The Manhattan Project was characterized by an incredible coordinated effort between science, government, and industry. Einstein was by far the most famous among them, but only one of a great many. It was a German scientist, Otto Hahn, who first split the atom in 1938. A daring team of Norwegian commandos infiltrated the plant and blew up the water tanks. and expense required to build the atomic bomb-the fear that Hitler’s Germany would do it first” (Powers VII). Some of them, such as Heisenberg, Kurt Diebner, and Carl von Weiszacker were directly involved in the project, while others, such as Otto Hahn and Max von Laue, were only suspected and later proven to have not been involved. But... Germany invested itself specifically one of the many different theories then existing on how to make a bomb. Relieved, Heisenberg readily agreed to the conditions and began working in earnest on the German atomic project. Refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries were particularly alarmed by the notion of a German nuclear weapon project. In 1943, the United States launched the Alsos Mission, a foreign intelligence project focused on learning the extent of Germany’s nuclear program. There was even consideration of kidnapping Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland in 1942, although this plan never came to fruition. The massive rain of atomic bombs implicit in the Star Trek scenario was therefore out of the question. They sought to crack the nuclear code in a subterranean laboratory in the “atom cellar” of a castle in Haigerloch. Werner Heisenberg: Germany’s Top Physicist. Germany was off to a fast, efficient, and productive effort to eventually perfect an atomic bomb. It likely depends on when the Atomic bomb was developed and how many they have… For my answer I’ll break it down by years and assume they have between 3–5 during that given time frame. In 1932, Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the Uncertainty Principle, although the prize committee slighted several other physicists who arguably deserved as much credit as the charismatic Heisenberg. The Germans never achieved a successful chain reaction, had no method of enriching uranium, and never seriously considered plutonium as a viable substitute. Extracting U-235 from U-238 cannot be done chemically and requires a time-consuming and expensive gaseous diffusion process. … After later hearing a 1942 lecture given by Heisenberg to scientists and government officials, Hans Bethe remarked, “My first reaction is that Heisenberg knew a lot more than I have always thought – the fact he reached many of these conclusions in one evening is most remarkable. Enrichment would have been in quantities that could have supplied the bomb-grade uranium needed by the United States to complete its atomic bomb project. He was a brilliant theorist and mathematician and prided himself on his practical abilities as a physicist, although in fact these were suspect. Heisenberg sought the assistance of friends and associates within the establishment, including Nazi Party members, to clear his name. The Manhattan Project was the Allied effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. 2) Theory 2, Scientific: The balance of (scientific) power was held by Jewish scientists like Einstein, Fermi (his wife was Jewish, not Fermi himself), and Bohr, meaning that Germany could have built the bomb if it had stayed on good terms with these people. In the late 1930s, the most famous physicist in Germany (Einstein having left Germany for New Jersey) was Werner Heisenberg. To initiate a reaction, the flow of neutrons around the radioactive isotope must be moderated by another substance, such as graphite or deuterium (heavy water). The second raid was more subtle than the first. Such an attack was serious business in Nazi Germany and threatened internment in a concentration camp or worse. Germany wasn't on the verge of a nuclear weapon, or even salvaging its reputation as a leader in the physics community by making a nuclear power station. He feared that Germany was trying to build an atomic bomb, while the United States was sitting idle. A new book by a Berlin historian claims Nazi Germany built and tested nuclear weapons before the end of World War II. Although Meitner continued to assist her former colleagues in Nazi Germany for a time, most Jewish scientists were not so lucky or naïve. Often forgotten in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that the Manhattan Project was originally conceived for the war in Europe, but the bomb was not ready for operational use in time. To begin with, the Nazis never seriously pursued an atomic weapon. However it seems that many contradictory rules were repeatedly being put into place, which slowly diminished the progress of … To determine the energy contained in any bit of matter, one need only multiply its mass times the square of the speed of light. But there remains little evidence of this. It was a very frightening time.”. Two major setbacks delayed progress, researchers and … British intelligence had learned the basic outline of the German reactor project and realized that the Norwegian heavy water supply was a weak link. ... an analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations said it was "crucial' for Germany to have … Heisenberg's 1941 meeting in Copenhagen with Niels Bohr, who would later work on the Manhattan Project, was dramatized in the 1998 play Copenhagen. The Allied bombing of the plant was dramatized in the 2015 TV miniseries “The Heavy Water War” by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. In April, 1945 – just three months before the world saw the first nuclear bomb test detonate in New Mexico – an allied mission into Nazi Germany discovered just how far behind the enemy was. In a 1942 meeting with Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments and War Production, Heisenberg made a reference to the amount of U-235 necessary and caused a small sensation when he used the word “bomb” – many of the scientists and officials present were not aware that this was actually possible. Although Hahn later tried to claim all the credit for his experiment, at the time he did not actually know what he had done. This was not because the country lacked the scientists, resources, or will, but rather because its leaders did not really try. The physicists knew, that if they show the german government that it is possible to build a nuclear bomb they will all be forced to work on it. Speer later noted, “We got the view that the development was very much at the beginning… the physicists themselves didn’t want to put much into it” (Powers 479), and that “the technical prerequisites for production would take years to develop, two years at the earliest, even provided that the program was given maximum support” (Rhodes 404). Another problem was coordination among different departments. Robert Furman, assistant to General Leslie Groves and the Chief of Foreign Intelligence for the Manhattan Project, described how “the Manhattan Project was built on fear: fear that the enemy had the bomb, or would have it before we could develop it. The German misjudgment about graphite was one of the things that slowed their progress toward a bomb. Fearing that the Germans would use the heavy water for their atomic bomb program, Allied forces conducted a series of strategic bombings against the plant.