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Rainer Karlsch

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Rainer Karlsch
Born3 April 1957
Stendal
NationalityGerman
AwardsStinnes Foundation prize (1996)
Academic background
Alma materHumboldt University of Berlin
ThesisProbleme der Neuererbewegung in der Industrie der DDR in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren – dargestellt am Beispiel der Einführung sowjetischer Neuerermethoden[1] (1986)
Academic work
DisciplineContemporary history
Institutions
Notable worksHitlers Bombe (2005)

Rainer Karlsch (born 3 April 1957) is a German economic historian and author.[2]

Biography

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Karlsch was born in Stendal. He studied economic history at the Humboldt University of Berlin and graduated in 1986 with a doctorate in Economics.[3]

Until 1991, he taught economic and social history at his alma mater.[3] From 1992 to 1994, he was an assistant at the Historical Commission for Berlin [de].[4] From 1995 to 1998, he was an assistant to a key DFG program.[citation needed] He was affiliated with the Humboldt University of Berlin again between 1995–2000.[4] From 2000 to 2001 he was employed by the Institute for Economic Policy and Economic History (Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsgeschichte) of the Free University of Berlin.[5] He then worked for the Institute for Applied Demography (Institut für Angewandte Demographie) in Berlin until 2004.[4]

Since 2004, he has been an independent researcher working in the area of economic and business history, based in Berlin. From 2017 to 2021, he held a position at the Berlin branch of the Institute of Contemporary History (Munich).[5]

Research

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Main article: Hitlers Bombe

Karlsch investigated the four-year history of Nazi German atomic research through a collaboration with the TV journalist Heiko Petermann. They were supported by international historians, physicists and radiochemists.

In 2005, he published his controversial book Hitlers Bombe, in which he presented evidence that Nazi scientists working under Kurt Diebner experimented inconclusively with a large atomic reactor during the final stages of World War II and may have tested a crude nuclear weapon in Thuringia on 3 March 1945, killing several hundred prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates.[6] The results of the research, along with an additional unpublished document from the Russian state archives, were then summarised by Karlsch and a US historian of Nazi science, Mark Walker, in Physics World.[7]

The characterisation of the weapon developed by the Nazis towards the end of the war was contested. A number of other historians active in the field – Dieter Hoffmann, Paul Lawrence Rose, Bernhard Fulda, and Michael Schaaf – have played down the significance of the details uncovered by Karlsch and disputed that it was possible to speak of a Nazi nuclear test or a Nazi atom bomb.[8][9][10][11] Karlsch admitted that the developed weapons might better be characterised as atomic "grenades",[11] and Walker wrote that it was not clear whether the tested device could be called a "nuclear weapon",[12] but they insisted that the matter was not settled and more research was required.[7]

Awards

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In 1996, Karlsch won the first prize from the Stinnes Foundation for his 1993 book Allein bezahlt? on the handling of war reparations in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany.[13]

Scientific works

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Authored

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  • Allein bezahlt? Die Reparationsleistungen der SBZ/DDR 1945–53, Berlin: Christoph Links, 1993, ISBN 3-86153-054-6; reprint: Elbe-Dnepr Verlag 2004 ISBN 3-933395-51-8
  • The Chemistry Must Be Right: The Privatization of Buna Sow Leuna Olefinverbund GmbH (with Raymond G. Stokes), Berlin: Edition Leipzig, 2001
  • Urangeheimnisse: Das Erzgebirge im Brennpunkt der Weltpolitik 1933–1960 (with Zbyněk Zeman), Berlin: Christoph Links, 2002, ISBN 978-3-86153-276-7
    • English translation: Uranium Matters: Central European Uranium in International Politics, 1900–1960, Budapest: CEU Press, 2008
  • Faktor Öl. Die Mineralölwirtschaft in Deutschland 1859–1974 (with Raymond G. Stokes), München: C. H. Beck, 2003, ISBN 3-406-50276-8
  • Hitlers Bombe. Die geheime Geschichte der deutschen Kernwaffenversuche, München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2005, ISBN 3-421-05809-1
  • Wirtschaftsgeschichte Sachsens im Industriezeitalter (with Michael Schäfer), Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 2006, ISBN 9783361005983
  • Uran für Moskau. Die Wismut, eine populäre Geschichte, Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2007, ISBN 9783893317912
  • Vom Licht zur Wärme. Geschichte der ostdeutschen Gaswirtschaft 1855–2008, Berlin: Nicolai, 2008, ISBN 9783894794903
  • Playing the Game: The History of Adidas (with Christian Kleinschmidt, Jorg Lesczenski, Anne Sudrow), Munich: Siedler, 2018, ISBN 9783791358307
  • Familienunternehmen in Ostdeutschland. Niedergang und Neuanfang von 1945 bis heute, 2nd edn., Halle: Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2023, ISBN 9783963117145
  • Treibstoff für den Weltkrieg. Die Deutsche Erdöl AG, 1933–1945 (with Manfred Grieger), Frankfurt: Societäts-Verlag 2024, ISBN 9783955425111
  • Das Chemiedreieck bleibt! Die Privatisierung der ostdeutschen Chemie- und Mineralölindustrie in den 1990er-Jahren, Berlin: Christoph Links, 2024, ISBN 9783962892159

