Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the National Socialist Era

Fellowships 2003

The research program "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the National Socialist Era" has offered fellowships for a 2 - 6 months term for scholars, who were interested in doing a research in the field 'Kaiser Wilhelm institutes during the National Socialist era'. Candidates are expected to have a Ph.D. in history, history of science or natural sciences.

Proposed projects should contribute to the areas of investigation of the research group. Regular presence in Berlin and attendance of the research group's weekly colloquium are required. During their stay, scholars are expected to deliver a public lecture and submit an article about their results.

Visiting scholars of the research program will get a work space with full technical equipment and may use the library service of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science for their work. Remuneration will be arranged individually according to the personal conditions and specific qualifications of the applicant.

For more information please contact:

Anke Pötzscher or Birgit Kolboske
Tel: Fax: Email:	+49-(0)30-22667-154 +49-(0)30-22667-333 kwg.ns@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Visiting Scholars

Prof. Dr. Volker Roelcke (Medical University Lübeck)

Visiting scholar from 15 October 1998 - 15 April 1999.

Psychiatrist and historian of medicine and science. Volker Roelcke has been working for several years on the field of "euthanasia" during the time of National Socialism, especially psychiatric research in the context of "euthanasia" at the University of Heidelberg.

Research project: Hereditary psychology and hereditary psychiatry in the context of "euthanasia". The role of Ernst Rüdin and the "Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie/Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Psychiatrie".

Other fields of research: History of Psychiatry between 1870 and 1960, History of medicine in National Socialism, History of Public health in the 20th century.

Publications:

Gerrit Hohendorf/Volker Roelcke, Akten der "Euthanasie"-Aktion T4 gefunden, in: Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 41,1993, S. 479-481;

Gerrit Hohendorf/Volker Roelcke/Meike Rotzoll, Psychiatric research and "euthanasia". The case of the psychiatric department at the University of Heidelberg, 1941-1945, in: History of Psychiatry 5, 1994, S. 517-532;

Volker Roelcke, Krankheit und Kulturkritik. Psychiatrische Gesellschaftsdiagnosen im bürgerlichen Zeitalter, 1790-1914, Frankfurt 1999;

Gerrit Hohendorf/Volker Roelcke/Meike Rotzoll, Fortschritt ohne Rücksicht: Psychiatrische Forschung im Kontext der "Euthanasie", Heidelberg 2000 (im Druck).

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Dr. Jonathan Harwood (University of Manchester)

Visiting scholar from 1 February 1999 - 15 March 1999.

Historian of biology, Reader in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Manchester (Great Britain).

Research project: The politics of the German academic community, especially scientists in the "Kaiserreich" and Weimar Republic.

Other fields of research: History of 20th century biology and agricultural sciences, especially in Germany; national academic cultures in Germany and the United States; social history of the German professoriate.

Publications:

Jonathan Harwood, Styles of Scientific Thought: the German Genetic Community 1900-1933, Chicago 1993;

Jonathan Harwood, Das Selbstverständnis des Naturwissenschaftlers im Wandel. Die Lage innerhalb und außerhalb der Akademie zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, in: Wolfram Fischer (Hg.), Die Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1919-1945, Berlin 2000, S. 143-160;

Jonathan Harwood, Weimar culture and biological theory: a study of Richard Wolterede (1877-1944), in: History of Science 24 (1996), S. 347-377.

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PD Dr. Hans-Walter Schmuhl (University of Bielefeld)

Visiting scholar from 1 March 1999 - 31 December 1999.

Hans-Walter Schmuhl has studied History and German. He attained his doctorate in 1986. Habilitation in 1995. "Privatdozent" for modern history at the University of Bielefeld. Free-lance historian ("Zeitsprung" - agency for historical investigations). Hans-Walter Schmuhl has been working for several years on "euthanasia" during the National Socialist period and has written a standard work about this subject.

Research project: Brain research and "euthanasia". History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research 1937-1945.

Other fields of research: Comparative historical genocide research, history of the "Bürgertum" and urban history in Germany in the 19th and 20th century.

