J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), the "father of the atom bomb", is one of the most dazzling figures of recent history. Journalist Kai Bird and historian Martin J. Sherwin received the Pulitzer Prize for their brilliant biography of "American Prometheus". They exemplify the drama of a researcher who has to choose between a thirst for knowledge and ethical responsibility. Oppenheimer led the top-secret Manhattan project in the New Mexico desert, where the first nuclear bomb was detonated on 16 July 1945. Shortly thereafter, more than 200,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a result of the new "miracle weapon" - humanity had entered the nuclear age. Shaken by the devastating power of his creation, Oppenheimer from then on committed himself against the use of nuclear weapons. That made him in the McCarthy era America.