The Göttingen Academy from the First World War to the 1960s

The first monographic study of the Academy’s history during the Nazi era, its lead-up, and post-1945 legacy.

The research project The Göttingen Academy of Sciences from the First World War to the 1960s: Between Elitist Self-Perception and Political Positioning investigated the Academy’s own history, with particular emphasis on the Nazi era. Its central aim was to reconstruct the continuities and ruptures in the Academy’s self-understanding and to contextualise these within its scientific and political environment.


The study also contributed to recent scholarship in the history of science by investigating the Academy’s (and its members’) distinctive self-image as a scientific elite, and how this identity evolved between the First World War and the early Federal Republic. While Göttingen served as a case study, the project remained attentive to local particularities. In addition to the Academy’s research activities, it explored the discourses and practices that structured academic life, including exclusions on racist grounds, politically motivated appointments, and their later partial reversals.

Furthermore, the project examined the Academy’s institutional and personal relationships with other scientific and political actors, as well as the linguistic and behavioural norms that shaped its culture. Five key areas were central to the inquiry: the consequences of Germany’s international isolation after 1918 for the Academy’s self-image and the changes following 1945; the Academy’s response to the rise of new research institutions, such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society; its positioning with regard to changing research agendas and structures during the Nazi era and the post-war period; the political discourses within the Academy; and the influence of Göttingen’s local context on its self-conception.

Beyond these internal dynamics and external relationships, the project also included case studies of selected Academy members from specific groups, particularly those persecuted for racist reasons or forced out of the Academy, those dismissed after 1945, Academy officeholders, and members holding multiple influential roles.

The project was funded by the State of Lower Saxony as part of the PRO*Niedersachsen programme from 2016 to 2019. It emerged from the Academy Research Commission, which was active from 2014 to 2023 and chaired by Prof. Dr. Dirk Schumann, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Göttingen.

The research findings are published in the study Umkämpfte Identitäten: Die Göttinger Akademie und ihre Mitglieder 1914-1965 [Contested Identities: The Göttingen Academy and Its Members 1914-1965] by Désirée Schauz, Wallstein Verlag 2022.


Project Team

The project team consisted of the commission Die Göttinger Akademie und die NS-Zeit [The Göttingen Academy in the Nazi Era], which successfully submitted the research project Zwischen elitärer Selbstbeschreibung und politischer Positionierung. Die Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften vom Ersten Weltkrieg bis in die 1960er Jahre [Between Elitist Self-Perception and Political Positioning: The Göttingen Academy of Sciences from the First World War to the 1960s] for funding under the Pro*Niedersachsen programme, as well as the historian Dr Habil. Désirée Schauz, who worked on the project from February 2017 onwards.

In addition, there was a collaboration with the project Die Universität Göttingen nach dem Nationalsozialismus. Vergangenheitspolitische Kommunikation am Beispiel der Fächer Geschichte und Physik (1945–1965) [The University of Göttingen after National Socialism: Dealing with the Past in the Disciplines of History and Physics, 1945–1965], led by Prof Dr Dirk Schumann and Prof Dr Petra Terhoeven. This project was based at the Department of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Göttingen and was initially worked on by Kerstin Thieler, and later by Jan Renken.
 

Commission Members

Chair: Prof Dirk Schumann, University of Göttingen, Department of Medieval and Modern History

Prof Ute Daniel, TU Braunschweig, Department of History, Division of Ancient, Medieval and Modern History
Prof Frank Rexroth, University of Göttingen, Department of Medieval and Modern History
Prof Norbert Schappacher, Université de Strasbourg, IRMA (Institute for Research in Mathematics)
Prof. Wolfgang Schieder, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Cologne
Prof Eva Schumann, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Law, Department of German Legal History
Prof Stefan Tangermann, Agricultural Economist, University of Göttingen
 

Publications

  • Désirée Schauz: Umkämpfte Identitäten. Die Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften und ihre Mitglieder, 1914–1965 [Contested Identities: The Göttingen Academy and Its Members, 1914–1965], Göttingen: Wallstein 2022.
  • Désirée Schauz: Vergangenheitspolitische Positionierungen. Die Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften und ihre in der NS-Zeit ausgeschlossenen Mitglieder [Political Positioning in Dealing with the Past: The Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Members Excluded During the Nazi Era]. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina 80 (2021), pp. 39–62.
  • Désirée Schauz: Vergangenheitspolitische Kommunikation im Privaten. Aufzeichnungen und Korrespondenzen des Biochemikers Adolf Windaus (1945–1949) [Private Engagement with the Past: Notes and Correspondence of the Biochemist Adolf Windaus, 1945–1949]. In: Petra Terhoeven / Dirk Schumann (eds.): Strategien der Selbstbehauptung. Vergangenheitspolitische Kommunikation an der Universität Göttingen (1945–1965) [Strategies of Self-Assertion: Dealing with the Past at the University of Göttingen, 1945–1965], Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2021, pp. 317–361.
  • Dirk Schumann with contributions by Désirée Schauz (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“. Akademien und andere Forschungseinrichtungen im Nationalsozialismus und nach 1945 [Research in the “Age of Extremes”: Academies and Other Research Institutions under National Socialism and after 1945], Göttingen: Wallstein 2020.
  • Dirk Schumann: Einleitung [Introduction]. In: idem (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 7–15.
  • Eva Schumann: Die Akademie für Deutsches Recht [The Academy for German Law]. In: Dirk Schumann (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 121–162.
  • Norbert Schappacher: NS-Akademien der Wissenschaften [Nazi Academies of Sciences]. In: Dirk Schumann (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 163–190.
  • Désirée Schauz: Wissenschaft und Politik. Zum Selbstverständnis der Göttinger Akademiemitglieder im Nationalsozialismus [Science and Politics: On the Self-Conception of Göttingen Academy Members during National Socialism]. In: Dirk Schumann (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 191–226.
  • Frank Rexroth: Keine Experimente! Hermann Heimpel und die verzögerte Erneuerung der deutschen Geschichtsforschung nach 1945 [No Experiments! Hermann Heimpel and the Delayed Renewal of German Historical Scholarship after 1945]. In: Dirk Schumann (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 297–325.
  • Wolfgang Schieder: Ein Nobelpreisträger zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik [A Nobel Laureate between Science and Politics]. In: Dirk Schumann (ed.): Forschen im „Zeitalter der Extreme“, Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, pp. 327–348


Event

Conference: Wissenschaftlicher Internationalismus und deutschsprachige Wissenschaftskultur im „Zeitalter der Extreme“ [Scientific Internationalism and German-Speaking Scientific Culture in the “Age of Extremes”], 15–16 November 2018, Göttingen.
Conference report for H-Soz-Kult by Roman Birke.