physics

Göttingen Manifesto

Göttingen Manifesto is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Göttingen Manifesto rather than just read about it. In short: The Göttingen Manifesto was a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany (among them the Nobel laureates Otto Hahn, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg and Max von Laue) against arming the West German army with tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s, the early part of the Cold War, as the West German government under chancellor Adenauer had suggested. History In the Second World War some of the signing scie…

Key takeaways

Göttingen Manifesto belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Göttingen Manifesto to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Göttingen Manifesto from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Göttingen Manifesto was a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany (among them the Nobel laureates Otto Hahn, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg and Max von Laue) against arming the West German army with tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s, the early part of the Cold War, as the West German government under chancellor Adenauer had suggested.

History In the Second World War some of the signing scientists had been members of the Uranverein, a nuclear research project of the Nazi regime. The war ended with the nuclear destruction of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. After World War II the Cold War began. In 1953 the hydrogen bomb was invented. A short time later both superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had a so-called overkill potential. In the whole world and especially in the frontier states of the Cold War there was a great fear of nuclear war at that time. Germany was divided, and both German states were frontier states in the Cold War. In May 1955, West Germany became a sovereign nation and joined NATO. It founded its own army, the Bundeswehr, in 1955. There were many protests against the remilitarisation of West Germany. In 1956 East Germany founded its own army, the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA). Following the end of the Korean War, NATO's focus shifted to Europe. Through NATO, the United States deployed its first nuclear weapons in West Germany in March 1955. This led to proposals for the development of similar capabilities for newly created West German army (Bundeswehr) in the course of the year 1956. Franz Josef Strauss, appointed Federal Minister of Nuclear Energy in 1955, and Defence Minister in 1956, was charged with building up the West German defence forces. Attempts by German nuclear physicists, including Otto Hahn and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, to dissuade Germany politicians from nuclear expansion were felt to be unsuccessful. On April 5, 1957 chancellor Konrad Adenauer trivialized tactical nuclear weapons in a press release as “especially harmless weapons”. The Göttingen Eighteen wrote the following manifesto on April 12, 1957. Albert Schweitzer followed the Manifesto with his Declaration of Conscience speech, broadcast widely on 23 April 1957.

The Manifesto

German original text The original text of the Manifesto, in German, is as follows:

References

External links Full text: English | German

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Göttingen Manifesto

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Göttingen Manifesto claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Göttingen Manifesto before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Göttingen Manifesto ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Göttingen Manifesto

In research: Göttingen Manifesto appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Göttingen Manifesto in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Göttingen Manifesto is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 documents, 1957 in West Germany, Anti–nuclear weapons movement, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Göttingen Manifesto outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Göttingen Manifesto in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Göttingen Manifesto means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Göttingen Manifesto out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Göttingen Manifesto in simple terms?

Why does Göttingen Manifesto matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Göttingen Manifesto?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Göttingen Manifesto.