[Content Warning: both World Wars, the Holocaust]
I have a very vivid memory of reading Cryptonomicon, where a character explains that the Allies won World War 2 because they worshiped Athena (technology, strategy), and the Germans worshipped Ares (Brute Strength, physical and moral).
[Some of you may be thinking “But German craftsmanship was better, right? It took 5/10 American tanks to take down 1 German Tank?” I thought so too, but apparently no. To the extent it was true, it was craftsmanship, not technology.]
The Axis did do better in encryption originally, but by the end we were reading much more of their mail than they were reading of ours. Although it’s important to give credit to this to Polish Intelligence, who broke the Enigma code early on, enabling them to keep up as Germany increased its complexity. If they hadn’t sent their results to Britain just as Germany invaded, Alan Turing et al. may never have been able to crack it. That was some high leverage work there.
Anyways, I’m reading The Alchemy of Air (Thomas Hager) now, which is about the history of nitrogen chemistry, which played a much larger role in World War 1 than I would have guessed. Fritz Haber’s invention of a way to transform atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form, something previously only accomplished by lightning and a handful of bacteria, is estimated to have prolonged the war by at least one year, possibly two. We’ll get into why in a later post. That’s Athena. According to the book, a lot of what the Allies wanted in reparations was not actually money, but German technology, especially chemistry.
[I do not entirely trust Hager on the relative important of chemistry and money here. He’s spent the entire book waxing lyrical about the importance and beauty of nitrogen. The internet was not terrible helpful; I’ve confirmed that dyes and pharmaceuticals were among goods taken as reparations, but not the amounts. Some guy on Quora says the US, Britain, and Germany were equally competitive in technology in 1914.]
Even if Alchemy is overestimating German dominance in chemistry, I think it’s safe to say that technology was a major force behind German military power in World War 1. And by World War 2, it wasn’t. They made some advances and would have done worse without them, but no one ended the war thinking “man, getting access to this German technology will save us 20 years in research”. But 60 years later, Germany is again a leader in technology, and has one of the more functional economies in the world.
This was going to be a “me wondering about a mystery” post, but once I thought about it the answer to “what changed?” is obvious. Germany exiled or killed 25% of their scientists. Fritz Haber, the guy who added years to the war with one invention and went on to pioneer chemical warfare? Jewish “Germany hurt itself while killing several million people” is not exactly news, but I think it’s important to note individual stories of how.
Although this puts me in the weird position of honoring the guy who more-or-less created chemical warfare. But that’s maybe okay, because the same process that made Germany gun powder is also feeding half the world right now. Utilitarian morality is complicated.
Aceso Under Glass 