1935, the Munich Faculty drew up a list of candidates to replace |Sommerfeld as ordinarius professor of theoretical physics and head |of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Munich. |There were three names on the list: Werner Heisenberg, who received |the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1932, Peter Debye, who would receive |the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936, and Richard Becker - all former |students of Sommerfeld. | |The Munich Faculty was firmly behind these candidates, with Heisenberg |as their first choice. However, supporters of Deutsche Physik and elements |in the REM had their own list of candidates and the battle dragged on |for over four years. During this time, Heisenberg came under vicious |attack by the Deutsche Physik supporters. | |One attack was published in Das Schwarze Korps, the newspaper of the |Schutzstaffel (SS), headed by Heinrich Himmler. In this, Heisenberg was |called a "White Jew" (i.e. an Aryan who acts like a Jew) who should be |made to "disappear."[67] These attacks were taken seriously, as Jews |were violently attacked and incarcerated. Heisenberg fought back with |an editorial and a letter to Himmler, in an attempt to resolve this matter |and regain his honour. | |[NOTE: Momma to Momma] |At one point, Heisenberg's mother visited Himmler's mother. The two |women knew each other as Heisenberg's maternal grandfather and Himmler's |father were rectors and members of a Bavarian hiking club. Eventually, |Himmler settled the Heisenberg affair by sending two letters, one to SS |Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich and one to Heisenberg, both on |21 July 1938. | |In the letter to Heydrich, Himmler said Germany could not afford to lose |or silence Heisenberg as he would be useful for teaching a generation of |scientists. | |[NOTE TEXT BELOW] |To Heisenberg, Himmler said the letter came on recommendation of his |family and he cautioned Heisenberg to make a distinction between |professional physics research results and the personal and political attitudes |of the involved scientists. The letter to Heisenberg was signed under the |closing "Mit freundlichem Gruss und, Heil Hitler!" (With friendly greetings, |Heil Hitler!")[68] | |Overall, the Heisenberg affair was a victory for academic standards and |professionalism. However, the appointment of Wilhelm Müller to replace |Sommerfeld was a political victory over academic standards. Müller was |not a theoretical physicist, had not published in a physics journal, and was |not a member of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft; his appointment |was considered a travesty and detrimental to educating theoretical physicists. |[68][69][70][71][72] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg#The_deutsche_Physik_movement Since this is Wikipedia, one does have to cautious about relying too strongly on it without examining the original sources. However, as the numbered notes indicate, parts of the above is based on Cassidy which Allen uses as well as other sources. Examination of the sources may reveal which account is more accurate. Incidenctally, there is an interesting article by Gerald Holton on Heisenberg and Einsten that was published in Physics Today Onlice and available here: http://www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/meta-elements/pdf/Holton_-_Heisenberg_and_Einstein.pdf Holton wrote the above article in part as a response to the play "Copenhagen" in which Heisenberg and Neils Bohr met in September 1941. There is a "walk in the woods" where they had a conversation which changed the nature of their relationship but it is unclear what the specifics were of that conversation (it was about the Nazi atomic reactor and bomb project that was being developed and Heisenberg was associated with; Bohr would stay in Copenhagen until 1943 before fleeing to the U.S. and joining the Los Alamos group that developed the U.S. atomic bomb). For more on the play, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_%28play%29 A TV movie version of the play was made in 2002 and was shown on PBS in the U.S. Danial Craig (of James Bond fame) played Heisenberg. I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on whether Craig used any guns or how big his gun might have been. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu The reat of Allen Esterton's post continues below: >The supposed "connection" arises in relation to a long episode >beginning in 1937 at time when Heisenberg was due to succeed Arnold >Sommerfeld in the chair of physics at Munich. The SS weekly Das >Schwarze Korps launched a series of vicious attacks on Heisenberg, the >first by the Nazi physicist Johannes Stark in which Heisenberg was >designated a "White Jew" for his scientific views and the scientists he >associated with. The long series of attacks put him in a precarious >position. As a last resort Heisenberg gambled on a letter to Himmler >requesting that either Stark's attacks be disapproved or he would >resign. He had no direct channels to Himmler, and feared that a letter >sent through normal channels would probably never have arrived. This is >where his mother's chance acquaintanceship with Himmler's mother comes >in, as his mother agreed to visit Himmler's mother and request she pass >the letter directly to Himmler. (Cassidy, 1991, pp. 379-396) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4395 or send a blank email to leave-4395-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
