Research project
Project duration: August 2026 to July 2029
Project leaders: Jutta Braun/Winfried Süß
Funded by the Albert Einstein Science Park Association
This project examines the history of the natural science research institutions located on Potsdam’s Telegrafenberg, their predecessors, and the history of the Babelsberg Observatory from 1930 to 1950. The focus on the twin upheavals of 1933 and 1945 opens up a dual comparative perspective: synchronic between the research institutions, and diachronic between the final phase of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era and the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) or the early GDR, with the main emphasis on the Nazi dictatorship. The study aims to identify continuities and discontinuities across these two political turning points in terms of personnel, organisation and epistemology.
The project has three research foci. The first deals with the institutes and their staff during the Nazi era. The central question here is how politics and ideology influenced the organisation and content of research, and how the institutes adapted to the challenges that arose in these contexts. The second research field concerns the fate of the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. Who came under the scrutiny of the Nazi persecution apparatus, what distinct grounds for persecution can be identified, and how did this affect the lives of those involved? The third field examines the post-war period, during which the institutes were confronted primarily with three problems: firstly, a glaring lack of resources; secondly, the forced restructuring policies imposed by the occupying powers; and thirdly, an ever-worsening shortage of staff.
