The Göttingen Academy in the Nazi Era

Established in 2014, the research commission sought to explore the history of the Göttingen Academy from the beginning of the 20th century to the early years of the Federal Republic, focussing on the continuities and discontinuities of its self-perception and institutional and scientific practice. Particular emphasis was given to the Nazi rule between 1933 and 1945, not least to the fate of the members who were excluded from the Academy as a result of anti-Semitic and political persecution.

The main objective of the commission’s activities was the production of a monograph, composed by Dr Désirée Schauz, a renowned junior scholar who has been hired for this purpose. Conceptualising the Academy both as an institution and as an association of individual scholars who were part of national and international networks, the study addresses five key issues: 

1. the consequences of Germany’s international isolation after 1918 for the self-perception of the Academy and changes in this context after 1945, 
2. the Academy’s reactions to the rise of new scientific institutions such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society, 
3. its stance with regard to external expectations and competing institutions during the Nazi period and after, 
4. political discourses in the Academy, 
5. the impact local specifics in Göttingen had on the Academy’s self-perception and activities.

In sum, the commission sought to gain a deeper understanding of how the Göttingen Academy operated under Nazi rule: a subject that had not yet been thoroughly examined. In addition, given the Academy’s dual role as both an institution and a scholarly society, the commission aimed to offer fresh perspectives for the broader study of scientific institutions beyond the university context. The commission also gave rise to the research project The Göttingen Academy of Sciences from the First World War to the 1960s: Between Elitist Self-Perception and Political Positioning, funded by the State of Lower Saxony between 2016 and 2019.