NBA History of Science Seminar: Mark Walker

Mark Walker (Union College, NY, USA), “History and Legend: Werner Heisenberg’s 1941 Visit with Niels Bohr in Occupied Copenhagen”

In September of 1941, Werner Heisenberg visited Niels Bohr in occupied Denmark and told him that he believed that atomic bombs were feasible and the Germans were working on them. According to the legend of Copenhagen, Heisenberg did this in order to gain Bohr’s help in convincing all physicists to not work on nuclear weapons. This talk will place this visit into the context of Heisenberg’s many foreign trips during the war in order to scrutinize both the legend and actual history of Copenhagen.

Mark Walker is the John Bigelow Professor of History at Union College in Schenectady, NY, USA, where he teaches modern European history and the history of science and technology.