Publications:

Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Rassenhygiene, Nationalsozialismus, Euthanasie. Von der Verhütung zur Vernichtung "lebensunwerten" Lebens 1890-1945, Göttingen 1987 (2. Aufl. 1992);

Manfred Hettling/Claudia Huerkamp/Paul Nolte/Hans-Walter Schmuhl (Hg.), Was ist Gesellschaftsgeschichte? Positionen, Themen, Analysen, München 1991;

Hans-Walter Schmuhl/Ellen Schriek (Hg.), Das andere Mexiko. Indigene Völker von Chiapas bis Chihuahua, Gießen 1997;

Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Ärzte in der Anstalt Bethel, 1870-1945, Bielefeld 1998;

Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Die Herren der Stadt. Bürgerliche Eliten und städtische Selbstverwaltung in Nürnberg und Braunschweig vom 18. Jahrhundert bis 1918, Gießen 1998;

Manfred Hettling/Frank-Michael Kuhlmann/Paul Nolte/Hans-Walter Schmuhl (Hg.), Perspektiven der Gesellschaftsgeschichte, München 2000.

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Prof. Dr. Mitchell G. Ash (University of Vienna)

Visiting scholar from 1 July 1999 - 31 August 1999.

Mitchell G. Ash has been Professor of Modern History at the University of Vienna since 1997. Before that he was Assistant, Associate then Full Professor of History at the University of Iowa from 1984 to 1997. From 1990 to 1991 he was Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg/Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin.

Research project: Scientific changes in times of political upheaval - Germany 1933, 1945, and 1989.

Other fields of research: Social and cultural history of modern science, especially psychology; forced emigration of German-speaking scientists after 1933 and 1938.

Publications:

Mitchell G. Ash, Gestalt Psychology in German Culture 1890-1967, Cambridge 1995;

Mitchell G. Ash u. Alfons Soellner (Hg.), Forced Migration and Scientific Change, Cambridge 1996;

Mitchell G. Ash (Hg.), Mythos Humboldt - Vergangenheit und Zukunft der deutschen Universitäten, Wien 1999;

Mitchell G. Ash, Die Wissenschaften in der Geschichte der Moderne, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 10 (1999), S. 105-129;

Mitchell G. Ash, Scientific Changes in Germany 1933, 1945, 1990 - Towards a Comparison, in: Minerva 37 (1999), S. 329-354.

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Benoit Massin (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)

Visiting scholar from 1 September 1999 - 29 February 2000.

Historian of science. Benoit Massin is specialised in the field of anthropoloy and eugenics in Germany between 1850 and 1950.

Research project: Human genetics and race research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics und Eugenics.

Other fields of research: History of the bio-medical sciences and social sciences.

Publications:

Benoit Massin, Anthropologie raciale et national-socialisme. Heurs et malheurs du paradigme de la "race", in: Josiane Olff-Nathan (Hg.), La science sous le Troisième Reich, Paris 1993, S. 197-262;

Benoit Massin, From Virchow to Fischer: Physical Anthropology and "Modern Race Theories" in Wilhelmine Germany (1890-1914), in: George W. Stocking (Hg.), Volksgeist as Method and Ethic. Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition, Bd. 8, Madison, 1996, S. 79-154;

Benoit Massin (Hg.): L'Hygiène de la Race, 2 Bde.; Bd. 1: Paul Weindling, L'Hygiène de la Race. Eugénisme médical et Hygiène raciale en Allemagne, 1870-1933, Paris 1998.

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Prof. Dr. Robert N. Proctor (Pennsylvania State University, University Park)

Visiting scholar from 1 January 2000 - 30 June 2000.

Professor for History of Science at the Pennsylvania State University. Robert Proctor has been working for several years on the history of medicine especially on medicine - eugenics and cancer research - in Germany during the National Socialist period.

Research project: Cancer research (focussing on hormone-, radiation-, and tobacco research) at institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism putting emphasis on the research of Adolf Butenandt, Carl Neuberg and Boris Rajewski.

Other fields of research: History of molecular and paleoanthropology, political history of agates.

Publications:

Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene. Medicine Under the Nazis, Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 1988;

Robert N. Proctor, Value-Free Science? Purity and Power in Modern Knowledge, Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 1991;

Robert N. Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

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Dr. habil. Moritz Epple (University of Bonn)

Visiting scholar from 1 March 2000 - 31 May 2000.

