Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I'm your host Paul and this video we're gonna be breaking
down Oppenheimer. In the movie we follow the father of the atomic bomb as he develops his
world changing device. Throughout the story he's pitted against two people and this comes
in the form of a German scientist and also a US Secretary.
In the movie we learn that both don't get their way and you might have some questions
about what happens to them next. Throughout this video we're gonna be going through both
Strauss and Heisenbergs legacy and what happened to them after the film.
Heavy Spoilers ahead so if you haven't seen the movie then I highly recommend that you
turn off now. I know most of this is involving history but there's people who don't know
the ins and outs and I think people should see the film first.
Anyway with that out the way thanks for checking out the video, now let's get into our breakdown
of Oppenheimer.
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So early in the movie we meet Werner Heisenberg who becomes somewhat of a rival to Robert
Oppenheimer.
The movie only really shows things from the titular characters perspective and this is
why we never encounter heisenberg during the war. Now as we see he was a highly renowned
scientist and he was actually the winner of a nobel prize. The scientist published a paper
that changed how we look at physics and this was known as the uncertainty principle.
The Nobel Prize was given during 1932 and the year after saw the Nazis gaining power.
They dismissed several scientists simply for being jewish and people like Einstein ended
up fleeing the country. Heisenberg was also the victim of ideological attacks and he was
labeled as the white jew in the press and papers.
This was said to be someone who was white but who was said to be fascinated with jewish
cultural movements and studies. At the time Bohr and Einstein were seen as prominent figures
and even their studies were labeled Jewish Studies.
Investigated by the SS for a year he actually was saved by his mother who happened to be
a friend of Heinrich Himmlers family. This allowed him to continue working as a scientist
and he travelled through the US studying nuclear fission.
Now Heisenberg actually never even considered fleeing his country even though he was offered
teaching appointments in the US. It's said that he was devoutly loyal to Germany and
completely refused to turn against his homeland.
You have to remember that he grew up in a time in which his country was reeling from
the loss of the first world war. There was a great sense in building the country back
up and thus he refused to turn his back on it. He had already seen what the world had
done to Germany and ended up pledging his allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
Now Heisenberg was selected by the Germans to build their atomic bomb and this saw him
being drafted into the Army Weapons Bureau.
He had an almost two year head start on the Western Allies but critical mistakes delayed
the research.
At one point Heinseberg destroyed his lab creating a reaction and this set back the
bomb development by an untold amount. Focusing primarily on Hardwater this caused the experiments
to be even more dangerous and the water boiled before turning into a fire that torched the
lab. We will talk about how this was something that redeemed Heisenberg later on but there
were several mistakes that caused his efforts to be unsuccessful.
There was also the fact that Hitler just simply didnt trust them and thus he with held funding
and resources whereas the US didn't. In the movie they talk about how the Manhattan Project
cost 2 billion in total which yeah, if you think about inflation would be whatever this
number on screen is right now that I cant even say.
Being such a high value target also put him in the crosshairs of both the allies and nazis.
Summoned to Berlin because of the destruction of his lab he begged for more time to continue
his work. Heinsenberg then went out to Switzerland which during the war was standing as a neutral
country. Heisenberg was due to give a lecture and it was at this time that America made
a play.
The CIA wasnt a thing at the time but they still had black ops agents working in the
field. Sending in an assassin known as Mo Berg they had him attend the lecture to try
and see whether Heisenberg was making headway with his atomic bomb project.
Mo Berg was ordered to kill him if he got to that point and he sat in the lecutre listening
to whether there were any clues to how he was doing. Berg was listening for hints that
he was developing the bomb and he ended up following him that night.
According to the stories Heisenberg mistakingly thought he was SS and said that if they wanted
the bomb they'd have to back off. This confirmed to him that they hadn't developed it yet and
he backed off.
After this time Heisenberg made extremely little progress and to make matters worse
Germany were badly losing the war. Germany was being invaded on all sides and this led
to the capture of Heisenberg and the other scientists.
This happened on May 3rd 1945 but he was declared as an asset due to being one of germany's
top scientist. Escorted to Farm Hall in england he was put under interrogation which is when
they learned how far the germans were actually behind. The progress they'd made over years
had been made in months in america and they were deemed as being years away from making
a bomb.
Whilst this was going on the trinity test was carried out and this happened in July
of the same year.
As we know atomic bombs ended up being dropped on two targets ending the war after Japans
surrender.
Heisenberg was shocked believing that there was no way they could actually build a bomb
because he'd failed in all of his attempts. Now Heisenberg was never put on trial for
working alongside the Nazis and he was instead allowed to return back to Germany.
From here he moved out to America which is when he built a meth empire alongside someone
known as Jesse Pinkman.
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No in 1946 he resumed his directorship at the institute for phsycis and became as spokesman
for peaceful science.
He was seen as someone who would be a valuable asset rebuilding the country and he would
state that he intentionally sabotaged his worked with the Nazis. This has of course
been contested but he remained strong in the stance he deliberately didn't want the bomb
to work. Kinda like that bit in the Office when they ask Brent if he somehow faked medical
science so that the rest of the team wouldnt face redundancies.
Ey, it can't be disproven but I think its actually an important thing to talk about
as it kinda shows the opposite reception that Oppenheimer faced.
Both were people who said that we should be careful building bombs but Oppy was persecuted
by his own government and stripped of his clearance. On the other side of this Heisenberg
was seen as the voice of reason and he was paraded throughout his post war years.
He became the first president of the Gerrman Research council and was instrument in the
European Council for Nuclear Research.
During the 50s he became the founding president of the Humboldt foundation before publishing
an autobiography in 1969. He pivoted slightly into talking about philosophy and was widely
regarded as a fountain of wisdom.
In his final years Heisenberg contracted kidney cancer and he died in his home on the 1st
of February 1976. The next night his friends lit up a candle and placed it on his front
door in remembrance to him.
Now that pretty much covers most of his career and post war workings and next we move over
to Lewis Strauss. I'm not gonna go over all the ins and outs of his career as theyre something
that gets touched upon more indepth in the movie. For Heisenberg we dont really get any
of that so the next part of the video won't be as boring for you.
What do you mean you actually enjoyed it.
Now the way that the timeline works in the film might confuse you a bit as they jump
about with events during and after the war. The humilation of Strauss actually happened
during 1949 making it 4 years after the end of the war.
From here Strauss started putting plans in place to have his security clearance completely
revoked.
This closed hearing for this happened in 1954 and then it would be another 5 years for us
to get the hearing that we see playing publicly. 1959 saw Strauss failing to gain an appointment
as Secretary of Commerce after his bias against Oppenheimer was brought into the open.
This rocked him a bit because it was one of the only times in US history that a cabinet
appointee failed to be given confirmation.
He had been nominated by President Einsenhower and this came as a blight that never really
left him.
This led to Strauss then retiring which completely ended his career though he did stay close
friends with Eisenhower.
Though he is often portrayed as the villain there are those that came to his defence during
the aftermath of it.
Either way Strauss died in 1974 at the beginning of the year on January 21st. This was at his
home on the Brandy Rock farm with his funeral being held in New York.
And that concludes our video on the pair and I hope that this has helped you to add some
context to the movie. I definitely think its worth looking up both characters as they reflect
Oppenheimer the best. We have his opponent out in Germany whos a match and also those
within his homeland working against him.
It paints out a complex and nuanced history and I hope that you've enjoyed going back
through it with us.
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With that out the way, huge thank you for sitting through the video, I've been your
host and I'll see you next time. Take care, Peace.