Now you personally experienced World War II and subsequently you moved to US for two years. How have that and your nationality as a German affected the way u lived and worked in the US?

Well of course there are problems. As I've said I got a scholarship to my great surprise, because they didn't want any physicist but I still got it and went to the United States in 1951 when war memories were very fresh. And yes, we had sometimes very difficult contacts especially with my Jewish colleagues but I cannot say that there was any prejudice against me and I hope that people also sense my own ideas and feelings- that we Germans, in particular, have to accept the things that our fathers and grandfathers did and try particularly hard to work for human understandings, to work for peaceful togetherness. This is what I tried very hard.

Now for being part of the German intelligence. You are actually on the hit list of the German Red Army.

Yes this is what happens when we had a Red terrorist army which was probably also heavily subsidised by East Germany. This was during the time of the cold war. The police one day came to me and said you are on the hit list and that was just a week after a good friend of mine who had become the chief scientist of a major electronics corporation was actually killed. And I had just been with him two days before and I also knew the chairman of Deutsche Bank the biggest bank and he was also killed. So the police came and said we found your name in the secret list, we have to check you out. I did not want an armoured car. I did not want around the clock police protection but they did that. This I think is the price you may have to pay if you are an outspoken person. But you have to do it I think.

During that period, did you at any point in time
wish you weren’t who you were … that you
weren’t Professor Hans Queisser but just an ordinary man in the street?

No. I don't think so. I felt a very, very strong obligation. This is why I returned to Germany. Having seen what was going on in Silicon Valley, having been part of a new technology, modern technology which could create very, very good jobs and make tax money, I insisted that Germany should get away from subsidising steel and coal mines and wharves and agriculture - that we should go into a new field and that was the price that I had to pay. No, I did not want to hide and I was not a coward in that respect.

Science and religion are sometimes seen as mutually exclusive. (QUEISSER:Yes) How do you personally reconcile science & spirituality?

I am a Protestant Christian and I think among the various religions, this religion is the most active for new things, protesting and so on. But fundamentalism, which is really on the rise throughout the world in various religions and so on, tends to forbid very often. We see this even in the United States like the anti, the creationist and so on, seems to be opposing science. Galileo, of course, being the famous example.

So again this is one of our jobs as scientist to educate the people, to be a partner in discussions. I have done that last year talking about creations in major talk at home. So we have to have a dialogue but I'm a little bit afraid seeing the fundamentalist attitude, which is anti-physics, anti-science in the United States. That means we physicists have to be available for public dialogue like I'm having with you right now in Singapore Television.

Many people, Mr Queisser, have been predicting what the future would be like in this age of technology. In fact, Francis Fukuyama, the famous political philosopher, he just said that
we are moving into a post- human society. If I ask you to look into the crystal ball for humankind, what do you say?

I don't believe Francis Fukuyama’s thesis as to the end of history and so on. It was a very clever thing. It started a discussion. No we have means and ways and methods to help a growing human population on earth. For health for food and so on and I think agriculture will be one major goal, where biology, physics, chemistry will come together.

Environmental protection included. So if we are not crazy and starting another war in shooting at each other like they do in Indonesia and Ireland in Nigeria and so on (which I find very disturbing). If we're not doing that, we come together and it means educating the young and also educating the politicians and educating everybody. There is a bright future ahead and the sciences and technology can really help for a rapidly growing human race on our earth.

Professor Queisser, thank you for being on our programme.

Thank you very much.

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