Until the fall of Berlin in 1945, Wirths was employed with the Auergesellschaft AG in the production of uranium for the Heereswaffenamt as part of their Uranverein club.

: 155  His thesis contained the fundamental research work on the complexity on the molten salts which was done under the supervision of Walter Noddack.

The HWA eventually provided an order for the production of uranium oxide, which took place in the Auergesellschaft plant in Oranienburg, north of Berlin.

However, in mid-May 1945, with the assistance of Riehl's colleague Karl Günter Zimmer, the Russian nuclear physicists Georgy Flerov and Lev Artsimovich showed up one day in NKVD colonel's uniforms.

12 in the production metallic uranium, two of them involved Wirths as a principle driving force: For their work at Plant No.

Additionally, in 1954, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, German Democratic Republic) and the Soviet Union prepared a list of scientists they wished to keep in the DDR, due to their having worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project; this list was known as the "A-list".

[32][33][34] When Wirths was released from Russia by the Soviet Union, he fled to Germany and took a job at Degussa as an authority in the production of reactor-grade uranium.

[34][35] Wirths was well versed in the English language as he was featured in the 1988 NOVA television program Nazis and the Russian Bomb.

In the program, Manfred von Ardenne was also featured; he was a German physicist who directed Institute A, in Sinop,[36][37] a suburb of Sukhumi.