DFG also willing to come to terms with its own past
"It is a painful experience to address the issue of our own organisation's history during the Third Reich, and starting with it demands quite an effort. But the DFG really has made a start, and it is determined to stick to this course."
With these words, the President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, opened an international experts' congress addressing the topic "Sciences and Science Policy. Interaction, Continuity and Inconsistencies from the Late Empire up to the Early German Federal Republic/German Democratic Republic" held at Berlin's Harnack-Haus from the 18th-20th May 2000. Designed and prepared by Berlin science historian Rüdiger von Bruch of Humboldt University, Berlin, in co-operation with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the congress was devoted to the development of sciences and humanities and how they related to politics in the years between 1910 and 1960. The four half-day sections it comprised addressed the following periods:
1. The Late Empire and the transition to the Weimar Republic
2. The Weimar Republic and the transition to National Socialism
3. Under National Socialism
4. The Post-war Period, the Early Federal Republic and the GDR.
Questions raised again and again were those as to networking between science and politics, as American historian Mitchell G. Ash, who teaches in Vienna, put it, the conditions for a national culture of innovation in Germany, which were discussed by Munich science historian Ulrich Wengenroth, the issue of structural change in the science system, which was dealt with by Frankfurt historian Notker Hammerstein with regard to the NS era, as well as the aspect of science's ethical responsibility, which is to be elaborated by an examination of scientific production in individual disciplines such as physics, biology and medicine.
With around 130 scientists and scholars from the USA, France, Austria and Germany, most of them historians, but also sociologists, philosophers and medical scientists, the congress could boast top-ranking attendance. According to DFG President Winnacker, the venue for the conference, the Max Planck Society's Harnack-Haus, also represented a symbol of the close ties between the two organisations regarding the topic it addressed. Coming to terms with the history of sciences and humanities in Germany had to be tackled as a common task.
There are plans to establish a new Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft priority programme modelled along the lines of the conference that would examine the history of sciences and humanities from around 1910 up to the post-war period. The programme would view issues from as many angles as possible and also encompass an international, comparative perspective. Just a few weeks ago, at the DFG Senate's Spring Session, a priority programme was set up on population research, an area that was of strategic importance to the policies of National Socialism.
In addition, there are plans to create working groups that would initially process all the material on file that is relevant to the DFG in the period from 1920 to 1960. "We have to find out more about the role the DFG played in science and humanities in the Third Reich, its relations with the state institutions, how it interacted with higher education and the multitude of links it maintained with the extra-university research institutions," Winnacker announced at the congress. The DFG President went on to say that it mattered a great deal to him that his organisation did not merely examine its own history up to 1945. It had already become apparent that there was much more continuity than had hitherto been admitted.
The DFG had already created the foundations for this reappraisal in the spring of 1999 with a book by Notker Hammerstein titled "Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich".
The presentations of the Berlin Conference will be documented and are scheduled to be published by spring next year.
For further details, contact: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger von Bruch<br> Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin<br> Unter den Linden 6<br> 10099 Berlin <br>Tel: 49-30-2093-2870<br> Email: <A HREF="mailto:vonBruch@geschichte.hu-berlin.de">vonBruch@geschichte.hu-berlin.de</a> <br> and<br> Dr. Guido Lammers<br> Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft <br> Kennedyallee 40<br> 53 175 Bonn<br> Tel: 49-228-885-2295<br> Email: <A HREF="mailto:Guido.Lammers@dfg.de">Guido.Lammers@dfg.de</a><P><HR> <hr class="hidden-xs hidden-sm" /> <hr class="major visible-sm" /> <div class="featured_image"> <div class="details"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="well article_disclaimer hidden-search"> <p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.</p> </div> <div class="toolbar hidden-print hidden-search"> <div class='col-xs-6'> <div class="addthis_inline_share_toolbox_pnaa"></div> </div> <div class='col-xs-6'> <div class="article-tools pull-right"> <div class="addthis_inline_share_toolbox_62ef"></div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> <aside id="sidebar-content" class="white col-md-4"> <hr class="hidden-xs hidden-sm"> <hr class="major visible-xs visible-sm"> <section class="widget hidden-print"> <h3 class="widget-title red">More on this News Release</h3> <div class="widget-content"> <aside class="more"> <a href="/news-releases/1025538"> <h3>International experts' congress on the history of sciences and humanities in the 20th century</h3> </a> <p class="meta_institute">Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</p> <dl class="dl-horizontal meta stacked"> <dt class="green">Funder</dt> <dd class="green"> Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft </dd> </dl> </aside> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 col-md-12"> <h4 class="widget-subtitle">Keywords</h4> <nav class="tag-cloud"> <ul class="tags"> <li class="active ea-keyword"> <a href="#"> <span class="ea-keyword__path">/Social sciences/Political science/Government/Public policy/Science policy/</span><span class="ea-keyword__short">Biological science policy</span> </a> </li> <li class="ea-keyword"> <a href="#"> <span class="ea-keyword__path">/Social sciences/Political science/</span><span class="ea-keyword__short">International relations</span> </a> </li> <li class="ea-keyword"> <a href="#"> <span class="ea-keyword__path"> /Social sciences/Political science/Government/Public policy/Science policy/</span><span class="ea-keyword__short">Research priorities</span> </a> </li> </ul> </nav> </div> </div> </div> </section> </aside> </div> </div> </div> <footer id="footer" class="hidden-print hidden-search"> <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-5 col-sm-push-7"> <p class="logo"> <img src="/images/logo-footer.png" alt="EurekAlert! 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