PROFESSOR DR. TOBERT ROMPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R005100450011-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 31, 2003
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: July 11, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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Approved. For f ii 16& V? ~ A 0 '-004 gF6u 0011-8
INFORMATION REPORT CD NO.
COUNTRY Ge r (nussian Zone)
SUBJECT Professor Br. Robert loupe
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PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
INFO.
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DATE DISTR. '11
,SUPPLEMENT TO.
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALU INFORMATION
This document is hereby regraded to
CONFIDENTIAL in accordance with the
letter of 16 October 1978 from the
Director of Central intelligence to the
Archivist of the United States.
Next Review Date: 2008
In addition to being *eics Professor at Berlin Humboldt University, Director
of its Second Institute of Physics and, in a semi--official capacity, scientific
adiveer to the Education Ministry of the Soviet Zone, Professor Br. Robert Ramps
is now also head of all industrial research in the poopleas--ocmed enterprises
of the Soviet Zone. He has stated that he intends to decrease his activity
for the Education Ministry and to devote himself more exclusively to scientific
resoa-reh. However, upon the insistence of his political friends, he feels
obl'.tatod to make a compromise between his desire for pure scientific activity .
and the necessi ' of ren inind politically active. fie, therefore, has agreed_
to direct industrial research in the socialized sector of German econoluy,*
2. Rom -e stated that he was about to found, in the frarswork of the organization of
industrial research, a research service (Studiengese 1echaft) for the development
and improvement of sources of light. In an effort to illustrate the importance
of organized industrial research, he cited, as a parlioular instance, the work
done in the recent past by the research and development department of the Zeiss
works in Jena.--*
a. The Zeiss works has developed and exhibited at the Leipzig Fair, an ultra-
sonic direction finder to be used in fishing.
b. It has successfully developed. a new-type mirror objective -for the elina-
tion of chromatic mistakes and mistakes caused spheric aberration, as
they appear in ',)no objectives; at the same time the plant has constructed
microscopes and cameras for X-ray screen photog pby which f unction with
this mirror objective A
c. Good progress has been made in the conatruation? of Sclmiidtr-tlrpe telescopes
the first of which is expected to be completed in about a year. -Ronpe
stated that original plans for building such telescopes ,th a mirror sur-
face diameter of 2.50 m. had to be abandoned and that the type under con-
struction has a diameter of 2.00 m.
a. The plant has been charged with and successfully completed the overhauling
of the refractor of the Acaderr observatory in Berlin-Bab lsberg. It did
so, Rompe stated, by emulating a principle developed in the United States.
for such mrrposes which results in a more accurate correction of the spheric
mistaken by neglecting the chromatic corrections 'in the optical system and
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by :educing the chromatic mistakes at the same (time, either through in-
sertion or filter screens into the system or thou g. separation of the
light (observation in different focal planes).
When questioned about the planning of research by the State, Romps, of course,
strongly advocated the idea; he was forced to acsnowledge, however, that
research runs the risk of being greatly hampered byi, governmental bureacraty.
He related the following example to illustrate this point: the Oberspreewerk
in Berlin:-0bsrschffineweide has been enqaged in the detvelopment of devices for
the measurement of physical qualities as.functions of frequency.
The plant forwarded proposals to the Planning Ministry in Moscow concerning
a frequency range within the limits of ten thousand' to one million Hertz.
Moscou accepted the plan but amended it with the order to extend the frequency
range so as to include the entire range from ten a ej'tz to one hundred million
Mertz uttich, as Rompe remarked, was absolute nonsense, because so large a
range mist be broken down into snatler ones in which different principles of
measurement and devices have to be applied. After this had been pointed out
to Moscow, a now order not only confirmed the one prescribing the impossibly
large range but also required two model samples instead of one and fixed a
close deadline for their completion. The plant had to undertake their construc-
tion, although it was believed to be a waste of raatOrial and effort, and, In
order to complete them in the proscribed time, did 0 very had iob. After the
deadline, nobody was allowed to make any improvements on the devices because
the time allowed for them in the plan had expired. The devices then remained
unchanged in the plantfor nearly three months, wheupon they were clad by
Moscow. They were sent there and,, as became known ter, arrived at' a wrong
destination,, In subsequent correspondence between Moscow and the works, the
Latter proposed to effect certain changes of the devices in order to somehow
make them ,orkable. This, however, was declined because the plan did not
as o: time for such additional work. In Rompe a s opinion, the devices are
so=?~ewhere in Moscow unused and unusable.
, This, awhile admitting the possibility of hampering effects effected by.State,
planning on research, Romps pinned the responsibility for them entirely on in-
efficient bureaucracy which, he hoped, could be reduced to harmless proportions
in his in`lus-brial research sector. In this connection, he made rather bitter
counts about Minister :"elbmann who, he said, is o #e of the worst bureaucrats
always trying to oppose his, r'5, efforts to mat planning work smooth
and sensiblev always insisting; on carrying out truss .an orders to the letter
and thus,, endangering the rational operation of the insole system.
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6. Rompls present political outlook in retard to pending, events, as developed
in -many conversations, can thus be surmarizeds
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a? Thera will be no shooting war because neither the Russiansmr the
Americans mant it.
b. The cold war will gradually be settled. Negotiations between the
Americans and the Russians are being hold 1Bsecret]ye without the
public being aware of them; they will eventually result in an a, ee-
ment whereby the two systems can live with each other.
c. As for Ger. ay, the two German governments w ill be obliged, under
the p essure of all Allies concerned, to recognize each other and,
for some time to come, two Germanys will live as separate sovereign
states with close economic bonds. As an example of the desire for
cooperation, he cited the cancellation of the Eastern 71hitsun parade
in " st Berlin which was the result of Ria.ssian intervention with the
East German government. He further believes that the Russians trill,
in not too distant a future, leave their occuration zone regardless
of the decision taken by the Western powers in their respective zones.
If the "extern powers then choose to remain in Germany, the Con unists
,will have a propaganda platform which may enable them to conquer poli-
tically all of Ger any.
Although Rompe has not come to ".lest Germany since September 1949, he has
tried to maintain relations with West German scientists. He has started
a program of inviting 'rest German physicists to Berlin to give lectures
at the Humboldt University.
25X1 zntz
Rona qs 2ew job as head of industrial research
25X1 corm s under the Ministry of conoarq
25X1*11' ICgrtn': Rorpe is a ::giber of the Kuratorium of the Zeiss foundation.
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