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Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 44 | Spring 2009 5 Preface FEATURES 9 The Natural Sciences and Democratic Practices: Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber, and Max Planck Margit Szöllösi-Janze 23 Comment on Margit Szöllösi-Janze’s “The Natural Sciences and Democratic Practices” Cathryn Carson 29 Gender, Sexuality, and Belonging: Female Homosexuality in Germany, 1890-1933 Marti M. Lybeck 43 The Peaceful Revolution of the Fall of 1989 Marianne Birthler 59 Human Dignity and the Freedom of the Press Jutta Limbach GHI RESEARCH 71 Billy Graham’s Crusades in the 1950s: Neo-Evangelicalism between Civil Religion, Media, and Consumerism Uta Andrea Balbier CONFERENCE REPORTS 83 Proto-Eugenic Thinking before Galton Christoph Irmscher 89 Nature’s Accountability: Aggregation and Governmentality in the History of Sustainability Sabine Höhler and Rafael Ziegler 95 Trajectories of Decolonization: Elites and the Transformation from the Colonial to the Postcolonial Sönke Kunkel 100 Symposium in Memoriam of Gerald D. Feldman Uwe Spiekermann 104 Terrorism and Modernity: Global Perspectives on Nineteenth Century Political Violence Roni Dorot and Daniel Monterescu 112 A Whole New Game: Expanding the Boundaries of the History of Sports Christopher Young 118 Decoding Modern Consumer Societies: Preliminary Results, Ongoing Research, and Future Agendas Uwe Spiekermann 123 Global Migration Systems of Domestic and Care Workers Anke Ortlepp 128 17th Annual Symposium of the Friends of the GHI and Award of the Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize Richard F. Wetzell 130 Engineering Society: The “Scientifi cation of the Social” in Comparative Perspective, 1880-1990 Jochen F. Mayer 137 Writing East German History: What Difference Does the Cultural Turn Make? Heather L. Gumbert 2 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 44 | SPRING 2009 145 GHI NEWS Director’s Inauguration Endowment of a Gerald D. Feldman Lecture Franz Steiner Prize 2008 Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize 2008 Exhibition “African American Civil Rights and Germany” New Publications GHI Research Seminar, Fall 2008 GHI-Sponsored Panels and Presentations, Fall 2008 Staff Changes Recipients of GHI Fellowships GHI Fellowships and Internships, 2009-2010 GHI Lecture Series, Spring 2009 GHI Calendar of Events for 2009 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 44 | SPRING 2009 3 PREFACE The current issue of the Bulletin refl ects the rich diversity of histori- cal topics addressed in the German Historical Institute’s research, conferences, and lectures. The history of science, legal history, contemporary history, gender history, the history of sexuality, and the history of religion are all represented in this issue’s articles. In last fall’s Annual Lecture, Margit Szöllösi-Janze addressed the relationship between science and politics by examining the politi- cal attitudes, actions, and practices of Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber, and Max Planck during the Weimar Republic. Looking well beyond the realm of political rhetoric, her article investigates the crucial question of to what extent these scientists promoted democratic practices in scientifi c organizations such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm- Society and the German Research Foundation. Cathryn Carson’s comment takes Szöllösi-Janze’s presentation as a starting point to raise important questions regarding the social and political infl u- ence of scientists and the defi nition of democracy. The theme of democracy was also prominent in last fall’s Bucerius and Hertie Lectures, both of which are published in this issue. The 2008 Gerd Bucerius Lecture was delivered by Jutta Limbach, for- mer chief judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court, who examined a topic of recent legal and constitutional history, namely the relationship between two fundamental rights that are in tension with one another in every modern democracy: human dignity and the freedom of the press. While Limbach outlined the develop- ment of a kind of democratic jurisprudence by the West German constitutional court over several decades, our Hertie Lecturer spoke about the much more rapid triumph of democracy in East Germany. Marianne Birthler, the Commissioner for the Records of the Ministry for State Security of the Former GDR, provided a perfect combina- tion of eyewitness testimony and critical analysis of the crucial events of October 1989 that led to what she called “the peaceful revolution” of 1989. She closes with trenchant refl ections on the ways in which these events are remembered almost twenty years later. We are grateful to the ZEIT-Stift ung Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius and to the Hertie Stift ung for sponsoring these lectures. Two other articles present the work of two junior scholars whose innovative work has been recognized and supported by the German