Few scientific communities have been more thoroughly studied than 20th-century German physicists. Yet their behavior and patterns of thinking immediately after the war remains puzzling. During the first five postwar 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 idiosyncracies 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 tendenciesare examined. The perspective of emigr? physicists, as reflected in their private letters and reports, embellish this portrait.
Author(s): Klaus Hentschel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 212
Tags: Физика;История физики;
Contents......Page 6
List of figures......Page 7
1 Introduction......Page 8
About the sources used......Page 24
2 Scientists in Germany seen from the outside......Page 27
(a) Superficial admiration and opportunistic friendliness......Page 32
(b) Covert reserve and distrust......Page 41
(c) Stubborn resistance to Allied Control......Page 52
4 Russian phobia......Page 72
5 Sense of isolation and fragmentation......Page 78
6 Bitterness about the "export of scientists"......Page 87
7 Scapegoating the Aryan physics movement......Page 98
(a) Amnesia and unconscious repression......Page 106
(b) Concealment and dissimilation......Page 110
9 Shame, listlessness, and lethargy......Page 117
10 Self-justification and the guilt issue......Page 123
11 Self-pity, sentimentality, and selfishness......Page 135
12 "Propaganda-free day-to-day" and political apathy......Page 140
13 New awareness of a scientist's responsibility......Page 146
14 Workaholism: "If we want to live, we must rebuild"......Page 151
15 Side-lining of emigrés and critics......Page 156
16 Insensitivity in communicating with emigrés......Page 160
17 Distrust and obduracy among emigrés......Page 170
18 The mental aftermath......Page 176
Acknowledgments......Page 182
List of abbreviations......Page 183
Archival collections......Page 184
Bibliography......Page 188
B......Page 206
F......Page 207
H......Page 208
L......Page 209
P......Page 210
S......Page 211
Z......Page 212
