The German Physical Society in the Third Reich: Physicists between Autonomy and Accommodation

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 12/5/2011
EAN 9781107006843, ISBN10: 1107006848

Hardcover, 482 pages, 23.6 x 16 x 4.6 cm
Language: English

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.

Foreword Eberhard Umbach
1. The German Physical Society under National Socialism in context Mark Walker
2. Boundaries and authority in the physics community in the Third Reich Richard H. Beyler
3. Marginalization and expulsion of physicists under National Socialism
what was the German Physical Society's role? Stefan L. Wolff
4. The German Physical Society and Aryan physics Michael Eckert
5. The Ramsauer era and self-mobilization of the German Physical Society Dieter Hoffmann
6. The Planck medal Richard H. Beyler, Michael Eckert and Dieter Hoffmann
7. The German Physical Society and research Gerhard Simonsohn
8. The German Mathematicians Association during the Third Reich
professional policy within the web of National Socialist ideology Volker Remmert
9. 'To the Duce, the Tenno, and our Führer
a threefold Seig Heil'
The German Chemical Society and the Association of German Chemists during the Nazi era Ute Deichmann
10. Distrust, bitterness, and sentimentality
on the mentality of German physicists in the immediate postwar period Klaus Hentschel
11. Cleanliness among our circle of colleagues
the German Physical Society's policy toward its past Gerhard Rammer.