Gottfried von Droste

Gottfried Freiherr von Droste (1908–1992), a.k.a. Gottfried Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering-Padberg, was a German physical chemist. He worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry (KWIC). He independently predicted that nuclear fission would release a large amount of energy. During World War II, he participated in the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club (Uranverein). In the latter years of the war, he worked at the Reich’s University of Strassburg. After the war, he worked at the Federal Physical and Technical Institute and also held a position at the Technical University of Braunschweig.

He was a Freiherr of the Westphalian noble family Droste zu Vischering.

From 1926 to 1933, Droste studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, at which he received his doctorate in 1933. His thesis advisor was Lise Meitner, who was an adjunct professor (nichtbeamteter ausserordentlicher Professor) at this University of Berlin and directed doctoral research in her own section at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie, in Berlin-Dahlem.

From 1933, von Droste was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA). From 1937, he was a member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, National Socialist Workers Party).

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