Former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut for Chemistry in Berlin, the place at whichnuclear fission was first detectedFormer Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut for Biology, Berlin
TheKaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (German:Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften) was a German scientific institution established in theGerman Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by theMax Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organisation for many institutes, testing stations, and research units created under its authority.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG) was founded in 1911 as a research institution outside the university system in order to advance the interests of German state and capital through the development of scientific knowledge relevant to industrial and military application.[1] The inaugural meeting was held on 11 January 1911.[2] The constituent institutes were established in succession and placed under the guidance of prominent directors, whose ranks included the physicists and chemistsWalther Bothe,Peter Debye,Albert Einstein,Fritz Haber andOtto Hahn; a board of trustees also provided guidance.
Funding came from both business and government to reduce KWG's dependence on either source.[1] It was also obtained from individuals, from theNotgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (Emergency Association of German Science), and foreign sources.
Outside Germany, theRockefeller Foundation granted students worldwide one-year study stipends for whichever institute they chose. Some studied in Germany,[3][4][5] in contrast to the German universities, with their formal independence from state administration, the institutions of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft had no obligation to teach students.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its research institutes were involved in weapons research, experimentation and production in both the First World War and the Second World War. During theWorld War I, the group, and in particular Fritz Haber, was responsible for introducing the use ofpoison gas as a weapon.[6] This was in direct violation of establishedinternational law.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society sacked its Jewish employees following the enactment of the NaziLaw for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service in the spring of 1933. Fritz Haber was the only institute director who resigned to protest the instructions issued by the general secretary of the KWG, Friedrich Glum. The Jewish directors were retained for several more years.[7]
After the implementation of theNuremberg Laws in the autumn of 1935, the KWG PresidentMax Planck convinced the Rockefeller Foundation not to withdraw its funding for the construction of theKaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (KWIP) in Berlin. He also successfully lobbied the Nazi government through his industrial connections to commit to financing KWIP's future operations.[8]
On 29 May 1937, Max Planck handed over the KWG presidency to theIG Farben founder and chairmanCarl Bosch, based on the Society's decision to strengthen its industry ties.[9][10] He had announced this step in early 1936.[11]
In early February 1942, the KWG PresidentAlbert Vögler accepted to take back the nuclear power research at KWIP from the HWA at a meeting with the HWA headWilhelm von Leeb and the HWA physicistErich Schumann,[13] but following a series of lectures that advertised the field theReich Minister of ScienceBernhard Rust assigned it to hisReich Research Council instead.[14] As a result, the KWG "had changed from being a dependent research subsidy for the army to being even more dependent under the auspices of the Reich Research Council".[15] However, after the appointment of Heisenberg as director of KWIP over Bothe,[16] theMinister of Armaments and War ProductionAlbert Speer's support for Heisenberg improved the organisation's standing and allowed it to start building an underground facility for trials with the uranium machine.[17] In mid-1942, Vögler, who was the chairman ofVereinigte Stahlwerke, a member of theFreundeskreis der Wirtschaft and the unofficial scientific advisor to ReichsmarshalHermann Göring,[10] persuaded Speer to transfer the Reich Research Council from Rust's ministry to Göring as thesupreme commander of the Luftwaffe.[18]
The Chinese physicistHe Zehui, who joined Bothe's KWImF team in 1943, worked withHeinz Maier-Leibnitz on completing acloud chamber and discovered the phenomenon of elastic electron–positron collision before the war's end. She was also able to photograph theBhabha scattering while at Heidelberg.[24][25][26]
By the end of the Second World War, the KWG and its institutes had lost their central location in Berlin and were operating in other locations. The KWG was operating out of its Aerodynamics Testing Station inGöttingen.Albert Vögler, the president of the KWG, committed suicide on 14 April 1945. Thereupon, Ernst Telschow assumed the duties untilMax Planck could be brought fromMagdeburg to Göttingen, which was in theBritish zone of theAllied Occupation Zones in Germany. Planck assumed the duties on 16 May until a president could be elected.Otto Hahn was selected by directors to be president, but there were a number of difficulties to be overcome. Hahn, being related to nuclear research had been captured by the allied forces ofOperation Alsos, and he was still interned atFarm Hall in Britain, underOperation Epsilon. At first, Hahn was reluctant to accept the post, but others prevailed upon him to accept it. Hahn took over the presidency three months after being released and returned to Germany. However, theOffice of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) passed a resolution to dissolve the KWG on 11 July 1946.
