Originally Posted by Devilsadvocate

I don't think so.

It took a lot more than just "accepting" a theory about neutrons to make an atomic bomb a practical possibility. There were many other problems, both theoretical and practical, which had to be solved before the atomic bomb could be built.

The atomic bomb project, and the theoretical work which preceded it, was not the province of any one country; it took the combined intellects of many different scientists and theoreticians from many different countries, all studying, criticizing, and commenting on the work of their colleagues over a period of years. That is why Britain France, the US, Germany, Italy, and Japan all knew something about the Atomic bomb projects and why there was any race at all. The same thing would have been required had it happened earlier.

Furthermore, I believe it was no coincidence that the bomb project only began moving perceptibly once war had actually broken out. Most people have no idea how huge, costly, and daunting the atomic bomb project actually was. No country could have mounted the project in time of peace; only a war could justify the necessary expense, risks, and sacrifices. At one point in the American bomb project, just the separation process to produce sufficient fissionable material to experiment with, was consuming one sixth of all the electrical power produced in the US. Few countries, and certainly not Germany in the 1920's, could have afforded such costs.

Most of the popular "what-if" articles about Germany developing an atomic bomb ignore the cold, hard realities of the economic costs and the scale of the required project. I recommend Leslie Groves book, "Now It Can Be Told" for some idea of what it really took to develop the atomic bomb.