by Philip Ball
*4 Such gestures did nothing to preserve the Bavarian Academy’s independence, for in 1936 the Reich Education Ministry stipulated that it would thereafter appoint the president and secretaries directly.
*5 After the war, the Prussian Academy of Sciences exemplified the manner in which formerly Nazified state bodies accommodated themselves to the new regime with rather little fuss. It became the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1945, then the German Academy of Sciences, and played an important role in the science of the German Democratic Republic until being dissolved shortly after reunification.
I cannot allow it: Beyerchen (1977), 53.
My tradition requires of me: Heilbron (2000), 161.
stand before the pieces: Rockefeller Foundation Archive, RF Officer Diaries, disk 16 (Warren Weaver), 83.
a pathetic yet noble figure: ibid., 92.
What should I do?: Sime (1996), 142.
One was faced with the contradictory: Beyerchen (1977), 27.
I never did anything: F. Haber (1933), letter to C. Bosch, 28 December. Archives of the Max Planck Society, Haber Collection, Rep. 13, 911.
He was one of our own: Hentschel (1996), 78.
Haber remained true to us: Eickhoff (2008), 48.
old custom: Macrakis (1993), 70.
Haber has done a lot for science: ibid.
a device for justifying: Haberer (1969), 140.
benevolent protection: ibid., 147.
like a tree in the wind: Heim & Walker (2009), 3.
nothing is eaten as hot: Beyerchen (1977), 18.
equivalent to an act of sabotage: ibid., 19.
There is, of course, no chance: M. Born (1933), letter to A. Einstein, 2 June. In Born (2005), 115.
I would not have the nerve: ibid.
As regards my wife and children: ibid., 114.
My youngest son did not seem able: Beyerchen (1977), 26.
And how is mathematics in Göttingen: ibid., 36.
makes his defense of the situation: Rockefeller Foundation Archive, RF Officer Diaries, disk 16 (Warren Weaver), 85.
Only in the case of a few: ibid.
The watchword was that: Beyerchen (1977), 200.
Swastikas can be seen everywhere: Cassidy (2009), 222.
non-German spirit: ibid.
comrades under Hitler: ibid., 225.
With all respect for the freedom: Hentschel (1996), 60.
From now on, the question: Beyerchen (1977), 52.
As long as I have any choice: R. W. Clark (1973). Einstein: The Life and Times, 431. Hodder & Stoughton, London.
You know, I think, that I: Sime (1996), 140.
By your efforts, your racial: Walker (1995), 71.
Here they are making nearly the entirety: Cassidy (2009), 207.
I do not share your view: ibid., 207–8.
The Jews in Germany can thank refugees: Beyerchen (1977), 12.
I have learned that my unclear relationship: Hoffmann & Walker (2004), 52.
Although I am very thankful: ibid.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences heard: Einstein (1949), 82.
one of the most appalling experiences: Heilbron (2000), 158.
Therefore it is . . . deeply to be regretted: ibid., 159.
I am convinced that in the future: Haberer (1969), 114.
I hereby declare that I have never: Einstein (1954), 206.
I ask you to imagine yourself: Rowe & Schulman (2007), 274.
I am happy that you have nevertheless: ibid.
We had confidently expected: Einstein (1949), 85–6.
to counteract unjust suspicions: ibid., 84.
would have been equivalent: ibid., 86.
how you envisage your relations: ibid., 87.
The primary duty of an academy: ibid., 88.
When faced with a choice: Walker (1995), 92–3.
politically so worthless: Heilbron (2000), 159.
if Planck and Laue retain influence: ibid.
tactically a false step: ibid., 160.
Max Planck was one of the German professors: Haberer (1969), 128.
I think it was on the occasion: Beyerchen (1977), 1.
Chapter 6
*1 In particular, Lenard began the myth that the theory of relativity had been devised by the Austrian physicist Friedrich Hasenöhrl—a story still popular with Einstein’s cranky detractors today.