Edited

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  • Strahlende Vergangenheit. Studien zur Geschichte des Uranbergbaus der Wismut (with Harm Schröter), St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae, 1996, ISBN 3895900303
  • Sowjetische Demontagen in Deutschland 1944–1949. Hintergründe, Ziele und Wirkungen (with Jochen Laufer; Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungen, 17), Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2002, ISBN 3-428-10739-X
  • Für und wider "Hitlers Bombe". Studien zur Atomforschung in Deutschland (with Heiko Petermann), Münster: Waxmann, 2007, ISBN 9783830918936
  • Uranbergbau im Kalten Krieg. Die Wismut im sowjetischen Atomkomplex (with Rudolf Boch), 2 vols., Berlin: Christoph Links, 2011, ISBN 9783861536536
  • Studien zur Geschichte der Filmfabrik Wolfen und der IG Farbenindustrie AG in Mitteldeutschland (with Helmut Maier), Essen: Klartext, 2014, ISBN 9783837508406

References

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  1. ^ Probleme der Neuererbewegung in der Industrie der DDR in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren - dargestellt am Beispiel der Einführung sowjetischer Neuerermethoden / Rainer Karlsch, Humboldt University of Berlin Library, retrieved 12 February 2025{{citation}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Bessel, Richard (2010-08-03). Germany 1945: From War to Peace. HarperCollins. pp. 379–. ISBN 978-0-06-054037-1. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Rainer Karlsch", Die Geschichte der Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, archived from the original on 12 February 2025, retrieved 12 February 2025
  4. ^ a b c Karlsch, Rainer, German National Library, archived from the original on 17 November 2024, retrieved 12 February 2025
  5. ^ a b Rainer Karlsch, Aufbau Verlage, archived from the original on 28 November 2023, retrieved 12 February 2025
  6. ^ Grunden, Walter E.; Walker, Mark; Yamazaki, Masakatsu (2005), "Wartime Nuclear Weapons Research in Germany and Japan", Osiris, ser. II, 20: 114, JSTOR 3655253
  7. ^ a b Karlsch, Rainer; Walker, Mark (June 2005), "New light on Hitler's bomb" (PDF), Physics World: 15–18. Unpaginated online version.
  8. ^ Haines, Lester (3 June 2005), 'Nazi nuke' sketch unearthed: Proof of Hitler's nuclear capability?, The Register, archived from the original on 3 August 2020
  9. ^ Vincent, Michael (15 March 2005), Historian's claims of a Nazi atomic bomb causes controversy, The World Today, archived from the original on 14 February 2006
  10. ^ Furlong, Ray (14 March 2005), Hitler 'tested small atom bomb', BBC, archived from the original on 8 November 2006
  11. ^ a b Did Hitler Have the Bomb?, Deutsche Welle, 14 March 2005, archived from the original on 24 January 2016
  12. ^ Grunden, Walter E.; Walker, Mark; Yamazaki, Masakatsu (2005), "Wartime Nuclear Weapons Research in Germany and Japan", Osiris, ser. II, 20: 130, JSTOR 3655253
  13. ^ Dr. Rainer Karlsch, Societäts-Verlag, archived from the original on 2 November 2024, retrieved 12 February 2025
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