The Political Arena (1934–1961)

779 Pages·2005·24.48 MB·English

by  Finn Aaserud (Eds.)

NIELS BOHR
COLLECTED WORKS
VOLUME 11
AAGEBOHRANDNIELSBOHR,ISRAEL1953.(PHOTOGRAPHBYSTEFANROZENTAL)
N I E L S B O H R
COLLECTED WORKS
GENERAL EDITOR
FINN AASERUD
THE NIELS BOHR ARCHIVE, COPENHAGEN
VOLUME 11
THE POLITICAL ARENA
(1934–1961)
EDITED BY
FINN AASERUD
2005
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FOREWORD
The present book is the first of the last two volumes of the Niels Bohr
Collected Works. The last volume – Volume 12, “Popularization and People
(1911–1962)” – will be published shortly. The two volumes were originally
projected as one volume, but the amount of material proved too large to be
accommodated between two covers.
Part I of Volume 11 is devoted to Bohr’s self-appointed mission to promote
an “open world” between nations, which took up a large part of his time and
concentration from the autumn of 1943, when he understood that the atomic
bomb was on the way to becoming a reality, until he died in November 1962.
However, his public writings on the topic are not nearly in proportion to
the effort he put into it. As explained in the introduction to Part I, this has
called for the inclusion of more unpublished material than is usual in the Bohr
Collected Works, which as a rule are centred on Bohr’s publications. Some of
this archival material is presented together with Bohr’s publications, whereas
the rest, which serves to place the publications in context, is to be found in
the appendix to Part I.
The majority of the unpublished material stems from the Niels Bohr Archive
(NBA), notably the Niels Bohr Political Papers, whereas other material origi-
nates from research abroad. In the early 1990s I visited several archival reposi-
tories in the United States. My residence as a Carlsberg Fellow at Churchill
College in Cambridge, England, in the spring term of 1996, made possible
extensive studies in British archives, notably at the Public Records Office in
London and the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.
Most of Bohr’s publications in Part II of the present volume, as well as in
Volume 12, may best be termed occasional writings. As such, they differ sub-
stantially from the publications in the first ten volumes of the Collected Works,
which represent Bohr’s writings relating to physics (Volumes 1 to 9) and his
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FOREWORD
most important philosophical writings (Volume 10). It testifies to the effort that
Bohr put into everything he wrote, as well as to the consistency of his thinking,
that far from constituting a miscellany of not quite focused contributions, all
publications reproduced in Volumes 11 and 12 show an impressive quality of
expression and unity of thought.
Part II of the present volume documents Bohr’s involvement in political and
social activities other than those laid out in Part I. In accordance with the
standard used in previous volumes of the Collected Works, this involvement
is documented only in so far as it resulted in publications on Bohr’s part. The
publicationscan be divided into twomajor categories, the first of whichconsists
of Bohr’s writings in his capacity as a leader of specific institutions for the
advancement of science, in particular the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences
and Letters. The second category comprises lectures or writings prepared for a
variety of special events.
The introduction to Part II seeks to place Bohr’s contributions in the context
in which they were presented. Especially in the second category of writings,
this context is often mentioned only in passing or not at all, as Bohr tended to
concentrate on one or another topic of particular interest. These are the same
topics as those dealt with in publications in other volumes of the Collected
Works – especially in Volume 10, in Part I of the present volume and in
the writings presented under the heading of “Popularization” in Volume 12.
However, no two of Bohr’s contributions are identical, and he always added
some new perspective to the topic, adapted to the audience for his presentation.
Indeed, having a broader orientation than most others of Bohr’s publications,
they are particularly well suited to present him to the general public, both as a
thinker and a person. A few letters to and from Bohr, illustrating the published
material in Part II, are reproduced in an appendix.
* * *
In such a long and complicated project it is impossible to thank everybody
who has contributed. Some people, however, must be mentioned in particular.
I extend my apologies to those who have offered their valuable services, but
who are not mentioned here.
When I started my employment as Director of the NBA in 1989 (which
includes the general editorship of the Niels Bohr Collected Works), my prede-
cessor Erik Rüdinger had already prepared a preliminary table of contents for
what was then conceived to be the last volume in the series. Erik’s preparatory
work has been of inestimable value for continuing the project. Although the
organization of the material has been changed considerably since then and
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FOREWORD
much unpublished material has been included, only a few publications have
been added to Erik’s original list. I thank Erik for enabling me to make such
a head start and for his continued interest and help throughout the project.
Before my stay in Cambridge, I conducted a series of interviews with Niels
Bohr’s son, Aage Bohr, who was with his father during the critical years
of exile from Denmark beginning in the autumn of 1943 and lasting until
the late summer of 1945. Aage continued as Niels Bohr’s main confidant in
political as well as other questions until his father’s death. The interviews were
the beginning of a close working and personal relationship, which has added
immeasurably to the present volume. Aage has been instrumental in helping
with the interpretation of the archival material for Part I and providing the
recollections which I use freely in the introductions to Part I and Part II. In
addition, he has taken an active part in writing and structuring in particular the
introduction to Part I, without ever seeking to impose his views. Aage has also
made himself available whenever advice was needed regarding any aspect of
the work. Besides improving the quality of this volume, the collaboration with
Aage has been a uniquely rewarding personal experience for me.
During my stay in England, Richard Ponman at the Historical and Records
