Heisenberg
The German scientist Heisenberg won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 for his special contribution to quantum mechanics (the matrix equation of quantum mechanics was proposed in 1926; the uncertainty principle was proposed in 1927), and his contribution to the development of science in the 20th century is unquestionable. However, after the end of World War II, Heisenberg became one of the most controversial scientists as a representative of the Nazi response to the social and cultural crisis in Germany.
Heisenberg's War
Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project
The focus of the controversy is both on Heisenberg's scientific competence and political performance during World War II, as well as on Heisenberg's own description and understanding of the behavior of this period. Squares such as Juncker's "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" (1956), Elizabeth Heisenberg's "The Political Life of a Non-Politician" (1983) and Bowers's "Heisenberg's War" (1993) considered Heisenberg to be a "patriot who endured humiliation and burdens", a "hero of the Second World War", because it was only his and other scientists' deliberate delay that made the atomic bomb of Nazi Germany unsuccessful, so in moral Shanghai Sember was a gentleman with a sense of justice. In the scientific ability Shanghai Sember is a great man with infinite wisdom. The opposite side, such as Ross's Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project (1998), believes that Heisenberg is an accomplice of the Nazis, an "ugly German", because Heisenberg and other scientists have jointly created this illusion of deceiving the world, in fact, Germany did not build the atomic bomb Mainly Heisenberg and his German scientists did not really master the methods and technologies of making the atomic bomb, so in moral Shanghai Sember is a villain who is overly embellished and refuses to admit mistakes and apologize. In terms of scientific ability, it is the loser who has chosen the wrong technical route. Another more neutral view is that Heisenberg, driven by political immaturity and patriotism, was early caught in a dilemma, so that the behavior of the Nazi period, whether right or wrong, great or small, was involuntary and excusable, and the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics has always appeared in Heisenberg's life. This view is reflected in Cassidy's uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (1993).
Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg
The controversy surrounding Hansenber continues. With the passage of time, more secret evidence has been disclosed and more parties have passed away, making the truth of the facts more confusing. Perhaps, Heisenberg's complex life does not lead to a simple answer of yes or no. Like uncertainty, complexity is another feature of a system whose synthetic properties cannot be deduced from the behavior of simple individual units. "To understand a work of art, an artist, a group of artists, one must correctly conceive of the spiritual and customs profile of the epoch to which they belong" (Danner, Fu Lei, Philosophy of Art, People's Literature Publishing House, 1983, p. 7), and in order to understand Heisenberg, it is necessary to consider his character characteristics, personal preferences, and life experiences in the context of the entire era and in the Context of German culture.
1. Heisenberg before 1933
Heisenberg's experience from youth (1918) to 1933 can be divided into a period of zealous politics, a period of scientific learning, and a period of scientific splendor. Despite the slightest criticism of Heisenberg's early political activities, the image of Heisenberg at this stage is positive.
Born on December 5, 1901 in Würzburg, Germany, Heisenberg moved to Munich at the age of 9 after his father was a professor of Greek at the University of Munich. According to Cassidy's biography, Heisenberg's early years in Germany laid the foundation for his political involvement for the rest of his life. Heisenberg's secondary school years were spent during one of the most turbulent times in German history. Heisenberg's first youth organization, the Pathfinder, provided clues to Heisenberg's political behavior after World War I.
Germany's "Pathfinders" organization originated from the British "Boy Scouts" to provide young people with early military education and military training. Unlike the British "Boy Scouts", the German "pathfinders" seem to lack international ideals, but instead focus on the practical function of domestic society, that is, to prepare adolescents for adult society, guided by adults. In order to oppose the excessive care of adults, in 1919 some members of the "Pathfinder" became a new organization, the "Young Bavarian League", and Heisenberg became the leader of a group of this alliance, which consisted of a dozen teenage children called the "Heisenberg Group", and then Heisenberg's group joined the "New Wayfinder League". The new proposition of this alliance was to promote a new chivalric ideal, to absorb the romantic spirit of medieval Germany, to seek a new "empire" with the goal of social justice, responsibility, obedience, and ideal goals, a new "spiritual leader" who could guide them out of the swamp of material supremacy, national humiliation, and decay, with social groups that were completely loyal to each other and loyal to their "leaders." Although Heisenberg agreed with this new proposition, the Heisenberg group soon broke away from the alliance as it continued to deviate from its own propositions. Heisenberg carefully led his group in activities such as cultural gatherings and camps such as music, singing and chanting, until he received his doctorate and moved to Göttingen. It is worth noting that after Hitler came to power in 1933, many new pathfinders did not hesitate to join the Nazi youth organization, while only one member of Heisenberg's group participated. This at least shows that the Heisenberg group is not politically charged and has no clear political goals. According to Elizabeth, the youth movement in Heisenberg's mind should be free from political interference, and the purpose of youth organizations is to create an atmosphere free from ideology and to cultivate active-minded, unbiased people who can make judgments and choices about their own actions.
