The German nuclear weapon project (German: Uranprojekt; informally known as the Uranverein; English: Uranium Society or Uranium Club), was a clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce nuclear weapons during World War II. This program started in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in December 1938, but ended only months later due to the German invasion of Poland, after many notable physicists were drafted into the Wehrmacht.
A second effort began under the administrative purview of the Wehrmacht's Heereswaffenamt on 1 September 1939, the day of the Invasion of Poland. The program eventually expanded into three main efforts: the Uranmaschine (nuclear reactor), uranium and heavy water production, and uranium isotope separation. Eventually it was assessed that nuclear fission would not contribute significantly to ending the war, and in January 1942, the Heereswaffenamt turned the program over to the Reich Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat) while continuing to fund the program. The program was split up among nine major institutes where the directors dominated the research and set their own objectives. Subsequently, the number of scientists working on applied nuclear fission began to diminish, with many applying their talents to more pressing war-time demands.
The most influential people in the Uranverein were Kurt Diebner, Abraham Esau, Walther Gerlach, and Erich Schumann; Schumann was one of the most powerful and influential physicists in Germany. Diebner, throughout the life of the nuclear weapon project, had more control over nuclear fission research than did Walther Bothe, Klaus Clusius, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, or Werner Heisenberg. Abraham Esau was appointed as Hermann Göring's plenipotentiary for nuclear physics research in December 1942; Walther Gerlach succeeded him in December 1943.
Politicization of the German academia under the National Socialist regime had driven many physicists, engineers, and mathematicians out of Germany as early as 1933. Those of Jewish heritage who did not leave were quickly purged from German institutions, further thinning the ranks of academia. The politicization of the universities, along with the demands for manpower by the German armed forces (many scientists and technical personnel were conscripted, despite possessing useful skills), would eventually all but eliminate a generation of physicists.
At the end of the war, the Allied powers competed to obtain surviving components of the nuclear industry (personnel, facilities, and materiel), as they did with the V-2 program.
El proyecto alemán de Armas Nucleares (alemán: Uranprojekt; informalmente conocido como el Uranverein; Inglés: Sociedad de uranio o uranio Club), fue un esfuerzo científico clandestino liderado por Alemania para desarrollar y producir armas nucleares durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Este programa se inició en abril de 1939, pocos meses después del descubrimiento de la fisión nuclear, en diciembre de 1938, pero terminó sólo unos meses más tarde debido a la invasión alemana de Polonia, después de muchos físicos notables fueron redactadas en la Wehrmacht.
Die deutsche Kernwaffenprojekt (deutsch: Uranprojekt; informell als der Uranverein bekannt; Englisch: Uranium Society oder Uran-Verein), war eine heimliche wissenschaftlichen Aufwand angeführt von Deutschland, entwickeln und produzieren Atomwaffen im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Dieses Programm begann im April 1939, nur wenige Monate nach der Entdeckung der Kernspaltung im Dezember 1938, aber am Ende nur Monate später aufgrund der deutschen Invasion in Polen, nach dem viele namhafte Physiker zur Wehrmacht eingezogen.
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