Science during the Weimar Republic: 3D Gallery

Weimar Science

A collection of famous scientists and their discoveres in addition to some videos

The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus (Italian: Nascita di Venere) is a painting by Sandro Botticelli generally thought to have been painted in the mid 1480s. [more]

Albert Einstein

Probably the most famous scientist of all time for his discoveries in the Theory of relativity and the formula E=MC squared. Although he is more famous for his involvement in the Manhattan project he was awarded the nobel prize for physics in 1921 a great leap for the crippled Weimar Republic. He received the prize "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". As his theory of relativity was controversial at the time he was only credited with the discovery not the explanation due to the controversy surrounding photons which were accepted later in 1924. He fled the Nazi Regime in 1933 to the US which he was subsequently given citizenship.

Ludwig Prandtl

In 1904 Ludwig Prandtl published a paper called Fluid Flow in Very Little Friction. In it he explained the importance of the boundary layer for its importance for drag and streamlining in addition to what is was. The paper also described flow separation as a result of the boundary layer, clearly explaining the concept of stall for the first time. He became the director of the Institute for Technical Physics at the University of Göttingen, the center of aero and fluid dynamics. He later was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Flow Research. He created supersonic wind tunnels and also designed a supersonic nozzle which even today are based on his invention. Prandtl also discovered that wingtips were very important to any wing and researched how to produce the least amount of drag. Prandtl supported the Nazi regime and was used to promote Germany in terms of science.

Otto Hahn was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He won the nobel prize in chemistry in 1944 for discovering and the radiochemical proof of nuclear fission. However this was later revealed due to another colleague Lise Meitner. Their joint work included: investigations on beta-rays, their absorbability, magnetic spectra, use of the radioactive recoil discovered shortly before by Hahn(but interpreted incorrectly), to obtain new radioactive transformation products. Although most of his well known work happened after Weimar Germany, he was still a respected scientist even at the time being the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry from 1928 and discovering the element protactinium among other achievements.

Weimar Eugenics

During the times of Weimar Republic, ideas known as racial hygiene or eugenics began to spread through the population, government funded research as well as public health education. Modern medicine(at the time) and welfare programs were against Darwin's theory of natural selection as they helped the ‘unfit’. The more educated and ‘fit’ people were using birth control methods and also marry later (some not even at all as men died in the war) and therefore reducing the amount of ‘fit’ people. Eugenics proponents therefore said that the overall German population was degenerating to a lower species. Tax credits to foster ‘fit’ families and sterilizing genetic ‘inferiors’ were proposed to the German government. Not all science was right during the Weimar Republic.

Magnus Hirshfeld

Physician Magnus Hirschfeld established the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in 1919, and it remained open until 1933. Hirschfeld believed that an understanding of homosexuality could be arrived at through science. Hirschfeld was a vocal advocate for homosexual, bisexual, and transgender legal rights for men and women, repeatedly petitioning parliament for legal changes. His Institute also included a museum. The Institute, museum and the Institute's library and archives were all destroyed by the Nazi regime in 1933.

High Speed Train

This train was designed and produced in 1931. It could travel 230km per hour which at the time is an amazing feat of engineering. It traveled from ham,burg to Berlin and was made by the Krukenberg engineering company

Calculator

This was a early design of the calculator at an office technology exhibition. This was in 1931 before the first computer existed.

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Science during the Weimar Republic