Werner Hartmann

It’s the birthday of Werner Hartmann, who was born in 1912 in Berlin. Hartmann studied physics at the Technical University of Berlin and then embarked on a career in the new field of electronics. Before and during World War II, he worked as a researcher at the German television company Fernseh. At the end of the war, he and his research group were captured by the Red Army and flown to the Soviet Union, where they were put to work on the country’s atomic bomb project. Ten years later, he returned to what had become East Germany. There, he led a successful career in academic and industrial electronics -- until 1974, when, under mysterious circumstances, he was victimized by East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi. Although Hartmann was never tried, he was humiliatingly demoted. He died in 1988.

Date in History: 30 January 1912