Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918–1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment

Forman, Paul

doi:10.1142/9789814293129_0006

Cited by 44 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…Typically enough, science communicators, in particular professional ones, were largely split between (established) science in print and (experimental) science on the air; to a large extent this was merely a matter of the generation to which the given communicator belonged. In any case, the overall presence of science and technology in the general culture was much more pervasive than before the advent of radio, which coincided with the end of the era of hyperinflation, and no signs of a supposed general hostility towards the work of physicists and mathematicians, occasionally proclaimed in the literature, can be found (Forman 1971;Carson et al 2011). Popular science had become an even stronger part of German culture.…”

Section: Media Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Popular Science as CulturalDispositif: On the German Way of Science Communication in the Twentieth Century

Schirrmacher

2013

Sci Context

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ArgumentGerman twentieth-century history is characterized by stark changes in the political system and the momentous consequences of World Wars I and II. However, instead of uncovering specific kinds or periods of “Kaiserreich science,” “Weimar science,” or “Nazi science” together with their public manifestations and in such a way observing a narrow link between popular science and political orders, this paper tries to exhibit some remarkable stability and continuity in popular science on a longer scale. Thanks to the rich German history of scientific leadership in many fields, broad initiatives for science popularization, and a population and economy open to scientific progress, the media offered particularly rich popular science content, which was diversified for various audiences and interests. Closer consideration of the format, genre, quality, and quantity of popular science, and of the uses and value audiences attributed to it, along with their respective evolution, reveals infrastructures underpinning science communication. Rather than dealing with specific discourses, the conditions of science communication are at the center of this article. Therefore I focus on the institutions, rules, laws, and economies related to popular science, as well as on the philosophical, moral, and national propositions related to it, and also on the interactions among this ensemble of rather heterogeneous elements. This approach allows a machinery of popular scientific knowledge to be identified, in Foucauldian terms a dispositif, one which is of a particularly cultural nature.

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Section: Media Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Popular Science as CulturalDispositif: On the German Way of Science Communication in the Twentieth Century

Schirrmacher

2013

Sci Context

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“…According to his analysis, causal-analytical research is abandoned in favor of irrational armwaiving that has absolutely no claim to empirically secured knowledge. Indeed, the Neo-Romanticism that characterized parts of biology during the years of the Weimar Republic and the succeeding National Socialist regime was characterized by an irrational turn towards nature mysticism (Mosse, 1964;Forman, 1971;Ba¨umer, 1990a, b). The paleontologist singled out by Schindewolf (1936, p. 3) as the one who most notoriously incorporated Germanic mysticism in his science was Edgar Dacque´, who was also a member of the Theosophical Society.…”

Section: Neo-romanticism Nature Mysticism and An Aryan Theory Of Dementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The paleontologists Edgar Dacque´(1878Dacque´( -1945, Otto Schindewolf (1896-1971, and Karl Beurlen (1901Beurlen ( -1985, are frequently cited amongst those authors who opposed, or delayed the acceptance of the New Synthesis of evolutionary theory in Germany (Reif, 1983(Reif, , 1986Hobfeld, 2003;Junker, 2003). Beurlen (1901Beurlen ( -1985 is credited to have been the first German paleontologist to present a full-fledged theory of saltational evolutionary change (typostrophism) coupled with orthogenesis (directional and progressive evolution driven by an internal force) in his 1932 paper on Form and Function in Organic Development (Beurlen, 1932; see also Beurlen, 1937a), one that would exert a major influence on Schindewolf (1936Schindewolf ( , 1950; see also Reif, 1983Reif, , 1986Levit et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Karl Beurlen (1901–1985), Nature Mysticism, and Aryan Paleontology

Rieppel

2011

J Hist Biol

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The relatively late acceptance of Darwinism in German biology and paleontology is frequently attributed to a lingering of Lamarckism, a persisting influence of German idealistic Naturphilosophie and Goethean romanticism. These factors are largely held responsible for the vitalism underlying theories of saltational and orthogenetic evolutionary change that characterize the writings of many German paleontologists during the first half of the 20th century. A prominent exponent of that tradition was Karl Beurlen, who is credited with having been the first German paleontologist to present a full-fledged theory of saltational evolution and orthogenetic change. A review of Beurlen's writings reveals motives and concerns far more complex, however, and firmly rooted in contemporary vo¨lkisch thought and Aryan Science. Beurlen's mature theory of evolution can indeed be understood as his own contribution to Aryan Geology and Biology, tainted as it was with National-Socialist ideology. Evolutionary biologists of the time who opposed the theories of Beurlen and likeminded authors, i.e., idealistic morphology, typology, saltational change, orthogenesis and cyclism did so on Darwinian principles, which ultimately prevailed. But at the time when the battle was fought, their adherence to the principle of natural selection was likewise ideologically tainted, namely in terms of racial theory. National-Socialist ideology was unable to forge a unity of evolutionary theory in Germany even amongst those of its proponents who endorsed this ideology.

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“…Special attention was paid to the so-called Forman thesis, that theoretical and atomic physicists in Weimar Germany were confronted with a ''hostile intellectual environment.'' And scientists then, it is stipulated, tried to adapt to this ''cultural milieu'' that was marked by a philosophy of life, the dismissal of causality and a questioning of determinism (Forman 1971. Interestingly, on the radio we do not find such a confrontation of science and culture; instead we find a perfect immersion of science into culture in general.…”

Section: Radio and Scientific Culture In Germanymentioning

confidence: 99%

State-Controlled Multimedia Education for All?

Schirrmacher

2010

Sci & Educ

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While science education and popularization by means of print media developed in quite similar forms in many nations, the advent of radio resulted in initiatives to bring science on the air that were rather heterogeneous from country to country. The German case stands out with respect to quantity, variety and ambition, and also for its special mechanism of planning and controlling educational programs on science and technology. Hence it is argued that a closer look at how the chances of the new medium were discussed and implemented in Weimar Germany can provide a scale of reference for the development of science communication on the radio in other countries. For this reason a brief summary of the the respective developments in the United States and Europe is presented, before discussing in some detail Germany's particular institutional organization, program structures, combination of radio broadcasts and print material into a kind of multimedia, and various formats and genres.

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Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918–1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Popular Science as CulturalDispositif: On the German Way of Science Communication in the Twentieth Century

Popular Science as CulturalDispositif: On the German Way of Science Communication in the Twentieth Century

Karl Beurlen (1901–1985), Nature Mysticism, and Aryan Paleontology

State-Controlled Multimedia Education for All?

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