Surviving the Swastika Scientific Research in Nazi Germany

by MacRakis, Kristie

• ISBN13: 9780195070101
• ISBN10: 0195070100
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-11-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Surviving the Swastika examines scientific research under National Socialism through the prism of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of the Sciences, a semi-private umbrella organization which founded and maintained institutes for basic scientific research. Home to over twenty Nobel-prize winning scientists, the prestigious forerunner of the Max Planck Society was at the forefront of scientific advance in the first half of the twentieth century. Surprisingly, the Society not only survived National Socialism, but often thrived. Kristie Macrakis provides a full-scale analysis of the Society's development within the context of the phases of a polycratic National Socialist state. A spectrum of responses to National Socialism existed there from moral probity to accommodation and opportunism. Macrakis uncovers this differentiated scientific and social landscape by covering topics ranging from Max Planck's failed negotiations with recalcitrant government officials regarding the expulsion of Jews and Communists to his success in securing a thriving community for basic biological research in Berlin-Dahlem, from the practice of nuclear power research to institutional growth.

Author Biography

Kristie Macrakis received her Ph.D. in the History of Science at Harvard University. After joining the faculty of Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor of the History of Science she spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She is the author of numerous articles on science in modern Germany.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 3
Beginnings
Origins	p. 11
Germany's Scientific Hegemony Threatened	p. 14
Foundations	p. 18
First Creations	p. 21
World War I	p. 25
The Weimar Years	p. 29
The Poverty of German Science	p. 29
Scientists Take Control	p. 34
International Relations	p. 36
What's in a Name?	p. 37
Spawning Industry-Related Sciences	p. 40
That "Very Empyren of Science" in Berlin-Dahlem	p. 44
National Socialism
From Accommodation to Passive Opposition, 1933-35	p. 51
Forced Transformations	p. 53
Rifle at Rest	p. 57
The Consolidation Process	p. 59
Jewish Scientists Who Stayed or Delayed Departure	p. 63
Storm Troopers and Communists	p. 65
The Balance Sheet: Quantitative and Qualitative Losses	p. 67
Passive Opposition: the Haber Memorial Service	p. 68
National Socialist Science Policy and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society	p. 73
Universities	p. 73
Ministries Transformed	p. 76
Unification, Nationalization, and Control	p. 81
Military Science	p. 84
Mobilization for War	p. 90
The Turning Point, 1936-39	p. 97
The Last Stand	p. 97
The Change in Leadership	p. 100
Research and the Four Year Plan	p. 102
International Exchange and Isolation	p. 105
The Survival of Basic Biological Research	p. 110
The Berlin Biological Community	p. 111
Scientifically or Politically Qualified?	p. 115
Viruses, Sex Hormones, and Mutation Genetics	p. 118
Funding for Basic Biological Research	p. 123
Eugenics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes	p. 125
The War Years, 1939-45	p. 131
Albert Vogler: The Perfect but Reluctant President, 1941	p. 132
Greater Germany and the New Order of German Science	p. 137
For the Fatherland?	p. 150
Conditions of Research	p. 157
The Uranium Machine	p. 162
Uranium Fission	p. 162
Atomic Beginnings	p. 164
Nuclear Power Conferences in Berlin-Dahlem, 1942	p. 169
The Final War Years	p. 175
Uranium Machine Experiments in the Bunker and Cave	p. 177
Alsos, Farm Hall, and Operation Epsilon	p. 181
Epilogue	p. 187
Conclusion	p. 199
Appendix	p. 207
Notes	p. 215
Sources	p. 249
Index	p. 267
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