Wolff, Stefan L. (Author)
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Volume: 31
Pages: 372--393
Edition Details: Part of a symposium on “Revisiting the Forman Thesis”
Language: German
The Constitution of a Network of Reactionary Physicists during the Republic of Weimar. The dominance of physicists from Berlin in the German Physical Society caused a controversial discussion on the statute initiated by those outside of Berlin in 1914. It could not be finished because of the outbreak of World War I. This antagonism got a political and ideological quality when only the Non-Berliners supported a chauvinistic appeal of German physicists in the so-called Krieg der Geister. After the war this development led to the constitution of a network of reactionary physicists just before the Naturforscherversammlung in Bad Nauheim in 1920. Its members shared a hostile attitude towards the new Republic of Weimar and were mostly chauvinistic and anti-Semitic. Temporarily the network was able to mobilise a considerable part of German physicists for their aims. A decentralisation of the German Physical Society was put through. Considering this network we examine one of the theses of Paul Forman according to which there is a close correlation between political and scientific orientations during that time. We are able to confirm this as far as science policy is concerned. There a bias for a certain kind of research can be found. It becomes more difficult when we investigate the influence of a political attitude on the individual research. We succeed in those cases where the modern theories are involved.
...MoreArticle Trischler, Helmuth; Carson, Cathryn; Kojevnikov, Alexei (2008) Beyond Weimar Culture -- Die Bedeutung der Forman-These für eine Wissenschaftsgeschichte in kulturhistorischer Perspektive. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (p. 305).
Similar Citations
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
Walker, Mark;
(2007)
Physiker zwischen Autonomie und Anpassung. Die Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft im Dritten Reich
(/isis/citation/CBB000850441/)
Article
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2005)
Between Autonomy and Accommodation: The German Physical Society during the Third Reich
(/isis/citation/CBB000641837/)
Article
Schirrmacher, Arne;
(2008)
Kosmos, Koralle und Kultur-Milieu. Zur Bedeutung der populären Wissenschaftsvermittlung im späten Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik
(/isis/citation/CBB000930037/)
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
Walker, Mark;
(2012)
The German Physical Society in the Third Reich: Physicists between Autonomy and Accomodation
(/isis/citation/CBB001221126/)
Book
Forman, Paul;
Carson, Cathryn;
Kozhevnikov, A. B.;
Trischler, Helmuth;
(2011)
Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics: Selected Papers by Paul Forman and Contemporary Perspectives on the Forman Thesis
(/isis/citation/CBB001252431/)
Chapter
Rosenkranz, Ze'ev;
(2005)
Das Genie als nationale Symbolfigur Albert Einstein und die zionistische Bewegung in der Weimarer Republik
(/isis/citation/CBB001024559/)
Article
Staley, Richard;
(2008)
The Fin de Siècle Thesis
(/isis/citation/CBB000930035/)
Essay Review
Seth, Suman;
(2013)
Forman at Forty: New Perspectives on “Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics”
(/isis/citation/CBB001500260/)
Chapter
von Schwerin, Alexander;
(2010)
The Origins of German Biophysics in Medical Physics. Material Configurations between Clinic, Physics and Biology (1900--1930)
(/isis/citation/CBB001032740/)
Book
Fuechtner, Veronika;
(2011)
Berlin Psychoanalytic: Psychoanalysis and Culture in Weimar Republic Germany and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB001212925/)
Article
Szöllösi-Janze, Margit;
(2005)
Science and Social Space: Transformations in the Institutions of Wissenschaft from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic
(/isis/citation/CBB000701000/)
Article
Tooze, Adam;
(2008)
Trouble with Numbers: Statistics, Politics, and History in the Construction of Weimar's Trade Balance, 1918--1924
(/isis/citation/CBB000760664/)
Article
Meskill, David;
(2004)
Characterological Psychology and the German Political Economy in the Weimar Period (1919-1933)
(/isis/citation/CBB000401263/)
Article
Berez, Thomas M.;
Weiss, Sheila Faith;
(2004)
The Nazi Symbiosis: Politics and Human Genetics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
(/isis/citation/CBB000610173/)
Chapter
Alessandro Costazza;
(2014)
La dialettica dell'illuminismo nel dramma. "Sul caso di J. Robert Oppenheimer" di Heinar Kipphardt
(/isis/citation/CBB831255164/)
Book
Heim, Suzanne;
(2002)
Autarkie und Ostexpansion: Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus
(/isis/citation/CBB000410065/)
Book
Mees, Bernard;
(2008)
The Science of the Swastika
(/isis/citation/CBB001035880/)
Chapter
Walker, Mark;
(2003)
“Nazi Science”? Natural Science in National Socialism
(/isis/citation/CBB000774711/)
Article
Mineau, André;
(2007)
Social Hygiene and the Holocaust
(/isis/citation/CBB000760729/)
Chapter
Böhme, Helmut;
(2000)
Genetik in der Klammer von Politik und Ideologie: Persönliche Erinnerungen
(/isis/citation/CBB000500233/)
Be the first to comment!