Rudolf Mentzel
| Rudolf Mentzel | |
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Rudolf Mentzel, c. 1937
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| Born |
April 28, 1900 Bremen, German Empire |
| Died | December 5, 1987 (aged 87) Berlin, West-Germany |
| Residence | Berlin, Germany |
| Citizenship | Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Nuclear Chemistry |
| Institutions |
Reichserziehungsministerium Technical University Berlin German Research Foundation Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Alma mater | Georg-August University of Göttingen |
| Known for | German nuclear program |
| Notes | |
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Note: Mentzel was Colonel in Schutzstaffel.
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Rudolf Mentzel PhD (28 April 1900 – 5 December 1987) was a German chemist and a National Socialist science policy-maker. An influential figure and one of the leading science administrators in Germany's nuclear energy project, Mentzel served as the scientific and technical adviser on the development of atomic bombs to the German government, and on some part, as the director of this program. Originally a National Socialist by political orientation, Mentzel served as one of the top leading science policy-makers to Adolf Hitler and his cabinet in his role as an undersecretary of the Reich Ministry of Education (REM) in the Office for Science. In the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, he was on the advisory board and, during World War II, Second Vice President of the Kaiser Wilhelm, supervising the clandestine research critical to develop the atomic bombs. During this period, his sphere of responsibility also momentarily grew and he soon was appointed as the president of the German Association for the Support and Advancement of Scientific Research, acting as the director of the nuclear program.
After World War II, he was interned for three years by the American military government in post-1945 Germany, but was soon released after evidence proved no affiliation with the Nazi Party.
Mentzel studied and gained B.Sc. in Mathematics and B.S. in Chemistry at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, and he received his doctorate in 1925 with a thesis on Stereoisomerism and transformation of b-substituted decahydro-naphthalenes. At Göttingen, he was a Kreisleiter (circuit leader) of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, National Socialist Workers Party), of which he had been a member since 1922. Due to his participation in the Kapp putsch in 1920, he held a golden party badge. Mentzel completed his Habilitation in 1933 at the Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen with a top-secret Habilitationsschrift (thesis) on Wehrchemie (military chemistry - the military use of poison gases).
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