*2 Steiner has been defended against the charge that he held Nazi sympathies, and certainly he does not seem to have been popular with the National Socialists. They were likely, however, to find little cause for complaint in this comment of his: ‘Jewry as such has outlived itself for a long time. It does not have the right to exist in the modern life of nations. That it has survived, nevertheless, is a mistake by world history, of which the consequences were bound to come.’
*3 Because electrons in atoms do not in fact follow planet-like orbits around the nucleus but are instead distributed in diffuse clouds, their quantum states are more properly called orbitals.
*4 The accusation is all the more risible when one considers that Sommerfeld was himself somewhat prejudiced. He commented to Wilhelm Wien in 1919 that the ‘Jewish-political chaos’ of the new Weimar Republic was making him ‘more and more of an anti-Semite’—the kind of casually bigoted statement that would raise no eyebrows at that time.
*5 Hertz, the nephew of Lenard’s mentor Heinrich Hertz, had a Jewish grandfather, which made him non-Aryan according to the 1933 rules. Although his war service exempted him from dismissal at the Berlin Technische Hochschule, he left anyway in 1934 to take up a lucrative offer from the electrical engineering company Siemens, where during the war he worked on the separation of chemical isotopes for nuclear research. As an experimental physicist he was looked on favourably by Stark, an illustration of how the Aryan physicists tended to pick and choose who was and wasn’t ‘Jewish in spirit’.
*6 In 1942 Sommerfeld was about to publish some lectures on physics when he received a letter from Heisenberg saying (as Rudolf Peierls later recalled it) that ‘a political adviser and close friend of mine, also a physicist, would like to call to your attention certain guidelines which are now in use, that is, we note, the publisher noticed that you mentioned Einstein’s name four times in your lectures, and we wondered if you couldn’t get by with mentioning him a little less often?’ Sommerfeld complied, retaining just one of the references. ‘I must mention him once’, his conscience obliged him to write back. Peierls adds that ‘after the war the names were quickly put back in’.
the almost unanimous opinion: J. Z. Buchwald & A. Warwick (eds) (2004). Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics, 451. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Jewish fraud: Beyerchen (1977), 93.
It was precisely the yearning: Mosse (ed.) (1966), 203.
seems already to indicate: Beyerchen (1977), 128.
arrogant delusion: Mosse (ed.) (1966), 205.
That influence has been even strengthened: ibid.
Jewry as such has outlived itself: R. Steiner (1971). Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Literatur, 1884–1902, 152. Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Basel.
scarcely believable filth: Heilbron (2000), 117.
a Jew of liberal international bent: Hentschel (1996), 1.
I admire Lenard as a master: ibid., 2.
los[ing] myself in such deep humorlessness: van Dongen (2007), 11.
enterprising business manager: Walker (1995), 6.
more and more of an anti-Semite: Rose (1998), 244.
appear to us as God’s gifts: Hentschel (1996), 9.
is conditioned by the spiritual: Mosse (ed.) (1966), 206.
Respect for facts and aptitude: ibid., 205.
is focused upon its own ego: ibid., 207.
mix facts and imputations: ibid.
authentic creative work: ibid.
The scientist . . . does not exist: ibid., 206.
sets aside the concept of energy: ibid., 212.
something concerning the soul: ibid., 213.
&n
bsp; His theory is not the keystone: ibid.
That which is called the crisis of science: Beyerchen (1977), 134.
To all of us minor figures: ibid., 66.
political battles call for different methods: Sime (1996), 157.
I hate them so much I must be close to them: ibid., 159.
was not a daredevil: ibid.
In Adolf Hitler we German: Walker (1995), 24–5.
From the beginning: Heilbron (2000), 170.
to make something sensible: ibid., 165.
playground for Catholics: Macrakis (1993), 98.
restricted circle . . . aristocratic splendour: ibid.
that the measures now being taken: Cassidy (2009), 229.
It is to the future that all of us: ibid., 231.
The world out there is really ugly: ibid.
spirit of Einstein’s spirit: ibid., 247.
I now easily fall into a very strange state: ibid., 261.
bacterial carriers: ibid., 270.
still consists of Jews and foreigners: Hentschel (1996), 156.
