Paul Rosbaud

Paul Rosbaud (18 November 1896[1]: 51  – 28 January 1963), was a metallurgist and scientific adviser for Springer Verlag in Germany before and during World War II.

[3]: 47 Through his work at Springer Verlag, Rosbaud knew much of the scientific community in Germany, and as a presumed Nazi, he had sources of vital intelligence relating to weaponry.

He was assisted in his work saving Jews by the fact that he was run as a British agent by Frank Foley, the MI6 station chief in Berlin.

[2][7] Before the outbreak of war, Rosbaud hurried into print Otto Hahn's work on nuclear fission in the German science journal Naturwissenschaften in January 1939.

Rosbaud realized the vast destructive potential of what Hahn, Strassmann and Meitner had discovered, and he was acutely conscious that the fundamental research had been done in Germany.

In late autumn 1939 Rosbaud again visited Oslo and urged Hassel to warn Norwegian authorities about a likely German invasion of Norway.

Rosbaud has also been connected to the "Oslo report", a detailed list of new German weapons systems, but this seems to have been the work of Hans Ferdinand Mayer, technical director at Siemens.

Norwegians who were studying at technical schools in Germany, such as Sverre Bergh, linked up with Rosbaud and transported the intelligence to occupied Norway, and from there it was sent to neutral Sweden.

He worked for Butterworth-Springer, a company set up in response to a Scientific Advisory Board that included Alfred Egerton, Charles Galton Darwin, Edward Salisbury, and Alexander Fleming.