Meanwhile, members of the British occupation forces, specifically in the Research Branch of the OMGUS, saw the society in a more favourable light and tried to dissuade the Americans from taking such action. The physicistHoward Percy Robertson was director of the department for science in the British Zone; he had a National Research Council Fellowship in the 1920s to study at theGeorg August University of Göttingen andLMU Munich. Also, Colonel Bertie Blount was on the staff of the British Research Branch, and he had received his doctorate at Göttingen under Walther Borsche. Among other things, Bertie suggested to Hahn to write to SirHenry Hallett Dale, who had been the president of theRoyal Society, which he did. While in Britain, Bertie also spoke with Dale, who came up with a suggestion. Dale believed that it was only the name which conjured up a pejorative picture and suggested that the society be renamed the Max Planck Gesellschaft. On 11 September 1946, theMax Planck Gesellschaft was founded in the British Zone only. The second founding took place on 26 February 1948 for both the American and British occupation zones. The physicistsMax von Laue andWalther Gerlach were also instrumental in establishing the society across the allied zones, including the French zone.[28][29]
Following the end of the war, a portion of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics' archive relating to the Nazi German nuclear programme was removed to theSoviet Union. The documents were returned to the Max Planck Society in the 1990s with help from the historianRainer Karlsch.[30]
KWI for Bast Fibre Research, founded 1938 inSorau. It was moved toMährisch Schönberg in 1941 and to Bielefeld in 1946. After its incorporation into theMax Planck Society in 1948 and two further relocations to Westheim and Niedermarsberg in 1951 it was incorporated into theMax Planck Institute for Breeding Research and moved to Köln-Vogelsang. The Institute was closed down in 1957. Its first director wasErnst Schilling 1938–1945 and 1948–1951.
KWI for Biochemistry, founded 1912. Nowadays, there exists theMax Planck Institute of Biochemistry, but there is no straight relation between the institutes.
KWI for German History, founded 1917 in Berlin. It was later theMax Planck Institute for History, now transformed a Max Planck Institute for multi-ethnic societies.
KWI for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, founded 1911 in Dahlem, Berlin. It is now theFritz Haber Institute of the MPG, named afterFritz Haber, who was the director 1911-1933.
KWI for Physics, founded 1917 in Berlin.Albert Einstein was the director 1917-1933; in 1922,Max von Laue became deputy director and took over administrative duties from Einstein. It is now theMax Planck Institute for Physics; also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute.
KWI for Physiology of Effort (Work)/KWI for Occupational Physiology, founded 1912 in Berlin, moved to Dortmund in 1929. It is now theMax Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund.
German Research Institute for Psychiatry (a Kaiser Wilhelm institute) in Munich. It is now the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry.
KWI for Silicate Research, founded 1926 in Berlin-Dahlem by Wilhelm Eitel.
Aerodynamic Testing Station (Göttingen e. V.) of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The testing unit Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA) was formed in 1925 along with the KWI of Flow (Fluid Dynamics) Research. In 1937, it became the testing station of the KWG.
Biological Station Lunz of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
German Entomological Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
Hydrobiological Station of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
Institute for Agricultural Work Studies in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
Research Unit "D" in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
Rossitten Bird Station of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, founded 1901 inRossitten and integrated into the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1921. The ornithological station was ceased at the end of the Second World War, but work continues at the ornithological stationRadolfzell which is part of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.
Silesian Coal Research Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, inBreslau.
^Hentschel, 1996, Appendix A; see the entries for the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Dynamics Research.
^List of Kaiser Wilhelm InstitutesArchived 2013-09-09 at theWayback Machine in summary of holdings, Section I (Bestandsübersicht, I. Abteilung), on the website of the Max Planck Gesellschaft Archives (in German). Retrieved 2015-08-29.
^Wang, Huibin (2020), "Born to do science? A case study of family factors in the academic lives of the Chinese scientific elite",Cultures of Science,3 (3): 192, 194,doi:10.1177/2096608320960243
^Müller-Hill, Benno (1999). "The Blood from Auschwitz and the Silence of the Scholars".History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.21 (3):331–365.JSTOR23332180.PMID11197188.
^Kunze, Rolf-Ulrich (2004).Ernst Rabel und das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 1926-1945. Göttingen: Wallstein. p. 13.
Schmuhl, Hans-Walter:Grenzüberschreitungen. Das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, Menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik 1927–1945. Reihe: Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005,ISBN3-89244-799-3
Hentschel, Klaus, ed. (1996).Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources. Basel, Boston: Birkhäuser Verlag.ISBN0-8176-5312-0.
Macrakis, Kristie (1993).Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.ISBN0-19-507010-0.
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