Rainer Karlsch

Last updated
Rainer Karlsch
Born3 April 1957
Stendal
NationalityGerman
Awards Stinnes Foundation prize (1996)
Academic background
Alma mater Humboldt University of Berlin
Thesis Probleme der Neuererbewegung in der Industrie der DDR in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren – dargestellt am Beispiel der Einführung sowjetischer Neuerermethoden [1]  (1986)
Notable works Hitlers Bombe (2005)

Rainer Karlsch (born 3 April 1957) is a German economic historian and author. [2]

Contents

Biography

Karlsch was born in Stendal. He studied economic history at the Humboldt University of Berlin and graduated in 1986 with a doctorate in Economics. [3]

Until 1991, he taught economic and social history at his alma mater. [3] From 1992 to 1994, he was an assistant at the Historical Commission for Berlin  [ de ]. [4] From 1995 to 1998, he was an assistant to a key DFG program.[ citation needed ] He was affiliated with the Humboldt University of Berlin again between 1995–2000. [4] From 2000 to 2001 he was employed by the Institute for Economic Policy and Economic History (Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsgeschichte) of the Free University of Berlin. [5] He then worked for the Institute for Applied Demography (Institut für Angewandte Demographie) in Berlin until 2004. [4]

Since 2004, he has been an independent researcher working in the area of economic and business history, based in Berlin. From 2017 to 2021, he held a position at the Berlin branch of the Institute of Contemporary History (Munich). [5]

Research

Karlsch investigated the four-year history of Nazi German atomic research through a collaboration with the TV journalist Heiko Petermann. They were supported by international historians, physicists and radiochemists.

In 2005, he published his controversial book Hitlers Bombe , in which he presented evidence that Nazi scientists working under Kurt Diebner experimented inconclusively with a large atomic reactor during the final stages of World War II and may have tested a crude nuclear weapon in Thuringia on 3 March 1945, killing several hundred prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates. [6] The results of the research, along with an additional unpublished document from the Russian state archives, were then summarised by Karlsch and a US historian of Nazi science, Mark Walker, in Physics World . [7]

The characterisation of the weapon developed by the Nazis towards the end of the war was contested. A number of other historians active in the field – Dieter Hoffmann, Paul Lawrence Rose, Bernhard Fulda, and Michael Schaaf – have played down the significance of the details uncovered by Karlsch and disputed that it was possible to speak of a Nazi nuclear test or a Nazi atom bomb. [8] [9] [10] [11] Karlsch admitted that the developed weapons might better be characterised as atomic "grenades", [11] and Walker wrote that it was not clear whether the tested device could be called a "nuclear weapon", [12] but they insisted that the matter was not settled and more research was required. [7]

Awards

In 1996, Karlsch won the first prize from the Stinnes Foundation for his 1993 book Allein bezahlt? on the handling of war reparations in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. [13]

Scientific works

Authored

Edited

References

  1. ↑ Probleme der Neuererbewegung in der Industrie der DDR in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren - dargestellt am Beispiel der Einführung sowjetischer Neuerermethoden / Rainer Karlsch, Humboldt University of Berlin Library , retrieved 12 February 2025{{citation}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ Bessel, Richard (2010-08-03). Germany 1945: From War to Peace. HarperCollins. pp. 379–. ISBN   978-0-06-054037-1 . Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Rainer Karlsch", Die Geschichte der Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, archived from the original on 12 February 2025, retrieved 12 February 2025
  4. 1 2 3 Karlsch, Rainer, German National Library, archived from the original on 17 November 2024, retrieved 12 February 2025
  5. 1 2 Rainer Karlsch, Aufbau Verlage, archived from the original on 28 November 2023, retrieved 12 February 2025
  6. ↑ Grunden, Walter E.; Walker, Mark; Yamazaki, Masakatsu (2005), "Wartime Nuclear Weapons Research in Germany and Japan", Osiris , ser. II, 20: 114, JSTOR   3655253
  7. 1 2 Karlsch, Rainer; Walker, Mark (June 2005), "New light on Hitler's bomb" (PDF), Physics World : 15–18. Unpaginated online version.
  8. ↑ Haines, Lester (3 June 2005), 'Nazi nuke' sketch unearthed: Proof of Hitler's nuclear capability?, The Register, archived from the original on 3 August 2020
  9. ↑ Vincent, Michael (15 March 2005), Historian's claims of a Nazi atomic bomb causes controversy, The World Today, archived from the original on 14 February 2006
  10. ↑ Furlong, Ray (14 March 2005), Hitler 'tested small atom bomb', BBC, archived from the original on 8 November 2006
  11. 1 2 Did Hitler Have the Bomb?, Deutsche Welle, 14 March 2005, archived from the original on 24 January 2016
  12. ↑ Grunden, Walter E.; Walker, Mark; Yamazaki, Masakatsu (2005), "Wartime Nuclear Weapons Research in Germany and Japan", Osiris , ser. II, 20: 130, JSTOR   3655253
  13. ↑ Dr. Rainer Karlsch, Societäts-Verlag, archived from the original on 2 November 2024, retrieved 12 February 2025
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.