Nazi Science by Mark Walker

Author:Mark Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2012-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

Lectures in Switzerland and Budapest In the spring of 1942, Heisenberg received an invitation to speak before the Swiss League of Students. Switzerland was one of the few countries in Europe to remain neutral during the war. The Swiss physicist Paul Scherrer, who had recommended his German colleague for the lecture, asked Heisenberg to give a talk before the physicists at the Zurich Technical University as well.578 Heisenberg became inundated with offers for speaking engagements. In the end, he agreed to lecture before the Science Faculty of the University of Geneva, the Swiss Physical Society, and the student organizations of Bern and Basle as well.579 The rector at the University of Leipzig noted as usual that the dean considered Heisenberg suitable for the trip and that the University Teachers League representative had no objections. He asked REM for its approval,580 which was granted in late October.581 The Party reminded him of his obligation to call upon its foreign branch while in Switzerland.582

On 17 November 1942, Heisenberg arrived in Zurich and was met by the head of the Swiss Students League. The next day, he spoke at the university colloquium on the observable variables in the theory of elementary particles. Afterward he visited his old colleague Scherrer at the Technical University. Heisenberg’s next lecture came before the Swiss Physical Society on 19 November, which included dinner afterward as the guest of the president of this society. The next day he went to Basle, paid a courtesy call on the physicists there, and in the evening spoke before the local student organization on the current goals of physical research.

Two days later, he gave an evening lecture before the Zurich student organization on changes in the foundation of the exact sciences. On 24 November, he visited the German ambassador to Switzerland and the representative of the Party in Bern and lectured to the Bern student organization. Heisenberg reported that he was treated throughout in a very friendly fashion in Switzerland, and not just by old colleagues. He encountered frequent political condemnation of the German “re-ordering” of Europe, but this ill will did not carry over to personal relationships. His lectures had attracted great interest.583

In October 1942, the German ambassador to Hungary, a German ally, complained to the Foreign Office about REM’s unwillingness to allow Heisenberg to return to Budapest. With his Nobel Prize and his call to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Heisenberg was so well known that a lecture from him guaranteed a cultural and political success. Hans Freyer, who had been professor for philosophy and sociology at Kiel and Leipzig during the Weimar Republic, and who was now the president of the Budapest GCI, wanted to invite Heisenberg for a talk in his institute. However, Freyer did agreed that, because of the controversy Heisenberg’s previous trip to Hungary had caused, other lectures in Budapest would not be a good idea.584

The Budapest GCI managed to get around the recalcitrant ministry by joining forces with the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In early November the Society

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