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| Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft | |
|---|---|
| Name | Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft |
| Formed | 1920 |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Predecessor | Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften |
| Successor | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
| Headquarters | Berlin |
| Region | Weimar Republic; Nazi Germany |
| Leader title | President |
Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft
The Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft was a German umbrella organization founded in 1920 to coordinate and financially support scientific and scholarly institutions across the Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany. It served as a nexus linking major figures and institutions such as Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Hermann von Helmholtz, Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Prussian Academy of Sciences, and regional universities like University of Berlin and Munich University (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), while interacting with state ministries and industrial patrons including Friedrich Krupp AG, Siemens, and the Reichswehr. The body organized emergency relief, pooled resources, and negotiated with funding bodies such as the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Culture and international donors like the Rockefeller Foundation.
Established in the aftermath of World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Notgemeinschaft emerged from discussions among leaders of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, and major universities including Heidelberg University and University of Göttingen. Early presidents and patrons included figures associated with Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Emil Fischer, and administrators tied to the Reichstag and the Weimar Coalition. During the 1920s it coordinated relief during hyperinflation and negotiated with provincial bodies such as the Free State of Prussia and the Saxony ministry of education, while working with international partners like the Royal Society, the Académie des sciences (France), and the National Research Council (United States). The organization expanded in the 1930s amid the rise of National Socialism, encountering tensions involving figures linked to Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Frick, and bureaucrats from the Reich Ministry of the Interior. World events including the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, and rearmament influenced its priorities and membership.
The Notgemeinschaft's governance brought together trustees drawn from leading institutions: the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Academy of Sciences in earlier cooperative arrangements, and major universities such as Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Leipzig, University of Bonn, University of Tübingen, RWTH Aachen University, and Technical University of Berlin. Its administrative offices in Berlin coordinated committees on physics, chemistry, medicine, and humanities, with prominent scientists like Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Max von Laue, Walther Nernst, Fritz Haber, Heinrich Hertz, Johannes Stark, and Walther Bothe serving on advisory boards or commissions. The board interfaced with municipal authorities in Hamburg, Bremen, and Dresden and with funding agencies such as the Prussian Ministry of Culture and private foundations like the Carnegie Corporation. Regional subcommittees liaised with technical institutes including Bayer AG laboratories and industrial research centers tied to Thyssen and BASF.
The Notgemeinschaft solicited support from private industry, philanthropic foundations, and state coffers, negotiating grants and fellowships that benefited research at institutions including Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Cologne, University of Freiburg, and research institutes under the Kaiser Wilhelm Society such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. It administered emergency aid for displaced scholars, collaborated with international organizations like the League of Nations scientific committees, and coordinated publication and conference sponsorship with learned societies such as the German Physical Society, the German Chemical Society, the Historische Kommission, and the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung. Major funding sources included industrial patrons like IG Farben and international donors such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, while university rectors and deans from University of Münster and University of Würzburg participated in allocation decisions. The body also sponsored scientific expeditions and supported instrumentation purchases at observatories like the Hamburg Observatory and facilities associated with Max Planck Institutes.
After 1933 the Notgemeinschaft faced politicization and pressure from Nazi state organs including the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Culture, and personnel connected to SS and SA networks. Jewish and politically dissident scientists—among them scholars associated with Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Emil Meyer, and others—were affected by dismissals, emigration, and loss of support, leading to interactions with organizations such as the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars and foreign host institutions like Cambridge University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago. The Notgemeinschaft negotiated complex relations with industrial partners including Daimler-Benz and BMW as research priorities shifted toward projects related to Reichswehr rearmament and technologies that later influenced wartime programs in aviation, rocketry (linked to personnel who would later work with Wernher von Braun), and chemical research at facilities connected to IG Farben. Prominent scientists such as Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Arnold Sommerfeld, Johannes Stark, and Carl Bosch were implicated in debates over accommodation, resistance, or cooperation with the regime; the Notgemeinschaft's records reveal negotiations with ministries and figures like Hermann Göring and Bernhard Rust over personnel and funding.
Following World War II and the collapse of the Nazi state, Allied occupation authorities and denazification processes affected institutions and personnel associated with the Notgemeinschaft; bodies such as the Allied Control Council, the United States Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS), and the British Military Government oversaw reorganization. The Notgemeinschaft's structures and some assets were reconstituted in the late 1940s, contributing to the foundation of successor organizations including the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the reestablished Max Planck Society, and newly formed university administrations at Free University of Berlin and other institutions in both Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic. The legacy of the Notgemeinschaft persists in debates over scientific autonomy, restitution for persecuted scholars such as Lise Meitner and Felix Bloch, and the reconstruction of German research infrastructure that later engaged with transatlantic programs involving the Marshall Plan, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and Cold War science policy shaped by agencies like the National Science Foundation and corporate partners including Siemens and BASF.