3 The Life and Work of Hermann Staudinger: 1933–1945
Hermann Staudinger started a new phase of his life in the 1930s: his theory about
the macromolecular structure of polymers – which was hotly contested in the initial
stages – finally received the recognition it deserved; the outsider who was considered to be suspicious became a celebrated iconoclast with a worldwide reputation.
More and more of the organic chemists among his colleagues embraced
Staudinger’s “giant molecules” concept. The same was true of Kurt Hans Meyer
and Hermann Mark, who Staudinger said were his main opponents in the priority
dispute, because their primary valence chains competed with his macromolecules
(see Sect. 2: “1920–1932”). The “new micellar theory” propagated by Meyer and
Mark was soon to be history; the two physical chemists gradually abandoned it as
they made progress in their work (see [1], p. 93 and [15], pp. 214, 380).
While the opposition he faced from the scientific community decreased, new
storm clouds developed in 1933, when the Nazis assumed power. What did the
totalitarian state have in store for Staudinger as head of the chemical institute at
Freiburg University? And how did he position himself politically with respect to the
fascist rulers, who operated in line with their well-known motto: “If you’re not for
us, then you are against us”?
3.1 Accusation of “Anti-German Sentiment”
Kru ¨ll [11, p. 48] claims that Staudinger profited from the Nazi regime and its racial
ideology, although the latter did not encourage this: “After 1933, Staudinger
suddenly benefited from the fact that Mark and Meyer were Jews. In the context
of ‘German natural science’, Staudinger was of course a priori in the right here, at
least within the area controlled by the Nazi Party”. This assessment requires
correction to the extent that Staudinger was neither dependent on support from
any anti-Semites nor did he receive any such official support with respect to the
scientific priority dispute. The Nazis did not by any means come to Staudinger’s
defence against anyone; on the contrary, they attacked him themselves, accusing
him of “anti-German sentiment” and making him a public enemy.
One of the first to investigate Hermann Staudinger politically was the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), a new member of the Nazi party and the first
Nazi vice-chancellor of Freiburg University (period of office: 23 April 1933 to
23 April 1934). Heidegger did not just denounce colleagues in his faculty, particularly those of Jewish origin such as the philosopher Richard Ho ¨nigswald
(1975–1947), who lost his chair at Munich University because of a negative report
compiled by Heidegger (“particularly dangerous brilliance”, “vacuous dialectics”)
[32]. Heidegger also denounced scientists from all other faculties and “races” who
were identified as political opponents, particularly Communists and Social Democrats, but also people who were not members of any party but did not express Nazi/
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M. Weber and G. Deussing
Hermann Staudinger started a new phase of his life in the 1930s: his theory about
the macromolecular structure of polymers – which was hotly contested in the initial
stages – finally received the recognition it deserved; the outsider who was considered to be suspicious became a celebrated iconoclast with a worldwide reputation.
More and more of the organic chemists among his colleagues embraced
Staudinger’s “giant molecules” concept. The same was true of Kurt Hans Meyer
and Hermann Mark, who Staudinger said were his main opponents in the priority
dispute, because their primary valence chains competed with his macromolecules
(see Sect. 2: “1920–1932”). The “new micellar theory” propagated by Meyer and
Mark was soon to be history; the two physical chemists gradually abandoned it as
they made progress in their work (see [1], p. 93 and [15], pp. 214, 380).
While the opposition he faced from the scientific community decreased, new
storm clouds developed in 1933, when the Nazis assumed power. What did the
totalitarian state have in store for Staudinger as head of the chemical institute at
Freiburg University? And how did he position himself politically with respect to the
fascist rulers, who operated in line with their well-known motto: “If you’re not for
us, then you are against us”?
3.1 Accusation of “Anti-German Sentiment”
Kru ¨ll [11, p. 48] claims that Staudinger profited from the Nazi regime and its racial
ideology, although the latter did not encourage this: “After 1933, Staudinger
suddenly benefited from the fact that Mark and Meyer were Jews. In the context
of ‘German natural science’, Staudinger was of course a priori in the right here, at
least within the area controlled by the Nazi Party”. This assessment requires
correction to the extent that Staudinger was neither dependent on support from
any anti-Semites nor did he receive any such official support with respect to the
scientific priority dispute. The Nazis did not by any means come to Staudinger’s
defence against anyone; on the contrary, they attacked him themselves, accusing
him of “anti-German sentiment” and making him a public enemy.
One of the first to investigate Hermann Staudinger politically was the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), a new member of the Nazi party and the first
Nazi vice-chancellor of Freiburg University (period of office: 23 April 1933 to
23 April 1934). Heidegger did not just denounce colleagues in his faculty, particularly those of Jewish origin such as the philosopher Richard Ho ¨nigswald
(1975–1947), who lost his chair at Munich University because of a negative report
compiled by Heidegger (“particularly dangerous brilliance”, “vacuous dialectics”)
[32]. Heidegger also denounced scientists from all other faculties and “races” who
were identified as political opponents, particularly Communists and Social Democrats, but also people who were not members of any party but did not express Nazi/
108
M. Weber and G. Deussing