Heisenberg's involvement in the youth movement had an important influence on his later behavior under nazi leadership. Ross thought it was the germ of Heisenberg's behavior during the Nazi era. Heisenberg developed an existentialist conviction in the spiritual temperament of the altruist group, and the idealization of loyalty to the group further developed into political loyalty to dictatorial principles. Although Heisenberg was able to maintain his moral temperament in the nazi political storm and establish his own leadership relationship within the small circle of physicists dedicated to scientific truth according to this model, Heisenberg's equally strong German nationalism automatically excluded him from the moral choice of rebellion against Hitler. Cassidy's view was that "Heisenberg's reaction to the first years of Hitler's Reich seemed to have sown his seeds in the context of the youth movement's upbringing", for example, he remained in Germany as a professor in 1933 to protect his students and young colleagues, out of the sense of responsibility he had developed when he was the leader of the youth movement.
Heisenberg's involvement in politics during this period was only temporary and inactive, as more of his time and energy was necessarily spent on study and scientific research. Because of the time, place and people, Heisenberg achieved the most outstanding scientific achievement of his life in just a few years. The so-called celestial time refers to the old quantum mechanics developed by physicists such as Planck, Einstein, and Bohr in the early days, and is facing great difficulties, and the data of microscopic particles observed by experiments cannot be fully explained by known theoretical views. Germany is the world's scientific center, and the University of Munich, the University of Göttingen and the university of Copenhagen in Denmark, which are very close to each other, are at the heart of research in mathematically based theoretical physics. The so-called people, Heisenberg not only received the education and promotion of three famous physicists Sommerfeld, Born and Bohr, but also some intelligent peers such as Pauli and Jordaan as peers who competed with each other. Heisenberg entered the University of Munich in 1920 to study theoretical physics, studied under the guidance of the famous teacher A.J.W. Sommerfeld, and soon wrote a research paper. After receiving his doctorate in 1923, he worked for a time at the University of Göttingen as Born's assistant. From 1924 to 1926 he worked in Copenhagen with Bohr. In fact, over the years, Heisenberg has not been fixed in one place, but shuttled back and forth between the three places, which can be said to be a combination of the scientific research characteristics of the three teachers: Sommerfeld's emphasis on observational data, Born's mathematical treatment of physical quantities, and Bohr's intuition about physical phenomena. In 1925, Heisenberg proposed the matrix equations of quantum mechanics. In 1927, Heisenberg further proposed the uncertainty principle.
The Biography of Heisenberg
2. Heisenberg from 1933 to 1939
In 1933, Hitler came to power. It was also in this year that Heisenberg received the highest honor of his scientific career, the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Hitler's first act after coming to power was the expulsion of Jews, and as a result a large number of Jewish scientists fled Germany. Although Heisenberg resented some of the Nazi practices, Heisenberg did not believe that the bad aspects of Nazi policy would last long, and he had illusions about the future of his country and the leadership of his leaders, and in the first few years he tried to persuade them to stay in Germany and protect them in different ways, together with highly respected scientists such as Planck and von Lauer. Heisenberg wanted to stay in Germany to pursue his own physics career, and like Planck and others, he had to compromise with the Nazi government, did not take active acts of resistance, and tried to circle his life in non-political activities such as scientific research, teaching, and music. Thus with the fierce political storm did not fall on Heisenberg.com.
By 1936, nazi newspapers attacked Heisenberg and theoretical physics, and Heisenberg replied in the newspaper. In 1937, the Nazi party journal published an even more vicious attack on the Nazi physicist Stark, calling Heisenberg a "white Jew" and a "representative of Einstein," accusing him of being an enemy of the state and a subversive of the regime. Heisenberg felt that such attacks threatened his position in Germany, and his scientific and political honors were damaged. At this time, Heisenberg did not choose to resign and leave Germany and other means of public protest, but completed a "deal with the devil". He wrote to The Nazi leader Himmler through personal connections, hoping to compete with Nazi physicists under the patronage of the upper echelons. As a result, Himmler was spared the attack on Heisenberg, and Heisenberg achieved the victory he wanted, first of all because his physics (including relativity) was allowed to be taught everywhere and resisted the attack of "German physics"; second, his professorship at the University of Leipzig was strengthened and paved the way for promotion to higher positions; and third, he could publish his physics papers in Nazi-dominated scientific journals.
