Karl Wirtz

Karl Eugen Julius Wirtz ( born April 24, 1910 in Cologne, † February 12, 1994 ) was a German neutron and reactor physics.

Life

Wirtz studied from 1929 to 1934 physics, chemistry and mathematics at the University of Bonn, the Albert- Ludwigs- University of Freiburg and the University of Breslau. In 1934 he received his doctorate at Clemens Schaefer at the University of Breslau. He was a research assistant at the chair of Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer at the University of Leipzig. During this time he was a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association ( NSLB ), however not a member of the NSDAP. As NSLB member he could habilitate at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1938.

Karl Wirtz worked from 1937 in the laboratory of Werner Heisenberg and Peter Debye at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin and took place during the Second World War on the German uranium project in part (see also Research Reactor Haigerloch ).

At the age of 35 he was one of 1945 's top ten by the Allies as part of the Alsos mission in Farm Hall ( southern England ) interned German scientists, along with Otto Hahn, Max von Laue, Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, Werner Heisenberg, Walther Gerlach, Erich Bagge, Horst Korsching, Kurt Diebner and Paul Harteck.

After his release, he worked from 1946 to 1957 as head of department at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen in the field of nuclear physics. He also led the planning group for reactor design, which included, among other Rudolf Schulten. In April 1957, he signed the Göttingen Manifesto of 18 leading scientists ( explanation of the "Göttingen Eighteen " ), which called to voluntarily renounce possession of nuclear weapons of any kind. The undersigned also underlined never to participate in the production, testing or the use of nuclear weapons.

Wirtz was instrumental in the establishment of the Nuclear Research Centre Karlsruhe and was from 1957 in this center director of the Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology and professor at the University of Karlsruhe. Where he led the planning for the research reactor 2, the first nuclear reactor in Germany, which was built at its own concept and its own responsibility. He is considered a pioneer and founding father for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Germany.

In his honor ( KTG), the Nuclear Society eV has the Karl Wirtz Prize donated. It is awarded every three years to young scientists or engineers for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of nuclear engineering or related disciplines. With the price of progress of science and technology in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be promoted.

Writings (selection )

  • Together with Karlheinz Beckurts: Basic Neutron Physics, Springer, 1958
  • Nuclear energy, 1960
  • Together with Karl Winnacker: The misunderstood miracle. Nuclear energy in Germany, 1975
  • Within a radius of Physics, Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe, 1988 ( memories )
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