- Reichspostministerium
The Reichspostministerium, during the reign of National Socialism, had authority over research and development departments in the areas of
television engineering,high-frequency technology, cable (wide-band) transmission,metrology , andacoustics (microphone technology).Formation
On
1 January 1937 , Department VIII of the former "Reichspostzentralamt" formed the core of the "Forschungsanstalt der Deutschen Reichspost", or in short, the "Reichspostministerium" (RPM, Reich Postal Ministry). From that date, the RPM subsumed all research and development departments in the areas oftelevision engineering,high-frequency technology, cable (wide-band) transmission,metrology , andacoustics (microphone technology). The engineer Wilhelm Ohnesorge became the Postal Minister from February of that year. The RPM had its own 500,000-square meter research site in Miersdorf outside ofBerlin . Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Banneitz, a television authority, was head of research. Dr. Friedrich Vilbig, an authority on high-frequency engineering, [ Fritz Vilbig "Lehrbuch der Hochfrequenztechnik" (Geest & Portig, 1960)] was his deputy. [ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix C; see the entry for Reichspostministerium.]In
1942 , the armed postal security service was subsumed into the "Schutzstaffel" (SS); this was just one more step in the national socialization of the "Deutsche Reichspost". [ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix C; see the entry for Reichspostministerium.]Activities
The RPM supported independent research, such as
nuclear physics , high-frequency technology,isotope separation ,electron microscopy , and communications technology at the private research laboratory "Forschungslaboratoriums für Elektronenphysik" ofManfred von Ardenne , in Berlin-Lichterfelde. In1940 , the RPM began construction of a cyclotron for von Ardenne; it was completed in1945 . [ Oleynikov, 2000, 6-7.] [ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, 354 and Appendix C; see the entry for Reichspostministerium.]Bibliography
*Klaus Hentschel, editor and Ann M. Hentschel, editorial assistant and Translator "Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources" (Birkhäuser, 1996)
*Oleynikov, Pavel V. "German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project", "The Nonproliferation Review" Volume 7, Number 2, 1 – 30 [http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol07/72/72pavel.pdf (2000)] . The author has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in
Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70).Notes
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