Peter Adolf Thiessen
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Peter Adolf Thiessen (6 April 1899 – 5 March 1990) was a German physical chemist and a tribologist– he is credited as the founder of the tribochemistry. At the close of the
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he voluntarily went to the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and played a crucial role in advancing the Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and was a recipient of national honors of the Soviet Union. Upon his return to
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
in 1956, Thiessen engaged his life in the advancement of applied applications of the physical chemistry.


Education

Thiessen was born in Schweidnitz,
Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
,
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, which now is known as
Åšwidnica Åšwidnica (; ; ) is a city on the Bystrzyca (Oder), Bystrzyca River in south-western Poland in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. As of 2021, it has a population of 55,413 inhabitants. It is the seat of Åšwidnica County, and also of the smaller dis ...
, Lower Silesian in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, on 6 April 1899. Thiessen hailed from a wealthy German family, which owned a land in Schweidnitz. From 1919 to 1923, he attended and studied
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
at the University of Breslau,
University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...
, University of Greifswald, and the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...
. He received his doctorate in chemistry in 1923 under Richard Adolf Zsigmondy at Göttingen.Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Thiessen.


Career


Early years

In 1923, Thiessen was a supernumerary
assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...
of chemistry at the University of Göttingen and from 1924 to 1930 was a regular
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
. He joined the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
in 1925; and became a
Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...
at Göttingen in 1926. In 1930, he became head of the department of
inorganic chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...
there, and in 1932 he also became an untenured extraordinarius professor. In 1933, Thiessen became a department chair of chemistry at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrical Chemistry (KWIPC) of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG). For a short time in 1935, he became an ordinarius professor of chemistry at the
University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...
. Later, that year and until 1945, he became an ordinarius professor at the
University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
and director of the KWIPC in Berlin-Dahlem. As director of the KWIPC, he transformed it into a
scientific model Scientific modelling is an activity that produces models representing empirical objects, phenomena, and physical processes, to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate. It ...
based on the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
's guidelines. Thiessen was the main advisor and confidant to Rudolf Mentzel, who was head of the chemistry and organic materials section of the
Reichsforschungsrat The Reichsforschungsrat ("Imperial Research Council") was created in Germany in 1936 under the Education Ministry for the purpose of centralized planning of all basic and applied research, with the exception of aeronautical research. It was reorgani ...
(RFR, Reich Research Council). Thiessen, as director of the KWIPC, had a flat on Faradayweg in Dahlem that the former director
Fritz Haber Fritz Jakob Haber (; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrog ...
used for business purposes; Thiessen shared this flat with Mentzel.


In the Soviet Union

Before the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Thiessen had Communist contacts. He,
Manfred von Ardenne Manfred baron von Ardenne (; 20 January 190726 May 1997) was a German researcher, autodidact in applied physics, and an inventor. He took out approximately 600 patents in fields including electron microscopy, medical technology, nuclear techn ...
, director of his private laboratory (Research Laboratory for Electron Physics), Gustav Hertz, Nobel Laureate and director of the second research laboratory at
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
, and Max Volmer, ordinarius professor and director of the Physical Chemistry Institute at
Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...
, had made a pact. The pact was a pledge that whoever first made contact with the Soviet authorities would speak for the rest. The objectives of their pact were threefold: (1) prevent plunder of their institutes, (2) continue their work with minimal interruption, and (3) protect themselves from prosecution for any political acts of the past. On 27 April 1945, Thiessen arrived at von Ardenne’s institute in an armored vehicle with a major of the Soviet Army, who was also a leading Soviet chemist. All four were taken into the Soviet custody and were held in Russia where Von Ardenne was made head of Institute A, in Sinop,Oleynikov, 2000, 11-12.Naimark, 1995, 213. a suburb of
Sukhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
. Hertz was made head of Institute G, in Agudseri (Agudzery), about 10 km southeast of
Sukhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
and a suburb of Gul’rips (Gulrip’shi). Volmer went to the Nauchno-Issledovatel’skij Institut-9 (NII-9, Scientific Research Institute No. 9), in Moscow; he was given a design bureau to work on the production of
heavy water Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...
. In Institute A, Thiessen became leader for developing engineering design techniques for manufacturing porous barriers for isotope separation using the gaseous and centrifugal technologies. In 1949, six German scientists, including Hertz, Thiessen, and Barwich, were called in for consultation at Sverdlovsk-44, which was responsible for uranium enrichment using the gaseous diffusion. The plant, which was smaller than the American Oak Ridge Laboratory's K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, was getting only a little over half of the expected 90 pc or higher enrichment. Awards for uranium enrichment technologies were made in 1951 after testing of a bomb with uranium; the first test was with plutonium. Thiessen received a Stalin Prize, first class in 1953. He is credited with founding the field of tribochemistry, which he formulated when encountering problems to make the gaseous diffusion method feasible for the Soviet nuclear weapons.


