Hitler's Scientists Science, War, and the Devil's Pact

by Cornwell, John

• ISBN13: 9780142004807
• ISBN10: 0142004804
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-28
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

Covering the dramatic rise of German science in the nineteenth century, its preeminence in the early twentieth, and the frightening developments that led to its collapse in 1945, this is the compelling story of German scientists under Hitler’s regime. Weaving the history of science and technology with the fortunes of war and the stories of men and women whose discoveries brought both benefits and destruction to the world, Hitler’s Scientistsraises questions that are still urgent today. As science becomes embroiled in new generations of weapons of mass destruction and the war against terrorism, as advances in biotechnology outstrip traditional ethics, this powerful account of Nazi science forms a crucial commentary on the ethical role of science.

Author Biography

John Cornwell is an award-winning journalist and the author of numerous novels and works of nonfiction. The director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Cambridge University, Cornwell lives in Cambridge, London, and England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding the Germans

Part One: Hitler's Scientific Inheritance
1. Hitler the Scientist
2. Germany the Science Mecca
3. Fritz Haber
4. The Poison Gas Scientists
5. The "Science" of Racial Hygiene
6. Eugenics and Psychiatry

Part Two: The New Physics 1918-1933
7. Physics after the First War
8. German Science Survives

Part Three: Nazi Enthusiasm, Compliance and Oppression 1933-1939
9. The Dismissals
10. Engineers and Rocketeers
11. Medicine Under Hitler
12. The Cancer Campaign
13. Geopolitik and Lebensraum
14. Nazi Physics
15. Himmler's Pseudo-science
16. Deutsche Mathematik

Part Four: The Science of Destruction and Defence 1933-1943
17. Fission Mania
18. World War II
19. Machines of War
20. Radar
21. Codes

Part Five: The Nazi Atomic Bomb 1941-1945
22. Copenhagen
23. Speer and Heisenberg
24. Haigerloch and Los Alamos

Part Six: Science in Hell 1942-1945
25. Slave Labour at Dora
26. The "Science" of Extermination and Human Experiment
27. The Devil's Chemists
28. Wonder Weapons

Part Seven: In Hitler's Shadow
29. Farm Hall
30. Heroes, Villains, and Fellow Travellers
31. Scientific Plunder

Part Eight: Science from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
32. Nuclear Postures
33. Uniquely Nazi?
34. Science at War Again

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index