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Heinz Barwich

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Heinz Barwich
Heinz Barwich (1911–1966), (c. 1958)
Born(1911-07-22)22 July 1911
Berlin, Germany
Died10 April 1966(1966-04-10) (aged 54)
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
NationalityGerman
Citizenship Germany
Alma materTechnical University of Berlin
Known forSoviet program of nuclear weapons
Spouse
Elfi Heinrich
​
(m. 1960)​
Awards Stalin State Prize (1951)
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear physics
InstitutionsJoint Institute for Nuclear Research
Central Institute for Nuclear Research
Institute G in Russia
Siemens AG
ThesisDie Trennung von Gasgemischen durch Diffusion in strömendem Quecksilberdampf (1937)
Doctoral advisorGustav Hertz

Heinz Barwich (22 July 1911 – 10 April 1966) was a German nuclear physicist who later defected to the United States-led Western Bloc in 1964.

At the close of World War II in 1945, Barwick volunteered to go to Soviet Union together with his mentor, Gustav Hertz, where he was one of many German nuclear physicists in the Soviet program of nuclear weapons and was honored with the Stalin Prize.: 9–10 [1]

After his reparation from Russia, Barwich became a director of the Central Institute for Nuclear Research in Dresden but moved back to Russia to direct the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. After his defection to the Western block, Barwick settled in Cologne and passed away in 1966, aged 54.

Education

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Heinz Barwich was born in Berlin, Germany, into a "working middle class" family on 22 June 1911.: 76 [2] His father, Franz, was a bookkeeper and a political supporter for the cause of anarcho-syndicalism on the German Free Workers' Union platform.: 1–2 [1][3]

In 1929, Barwick entered to attend the Technical University of Berlin on a university stipend, initially interested studying the electronics engineering where he was to learned the radio technology.: 2  After attending the physics lecture with Gustav Ludwig Hertz, he switched to study physics and graduated with bachelor's degree in 1934.: 2 

Barwick worked on the isotope separation under Hertz at the Technical University of Berlin and submitted his doctoral thesis on the topics of the separation of gas mixtures by diffusion in flowing mercury vapor.[4] In 1937, he earned his doctorate in physics and was able to secure an research employment at the Siemens AG through his mentor, Gustav Hertz.[5]

Career

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Early years

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At the Siemens Research Laboratory II, Barwich became deputy to Hertz, who was director of the Research Laboratory II of the Siemens AG. At that time, Hertz was a pioneer in isotope separation.[5][6] During the World War II, Barwick worked on supersonic waves applications for the German military, but later, started to work on the applications of the mechanical plating at the behest of German military.: 4 

In Russia

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Manfred von Ardenne, director of his private laboratory Forschungslaboratoriums für Elektronenphysik, Gustav Hertz, Nobel Laureate and director of Research Laboratory II at Siemens, Peter Adolf Thiessen, ordinarius professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (KWIPC) in Berlin-Dahlem, and Max Volmer, ordinarius professor and director of the Physical Chemistry Institute at the Berlin Technische Hochschule, had made a pact. The pact was a pledge that whoever first made contact with the Soviets would speak for the rest. The objectives of their pact were threefold:

  1. Prevent plunder of their institutes,
  2. Continue their work with minimal interruption, and
  3. Protect themselves from prosecution for any political acts of the past.[7]

Before the end of World War II, Thiessen, a member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, had Communist contacts.[8] On 27 April 1945, Thiessen arrived at von Ardenne's institute in an armored vehicle with a major of the Soviet Army, who was also a leading Soviet chemist.[9] All four of the pact members were taken to the Soviet Union.

Hertz was made head of Institute G, in Agudseri (Agudzery),[10][11] about 10 km southeast of Sukhumi and a suburb of Gul'rips (Gulrip'shi); Volmer was initially assigned to Hertz's institute. Topics assigned to Gustav Hertz's Institute G included: (1) Separation of isotopes by diffusion in a flow of inert gases, for which Gustav Hertz was the leader, (2) Development of a condensation pump, for which Justus Mühlenpfordt was the leader, and (3) Development of a theory of stability and control of a diffusion cascade, for which Barwich was the leader.[12]

Von Ardenne was made head of Institute A,[13][14] in Sinop,[10][11] a suburb of Sukhumi.

