ABSTRACT
Twentieth-century Germany has been the source for a great deal of institutional innovation in science. This chapter will emphasize how changing political, economic, and ideological forces have (and have not) influenced the relationship between science and the state in Germany during this century. Two themes will contrast the continuity represented by science with the discontinuity with respect to political regime: innovation and adaptation. This is certainly not the whole story of German science during the twentieth century. Individual scientists and scientific discoveries are also important, but because of space limitations can only be touched upon here. Moreover, science policy is arguably best suited for studying the peculiarly ‘German’ stamp on contemporary science, because scientists and scientific institutions are more malleable with regard to political ideology than science is. Finally, the National Socialist period dominates the historiography of recent German science. A study of scientific institutions before, during, and after the Third Reich illuminates both the peculiar effect of National Socialism on science and the significance of the Nazi period for twentieth-century German science.
