A dramatised reading of Copenhaguen, a theatre play by Michael Frayn, was featured at the Antoni Caparrós Auditorium at the Barcelona Science Park last Monday, the 8th of June at 18.30h. The play, based around an event that occurred in Denmark in 1941, attempts to shed some light on what happened in a meeting between physicists Niels Bohr and his German colleague Werner Heisenberg. In their encounter both physicists discussed the possibility of building nuclear weapons, but what really transpired during such conversation still remains a mystery, given the contradictory versions that both scientists gave subsequently. LLorenç Rafecas has been in charge of the Catalan version and has also been the play's director. The reading has been performed by popular Catalan actors such as LLuís Soler (Niels Bohr) , Mercè Pons (Margrethe Bohr) and Àlex Casanovas (Werner Heisenberg). Admission is free although the sitting capacity is limited.

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The play debuted in London in 1998 and is composed of two acts and three characters playing the roles of the two Nobel laureates and Niels Borh’s wife, who was also present in the meeting. Heisenberg’s version of the conversation was described by Robert Jungk, a young Jewish scientific journalist in his book “Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists” (Harcourt Brace, 1958). According to the book, Heisenberg assured Bohr that his team would do everything necessary to discourage the building of an atomic bomb, for as long the specialist team in atomic energy of the allied forces agreed to do exactly the same. Since Bohr was under a close watch by the secret German police, Heisenberg wanted to implicitly warn his colleague of the risk of conducting research work in this area given the war situation they were in at the time.

Bohr’s version of the encounter was rather different indeed. In response to what was explained in the book, Bohr claimed that even though he intuitively felt that Heisenberg’ true intentions were to find out his personal situation at a moment of conflict due to the allied occupation, he was surprised at Heisenberg’s conviction that Germany would win the war and at his statement that if the war lasted too long, victory would be decided upon through the use of nuclear weapons. This is why Bohr was left somewhat appalled when Heisenberg then said that he did not intend to make use of nuclear weapons. Bohr also pointed out that he was not aware of the progress made by allied forces in this regard until a year later. These considerations were known through a series of letters that his descendants published after his death.

A widely accepted version is that Heisenberg collaborated with the socialist national regimen and that his visit had been motivated to find out the extent to which progress had been made by allied forces in the building of an atomic bomb, and to perhaps attempt to convince Bohr to collaborate with his team. Nonetheless, there are several other versions from both sides that have given rise to a lot of controversy which in turn has generated a great debate for many years.

Even though Frayn is thought to be more partisan or “politically affiliated” than Heisenberg, the most surprising is that in his play, the three characters converse after their death and thus, they do so with total sincerity, expressing their real fears and feelings. They converse about the friendship they shared, of their past, of the war, of their personal and professional goals and the doubts and misunderstandings that followed their mysterious encounter.