In addition to Barwich's leftist political views, he stated that he was motivated to go to work in the Soviet Union as he was 33 years old, married, had three small children with a fourth on the way, and unemployed. Barwich and his family were flown to the Soviet Union on 4 August 1945.[15]

Hertz, Barwich, and Yuri A. Krutkov worked on uranium diffusion cascade control theory. Barwich also worked with V. S. Emel'ianov. In 1946, Barwich worked out the theory of natural stability of separation cascades. His results led to a reduction in the number of compressors required and the time needed for enrichment. In October 1948, Gustav Hertz, Peter Adolf Thiessen, and Barwich were sent to a classified location to advise on problems related to the startup of the gaseous diffusion plant D-1. Because of the milk drink kefir they were served daily during their lengthy stay, they christened the place Kieferstadt (Kefirstadt); the location was Verkh-Nejvinskij, and it was known as Sverdlovsk-44 within the Soviet atomic bomb project.[16][17][18][19][20]

In 1951, after the test of the first Soviet uranium atomic bomb, Hertz, Barwich, and Krutkov were awarded a Stalin Prize, second degree, for their work on gaseous diffusion isotope separation.[21][22]

In preparation for release from the Soviet Union, it was standard practice to put personnel into quarantine for a few years if they worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project, as was the case for Barwich. Additionally, in 1954, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, German Democratic Republic) and the Soviet Union prepared a list of scientists they wished to keep in the DDR, due to their having worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project; this list was known as the "A-list". On this A-list were the names of 18 scientists, dominated by members of the Nikolaus Riehl group, which worked at Plant No. 12 in Elektrostal'. Barwich, not a member of Riehl's group, was on the list.[23][24][25][26]

Return to Germany

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In April 1955, Barwich arrived in East Germany. For a short time, he was an advisor to the German Academy of Sciences and an ordinarius professor for physics at Halle University. In 1956, he became director of the Zentralinstitut für Kernforschung (ZfK, Central Institute for Nuclear Research) and ordinarius professor at the Technische Hochschule Dresden. At the ZfK, Barwich's main objectives were to build and put into operation the first nuclear reactor of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was purchased from the Soviet Union, and to establish a research institute. The reactor went into operation in 1957. In 1959, the former Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs was released from a British prison and was appointed Barwich's deputy at the ZfK.[27][28][29]

Barwich became a member of the atomic energy commission which reported to the Socialist Unity Party Central Committee, a member of the Council for the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy, and a member of the GDR Research Council. His scientific contributions were recognized by the GDR's National Prize, second class. He was also appointed to the Council of Scholars of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, OIYaI) in Dubna, Soviet Union.[28]

In May 1961, Barwich left Dresden to become deputy director of the OIYaI. He thus became the superior of the former Soviet spy Bruno Pontecorvo, who had fled to the Soviet Union in 1950. While Barwich was gone, Fuchs ran the ZfK. In June 1964, Barwich returned to East Germany and resumed the directorship of the ZfK in July.[30]

On 6 September 1964, just before the first Chinese atomic test, Barwich defected to the West, while at the Third Atoms for Peace Conference in Geneva; he had met many of the Chinese atomic scientists while at Dubna. The same day, his wife went from East Berlin to West Berlin. While trying to defect his son Peter and his daughter Beate were arrested by GDR border police and after this sentenced to several years imprisonment. Later they were freed following a deal between GDR and West Germany. In December 1964, Barwich testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security.[29][31]

Barwich died in Cologne, aged 54.

Personal

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Barwich was married twice. By 1948, while he and his first wife were in the Soviet Union, they were living apart. They divorced in 1955, after he arrived in East Germany. In 1960, he married Elfi Heinrich, who was considerably younger than himself and was a Russian language interpreter at the ZfK. He had four children with his first wife, a son and three daughters.[32]

Books

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  • Heinz Barwich and Brunolf Baade Die Zukunft gehört dem Sozialismus (Nationale Front d. Demokrat. Deutschland, Nationalrat, Büro d. Präsidiums, 1957)
  • Heinz Barwich, Josef Schintlmeister, and Fritz Thümmler Das Zentralinstitut für Kernphysik am Beginn seiner Arbeit (Akademie-Verl., 1958)
  • Heinz Barwich and Gustav Hertz Lehrbuch der Kernphysik. Bd. 3. Angewandte Kernphysik (Teubner in Verwaltung, 1963)
  • Heinz Barwich and Elfi Barwich Das rote Atom; Als deutscher Wissenschaftler im Geheimkreis der russischen Kernphysik (Scherz, 1967) (Europ. Buch- u. Phonoklub, 1969) (Fischer-Bücherei, 1970) (Fischer-TB.-Vlg.,Ffm, 1984)