This act of containing the petty Nazis through the Big Nazis became an indelible stain on Heisenberg, although different people could give different explanations for heisenberg's reasons for doing so. Elizabeth downplayed the political significance of this act, arguing that Heisenberg "is entirely his right to circumvent the criminal atrocities of the enemy with some insignificant compromise that does not harm man", and that the reason for his doing so was "a deep-rooted fear that he would lose his autonomy over himself and fall into the hands of others, and that he would be tortured, afraid of great suffering".
3. Heisenberg during World War II
In early 1939, German scientists Hahn, Matler and others discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission. On September 1, 1939, World War II broke out in full swing. On September 26, 1939, the German Ordnance Agency established the "Uranium Association" to study how to fission uranium and use it in the military, and Heisenberg participated in the "German Atomic Bomb Program" as the chief theorist. In December 1939, Heisenberg presented the German Ordnance Agency with the first secret document on the basic theoretical review of the establishment of uranium reactors.
Why didn't Germany build an atomic bomb? Three reasons have been recognized by many people, one is the lack of a large number of talented physicists, because under Hitler's rule they were gradually expelled or fled Germany; the second is that the Nazi government did not seriously organize military work, whether in financial Shanghai did not give enough political support; third, The German scientific institutions lacked experimental technology and equipment to carry out such complex research work. Two other extremely opposing reasons are at issue, one is that The German scientists led by Heisenberg, who in their conscience did not want the success of the atomic bomb, adopted a passive and sluggish approach to resisting nazi atomic bomb research, which is the explanation given by Heisenberg and his endorsers. This explanation not only denied the condemnation of Heisenberg's service to the Nazi government, but also elevated Heisenberg to the position of a hero against the Nazi government; the other was that Heisenberg was "more than enough and not enough", "can't and can't do nothing", although Heisenberg was fully eager for the success of the atomic bomb to ensure Germany's victory in the war, Heisenberg's experimental capabilities were insufficient, they did not even build nuclear reactors, let alone the more technically difficult atomic bombs. This explanation put Heisenberg on the bench of Hitler's accomplices, and all the defenses of Heisenberg and his associates afterwards paled in all their defenses, and Heisenberg was deceived first by his own scientific errors, and then turned to deceiving others in a political manner in order to gain a sense of conscience.
In September 1941, Heisenberg traveled to Copenhagen, where he found his teacher Bohr and had a conversation with him. Heisenberg spoke of such a sensitive topic as the atomic bomb, but the conversation broke loose. Did Heisenberg want to explore from Bohr the technology to build an atomic bomb for Germany, because natural uranium does not produce other major materials when it comes to obtaining nuclear energy? Or did Heisenberg go to Bohr to explain to Bohr that German scientists didn't want to build an atomic bomb at all and repent? Through the analysis of this meeting, it could have been a key to dissecting Heisenberg's inner activities, but because Bohr did not publicly comment on it, Heisenberg's one-sided words were only a preliminary recollection, lacking evidence support from recordings such as audio recordings. As a result, this has become a suspicious case, and people can still only speculate. According to the opinion of the defenders of Heisenberg, because Heisenberg was involved in the Nazi atomic bomb-making plan, Heisenberg was very cautious in his conversation with Bohr, and many words could not be said directly, which gave Bohr the impression that Heisenberg was fully committed to building atomic bombs for Germany. Bohr may have seen Heisenberg as a representative of his government sent by Germany to lobby him or a spy to spy on the Allies, and a misunderstanding arose.
In the years that followed, Heisenberg continued to be involved in the german atomic bomb research, but did not make substantial progress.
Heisenberg was arrested in May 1945 and detained in the British countryside in July with nine other scientists. Wiretaps were placed in their cells, and conversations between Heisenberg and others about the atomic bombing of the United States bomb in Hiroshima were recorded. From the dialogue, Heisenberg initially did not believe that the United States had built an atomic bomb, and Otto Hahn, one of the famous discoverers of nuclear fission, was the first to question Heisenberg's ability: "If the Americans have uranium bombs, then you are all second-class goods." My poor old Heisenberg. ... In short, Heisenberg, you are indeed second-class goods. Carl Friedrich Weisacker is considered to have been the initiator of moral justification for the failure of German scientists: "I believe the reason we did not do it is because all physicists in principle did not want to do it." If we had wanted Germany to win the war at that time, we would have been able to succeed. Judging from the results of the biographer's citation of this recording evidence, those who deny Heisenberg's ability and morality accept Hahn's statement; those who affirm Heisenberg's ability and morality more often accept Weisse's statement.
