The rise of Nazism to the beginning of the war (1932 - 1939)
Points to ponder:
How would you react to an autocratic regime like that, if faced with the restrictions and requirements it imposed?
Could this happen here? How is our environment different or similar from Germany's in 1933-34?
What options are there and which would you choose: complying, active resistance, passive resistance, emigration, other?
Would love of country and its culture be great enough to keep you from emigrating?
When new Nazi laws caused science professors to lose or leave their positions, Heisenberg and others sought to fill those positions to avoid incompetent party loyalists from taking them. Was that sound reasoning?
When Heisenberg was vilified in the SS newspaper as a "White Jew", he fought against that stain on his honor, even tolerating a year-long investigation. What were the consequences of this label, and was he wise to fight it?
Did Heisenberg get good advice from Max Planck to stay so as to rebuild German science after the war?
Readings
From David C. Cassidy's book "Uncertainty":
Chapter 15 - A New Regime: The rise of Nazi control over academia and everyday life in 1933-34; (for the pdf, click here) (11 pages)
Chapter 16 - Herr Professor (excerpt): The impact of the Nazi regime on Heisenberg; (for the pdf, click here) (4 pages)
From an article about the "Aryanization" of German scholarship in 1933 (Excerpt: Section I); (for the pdf, click here (7 pages)
From Werner Heisenberg's autobiographical book "Physics and Beyond": Individual Behavior in the Face of Disaster (excerpt); (for the pdf, click here ) (4 pages)
Included, Heisenberg's reconstruction of a conversation with Fermi about emigrating from Germany
Some events of note in the 1930s:
April 7, 1933: Law for the Restoration of the German Civil Service ordered the dismissal of persons whose political and religious backgrounds made them unfit to work as civil servants of the Reich. By early May, the April 7th law had resulted in the dismissal of over three hundred members of university faculties and research institutes.
Summer 1934: Heisenberg declined to sign Johannes Stark's declaration of support for Hitler (" ... political statements by scientists are inappropriate ... ")
July 1937: Attack by Stark on Heisenberg in the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps as "White Jew" and "Ossietsky of physics". After about a year of investigation and interrogation, Himmler decided that “I believe that Heisenberg is decent; and we cannot afford to lose this man or have him killed, since he is a relatively young man and can bring up the next generation.”
August 1938: In uniform and ready for military action in the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia).
Nov. 9-10: Kristallnacht violence against Jews. Heisenberg shocked by the events.
Summer 1939: Month-long visit by Heisenberg to the U.S. for a lecture tour. Declines offers from U.S. universities, and insists on returning to Germany, that his place was there despite the excesses of the regime.
Heisenberg family moved to a safe location to a village in upper Bavaria.
Heisenberg's letter to Bohr (translated) two weeks after the beginning of the war:
Leipzig 14-9-39
Dear Bohr!
The departure of Watanabe to Denmark seems to allow one more opportunity to write to you. You know how sad I am about the course of events. In America we all saw it coming. I have returned back here because I belong here. You will surely understand that. - Today I received the news that a brother of young Weizsäcker was killed in action. How much calamity is yet to come!
Since I do not know if and when fate will bring us together again, I want to thank you once more for all your friendship, for everything that I have learned from you and that you have done for me.
Many heartfelt wishes for you and yours!
In old friendship
Your
Werner Heisenberg
Other views of one's country
Growing up in Germany and studying to become a jurist, Sebastian Haffner wrote of an incident where the SA (the brownshirts) came into a building to to expel Jews, and his reaction; (for the pdf, click here ) (2 pages)
As the Vietnam war dragged on and on, Art Hoppe, a columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote "To Root Against Your Country"; (for the pdf, click here) (1+ pages)
Updated Sept. 30, 2023