Moritz Epple has studied philosohy, physics and mathematics in Tübingen, Kobenhavn and London and attained his doctorate in mathematical physics at the University of Tübingen. From 1992 to 1998 he was assistent for History of mathematics and natural sciences at the University of Mainz. Habilitation in 1998. Lecturer and researcher in Bonn, Cambridge/Mass. and Berlin. Heisenberg-Fellow of the DFG since June 2000.

Research project: War-related mathematical research in Nazi-Germany focussing on institutes for aviation research.

Other fields of research: History of 19th and 20th century mathematics, especially of the topology. Relations between philosophy and history of mathematics.

Publications:

Moritz Epple: Topology, matter, and space, I. Topological notions in 19th-century natural philosophy, in: Archive for History of Exact Sciences 52 (1998), p. 297-392;

Moritz Epple: Die Entstehung der Knotentheorie. Kontexte und Konstruktionen einer modernen mathematischen Theorie, Wiesbaden 1999;

Moritz Epple/Volker Remmert: "Eine ungeahnte Synthese zwischen reiner und angewandter Mathematik". Kriegsrelevante mathematische Forschung in Deutschland während des 2. Weltkrieges, in: Doris Kaufmann (Hg.), Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven der Forschung, Göttingen 2000, p. 258-295.

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Jens-Christian Wagner (Buchenwald Memorial)

Visiting scholar from 1 May 2000 - 31 August 2000.

Studies of Medieval and Modern History, Geography and Spanish in Göttingen and Santiago de Chile, promotion at the University of Göttingen; main research interests in history of forced labor and concentration camps in national socialist Germany.

Research project: Forced labor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 1939-1945.

Other fields of research: War economy in national socialist Germany; Holocaust memory in post war Germany; modern history of Latin America.

Publications:

Jens-Christian Wagner, Das Außenlagersystem des KL Mittelbau-Dora, in: Ulrich Herbert/Karin Orth/Christoph Dieckmann (Hg.), Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur, Göttingen 1998, S. 707-729;

Jens-Christian Wagner, Noch einmal: Vernichtung und Arbeit. Häftlingseinsatz im KZ Mittelbau-Dora 1943-1945, in: Norbert Frei/Sybille Steinbacher/Bernd Wagner (Hg.), Ausbeutung - Vernichtung - Öffentlichkeit. Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Lagerpolitik, München 2000 (Darstellungen und Quellen zur Geschichte von Auschwitz; 4), S. 7-38;

Jens-Christian Wagner, Produktion des Todes. Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora, erscheint Göttingen Anfang 2001 (= Diss., Göttingen 1999).

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Dr. Bernhard Strebel (Bergen- Belsen Memorial)

Visiting scholar from 1 May 2000 - 31 August 2000.

Studies of History and Literature at the University of Hannover, received Ph.D. there as well.

Research project: Forced labor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 1939-1945.

Other fields of research: History of of the National Socialist Era focussing in particular on concentration camps, forced labour, war economy and the persecution of the Jews.

Publications:

Bernhard Strebel, "Sabotage ist wie Wein" - Selbstbehauptung, Solidarität und Widerstand im FKL Ravensbrück, in: Claus Füllberg-Stolberg/Martina Jung/Renate Riebe/Martina Scheitenberger (ed.), Frauen in Konzentrationslagern. Bergen-Belsen; Ravensbrück, Bremen 1994, p. 167-192;

Bernhard Strebel, Verlängerter Arm der SS oder schützende Hand? Drei Fallbeispiele von weiblichen Funktionshäftlingen im KZ Ravensbrück, in: WerkstattGeschichte 12 (1995), p. 35-49.

Bernhard Strebel, Ravensbrück - Das zentrale Frauenkonzentrationslager, in: Ulrich Herbert/Karin Orth/Christoph Dieckmann (ed.), Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur, Göttingen 1998, p. 215-258;

Bernhard Strebel, Das Männerlager im KZ Ravensbrück 1941-1945, in: Wolfgang Benz und Barbara Distel (ed.), Dachauer Hefte. Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, , vol. 14, Dachau 1998, p. 141-174;

Ruth Herskovits-Gutmann, Auswanderung vorläufig nicht möglich. Die Geschichte der Familie Herskovits aus Hannover. Edited, translated and commented by Bernhard Strebel, Göttingen 2002;

Bernhard Strebel, Der Lagerkomplex des KZ Ravensbrück. Studien über Terror, Zwangsarbeit und Vernichtung, forthcoming Göttingen 2003 (= Diss. phil., Hannover 2001).

