Synopses & Reviews
After World War II, most scientists in Germany maintained that they had been apolitical or actively resisted the Nazi regime, but the true story is much more complicated. In
Serving the Reich, Philip Ball takes a fresh look at that controversial history, contrasting the career of Peter Debye, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin, with those of two other leading physicists in Germany during the Third Reich: Max Planck, the elder statesman of physics after whom Germanyand#8217;s premier scientific society is now named, and Werner Heisenberg, who succeeded Debye as director of the institute when it became focused on the development of nuclear power and weapons. and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
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Mixing history, science, and biography, Balland#8217;s gripping exploration of the lives of scientists under Nazism offers a powerful portrait of moral choice and personal responsibility, as scientists navigated and#147;the grey zone between complicity and resistance.and#8221; Balland#8217;s account of the different choices these three men and their colleagues made shows how there can be no clear-cut answers or judgement of their conduct. Yet, despite these ambiguities, Ball makes it undeniable that the German scientific establishment as a whole mounted no serious resistance to the Nazis, and in many ways acted as a willing instrument of the state.
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Serving the Reich considers what this problematic history can tell us about the relationship of science and politics today. Ultimately, Ball argues, a determination to present science as an abstract inquiry into nature that is and#147;above politicsand#8221; can leave science and scientists dangerously compromised and vulnerable to political manipulation.
Review
A comprehensive, well-documented, and, above all, thoughtful account of the scientists who served Hitler. (The Washington Post)
Review
Wide ranging and accessible . . . [A] disturbing and important account. (
The Economist)
Review
and#8220;Asks important questions, not just about twentieth-century German science but about the nature of science and the response of scientists to the political world we perforce inhabit. All scientists should read and ponder its contents.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Ball does an outstanding service by reminding us how powerful and sometimes confusing the pressures were and how it was not implausible to think that scientists could and should stay and#8216;above politics.and#8217; . . . Packed with dramatic, moving, and even comical moments.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Balland#8217;s book shows what can happen to morality when cleverness and discovery are valued above all else.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A fascinating account of the moral dilemmas faced by German physicists working within Nazism. Impeccably researched.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A fine book.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;How much did Nazism compromise its scientists? In this polished account, Ball finds that the jury is still out, even as the evidence mounts and the pursuit of firsthand records and documentary testimony continues.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;A fair-minded and meticulous assessment of the generally weak-kneed response, and especially of the actions of three non-Jewish physicists in Germany, all Nobel laureates.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The biggest problem with the behavior of Heisenberg, Planck, and Debye is not, Ball suggests, that they failed to actively resist the Nazis. After all, he writes, andlsquo;it is a brave person who asserts without hesitation that he or she would have done better.andrsquo; Instead, it is their failure even to engage with the idea that they, as scientists, bore some responsibility for the work they did and the regime under which they did it. Being an andlsquo;apolitical scientistandrsquo; is itself a political decision, Ball argues, and as his book demonstrates, it is not always the right one.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;I have been studying this subject for decades, but I found new things in Ballandrsquo;s book. He has put the material together in an accessible way, and there is an extensive bibliography for people who would like to dig deeper.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Serving the Reich is a remarkable achievementandmdash;not only for its popularization of historical debates but also for the depth of its analysis. Both the layperson interested in the moral dilemma of physicists under Hitler and the historian familiar with the controversial debates will find Ballandrsquo;s account highly instructive.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This is an outstanding work about the social responsibility of scientists, exemplified by considering the actions of three Nobelist physicists during the Nazi regime in Germany:and#160;Max Planck, Peter Debye, and Werner Heisenberg.and#160; . . . Ball, a journalist and prolific author chronicles the pressures on these men to expel Jews from their posts before the war and to pursue war research and support the Nazi ideology during the war. and#160;The retrospective furor about their alleged collaboration, accommodation, or resistance motivates Ball to reconstruct their dilemmas and responses.and#160; The conflicting accounts of Heisenbergandrsquo;s role in the atomic bomb project are carefully reviewed and their ambiguity noted and discussed.and#160; In these episodes, Ball thoughtfully navigates the nuances of attaching motives to acts, avoiding justifying the more strident contemporary accusations and exoneration.and#160; This is a stunning cautionary tale, well researched and told. Essential.andrdquo;
Synopsis
An eye-opening account of the rise of science in Germany through to Hitler’s regime, and the frightening Nazi experiments that occurred during the Reich
A shocking account of Nazi science, and a compelling look at the the dramatic rise of German science in the nineteenth century, its preeminence in the early twentieth, and the frightening developments that led to its collapse in 1945, this is the compelling story of German scientists under Hitler’s regime. Weaving the history of science and technology with the fortunes of war and the stories of men and women whose discoveries brought both benefits and destruction to the world, Hitler's Scientists raises questions that are still urgent today. As science becomes embroiled in new generations of weapons of mass destruction and the war against terrorism, as advances in biotechnology outstrip traditional ethics, this powerful account of Nazi science forms a crucial commentary on the ethical role of science.
About the Author
John Cornwell is in the department of history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University. He is a regular feature writer at the Sunday Times (London) and the author and editor of four books on science, including Power to Harm, on the Louisville Prozac trial, as well as Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII and Breaking Faith: Can the Catholic Church Save Itself?
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding the Germans
Part One: Hitler's Scientific Inheritance
1. Hitler the Scientist
2. Germany the Science Mecca
3. Fritz Haber
4. The Poison Gas Scientists
5. The "Science" of Racial Hygiene
6. Eugenics and Psychiatry
Part Two: The New Physics 1918-1933
7. Physics after the First War
8. German Science Survives
Part Three: Nazi Enthusiasm, Compliance and Oppression 1933-1939
9. The Dismissals
10. Engineers and Rocketeers
11. Medicine Under Hitler
12. The Cancer Campaign
13. Geopolitik and Lebensraum
14. Nazi Physics
15. Himmler's Pseudo-science
16. Deutsche Mathematik
Part Four: The Science of Destruction and Defence 1933-1943
17. Fission Mania
18. World War II
19. Machines of War
20. Radar
21. Codes
Part Five: The Nazi Atomic Bomb 1941-1945
22. Copenhagen
23. Speer and Heisenberg
24. Haigerloch and Los Alamos
Part Six: Science in Hell 1942-1945
25. Slave Labour at Dora
26. The "Science" of Extermination and Human Experiment
27. The Devil's Chemists
28. Wonder Weapons
Part Seven: In Hitler's Shadow
29. Farm Hall
30. Heroes, Villains, and Fellow Travellers
31. Scientific Plunder
Part Eight: Science from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
32. Nuclear Postures
33. Uniquely Nazi?
34. Science at War Again
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index