Ernst David Bergmann

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Ernst David Bergmann, 1956

Ernst David Bergmann ( Hebrew ארנסט דוד ברגמן; * September 17, 1903 in Karlsruhe ; † April 6, 1975 in Haifa ) was an Israeli chemist and researcher on Israeli nuclear weapons .

Life

Ernst Bergmann was the son of Zionist adjusted Rabbi Judah Bergmann and the oldest of eight siblings. In 1908 the family moved from Karlsruhe to Berlin. After elementary school he attended the humanistic Mommsen grammar school . The physics teacher recognized Ernst Bergmann's abilities and invited him to work on his textbook. Ernst Bergmann studied chemistry and physics at the University of Berlin from 1921 . He earned part of his tuition fees through tutoring. He was with very good grades at the beginning of 1924 Wilhelm Schlenk to Dr. phil. PhD. At that time the natural sciences were still part of the philosophy faculty. Ernst Bergmann accepted an assistant position with Wilhelm Schlenk. He completed his habilitation in 1928 and became a private lecturer in chemistry. In 1929 he married his colleague from the institute in Berlin, the Viennese Jew Dr. Ottilie Blum. Institute director Wilhelm Schenk wanted to propose him for appointment as professor if he was baptized; Ernst Bergmann refused. With Wilhelm Schlenk he also published a detailed textbook on organic chemistry in 1932 .

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 Ernst Bergmann as all Jewish university teachers was the instructor withdrawn. He was dismissed. Albert Einstein knew Ernst Bergmann thanks to his scientific publications. Einstein campaigned intensively for Jewish scientists. He suggested Ernst Bergmann Chaim Weizmann as head of the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rechovot , Israel, which is currently under construction . Bergmann left Germany with his wife and began working in Weizmann's London laboratory on July 1, 1933. At the beginning of 1934 he went to Palestine and took over the management of the recently completed research institute. In 1937 his wife Ottilie died of bone cancer in Rechevot.

In 1938 his former colleague Wilhelm Schlenk published the second volume of the jointly developed textbook on organic chemistry, but withheld the fact that the Jew Ernst Bergmann had been fully involved in the book.

In addition to his research work in the field of natural sciences, he worked closely with the defense organization of the Jewish immigrants Hagana , helped to establish the scientific branch of the Hagana Hemed, the arms industry and the nuclear industry. This led to a conflict with Chaim Weizmann, who only wanted to limit his institute to basic civil research. But Bergmann wanted to help make Israel so strong that the experience of the annihilation of a defenseless people could never be repeated. He joined David Ben-Gurion and later played an important role in the Israeli nuclear program with David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres .

In 1939 he worked for some time in England and the USA. In 1953 he left the Daniel Sieff Research Institute and became a chemistry professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; for a few years he was vice president of the university. From 1953 to 1966 he was head of the Atomic Energy Commission. This was founded in 1952 (based on the English and French models) and initially consisted of Bergmann, Shmuel Sambursky (head of the Israeli Science Council), Yoel Rokach (nuclear physicist and professor at the Hebrew University), Shaul Cohen (professor at the Hebrew University) and Israel Dostrovsky (Chemist, Weizmann Institute ), Franz Oldendorf ( Technion ) and, as the only non-scientist, Chief of Staff Jaakow Dori . Bergmann also taught at the Technion.

In Israel, after the military victories, he was one of the politically prudent people who wanted peace with the Palestinians and a militarily secure but defensive state.

In 1968 he was awarded the Israel Prize .

His younger brothers are Alfred , Josef and Theodor Bergmann . His second wife Channi Ittin died in 1999.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Ernst David Bergmann at academictree.org, accessed on January 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ B. Pinkus, M. Tlamim: Atomic Power to Israel's Rescue: French-Israeli Nuclear Cooperation, 1949-1957, Israel Studies, Volume 7, No. 1, Foreign Relations, Spring 2002, pp 104-138, here p. 112.
  3. ^ Website of the Israel Prize - Winners 1968 (Hebrew) . Retrieved July 23, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Bergmann, Ernst David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli nuclear weapons researcher and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th September 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1975
Place of death Haifa