This is an easy one. To put it short, not close at all.

Ironically, Germany probably had the best starting point among all the warring states. They had great scientists, the infrastructure and the interest to develop the bombs.

However, as the war went on a lot of Germany’s best scientist left the country either out of persecution of protest. Additionally, various departments of the development team had horrible communication and organisation.

What really did them in was the plain lack of interest by high level German officials. In fact, Warner Heisenberg who was head of the nuclear program didn’t believe it when news reached of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. He was in disbelief that the US had researched and created the bombs at all, as he himself had little faith in how realistic development of this weapon was. Additionally, Hitler himself was far more interested in the research for other German war mechanisms and didn’t put enough resources into continuing the program.

By the end of the war it was clear that Germany had made relatively little progress into the project.

Hi — you might find this section of the FAQ useful. The short answer is: not close at all. They were not trying to build an atomic bomb; their nuclear research program was a very modest reactor program. The historical questions are about why that was the case. The idea that they were close to an atomic bomb is one of the many myths surrounding the end of World War II.