National Socialism and German Physics

Abstract

Whenever the influence of ideology and especially of political ideology on science is discussed, a recent example often comes to mind: the deutsche Physik (literally 'German Physics') movement during the National Socialist period in Germany. Traditionally, this movement has been regarded as the only example of the perversion of physics to the support of the National Socialist regime. This article will take a different approach with respect to the notorious case of German physics and physicists during the Third Reich. The strident and often incoherent calls for a more Aryan and less Jewish science were not the only examples of the penetration of National Socialist ideology into the practice of physics. On the contrary, the interaction between the physics community in Germany and the National Socialist movement cannot be equated with, or limited to, deutsche Physik. Rather the relationships between deutsche Physik, National Socialism, and the German physics community provide a fascinating example of the impact that an ideology can have on science as well as of how science and scientists, in turn, can influence this ideology. During the early years of the Third Reich, Werner Heisenberg and other supporters of 'modern physics' roughly speaking, quantum physics and the theory of relativity were attacked politically by the adherents of deutsche Physik. Much has been made of the fact that the deutsche Physik movement was able to discredit Heisenberg sufficiently to block an attempt to call him to Munich as the successor to his teacher, Arnold Sommerfeld. But far from proving the strength of the movement, this coup was a good example of winning a battle, but losing the war. The highly-publicized attacks on Heisenberg's honour and the subsequent retaliation by the established German physics community set in motion a careful and thorough reappraisal by the German government of the value of modern theoretical