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Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Benno Müller-Hill (University of Cologne)

Visiting scholar from 19 February - 31 March 2001.

Benno Müller-Hill is professor emeritus of genetics.

Research project: Correspondence of Adolf Butenandt 1943-1948, former director of the KWI for Chemistry and subsequent president of the MPS with special attention on the correspondence with Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer.

Other fields of research: Apart from his scientific work in the field of biochemistry and molecular genetics, Benno Müller-Hill distinguished himself with his studies in history of science concerning the participation of bio-sciences in Nazi racial policy.

Publications (selection):

Benno Müller-Hill, Die Philosophen und das Lebendige, Frankfurt 1981;

Benno Müller-Hill, Tödliche Wissenschaft. Die Aussonderung von Juden, Zigeunern und Geisteskranken, 1933-45, Reinbek 1984;

Benno Müller-Hill, The Lac Operon. A short history of a genetic paradigm, Berlin 1996;

Benno Müller-Hill, Das Blut von Auschwitz und das Schweigen der Gelehrten, in: Doris Kaufmann (ed.), Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven der Forschung, 2 vol., Göttingen, 2000.

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Dr. Michael Flitner (University of Freiburg)

Visiting scholar from 1 March - 30 April 2001.

Michael Flitner is a geographer for culture and economics. He is working in comparative perspective on the scientific and political relations of agrarian modernisation projects concerning eugenic ideas of the 1920s and 1930s.

Research project: Plants and Humans: connecting lines in genetic research in comparison Germany - USA, 1925-1935.

Other fields of research: Comprehensive study on practices of collecting and disclosing vegetable variety for the German cultivation of plants. His interest of research focuses on conflicts in regard to using and conserving nature and recently in particular the practices of representation coming into effect in this connection.

Publications (selection):

Michael Flitner, Sammler, Räuber und Gelehrte: Die politischen Interessen an pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen, 1895-1995, Frankfurt 1995;

Michael Flitner/Dan Leskien, Intellectual Property Rights and Plant Genetic Resources: Options for a Sui Generis System, Rom 1997;

Michael Flitner/Christoph Görg/Volker Heins (ed.), Konfliktfeld Natur: Biologische Ressourcen und globale Politik, Opladen 1998;

Michael Flitner, Im Bilderwald. Politische Ökologie und die Ordnungen des Blicks, in: Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie 3/4 1999;

Michael Flitner (ed.), Der deutsche Tropenwald. Bilder, Mythen, Politik, Frankfurt 2000;

Michael Flitner/Volker Heins, Modernity and Life Politics: Conceptualizing the Biodiversity Crisis, in: Political Geography (forthcoming).

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Dr. Helga Satzinger (Centre for Interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies, Technical University Berlin)

Visiting scholar from 1 April - 30 September 2001.

Helga Satzinger is a biologist and science historian. Her domain is the history of science with the problems of women and gender research and in this context in particular the history of women in natural sciences.

Research project: Gender determination, gender ideology and the order of genes. The biological research on transmission and formation of gender in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institutes during National Socialism.

Other fields of research: History of brain research and genetics in the 20^th century and the current development of gene and reproduction technology.

Publications (selection):

Helga Satzinger, Die Geschichte der genetisch orientierten Hirnforschung von Cécile und Oskar Vogt (1875-1962, 1870-1959) in der Zeit von 1895 bis ca. 1927, Stuttgart 1998;

Helga Satzinger, Die blauäugige Drosophila. Ordnung, Zufall und Politik als Faktoren der Evolutionstheorie bei Cécile und Oskar Vogt und Elena und Nikolaj Timoféeff-Ressovsky am Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung Berlin 1925-1945, in: Rainer Brömer (ed.), Evolutionsbiologie von Darwin bis heute, Berlin 1999;

Helga Satzinger, Evolutionsbiologie von Darwin bis heute, Berlin 1999; In-vitro-Befruchtung, Embryonenforschung, Keimbahneingriffe. Zur Logik medizinischer Rechtfertigungsethik, in: Gabriele Pichlhofer/Gen-ethisches Netzwerk (ed.), Grenzverschiebungen. Politische und ethische Aspekte der Fortpflanzungsmedizin, Frankfurt/M. 1999.

