12.1 After the Great War
253
In July 1919, the International Research Council was established, and Germany
was excluded from membership. Countries that had remained neutral during
the war, such as the Netherlands, were allowed to join at a later date, but care
was taken to ensure that the statutes were fixed by then and could no longer
be changed in case the neutrals still wanted to admit Germany.
Kapteyn fiercely resisted this, especially when it turned out that the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences was planning to join. His daughter wrote
about this in her biography:
Instead of reconciling, peace at Versailles encouraged irreconcilability, and long
after the end of the war it glowed and boiled everywhere, both in the hearts of
the conquered and in those of the conquerors. Science also continued to take
sides, and in July 1919 the ‘Interallied Association of Academies’ was founded,
to the exclusion of Germany.
Kapteyn consulted with Heymans, what could be done to bring reconciliation
in the scientific world. He had an unwavering faith in science and its eventual
victory over bitter subjectivity. ‘It is my conviction that science must in the
long run directly and indirectly become a mighty factor in bringing peace and
goodwill among men. If the men of science do give an example of hate and
narrow-mindedness, who is going to lead the way?’, he wrote in January 1917 to
Eddington. In this great English astronomer, Quaker and strict scientific man,
he saw a humane and impartial judge, who would not be blinded by hatred. He
was an exception in that respect.
When, at the end of 1919, an appeal was circulated to the neutral academies to
join the International Research Council, but excluded Germany, he resisted with
all his might, and tried to hold back the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences from
taking this step. In the decisive meeting he and Heymans used all their influence
to keep the members back, but they did not succeed. Here it was opportune
to oppose idealism, and also in science idealism had to give way. He had not
expected that and the shock was so great, that he and Heymans immediately left
the Academy, which according to them had proven to be unjust and unable to
act scientifically. It was more than a transient shock: until his death, this shaken
confidence in justice and objectivity remained a painful wound.
Kapteyn and Heymans composed an open letter:
To the Members of the Academies of the Allied Nations and of the United
States of America’ [107], in which they adjured that science should be ‘the great
conciliator and benefactor of mankind.’ And they ended: ‘We understand how
your attention of late has been monopolized by what is temporal and transitory.
But now you more than all others are called upon to find again the way to what
is eternal. You possess the inclination for objective thought, the wide range of
253
In July 1919, the International Research Council was established, and Germany
was excluded from membership. Countries that had remained neutral during
the war, such as the Netherlands, were allowed to join at a later date, but care
was taken to ensure that the statutes were fixed by then and could no longer
be changed in case the neutrals still wanted to admit Germany.
Kapteyn fiercely resisted this, especially when it turned out that the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences was planning to join. His daughter wrote
about this in her biography:
Instead of reconciling, peace at Versailles encouraged irreconcilability, and long
after the end of the war it glowed and boiled everywhere, both in the hearts of
the conquered and in those of the conquerors. Science also continued to take
sides, and in July 1919 the ‘Interallied Association of Academies’ was founded,
to the exclusion of Germany.
Kapteyn consulted with Heymans, what could be done to bring reconciliation
in the scientific world. He had an unwavering faith in science and its eventual
victory over bitter subjectivity. ‘It is my conviction that science must in the
long run directly and indirectly become a mighty factor in bringing peace and
goodwill among men. If the men of science do give an example of hate and
narrow-mindedness, who is going to lead the way?’, he wrote in January 1917 to
Eddington. In this great English astronomer, Quaker and strict scientific man,
he saw a humane and impartial judge, who would not be blinded by hatred. He
was an exception in that respect.
When, at the end of 1919, an appeal was circulated to the neutral academies to
join the International Research Council, but excluded Germany, he resisted with
all his might, and tried to hold back the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences from
taking this step. In the decisive meeting he and Heymans used all their influence
to keep the members back, but they did not succeed. Here it was opportune
to oppose idealism, and also in science idealism had to give way. He had not
expected that and the shock was so great, that he and Heymans immediately left
the Academy, which according to them had proven to be unjust and unable to
act scientifically. It was more than a transient shock: until his death, this shaken
confidence in justice and objectivity remained a painful wound.
Kapteyn and Heymans composed an open letter:
To the Members of the Academies of the Allied Nations and of the United
States of America’ [107], in which they adjured that science should be ‘the great
conciliator and benefactor of mankind.’ And they ended: ‘We understand how
your attention of late has been monopolized by what is temporal and transitory.
But now you more than all others are called upon to find again the way to what
is eternal. You possess the inclination for objective thought, the wide range of