Page 32 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
of the German ministry of research, who were also attending
the meeting. In his discussion with Springer, Maier-Leibnitz evoked the desire to please the French, who were at that time “somewhat obstructionistic in the community”28. Pretsch passed this on to the minister himself. The latter also had a conversation with Horowitz, to whom he gave Maier-Leibnitz’s name as an intermediary. The first discussions between Horowitz and Maier- Leibnitz then ensued. Lenz had cordial relations with his French colleague Palewski. At this time the notion of French-German Cooperation initiated in April 1963 by de Gaulle and Adenauer lacked concrete achievements. The project of constructing a large scientific research instrument in the framework of a bilateral agreement was politically very well received. The two French
and German ministers concerned thus made an agreement on the principle of constructing an intense source of neutrons at Grenoble within the Franco-German cooperation framework. At that time I was attending a magnetism conference at Nottingham in England. It was there that the rumour concerning the accord passed at Geneva reached me.
It appears important to me to underline that while the political context favoured the decision to construct the RHF and the ILL, the motivation which drove the OECD then France, and finally the French-German combination to propose this construction were basically purely scientific. The cordial and often even friendly relations on the one side between Maier-Leibnitz and his German colleagues and Néel, Horowitz, Dautray and me on the other side certainly facilitated the advancement of the project.
28 On the 1st July of this year, 1965, de Gaulle challenged with the “Crisis of the empty chair” refusing to take part in Community activities. He considered Europe to be too federal.
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