Science, Technology, and National Socialism

Science and technology under Hitler have always held a special fascination for historians, scientists, engineers, and the general public. Until now most books have focused on such obvious "perversions" as the "Nazi doctors" or the "German atom bomb." This book provides a more varied and balanced picture by including many different projects and disciplines, by including the period before and after the Third Reich, and by investigating "normal" as well as "perverted" sciences and technologies. Overall the volume offers the best study available of the consequential interaction of science and technology with National Socialism in Germany.

This 1993 book provides a survey of the development of scientific disciplines and technical projects under National Socialism in Germany. Each contribution addresses a different aspect which is important for judging the interaction between science, technology and National Socialism. In particular, the personal conduct of individual scientists and engineers as well as the functionality of certain theories and projects are examined. All essays share a common theme: continuity and discontinuity. All authors cover a period from the Weimar Republic to the post-war period. This unanimity of approach provides answers to major questions about the nature of Hitler's regime and about possible lines of continuity in science and technology which may transcend political upheaval. The book is also the most comprehensive to date on this subject, and includes essays on engineering, geography, biology, psychology, physics, mathematics, and science policy.

Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; 1. Scientists, engineers and national socialism Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker; 2. 'Keinerlei Untergang': German armaments engineers during the Second World War and in the service of victorious powers Andreas Heinmann-Gruder; 3. The guided missile and the Third Reich Michael Neufeld; 4. Self-mobilization or resistance?: aeronautical research and National Socialism Helmut Trishler; 5. Military technology and National Socialist ideology Ulrich Albrecht; 6. 'Area Research' and 'Spatial Planning' from the Weimar Republic to the German Federal Republic: creating a society with a spatial order under National Socialism Mechtild Rossler; 7. The ideological origins of institutes at the 'Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft' in National Socialist Germany Kristie MacRakis; 8. Biological research at universities and Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Nazi Germany Ute Deichmann and Benno Muller-Hill; 9. Pedagogy, professionalism, and politics: biology instruction during the Third Reich Sheila Weiss; 10. The whole and the community: scientific and political thought in the holistic psychology of Felix Krueger Ulfried Gueter; 11. Pascual Jordan: quantum mechanics, psychology, National Socialism M. Norton Wise; 12. The ideology of early particle accelerators: an association between psychology and power Maria Osietzki; 13. The 'Minerva' project: the accelerator laboratory at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute/Max Planck Institute of Chemistry: continuity in fundamental research Burghard Weiss; 14. The social system of mathematics and National Socialism: a survey Herbert Mehrtens; 15. The problem of anti-fascist resistance of 'Apolitical' German scholar Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze; 16. Irresponsible purity: the political and moral Structure of mathematical sciences in the National Socialist state Herbert Mehrtens.

This book provides a survey of the development of scientific disciplines and technical projects under National Socialism in Germany. The most comprehensive treatment to date of this subject, it includes essays on engineering, geography, biology, psychology, physics, mathematics, and science policy.