Return to East Germany

In 1953, Thiessen was notified by the Soviet administration in Russia that he would allowed to return to Germany but had to quarantined for at least two years, which was a standard practice for the German experts in Soviet program of nuclear weapons. He performed unclassified research in the Soviet Union and returned to
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
in 1955 where he was elected as a Fellow of the German Academy of Sciences in East Berlin, and from 1956 was director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry in
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
. From 1957 to 1965, he was also chairman of the Research Council of the German Democratic Republic..Hentschel, 2007, 78 - 79. From 1965 till 1990, Thiessen served on different research capacities to advance the field of
Tribology Tribology is the science and engineering of understanding friction, lubrication and wear phenomena for interacting surfaces in relative Motion (physics), motion. It is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on many academic fields, including physics, c ...
, for which he is credited as one of the founders, and died in East Berlin on 5 March 1990, aged 90.


Books

*Peter Adolf Thiessen and Helmut Sandig ''Planung der Forschung'' (Dietz, 1961) *Peter Adolf Thiessen ''Erfahrungen, Erkenntnisse, Folgerungen'' (Akademie-Verlag, 1979) *Peter Adolf Thiessen ''Forschung und Praxis formen die neue Technik'' (Urania-Verl., 1961) *Peter Adolf Thiessen ''Vorträge zum Festkolloquium anlässlich des 65. Geburtstages von P. A. Thiessen '' (Akademie-Verl., 1966) *Peter Adolf Thiessen, Klaus Meyer, and Gerhard Heinicke ''Grundlagen der Tribochemie'' (Akademi-Verlar, 1967)


Articles

*Peter Adolf Thiessen ''Die physikalische Chemie im nationalsozialistischen Staat'', ''Der Deutscher Chemiker. Mitteilungen aus Stand / Beruf und Wissenschaft'' (Supplement to ''Angewandte Chemie. Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutsche Chemiker'', No.19.) Volume 2, No. 5, May 9, 1936. Reprinted in English in Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996) 134-137 as ''Document 48. Thiessen: Physical Chemistry in the National Socialist State ay 9, 1936'.


Notes


References

*Albrecht, Ulrich, Andreas Heinemann-Grüder, and Arend Wellmann ''Die Spezialisten: Deutsche Naturwissenschaftler und Techniker in der Sowjetunion nach 1945'' (Dietz, 1992, 2001) *Barwich, Heinz and Elfi Barwich ''Das rote Atom'' (Fischer-TB.-Vlg., 1984) *Beneke, Klaus ''Die Kolloidwissenschaftler Peter Adolf Thiessen, Gerhart Jander, Robert Havemann, Hans Witzmann und ihre Zeit'' (Knof, 2000) *Heinemann-Grüder, Andreas ''Die sowjetische Atombombe'' (Westfaelisches Dampfboot, 1992) *Heinemann-Grüder, Andreas ''Keinerlei Untergang: German Armaments Engineers during the Second World War and in the Service of the Victorious Powers'' in Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (editors) ''Science, Technology and National Socialism'' 30-50 (Cambridge, 2002 paperback edition) * Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996) * Klaus Hentschel ''The Mental Aftermath: The Mentality of German Physicists 1945 – 1949'' (Oxford, 2007) *Holloway, David ''Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–1956'' (Yale, 1994) *Kruglov, Arkadii ''The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry'' (Taylor and Francis, 2002) *Naimark, Norman M. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949'' (Hardcover - Aug 11, 1995) Belknap *Oleynikov, Pavel V. ''German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project'', ''The Nonproliferation Review'' Volume 7, Number 2, 1 – 30
(2000)
The author has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70).


External links


Fritz Haber Institute
- MPG {{DEFAULTSORT:Thiessen, Peter Adolf 1899 births 1990 deaths People from Świdnica German barons University of Breslau alumni University of Freiburg alumni University of Greifswald alumni University of Göttingen alumni German chemists German physical chemists 20th-century German chemists Scientists from the Province of Silesia Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of the University of Münster Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Nazi Party members German expatriates in the Soviet Union Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union people Recipients of the Stalin Prize East German scientists Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Max Planck Institute directors Tribologists Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences