Nobel Prize

Two fellow explorers. A man and a woman. A German and a Jewish woman.

It is December 1946 and Otto Hahn is just about to reach the peak of his career – receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Before that, he has to meet Lisa Meitner, his former closest collaborator. Together in the 1930s they penetrated the mysteries of the atom, but then history entered their lives. And now Lise stands opposite him and asks who is to receive the prize Otto is to receive.

Originally, they both just wanted to explore undisturbed. But the discovery of something as revolutionary as nuclear fission in Hitler's Germany must have had far-reaching consequences for the lives of each of them. They have been overwhelmed by the forces of history. Less than seven years after the discovery came Hiroshima. What does this have to do with the two inventors? What does that mean for them? Only one of them is nominated for the Nobel Prize for their joint work – was really common and equal, wasn't it? Two opposing views.

The initially quiet conversation takes place after years of separation. Otto's eight years in Hitler's Germany and Lise's forced exile in Sweden are the source of tension and the subject of a conversation that takes place in the suite of a luxury Stockholm hotel. And it soon escalates into a fierce showdown that has the phases of a chess game. Who is better able to unbalance the other with irrefutable arguments?

In this slim book about a crucial private encounter, Cyril Gely, author of the play Diplomacy (whose film adaptation won Volker Schlöndorff a César), confronts the truth of each of the two scientists with dramatic virtuosity and brevity. It's like splitting the atom of a relationship.