Copenhagen - Michael Frayn [12]
Bohr Very well. Let’s start all over again from the beginning. No Gestapo in the shadows this time. No British intelligence officer. No one watching us at all.
Margrethe Only me.
Bohr Only Margrethe. We’re going to make the whole thing clear to Margrethe. You know how strongly I believe that we don’t do science for ourselves, that we do it so we can explain to others …
Heisenberg In plain language.
Bohr In plain language. Not your view, I know—you’d be happy to describe what you were up to purely in differential equations if you could—but for Margrethe’s sake …
Heisenberg Plain language.
Bohr Plain language. All right, so here we are, walking along the street once more. And this time I’m absolutely calm, I’m listening intently. What is it you want to say?
Heisenberg It’s not just what I want to say! The whole German nuclear team in Berlin! Not Diebner, of course, not the Nazis—but Weizsäcker, Hahn, Wirtz, Jensen, Houtermanns—they all wanted me to come and discuss it with you. We all see you as a kind of spiritual father.
Margrethe The Pope. That’s what you used to call Niels behind his back. And now you want him to give you absolution.
Heisenberg Absolution? No!
Margrethe According to your colleague Jensen.
Heisenberg Absolution is the last thing I want!
Margrethe You told one historian that Jensen had expressed it perfectly.
Heisenberg Did I? Absolution .… Is that what I’ve come for? It’s like trying to remember who was at that lunch you gave me at the Institute. Around the table sit all the different explanations for everything I did. I turn to look … Petersen, Rozental, and … yes … now the word absolution is taking its place among them all …
Margrethe Though I thought absolution was granted for sins past and repented, not for sins intended and yet to be committed.
Heisenberg Exactly! That’s why I was so shocked!
Bohr You were shocked?
Heisenberg Because you did give me absolution! That’s exactly what you did! As we were hurrying back to the house. You muttered something about everyone in wartime being obliged to do his best for his own country. Yes?
Bohr Heaven knows what I said. But now here I am, profoundly calm and conscious, weighing my words. You don’t want absolution. I understand. You want me to tell you not to do it? All right. I put my hand on your arm. I look you in the eye in my most papal way. Go back to Germany, Heisenberg. Gather your colleagues together in the laboratory. Get up on a table and tell them: ‘Niels Bohr says that in his considered judgment supplying a homicidal maniac with an improved instrument of mass murder is …’ What shall I say? ‘ … an interesting idea.’ No, not even an interesting idea. ‘ … a really rather seriously uninteresting idea.’ What happens? You all fling down your Geiger counters?
Heisenberg Obviously not.
Bohr Because they’ll arrest you.
Heisenberg Whether they arrest us or not it won’t make any difference. In fact it will make things worse. I’m running my programme for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. But there’s a rival one at Army Ordnance, run by Kurt Diebner, and he’s a party member. If I go they’ll simply get Diebner to take over my programme as well. He should be running it anyway. Wirtz and the rest of them only smuggled me in to keep Diebner and the Nazis out of it. My one hope is to remain in control.
Bohr So you don’t want me to say yes and you don’t want me to say no.
Heisenberg What I want is for you to listen carefully to what I’m going on to say next, instead of running off down the street like a madman.
Bohr Very well. Here I am, walking very slowly and popishly. And I listen most carefully as you tell me …
Heisenberg That nuclear weapons will require