PREFACE 5 Historical Institute. In the article “Gender, Sexuality, and Belong- ing,” Marti Lybeck, the winner of the 2008 Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize (awarded annually by the Friends of the GHI), provides an overview of her pioneering dissertation research on female ho- mosexuality in Germany from 1890 to 1933. In the GHI Research section, GHI Research Fellow Uta Andrea Balbier’s “Billy Graham’s Crusades in the 1950s” presents her thought-provoking research on the rise of American neo-evangelicalism in the context of civil religion, media, and consumerism. Regular readers will notice that this issue of the Bulletin sports a new cover and layout. This change is part of a larger project to redesign the Institute’s publications, communications, and inter- net presence, all in an eff ort to communicate better with you—our colleagues, readers, and interlocutors. We hope you like the new design. Hartmut Berghoff, Director 6 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 44 | SPRING 2009 Features GHI Research Conference Reports GHI News THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES: ALBERT EINSTEIN, FRITZ HABER, AND MAX PLANCK TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL LECTURE OF THE GHI, NOVEMBER 13, 2008 Margit Szöllösi-Janze UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE For a long time, the Weimar Republic has been judged by its end. Recently, new attempts have been made to reveal long forgotten elements of democratic thinking and to fi nd out if there were more people from diff erent social backgrounds and political contexts than originally thought who were, as historian Friedrich Meinecke put it, Vernunft republikaner—“republicans by reason” who originally were not supporters of parliamentary democracy but sided with the Republic aft er the revolution of 1918/19. This line of investigation goes on to ask whether there were perhaps many such republicans who remained isolated and unnoticed due to the political and social fragmentation of Weimar society.1 Against this general background, I wish to take a closer look at three of the most famous scientists of the time—Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Fritz Haber—and explore their democratic practices: the three protagonists’ perceptions of democracy, their commitment to political parties, and their other activities that could be deemed contributions towards the stabilization of the Weimar Republic. One should underline that, like most of their German contempo- raries, these three scientists did not possess clear-cut concepts of democracy, be it social, parliamentary, presidential, or direct de- mocracy. How could they? That is why I will also look at daily democratic practices in a broader sense, investigating whether these scientists applied or pushed for core democratic values such as pluralism, representation, and participation in everyday practice, that is, in academic committees, governing bodies, and institutions. 1 Andreas Wirsching and Finally, I will address the limits of democratic practice that all three Jürgen Eder, eds., scientists manifested. Vernunft re publikanismus in der Weimarer Republik: Po- litik, Literatur, Wissenschaft (Stuttgart, 2008); Malcolm I. Politics and Science Richardson, Jürgen Reule- che and Frank Tromm ler, Let me begin by refl ecting more generally on the relationship be- eds., Weimars transatlan - tween politics and science. The topic becomes even more complex tischer Mäzen: die Lincoln- Stiftung 1927 bis 1934. Ein when contemplating the meaning of political turning points for the Versuch demokratischer development of science. I base my refl ections on a defi nition of that Elitenförderung in der Weimarer Republik (Essen, relationship developed by Mitchell Ash fi rst for the National Socialist 2007). SZÖLLÖSI-JANZE | THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES 9 takeover of power, and later for other political caesurae in recent German history.2 In order to make scientists visible as autonomous actors, Ash suggested treating science and politics as complemen- tary, interacting sets of resources. He applied a broad defi nition of the term “resources,” which, in his view, can be fi nancial, but also cognitive, institutional, or rhetorical, in the form of equipment, staffi ng, or increasing prestige. Understanding politics and science as interacting sets of resources means that they can mobilize each other. For example, scientists can mobilize resources for their own benefi t from the political domain, and politicians, on the other hand, can legitimize their goals with reference to the sciences. So both politicians and scientists should be viewed as closely related, in- teracting actors. This perspective means two things. First, sets of resources in science and research are politically multivalent, meaning that alli- ances can be formed with very diff erent types of government. Second, in principle, political breaks imply major or minor restruc- turings of resource constellations.