4. Heisenberg after World War II
There were no more points of interest in Heisenberg's life after the war, and Heisenberg was ostracized from his peers. Although the German government also invited him to participate in some consultations on atomic affairs, his position was clearly inferior. Heisenberg successively served as Director of the Royal Institute of Physics in Wilhelm, President of the German Research Association, and Chairman of the Humboldt Foundation. He has not made any significant achievements in science, and the unified field theory of elementary particles proposed in 1958 has only attracted the attention of the mass media, but has not been recognized by his fellow scientists. Heisenberg died of cancer in Munich in 1976.
Strictly speaking, the controversy over Heisenberg's behavior during the Nazi period also began only after the war. Goudsmit's Alsos, published in 1947, became the first article to question Heisenberg and his German capabilities in nuclear war. He used Heisenberg's case to illustrate why dictatorship guided science and led to failure. But in 1956, during the Cold War and the prevalence of McCarthyism, Heisenberg was first described as a moral icon in Juncker's Brighter Than a Thousand Suns.
Copenhagen
The most recent controversy came from 1998's Copenhagen, a play centered on Heisenberg's visit to Copenhagen in 1941 and the Bohrs, with only three characters: Heisenberg, Bohr, and Mrs. Bohr. It was started by the British playwright Michael Frayn after reading Bowles' book The War of Heisenberg. Like Juncker, Bowles portrayed Heisenberg as a hero in German atomic bomb research during World War II. In Copenhagen, the playwright erases some of Heisenberg's heroism, and instead of writing him as an "ugly German" as Ross did, he places his image in an artistic labyrinth, emphasizing the uncertainty of Heisenberg's personality. Uncertainty and Heisenberg have become beyond physics as a metaphor, a symbol of individual behavioral choices under the pressure of extreme contradictions. Uncertainty manifested itself in science, helping him discover the uncertainty principle in quantum physics; uncertainty manifested in history as a result of a lack of sufficient documentary evidence for the 1941 visit.
After world war II, Heisenberg himself spoke in many places about his performance in the German atomic bomb to dispel rumors that were not good for him. In an interview with Joseph J. Ermenc in August 1967, Heisenberg reiterated his years of experience and views on the German atomic bomb program. To sum up, Heisenberg's basic point is: First, the German group of scientists represented by himself has little interest in the military, but only concentrates its interest on the reactor and does not seek greater development. Although the government's slogan is that we must use physics for the military, German scientists have turned it into the slogan: We must use the military for the service of physics. Second, the judgment of the war situation and the difficulty of making the atomic bomb led German scientists to have no confidence in the atomic bomb. German scientists told the government that the atomic bomb could not be built for two to three years, when the war could last. Heisenberg felt that the war would end sooner than expected and was convinced that Germany would lose, so as a German scientist, he considered whether German science could keep pace with the pace of scientific developments after the war. Third, if German scientists really wanted to build an atomic bomb, it was entirely possible to build it. If German scientists had shown the government that they could build an atomic bomb, it would have been entirely possible that they would have received orders from the military to build the atomic bomb, and that they would be able to get more support from the government, since money spent on the military during the war was not a problem. But that's the last thing German scientists want to do. Therefore, the German atomic bomb program did not have the same impetus from the government as the United States. Fourth, American scientists and German scientists have different psychological states about the atomic bomb, American scientists are in order to compete with German scientists, they are afraid that German scientists will give priority to the production of atomic bombs, their motivation is more political goals and so-called sense of justice; while German scientists only get funds from the government to do what they are interested in, and their motivation is only scientific curiosity. In short, according to the reality of the time, German scientists avoided all efforts to build atomic bombs.
5. Short comments
How exactly should we evaluate Heisenberg's behavior? Heyer Brown's assessment of Planck's behavior during Nazi Germany illustrates one aspect of the problem: "There is a dilemma here. Few actions are mandated to be fulfilled unconditionally. Ethical behavior is in practice guided by codes of conduct derived from social experience, judged by their immediate and long-term consequences. How and when should judgments be made? Staying in office and doing his best to maintain a pure conscience and a good desire, did Planck choose the best way to deal with the Nazis? Did his worldview elevate him or did it lead him astray?" Heisenberg was in a greater predicament than Planck, for he was much younger than Planck and more at the forefront of nuclear physics, and to remain in Germany and attain higher professional status necessarily meant joining the atomic bomb and adopting a more compromised attitude toward the Nazis. On the other hand, Heisenberg may also be less cautious about his words and deeds, and his wartime actions have not been able to do without shame, and the post-war literary decorations have also covered up his true thoughts and has not had the courage to admit the tragic role he played.
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