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Judiciary, United States Congress Senate (1965). Nuclear Scientist Defects to United States: Hearings, 89-1. United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  2. ^ Judiciary, United States Congress Senate (1965). Nuclear Scientist Defects to United States: Hearings, 89-1. p. 85. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  3. ^ Anarcho-Syndikalismus. In: Der Kommunistische Aufbau des Syndikalismus – Reprint Reihe. Mad Verlag, Hamburg 1973.
  4. ^ Barwich, H. (March 1936). "Die Trennung von Gasgemischen durch Diffusion in strömendem Quecksilberdampf". Zeitschrift fur Physik (in German). Zeitschrift fur Physik. pp. 166–191. doi:10.1007/BF01418599. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  5. ^ a b Barwich and Barwich Das rote Atom (1967) 17.
  6. ^ Naimark, 1995, 209.
  7. ^ Heinemann-Grüder, 2002, 44.
  8. ^ Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Thiessen.
  9. ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 5.
  10. ^ a b Oleynikov, 2000, 11-12.
  11. ^ a b Naimark, 1995, 213.
  12. ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 12-13.
  13. ^ Goals of Manfred von Ardenne's Institute A included: (1) Electromagnetic separation of isotopes, for which von Ardenne was the leader, (2) Techniques for manufacturing porous barriers for isotope separation, for which Peter Adolf Thiessen was the leader, and (3) Molecular techniques for separation of uranium isotopes, for which Max Steenbeck was the leader. In his first meeting with Lavrentij Beria, von Ardenne was asked to participate in building the bomb, but von Ardenne quickly realized that participation would prohibit his repatriation to Germany, so he suggested isotope enrichment as an objective, which was agreed to. By the end of the 1940s, nearly 300 Germans were working at the institute, and they were not the total work force. See Oleynikov, 2000, 10-11.
  14. ^ Institute A was used as the basis for the Sukhumi Physical-Technical Institute. See Oleynikov, 2000, 12.
  15. ^ Barwich and Barwich Das rote Atom (1967) 19 and 22.
  16. ^ Augustine, 2007, 12.
  17. ^ DOE/ID/13471 = Economic Study of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Reprocessing Practices in Russia, p. 69.
  18. ^ Sverdlovsk-44 – Gaseous Diffusion Plant D-1.
  19. ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 17 and 20-21.
  20. ^ Kruglov, 2002, 132-133 and 154.
  21. ^ Oleynikov, 2000, 17 and 20. Hertz and Barwich each received 40,000 rubles, and Krutkov got 20,000.
  22. ^ Maddrell, 2005, 611.
  23. ^ The A-list prepared by East Germany and the Soviet Union in 1954 had 18 names on it. These Germans were to be encouraged to stay in East Germany, as they had done work on the Soviet atomic bomb project. At least nine members worked in Riehl's group at Elektrostal': Others on the list were:
    • Heinz Barwich, Justus Mühlenpfordt, and Karl-Franz Zühlke, who all worked at Institute G headed by Gustav Hertz,
    • Ingrid Schilling and Alfred Schimohr, who both worked at Institute A headed by Manfred von Ardenne,
    • Willi Lange, Gerhard Siewert, and Ludwig Ziehl.
    See Maddrell, 2006, 179-180.
  24. ^ Riehl and Seitz, 1996, 137-139.
  25. ^ Maddrell, 2006, 179-180.
  26. ^ Barwich and Barwich Das rote Atom (1967) 133-180.
  27. ^ Barwich and Barwich Das rote Atom (1967) 179-180.
  28. ^ a b Maddrell, 2005, 614-616.
  29. ^ a b Maddrell, 2006, 251-252.
  30. ^ Maddrell, 2005, 614-616 and 618.
  31. ^ Maddrell, 2005, 608-609.
  32. ^ Maddrell, 2005, 610-611.

References

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  • Augustine, Dolores L. Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990 (MIT, 2007)
  • Heinemann-Grüder, Andreas Keinerlei Untergang: German Armaments Engineers during the Second World War and in the Service of the Victorious Powers in Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (editors) Science, Technology and National Socialism 30-50 (Cambridge, 2002 paperback edition) ISBN 0-521-52860-7
  • Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Birkhäuser, 1996) ISBN 0-8176-5312-0
  • Kruglov, Arkadii The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry (Taylor and Francis, 2002)
  • Naimark, Norman M. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949 (Belknap, 1995)
  • Maddrell, Paul "The Scientist Who Came in from the Cold: Heinz Barwich's Flight from the GDR", "Intelligence and National Security" Volume 20, Number 4, 608-630 (2005)
  • Maddrell, Paul "Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany 1945–1961" (Oxford, 2006) ISBN 0-19-926750-2
  • Oleynikov, Pavel V. German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project, The Nonproliferation Review Volume 7, Number 2, 1 – 30 (2000). The author has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70).
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