Ossietzky of physics: Cassidy (2009), 270.
it was condemned by everyone: ibid., 271.
set the matter back in order: Beyerchen (1977), 159.
I do not approve of the attack: Cassidy (2009), 279.
I believe that Heisenberg: ibid., 280.
we may be able to get this man: Hentschel (1996), 176.
I would consider it proper: Beyerchen (1977), 163.
I never was sympathetic: Walker (2009), 358–9.
a political adviser and close friend: Peierls (1985), unpaginated.
I must mention him once: ibid.
after the war the names were: ibid.
America would have been discovered: Rose (1998), 270.
an unbreakable attachment: Cassidy (2009), 280.
remaining in Germany was apparently: ibid.
by seeing himself in such: ibid.
Heisenberg’s notion of ‘responsibility’: Rose (1998), 260.
If you only understand theoretical physics: Beyerchen (1977), 166.
In the case of a purely scientific dispute: Hentschel (1996), 141.
Had he been less crazy: Heilbron (2000), 171.
their willingness and ability: Renneberg & Walker (1994), 10.
Prof. Prandtl is a typical scientist: ibid., 80.
Chapter 7
*1 Franck settled at the University of Chicago and played a prominent role in the Manhattan Project. He chaired the committee on Political and Social Problems relating to the atomic bombs, and as such he oversaw the Franck Report in June 1945 which recommended that the bombs not be used on civilian targets but be instead demonstrated to other nations in an unpopulated region. That humane advice was, of course, ignored.
*2 Alfred Kühn was director of the KWI for Biology, Adolf Butenandt the director of the KWI for Biochemistry, both in Dahlem. Butenandt was a party member who obeyed the edict forbidding the acceptance of Nobel Prizes (see page 122), turning down the chemistry prize in 1939 for which he was nominated for his research on sex hormones. In 1949 he was happy to accept it retrospectively.
*3 Whatever Debye’s behaviour after the award, it is very hard to credit Sybe Rispens’ suggestion that Debye was keen to retain his Dutch citizenship because he considered it less likely that a German would be given the prize during the Nazi regime. As we shall see, his national status remained vitally important to Debye after his 1936 award.
*4 The suggestion that selecting these non-German candidates was in itself an expression of defiance carries little weight, given the DPG’s readiness to submit to vetting. However, there had also been controversy over the granting of the award to Schrödinger in 1937, since he had left Germany in 1933 in protest at the Nazi policies.
*5 Debye’s grandson Norwig Debye-Saxinger claims to have been told that after signing the letter, Debye later sighed to his wife ‘We must move away!’ But there is no indication that at this stage he had the slightest intention of doing that, not least because he was committed to the KWIP.
*6 Historian Klaus Hentschel suggested in 1996 that perhaps as many as 121 Jewish members were dismissed—about one tenth of the society’s membership—but he later found that most of the names that disappeared from the DPG’s membership records between 1938 and 1939 did so for other reasons, such as death or emigration. Eighty-four new members joined during that period, so the DPG did not change substantially in size. Moreover, politically motivated resignations had been happening since 1933, so it remains hard to establish which of those in 1938 were in direct response to Debye’s letter.
*7 Debye was apparently troubled also that the topic of the meeting, low-temperature physics, would oblige him to mention the leading work in that field by Franz Simon in Oxford, which, since Simon was Jewish, would be politically compromising. Rather than submit to that censorship, he would rather not attend at all. While this could certainly be regarded as too ready an acceptance of Nazi prohibitions, it surely speaks also of a certain amount of integrity in this refusal to edit science. The conclusion of Martijn Eickhoff, author of a 2008 report on Debye commissioned by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in response to Sybe Rispens’ book, that ‘by exercising [this] self-censorship he indirectly demonstrated his loyalty to the Third Reich’ typifies the slanted analysis in that report.
*8 Rosbaud’s biographer, the Manhattan Project scientist Arnold Kramish, says that after Darmstadt Rosbaud was granted a fellowship to study X-ray cinematography—a now obsolete discipline concerned with the use of X-ray imaging in medicine—at the ‘Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Dahlem’. It isn’t clear which institute Kramish had in mind—the KWIP was not at that stage (the 1920s) functioning as a research centre. The topic of research seems odd for a physical scientist; others have assumed he was in fact working on X-ray diffraction.
