More about Forschungszentrum Jülich

Prof. Dr. Felix Wolf, my host professor here in Jülich, gave me a little history lesson over lunch today. I had supposed that the research center had a military background because of its remote location and nearby military buildings, but not so. The center was founded in the 1950s as a nuclear research center, focusing on nuclear power. It's in the middle of nowhere for several reasons:

1. The area around Jülich is a major coal-producing region, so there is easy access to an abundance of electrical power.
2. This was the most thoroughly-destroyed part of Germany after WWII (95% completely leveled!), so the research center was seen as a way to revitalize the area.
3. When everything for miles around has been bombed to oblivion, land is cheap.
   
4. People who question the basic laws of physics should work in the middle of nowhere.

Nuclear weapons were never researched here because the Allies would have been annoyed. They're not researched now because the German people would be annoyed. In fact, nuclear power research is shutting down because of political pressure.

Basically anything that needs a lot of electricity tries to be nearby. The military is nearby also because of the cheap power. The world-wide German AM radio stations are broadcast just outside Jülich (the antenna is a spider-web sorta thing about the size of three football fields that hangs between six tall towers. I can't get a good photo because the cables are so thin.)