Section of the Cabinet Office in London was particularly helpful in guiding
me through the maze of archival material. After my return to Denmark, Jørgen
Grunnet at the Danish Embassy in Washington was helpful locating and re-
trieving further documents from the U.S. government archives. More recently,
Milton O. Gustafson of the U.S. National Archives has provided similar invalu-
able assistance.
In addition to the few footnotes in Bohr’s original texts, several numbered
explanatory footnotes have been prepared by the editor in order to place the
writings in context. Particularly useful help in this regard was provided by
Knud Max Møller (1922–2004), biochemist and a close friend of the NBA.
Others who have provided helpful information on one or more particular
subjects include Libeta Chernobrow (head, interlibrary loan, Weizmann Insti-
tute of Science, Israel), Ernest D. Courant (emeritus professor of physics at
Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S.A.), Ole Farver (chemist at the Danish
University of Pharmaceutical Sciences and President of the Danish Weizmann
Society), Paul Josephson (historian at Colby College, Maine, U.S.A.), Jørgen
Kalckar (editor of Volumes 6 and 7 of the Collected Works), Henrik Knudsen
(historian of science at the University of Aarhus), Alexei Kojevnikov (historian
of science at the University of Georgia, Athens, U.S.A), Niels Nielsen (Di-
rector of the Nordic Region of the Conference Board), Povl Ølgaard (reactor
physicist at the Risø National Laboratory from the time of its establishment),
Erik Rüdinger, Arne Sell (retired physician and historian of the Danish ra-
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FOREWORD
dium stations), Stephen Twigge (Head of the Research and Planning Unit at
The National Archives, London) and Johnny Wøllekær (archivist, Odense City
Archives). I thank them all.
Translating Niels Bohr’s writings has constituted a special challenge, espe-
cially as the last two volumes of the Collected Works include more material
originally written in Danish than did any of the earlier ones. As was also the
case for Volumes 7 and 10, the translations have been a joint effort between Fe-
licity Pors and the editor. Others have provided substantial help in the process.
During the early period of preparations Helle Bonaparte, the secretary at the
NBA until 1991, made a few preliminary translations. Hilde Levi (1909–2003)
– who made her career in Denmark in physics as well as in the application of
physics to biology after escaping Nazi Germany in 1934 – made an invaluable
effort, which was unfortunately cut short by her illness and subsequent death.
Erik Rüdinger and Jørgen Kalckar, as well as my son Andreas Næs Aaserud,
have been of great assistance in the last stages of the translation process. As
always, a main challenge has been to retain Bohr’s style, including his generally
long sentences, while making the English idiomatic. Arbitrary misspellings
have been corrected, whereas typical ones have been retained. Misspellings of
names have been kept in transcripts of original texts, but have been corrected
in explanatory footnotes and translations. Whenever a non-English contribution
is reproduced in facsimile, any explanatory footnotes appear in the translation
only. When both the translation and the original version of a document have
been transcribed, explanatory footnotes are placed in the original, with the
footnote numbers repeated in the translation.
A nearly complete version of Part I was submitted to several readers for
comment. This provoked particularly incisive reactions from the historian of
science John L. Heilbron as well as Jørgen Kalckar and Erik Rüdinger. Useful
comments were also provided by Andrew D. Jackson (physicist and chairman
of the NBA board of directors), Helge Kragh (historian of science at the Uni-
versity of Aarhus); David Favrholdt (philosopher at the University of Odense
and editor of Volume 10 of the Collected Works), Vilhelm Bohr (Department
Chair at the U.S. National Institutesof Health and member of the NBA board of
directors) and Henry Nielsen (historian of science at the University of Aarhus).
John Heilbron has made an equally thorough reading of the introduction to
Part II, as has Hans von Bülow (staff member of the secretariat of the Danish
Atomic Energy Commission from its first year of operation in 1956 and its
head from 1965 until the abolition of the Commission in 1976), Vilhelm Bohr
and Henry Nielsen. I am grateful to them all for their valuable input.
For a publication such as this, it is essential to prepare an extensive and
useful subject index. For the early stage of this work I was fortunate to secure
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FOREWORD
the help of Helle Bonaparte. Christina Olausson, a student of physics at the
Niels Bohr Institute, picked up where Helle left off. Both have contributed
greatly to the work.
My closest collaborators continue to be the staff at the NBA, Felicity Pors
and Anne Lis Rasmussen. Apart from the considerable task of translating
Bohr’s words, Felicity has contributed to all aspects of preparing the volume,
from identifying specific articles and locating photographs through commenting
on the introductions to taking part in structuring the volume. Lis has also
contributed fruitfully to discussions of all aspects of the volume, in addition
to typing all non-facsimile material and dealing with the many complex issues
involved in formatting the book, including the generation of the index. I thank
Felicity and Lis for their great dedication to the work.
In addition to the grant from the Carlsberg Foundation covering my stay in
Cambridge, financial support for the preparation of Volumes 11 and 12 has
been provided by the Lounsbery Foundation, New York. Furthermore, Hilde
Levi bequeathed a significant sum of money to the NBA, which has been used
for a variety of tasks connected with the Collected Works. I thank Hilde and
the two foundations for this financial help.
Elsevier, represented by Publisher Carl Schwarz, has shown considerable
understanding for the several delays in relation to carefully planned deadlines.
As was the case for Volume 10, the practical work on the layout of the volume
has been handled brilliantly by Betsy Lightfoot at Elsevier.
Finally, I would like to thank the NBA’s board of directors for its constant
trust and encouragement, and my wife, Gro Synnøve Næs, for her patience and
never-failing help and support.
Finn Aaserud
The Niels Bohr Archive
October 2005
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