Abstract
The dissolution and end of Weimar Republic took place mainly in the period from 1931 to 1933, while the period 1933 to 1934 is indicated by historians like Shirer [1] as that of the nazification of Germany. The complexity of this amazing tragedy, that occurred in Germany and involved pretty soon the whole of Europe and later the entire world, certainly cannot be reduced to a few names, dates and figures. But as a hint at some of the wings of the huge stage, in a little corner of which took place our story, I will recall very briefly a few emblematic events of those years.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
See, for example: W.L. Shirer: “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”.
After the First World War Poland was reconstituted as an independent state with a way out to the Baltic Sea obtained by transferring to it the German Länder of Poznań and Pomerelia. This strip of Polish territory, about 50 kilometers wide, was called Polish Corridor or Danzig Corridor. It separated the Republic of Danzig and the German Land of East Prussia from the main parts of Germany. During Hitler period the trains connecting Germany to Danzig and East Prussia were closed and kept under strict watch by the Nazi police while travelling along the Danzig Corridor.
Charlotte Riefenstahl (Fritz Houtermans' first wife) gave me copies of the following manuscripts she had written in various periods of her life for either her children (a, b, c) or close friends (d): (a) 26 pages manuscript she wrote for her children about the family background of Fritz Houtermans; (b) “And he was always right”, the typewritten pages, dated September 1948; (c) 21 typewritten pages written after Fritz’s death, during a vacation she took in July 1966 in Brione, high on the Lugano Lake. (d) 7 typewritten pages circulated among a few friends in 1981.
P.M.S. Blackett (1897-1974) was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize for physics for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method and his discoveries therewith in the field of nuclear physics and cosmic rays. For a detailed biography, see: Bernard Lowell, “Biographical Memoires of Fellows of the Royal Society”, Vol.1 (1975) pp.1-115.
Giuseppe P.S. Occhialini (Fossombrone (Pesaro), 1907 – Paris, 1993) studied physics at the University of Florence passing his laurea examination in 1929. In 1930 he became assistant at the University of Florence and the successive year with a fellowship of the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) went to Cambridge where he started to work with P.M.S. Blackett, with whom he developed the technique of triggering a cloud chamber by means of two or more counters in coincidence. In 1937 he became associate professor at the University of S. Paulo in Brasil. When, in 1942 Brasil entered the Second World War, he was obliged to give up his academic position until 1945 when Italy became cobelligerent. At the end of that war, Occhialini went to England where, after abortive attempts to serve the Allied cause, he moved to Bristol as DSIR fellow of the laboratory directed by C.F. Powell. He worked at this University until 1948, when he was offered a research position at the Centre de Physique Nucléaire in Bruxelles. In 1949 he was appointed professor at the University of Genoa and in 1952 he moved to the same chair at the University of Milan. His remarkable experimental work was devoted to particle physics, cosmic rays and, in later time, space research. His most outstanding contributions are the works with Blackett on the positron and electromagnetic showers and those with C.F. Powel1 which led, among others, to the discovery of pions.
L. Szilard (1898-1964), a very brilliant physicist, and later biophysicist, of Hungarian origin, who emigrated from Germany to Great Britain and later to U.S.A. For a detailed biography see: E.P. Wigner: Biographical Memories, National Academy of Sciences 40 (1969) pp.337-347.
Fritz Lange, physicist and engineer worked at the AEG (Berlin) on high voltage production. Under Hitler pressure he emigrated to Great Britain and later to the U.S.S.R.
P. Auger.
J. Perrin.
Frederic Joliot and Iréne Joliot-Curie were awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for chemistry in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements. For their biographies see: P.M.S. Blackett: Jean Frederic Joliot (1900-1958) Biographical Memories of Fellows of the Royal Society Vol. 6 (1960) pp.87-105; J. Teillac: Irène Joliot Curie (1897-1956) Nucl. Phys. Vol. 4 (1957) pp. 497-502.
Kirov, pseudonym of Sergej Mironovich Kostrikov, was member of the Politbüro, Secretary of the Central Committee and the first Secretary of the Leningrad oblom (regional committee). He gave great contributions in solving complex problems of industrial development and collectivization of agriculture. He represented the tendency towards an internal “detente” after the great successes obtained in the industrial development. At the beginning of the XVII Party Congress, early in 1934, a group of Party officials had a talk with Kirov, touching on the need to replace Stalin. But Kirov would not agree either to get rid of Stalin or to be elected Secretary General on 1st December 1934, a shot in the back killed Kirov in front of the door of his office. The shot was fired by a young Party member, Leonid Nikolaev, but immediately the rumor went around, in the U.S.S.R. and abroad, that the murder had been prepared by Stalin. This hypothesis seems to be backed by a few rather transparent hints given by Nikita Khrushchev. The assassination of Kirov marks the beginning of the great political purges in the U.S.S.R.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amaldi, E. (2013). Emigration to U.K. and U.R.R.S.. In: Braccini, S., Ereditato, A., Scampoli, P. (eds) The Adventurous Life of Friedrich Georg Houtermans, Physicist (1903-1966). SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32855-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32855-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32854-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32855-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)