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Prof. Dr. Mark Walker (Union College, Schenectady, NY)

Visiting scholar from 1 May - 31 July 2001.

Mark Walker, historian of science, is a professor of history at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He is examining the history of the German nuclear research.

Research project: Otto Hahn and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. A comparative history of science at the KWS in the Third Reich.

Other fields of research: Natural sciences during National Socialism and their relation to the fields of technology and medicine.

Publications (selection):

Mark Walker, German National Socialism and the quest for nuclear power: 1939-1949, Cambridge 1989;

Mark Walker, Physics and Propaganda. Werner Heisenberg’s Foreign Lectures under National Socialism, in: Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 22, 1992;

Mark Walker/Monika Renneberg (ed.), Science, Technology, and National Socialism, Cambridge 1993; Selbstreflexionen deutscher Atomphysiker. Die Farm Hall-Protokolle und die Entstehung neuer Legenden um die "deutsche Atombombe", in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 41, 1993;

Mark Walker, A Comparative History of Nuclear Weapons, in: Doris Kaufmann (ed.), Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven der Forschung, 2 Bde., Göttingen 2000;

Mark Walker (ed.), Science and Ideology. A Comparative History, London (im Erscheinen).

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Prof. Dr. Richard Beyler (Portland State University, OR)

Visiting scholar from 7 January - 29 March 2002.

Richard Beyler, historian of science and mathematician, is a professor of history at Portland State University in Oregon. He is examining ideologization and de-ideologization in 20^th-century-science.

Research project: Academic Purges and Ideological Reorientation in the KWG and its Successor Organizations.

Other fields of research: Social relations of science during post-1945 reconstruction of Germany, biophysics in the 1920s and ‘30s, physical sciences in Nazi Germany.

Publications (selection):

Richard H. Beyler/ Morris Low, Science Policy in Post-War Germany and Japan between Ideology and Economics, in: Mark Walker (ed.) Science and Ideology. A Comparative History, London, Routledge (forthcoming);

Richard H. Beyler, Angeboren oder anerzogen? Der Trend zur Natur: Historischer Kontext und aktuelle Fragen, in: Rainer Brömer/Uwe Hossfeld (ed.) Darwinismus und/als Ideologie, pp. 359-77, Berlin, Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 2001 ;

Richard H. Beyler, "Imagine a Cube filled with biological Material":Re-Conceptualizing the Organic in German Biophysics, 1918-1945, in: Charles Galperin et. al. (ed.), Biophysics 1918-1945: Fundamental Changes in Cellular Biology in the XXth Century, pp. 39-46, De diversis artibus, vol. 43, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepools, 1999;

Richard H. Beyler, Evolution als Problem für Quantenphysiker, in: Rainer Brömer/Uwe Hossfeld (ed.), Evolutionsbiologie von Darwin bis heute, pp. 137-60, Berlin, Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1999 ;

Richard H. Beyler, Targeting the Organism: The Scientific and Cultural Context of Pascual Jordan’s Quantum Biology, in: Isis 87, pp. 248-73, 1996.

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Prof. Dr. Sheila F. Weiss (Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY)

Visiting scholar from 15 May - 14 August 2002.

Sheila F. Weiss, historian, is a professor of history at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

Research project: What was "Nazi" about Eugenics during the Third Reich?: Rassenhygiene under the Swastika at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes — A Comparative Approach

Other fields of research: History of Modern Science, History of the Holocaust

Publications (selection):

Sheila F. Weiss, Race Hygiene and National Efficiency: The Eugenics of Wilhelm Schallmeyer, Berkeley and New York: University of California Press 1987;

Sheila F. Weiss, "Eugenics", in: Arne Hessenbruch (ed.) Reader's Guide to the History of Science, London, Fitzroy Deaborn 2000, pp. 233-36;

Sheila F. Weiss, "Prelude to the Maelstrom: German Physicians as Custodians of the Nation's Health, 1970-1933 - A Cautionary Tale for Contemporary China?", in: Ole Döring (ed.) Chinese Scientists and Responsibility, Hamburg, Institut für Asienkunde 1999, pp. 89-117;

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Birgit Kolboske, 15. Januar 2003