The Mental Aftermath

The Mentality of German Physicists 1945-1949

Inbunden, Engelska, 2007

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Few scientific communities have been more thoroughly studied than 20th-century German physicists. Yet their behaviour and patterns of thinking immediately after the war remains puzzling. During the first five post war years they suspended their internecine battles and a strange solidarity emerged. Former enemies were suddenly willing to exonerate each other blindly and even morally upright physicists began to write tirades against the 'denazification mischief' or the 'export of scientists'. Personal idiosyncrasies melded into a strangely uniform pattern of rejection or resistance to the Allied occupiers, with attendant repressed feelings and self-pity. Politics was once again perceived as remote, dirty business. It was feared that the least concession of guilt would bring down even more severe sanctions on their discipline. Using tools from the history of mentality, such as analysis of serial publications, these tendencies are examined. The perspective of emigré physicists, as reflected in their private letters and reports, embellish this portrait.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2007-06-14
Mått170 x 250 x 15 mm
Vikt521 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor212
FörlagOUP OXFORD
ISBN9780199205660

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Prof. Klaus HentschelUniversity of StuttgartGermanyKlaus Hentschel has been teaching history of science since 1990 as assistant professor and guest professor at the Universities of Hamburg, Göttingen and Stuttgart, before he was appointed full professor and head of the section History of Science at the University of Stuttgart. With a senior research grant by the German National Research Association (DFG) and under the auspices of the University of Berne, Switzerland, he recently wrote a major study on the taxonomic arguments about the classification of radiant heat, light, and other forms of radiation between 1700 and 1900.

1. Scientists in Germany seen from the outside ; 2. Tensions with the Allies ; 3. Russian phobia ; 4. Sense of isolation and grief over the fragmentation of Germany ; 5. Bitterness about the "export of scientists" ; 6. Scapegoating the 'Aryan physics' movement ; 7. Forgetting ; 8. Shame, listlessness and lethargy ; 9. Self-justification and the guilt issue ; 10. Self-pity, sentimentality and selfishness ; 11. 'Propaganda-free day-to-day' and political apathy ; 12. New awareness of a scientist's responsibility ; 13. Workaholism: "If we want to live, we must rebuild" ; 14. Side-lining of emigres and critics ; 15. Insensitivity in communicating with emigres ; 16. Distrust and obduracy among emigres ; 17. The mental aftermath