Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Knauer (22 January 1897 – 7 July 1979) was a German physical chemist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club.

Education

From 1918 to 1924, Knauer studied at the '' Georg-August-Universität Göttingen'' and ''

Leibniz University Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...

''. He received his doctorate in engineering in 1923 at ''Hannover''; he was a student of Beckmann and W. Kohlrausch.Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Knauer.

Career

No later than 1933, he completed his

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

, and he became a

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

at the ''

Universität Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

''. In 1939, he became an assistant in the department of physical chemistry and then a supernumerary professor (''nichtplanmäßiger Professor'') there. During World War II, as yearly as 1940, he was a member of Paul Harteck's group at the University of Hamburg. He did research on neutron diffusion and capture in

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

for the

German nuclear energy project The Uranverein ( en, "Uranium Club") or Uranprojekt ( en, "Uranium Project") was the name given to the project in Germany to research nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, during World War II. It went through sev ...

, also known as the ''Uranverein''.

Internal Reports

The following report was published in ''

Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte ''Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics'') was an internal publication of the German ''Uranverein'', which was initiated under the ''Heereswaffenamt'' (Army Ordnance Office) in 1939; in 1942, supervision of ...

'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics''), an internal publication of the German ''

Uranverein The Uranverein ( en, "Uranium Club") or Uranprojekt ( en, "Uranium Project") was the name given to the project in Germany to research nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, during World War II. It went through s ...

''. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied

Operation Alsos The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II. Its chief focus was on the German nuclear energy pr ...

and sent to the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President H ...

for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

. *

Paul Harteck Paul Karl Maria Harteck (20 July 190222 January 1985) was an Austrian physical chemist. In 1945 under Operation Epsilon in "the big sweep" throughout Germany, Harteck was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces for suspicion of ...

, Johannes Jensen, Friedrich Knauer, and

Hans Suess Hans Eduard Suess (December 16, 1909 – September 20, 1993) was an Austrian born United States, American physical chemist and nuclear physicist. He was a grandson of the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess. Career Suess earned his Ph.D. in chemist ...

''Über die Bremsung, die Diffusion und den Einfang von Neutronen in fester Kohlensäure und über Präparat 38'' G-36 (19 August 1940)''Präparat 38'', ''38-Oxyd'', and ''38'' were the cover names for uranium oxide; se
Deutsches Museum

Bibliography

*Hentschel, Klaus (Editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (Editorial Assistant and Translator) ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996) *Walker, Mark ''German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939–1949'' (Cambridge, 1993)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knauer, Friedrich 20th-century German chemists Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Nuclear program of Nazi Germany 1897 births 1979 deaths