The German Physical Society in the Third Reich

by Hoffmann, Dieter; Walker, Mark; Hentschel, Ann M.

• ISBN13: 9781107006843
• ISBN10: 1107006848
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-31
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

This is a history of one of the oldest and most important scientific societies, the German Physical Society, during the Nazi regime and immediate postwar period. When Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Physical Society included prominent Jewish scientists as members, including Fritz Haber and Albert Einstein. As Jewish scientists lost their jobs and emigrated, the Society gradually lost members. In 1938, under pressure from the Nazi Ministry of Science, Education, and Culture, the Society forced out the last of its Jewish colleagues. This action was just the most prominent example of the tension between accommodation and autonomy that characterized the challenges facing physicists in the society. They strove to retain as much autonomy as possible, but tried to achieve this by accommodating themselves to Nazi policies, which culminated in the campaign by the Society's president to place physics in the service of the war effort.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Notes on Contributors	p. xi
Foreword	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Abbreviations	p. xxi
The German Physical Society under National Socialism in Context	p. 1
Boundaries and Authority in the Physics Community in the Third Reich	p. 22
Marginalization and Expulsion of Physicists under National Socialism: What Was the German Physical Society's Role?	p. 50
The German Physical Society and "Aryan Physics"	p. 96
The Ramsauer Era and Self-Mobilization of the German Physical Society	p. 126
The Planck Medal	p. 169
The German Physical Society and Research	p. 187
The German Mathematical Association during the Third Reich: Professional Policy within the Web of National Socialist Ideology	p. 246
"To the Duce, the Tenno and Our Führer: A Threefold Sieg Heil": The German Chemical Society and the Association of German Chemists during the Nazi Era	p. 280
Distrust, Bitterness, and Sentimentality: On the Mentality of German Physicists in the Immediate Post-War Period	p. 317
"Cleanliness among Our Circle of Colleagues": The German Physical Society's Policy toward Its Past	p. 367
Appendix: DPG Members Who Left the Society as Victims of "Racial" or Political Discrimination	p. 423
Bibliography	p. 429
Index	p. 449
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