Surviving the swastika : scientific research in Nazi Germany

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. Booknews Studies the ways in which Germany's most prestigious scientific research organization--the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (the present-day Max Planck Society)--functioned and survived in Nazi Germany. The aim is to further understanding of how extreme political movements affect the scientific community and its work, and the ways scientific leaders behave in times of political stress. From the introduction: "Many of the ways in which the social order influences science in turbulent times are present in dormant forms in science organizations, science policy, and the practice of scientific research in normal times, or in a democracy." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Surviving the Swastika examines scientific research under National Socialism through the prism of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of the Sciences, the prestigious forerunner of the Max Planck Society. Home to over twenty Nobel-prize winning scientists, the 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. A study of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft in the Nazi period. Ch. 3 (p. 51-72), "From Accommodation to Passive Opposition, 1933-35," discusses the dismissal of Jews from the various institutes. Max Planck tried to protect his Jewish colleagues from the Nazi authorities, but in vain. The only act of resistance undertaken by the scientists was the Fritz Haber Memorial Ceremony in 1935 (Haber, a Jewish scientist, died in Switzerland in 1934); the Nazis reluctantly allowed it to be held. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)