The German Physical Society in the Third Reich

Dieter Hoffmann is a Senior Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and a Professor of History of Science at Humboldt University in Berlin. Hoffmann has co-authored two books in English: Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective (1999) and The Emergence of Modern Physics (1996), as well as several books published in German. Hoffmann is a member of the editorial boards for journals Physikalische Blätter and Physics in Perspective. His articles have appeared in Physics in Perspective and Physics Today. He is a member of the German Physical Society; the German Society for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine; and the History of Science Society. Mark Walker is the John Bigelow Professor of History at Union College. He is the author of Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and the German Atom Bomb (1995) and German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939–1949 (Cambridge University Press, 1989). He has co-authored several books, including The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Politics and Science in Wartime: Comparative International Perspectives on the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes (2005) and Science and Ideology: A Comparative History (2003). His articles have appeared in the Journal of Contemporary History, Physics Today, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Nature, Physics in Perspective, Minerva and Metascience.

• 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.

'This fine volume explores in detail for the first time in English the role of the German Physical Society from the Nazi takeover of power in 1933 into the early postwar years, and includes comparisons with chemical and mathematical societies. The book is an important contribution to the ongoing discussion of the possibility as well as the costs of the relative autonomy of science in dictatorships, and also to our understanding of the institutional and cultural reconstruction of the sciences in West Germany after 1945.' Mitchell G. Ash, University of Vienna