The Amazing Story of Lise Meitner

Escaping the Nazis and Becoming the World's Greatest Physicist

Andrew Norman

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781399006293
• eBook ISBN: 9781399006316
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

The book describes how Lisa Meitner, of Jewish heritage, found herself working as a physicist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin when the Nazis came to power in 1933; how she was hounded out of the country and forced to relocate to Sweden; how German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman continued with the project – on the effect of bombarding uranium (the heaviest known element at the time) with neutrons, a project which Lise herself had initiated, being the intellectual leader of the group. It describes how Hahn and Strassmann, with whom she kept in touch, came up with some extraordinary results which they were at a loss to explain; how Lise, and her nephew Otto Frisch, who was also a physicist, confirmed what they had achieved - the ‘splitting of the atom’, no less, and provided them with a theoretical explanation for it. This laid the foundation for nuclear power, medical-scanning technology, radiotherapy, electronics, and of course, the atomic bomb - the creation of which filled Lise with horror. It describes the crucial part that Lise played in our understanding of the world of atoms, and how deliberate and strenuous attempts were made to deny her contribution; to belittle her achievements, and to write her out of the history books, even though Albert Einstein said she was even ‘more talented than Marie Curie herself’. The author is fortunate and honoured to have been granted several interviews with Lise’s nephew Philip Meitner – himself a refugee from the Nazis - who with his wife Anne, provided much valuable information and many photographs.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
• Chapter 2: Early Years in Vienna
• Chapter 3: Lise’s Correspondence: An Invaluable Resource
• Chapter 4: The University of Vienna
• Chapter 5: The Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin
• Chapter 6: Atomic Theory: Elements, Atoms, Radioactivity
• Chapter 7: The Collaboration Between Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner
• Chapter 8: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Berlin
• Chapter 9: War and After
• Chapter 10: The Years 1920 to 1934
• Chapter 11: Radioactivity: Tools Available to Lise and the Berlin Team in Their Investigation of Uranium
• Chapter 12: Enrico Fermi and Uranium
• Chapter 13: A Word of Caution From Ida Noddack
• Chapter 14: Lise is Fascinated by Fermi’s Findings
• Chapter 15: The Nazi Menace
• Chapter 16: Lise Escapes the Clutches of the Nazis
• Chapter 17: Into Exile
• Chapter 18: Eureka! Lise and Her Nephew Otto Frisch Strike Gold!
• Chapter 19: Aftermath
• Chapter 20: Another War
• Chapter 21: Farm Hall
• Chapter 22: Paul Rosbaud: Was Lise a Spy?
• Chapter 23: Fate of the Meitner Family
• Chapter 24: The War Ends
• Chapter 25: How Hahn and Not Lise Became Sole Contender For a Nobel Prize
• Chapter 26: Nobel Nominations and Deliberations: Reason and Unreason
• Chapter 27: Hahn’s Moment of Glory: Dissenting Voices
• Chapter 28: The Alleged Nazi Bomb
• Chapter 29: Niels Bohr: The Truth at Last!
• Chapter 30: Manne Siegbahn: A Thorn in Lise’s Side
• Chapter 31: Lise’s Integrity and Hatred of Dishonesty
• Chapter 32: Lise’s Humanity
• Chapter 33: The Peace
• Chapter 34: Walter Meitner, Lise’s Beloved Youngest Sibling, and His Family
• Chapter 35: Later Years
• Chapter 36: Lise’s Dear Friend Elisabeth Schiemann
• Chapter 37: The Death of Lise
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: Relevant Nobel Prize Winners
• Appendix 2: Places From Which Lise Sent Letters or Postcards, 1907–1959
• Appendix 3: Lise Meitner’s Berlin Abodes
• Appendix 4: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes
• Notes
• Bibliography