Kurt Diebner
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Prof. Kurt Diebner (1905–1964) as described in the book The German Atomic Bomb by David Irving was head of the Heereswaffenamt (HWA; "army weapons office") project to develop an atomic bomb from enriched uranium. Dr. Paul Harteck and Dr. Erich Bagge developed the uranium gaseous centrifuge during World War II for this uranium enrichment.
Diebner's project was a rival to that of Dr. Werner Heisenberg, whose efforts in the German nuclear energy project were directed towards nuclear power and the creation of plutonium. Heisenberg belonged to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Some commentators refer to Heisenberg as the chief Nazi nuclear physicist; but in terms of financial patronage from the Nazis, Kurt Diebner was viewed as far more important than Heisenberg. Hermann Göring was an important patron of Diebner during late 1943 through the Reichsforschungsrat-Göring ("Reich research council-Goering").
Diebner's project at the Heerswaffenamt was termed Forschungs-stelle E under the command of General Eric Schumann. Following the July 1944 plot on Hitler's life, Heinrich Himmler and his SS took control of the Nazi A-bomb project. Diebner was rounded up at the end of the war as part of the Allied Operation Overcast.
Diebner was born 13 May 1905 at Obernessa am Naumburg. He died in relative obscurity at Oberhausen on 13 July 1964. In the Farm Hall transcripts of secretly taped conversations by captured nuclear scientists after WWII, Diebner was assessed by his captors as "Outwardly friendly, but has an unpleasant personality; cannot be trusted." Diebner probably held much the same view of his captors as one of the transcripts records his conversation with Heisenberg in which Diebner speculated that their conversation was being secretly recorded. Heisenberg scoffed at the idea, but Diebner was clearly cautious about what he said out of suspicion that he was being recorded.
