Research project

Two topics are examined with regard to the history of the Max Planck Society.

1. The Max Planck Society and policies and legacies of the Nazi past

The study prepared within the framework of the research program History of the Max Planck Society examines the question of how the largest West German non-university scientific organization dealt with the legacy and Nazi past of its predecessor organization, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG)? Until the mid-1980s, legal forms were dominating in dealing with the historical past, such as denazification and criminal proceedings or reparation and restitution proceedings, in which the MPG or its relatives were defendants. he narratives that emerged in the process of dealing with the past will be examined in discourse analysis on the basis of trial records, publications, and speeches at anniversary celebrations. Continuities and discontinuities between the KWG and the MPG will be examined in terms of institutional history and their leadership. How did the MPG react when, since the mid-1980s, critical historical research into National Socialist medical crimes, in which KWG scientists were also involved, became the subject of public debate? What internal and external impulses were required before the MPG, after a long period of hesitation, decided in 1997 to set up the Presidential Commission "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism" headed by Reinhard Rürup and Wolfgang Schieder and to have the Nazi past of its predecessor organization scientifically investigated in a research program by independent historians?

2. Dual Use Problems and Military Research in the Max Planck Society

At the end of World War II, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG) was highly integrated into the military-industrial-academic complex of the "Third Reich." Its scientific research served military knowledge objectives to a considerable extent. The Allied policy of demilitarization led to a reorientation towards basic research and a conversion of wartime research in the KWG and its successor organization, the Max Planck Society (MPG). With the reintegration of the Federal Republic into the Western military alliance in 1955 and the rearmament of the Federal Republic, the MPG as a scientific organization had to position itself with regard to the now revived armaments research and the participation in future "defense research" demanded by the Ministry of Defense. While the KWG pursued defense and war research actively and with its own intrinsic motivation, the MPG management kept its distance from military clients and armaments research. This did not, however, preclude institutes of the KWG/MPG from taking on military research projects for Allied forces immediately after the end of the war and, since 1955, also for the Federal Ministry of Defense. The question of how the MPG dealt with the adoption of military research in its governance after World War II, and what internal discussions and public controversies this led to, forms one strand of the investigation. A second strand of the study concerns the question of the extent to which basic research intentionally or unintentionally produces knowledge that can be used for military purposes. Several case studies will show how the MPG's cooperated with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to take over military research contracts and how the MPG dealt with public criticism of military contract research in the context of the student movement in the early 1970s and the peace movement in the 1980s.