- Göttingen Eighteen
The Göttingen Eighteen ( _de. Göttinger Achtzehn) was a group of eighteen leading nuclear researchers of the newly-founded
Federal Republic of Germany who wrote amanifesto (Göttinger Manifest , Göttinger Erklärung) onApril 12 ,1957 , opposing ChancellorKonrad Adenauer and Defense SecretaryFranz-Josef Strauß 's move to arm the West German army, theBundeswehr , withtactical nuclear weapon s.The eighteen atomic scientists were:
Fritz Bopp ,Max Born ,Rudolf Fleischmann ,Walther Gerlach ,Otto Hahn ,Otto Haxel ,Werner Heisenberg ,Hans Kopfermann ,Max von Laue ,Heinz Maier-Leibnitz ,Josef Mattauch ,Friedrich Adolf Paneth ,Wolfgang Paul ,Wolfgang Riezler ,Fritz Straßmann ,Wilhelm Walcher ,Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker andKarl Wirtz .These eighteen people were leading researchers and members of public institutions for research on
nuclear energy and technology inWest Germany in that time.The group's name was chosen because many of the signatories were connected with the university town of
Göttingen , and as a reference to the 19th centuryGöttingen Seven .
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