We visit Debye’s institute: Rockefeller Foundation Archives RF RG 1.1 Projects, Series 717, Folders 9–11, memo from Warren Weaver, 21 January 1938.
The purpose of this institute: Kant (1996a), 228.
erected primarily for Einstein: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, op. cit., memo of 12 February 1930, 4.
land, buildings and equipment: ibid., memo of 16 April 1930.
prefer to stay in his own home: ibid., memo of 2 & 5 January 1931.
large gift: ibid., memo of 1 December 1936.
attempt to apply uniform: ibid.
The world of science is a world: New York Times 24 November 1936. In van Ginkel (2006), 14.
it is quite possible that the foundation: ibid.
adulterate[d] the spiritual coinage: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, op. cit., letter from F. Frankfurter to R. Fosdick, 24 November 1936.
the Nazi regime will not slacken: ibid., diary of Alan Gregg, 25 October 1933.
less ignorant and more moderate: ibid., diary of W. E. Tisdale, 16 June 1934.
the attitude of the present and future: ibid., memo from T. B. Appleget to M. Mason, 30 July 1934.
now given over entirely to work: ibid.
What might the physics institute: ibid.
to follow their example: Eickhoff (2008), 57.
within a year or two: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, op. cit., memo from W. E. Tisdale to W. Weaver, 1 August 1934.
Professor Debye is in my opinion: Kant (1996a), 235.
the best theoretician to be working: Eickhoff (2008), 46.
an arrangement of convenience: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, op. cit., diary of W. E. Tisdale, 12 June 1934.
Given on the understanding: Eickhoff (2008), 37.
Being a Dutch citizen at this time: van Ginkel (2006), 18.
something like a diplomatic status: Eickhoff (2008), 18.
I love Munich, and your presence: Kant (1996a), 236.
little man: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RF Officer Diaries, disk 16 (Warren Weaver), 96.
he would take a page from the book: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RF RG 1.1 Projec
ts, Series 717, Folders 9–11, diary of W. E. Tisdale, 12 June 1934.
Debye seems to stand more firmly: ibid.
under the present regime: ibid., memo from W. E. Tisdale to W. Weaver, 1 August 1934.
the power to decide: ibid., diary of W. E. Tisdale, 29 August 1934.
the appeal leaves me quite cold: ibid., 4 September 1934.
negotiations are interminably slow: van Ginkel (1996), 10.
There is no doubt that under his leadership: Kant (1993).
an opportunity would be missed: ibid.
seriously damaged: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RF RG 1.1 Projects, Series 717, Folders 9–11, letter to Mr Busser, Consul of the USA, Leipzig, 5 June 1935.
the only undepressed person: ibid., memo from W. E. Tisdale, 4 October 1935.
knows little, is pretty much worried: Eickhoff (2008), 60.
It soon became apparent: Kant (1996a), 240.
Debye was a very liberal director: ibid.
He said that the common notion: Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RF RG 1.1 Projects, Series 717, Folders 9–11, memo from Warren Weaver, 21 January 1938.
got the impression of a man: ibid.
I did this not for you: Macrakis (1993), 64.
it would be fair to say: Eickhoff (2008), 68.
I fear that these lines: S. L. Wolff (2011), ‘Das Vorgehen von Debye bei dem Ausschluss der “jüdischen” Mitglieder aus der DPG’. In Hoffmann & Walker (eds) (2011), 118.
You obviously cannot swim: ibid.
I am disappointed that the society: Beyerchen (1977), 75.
have made only slight progress: Hentschel (1996), 178.
conspicuously lacked: ibid.
thoroughly informed about the position: ibid., 179.
gave an impossible incoherent talk: ibid.
it would be impossible for them: ibid.
to current requirements: ibid., 180.
would also have to provide: ibid.
Under the compelling prevailing circumstances: Hentschel (1996), 181.
turning point: Eickhoff (2008), 135.