Diaspora.

This is coolbert:

"Di⋅as⋅po⋅ra - – noun 4. any group migration or flight from a country or region; dispersion."

In the aftermath of World War Two [WW2], there is undeniably a diaspora of Germans on a world-wide basis.

Of course the Werner Von Braun guided missile design team and others associated with Operation Paperclip are cases well known and documented.

German nationals, often enlisted military men of low rank but having a marked degree of combat experience, joining the French Foreign Legion [FFL] are another category of post-WW2 diaspora German.

I am thinking about and speaking about those persons NOT so well known, but still influential in their own way.

Persons, having desirable talents, but seeing no future in a defeated and devastated Germany for at least a decade. Persons of talent, out-of-work, seeking employment where their skills and abilities were in need. Persons appreciated for having unique skill-sets that were at a premium.

[I AM NOT speaking about German SS men or other perpetrators of atrocity who escaped in the aftermath of surrender - - 1945 - - and took up residence in various locales where they felt safe. Recall too that Germany did not become an independent nation with full sovereignty until 1955!.]

Persons to include, but not limited to:

1. Hannah Reitsch. Needs no introduction? Top German female pilot of the pre-WW2 era, and for some time there after [Hannah at even the advanced age of sixty-eight continued to set world soaring records at the helm of a sailplane]!

Hannah, opening flight and glider schools in Ghana and Indian, hobnobbing with the elites of society, personally known to and having the ear of politicians of the highest echelon, Was even invited to the White House and personally presented to President Kennedy.

2. Hyazinth von Strachwitz. Best tank [armor] commander in the WW2 German army? Noted for his skill and bravery [wounded no less than fourteen times] in combat. Post-war, moved to Syria where he helped organize the nascent Syrian army.

3. Ludwig Vorgrimler. German small-arms weapon designer. Prior to and during WW2 was an employee of Mauser, post-war first worked for the French and subsequently for the Spanish. Noted for his innovative and original weapons designs, particularly the CETME rifle.

"Dr. Ludwig Vorgrimler (Born September 7, 1912 in Freiburg, Germany; died 1983) is the man most commonly associated with the design of the Spanish CETME rifle"

"After the war ended, Mauser's Department 37 development group was placed under control of the French War Department's armament group . . . [in 1946] when workers and equipment began to be transferred to the Mulhouse area of Alsace"

"Vorgrimler was recruited to work for CETME in Spain. The French initially attempted to prevent him from leaving the country, but Vorgrimler and family were allowed to move to Madrid in September 1950."

4. Ferdinand Brandner. German aerospace engineer. Did essential and pioneering work on the turboprop engine. Post-war negotiated a "deal" with the Soviets - - most successfully continuing experimental research into turboprop engine design for aircraft.

"Ferdinand Brandner . . . in 1946 in the Soviet Union deported and led the development of engines, such as the NK-12 . . . It is still the most powerful turboprop engine, used as the drive of the heavy bomber Tu-95 transport [bomber] aircraft . . . From 1960 he was in Egypt with the development and construction of the E-300 jet engine for the Messerschmitt jet aircraft designed by Helwan HA-300 . . . The early 1970s he was in Beijing a Visiting Professor of engine construction"

5. Those various German scientists, chemists for the most part, very active and contributing their particular expertise of an esoteric nature to the development of the Soviet atomic bomb. Those German scientists most interested in the extraction of refined high-quality weapons grade fissionable material allowing the Soviet to leapfrog and accelerate the process by which nuclear munitions could be acquired.

German scientists ensconced in the privacy of a Soviet sharashka, held in semi-captivity, but with relative luxury of a nature to be not found in post-war Germany. A laboratory under tight control of the Soviet secret police BUT without the harrowing ordeal of a typical GULAG work camp. A laboratory with all the creature comforts and provided with the latest and most advanced equipment for scientific research.

"Sharashka . . . an informal name for secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system."

German scientists to include: "Nikolaus Riehl, von Ardenne, Hertz, Thiessen, and Volmer"

"the contributions of the German scientists is borne out by the many State Prizes and other prestigious awards given in the wake of the second Soviet atomic bomb test, a uranium-based atomic bomb; awards for uranium production and isotope separation were prevalent"

* Nikolaus Riehl.

"in charge of uranium production at Plant 12 in Elektrostal"

"From 1945 to 1950, Riehl was in charge of uranium production at Plant 12 in Elektrostal'"

* Gustav Hertz.

"Separation of isotopes by diffusion in a flow of inert gases"

"Development of a condensation pump"

"Development of a theory of stability and control of a diffusion cascade"

* Max Volmer.

"production of heavy water"

"plutonium extraction from fission products"

* Manfred von Ardenne.

"Electromagnetic separation of isotopes"

"Techniques for manufacturing porous barriers for isotope separation" [Peter Adolf Thiessen lead scientist]

"Molecular techniques for separation of uranium isotopes"

Given the outstanding record of German scientists with regard to the processing of uranium and plutonium to extract the fissionable material necessary to make an atomic bomb, it can be reasonably inferred that if the WW2 German HAD PUT THE RESOURCES AND THE RESOLVE INTO THEIR OWN NUCLEAR PROGRAM, THEY MAY HAVE SUCCEEDED AND MIGHT HAVE POSSESSED AN ATOMIC BOMB PRIOR TO THE UNITED STATES AND THE ALAMAGORDO DETONATION??!!

Have skill - - will travel - - was the motto of many post-WW2 Germans? To all parts of the world, where ever we are wanted and needed, no matter what!

coolbert.