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Berlin Experiences/Mythbusting Berlin
Did The Nazis Invent The Bicycle Reflector? – Mythbusting Berlin
The connection between the introduction of the humble bicycle reflector and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime will come as a surprise to many...
Berlin Experiences · 07/12/25 · 9 min read
“When you see something that is techically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”
J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project
The period of the Second World War is a great example of this phenomenon. That brutal and prolonged conflict which concluded in September 1945 following the use of a new devastating weapon that would forever change the course of human history. Undoubtedly, the Manhattan Project and the scientific achievements that led to the world’s first nuclear weapons were paramount proof of the ability of wartime urgency to expedite scientific progress.
In retrospect, it would be easy to stand in the shadow of that mushroom shaped cloud and conclude on the supremacy of Allied intelligence. However, plenty of terrifying progress was made by the Axis powers, Nazi Germany especially, that threatened to turn the tide of war against the Allies.
The world’s first operational jet-powered aircraft (the Me 262), the world’s first jet-powered bomber (the Arado Ar234), the world’s first ballistic missile (the V2), the world’s first series produced helicopter (Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri)…the list goes on.
In the midst of all this lethality, there were also some shining examples of positivity: many people would be genuinely surprised to find that there was in-fact a connection between the introduction of the humble bicycle reflector and Adolf Hitler’s regime.
The manufacture and distribution of this often overlooked component that, quite bizarrely, helped to fund the research carried out by one of Nazi Germany’s most insidious institutions – the Ahnenerbe – which sought through its work to lend credence to some of the regime’s worst racial theories.
This unusual story starts with the man who would rise to become the chief of the German police and infamous Reichsführer SS – Heinrich Himmler.
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