Einstein and Nazi physics: When science meets ideology and prejudice

Authors

  • Philip Ball Science writer and author (London, UK).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.10.13472

Keywords:

Albert Einstein, Nazism, anti-Semitism, science and ideology

Abstract

In the 1920s and 30s, in a Germany with widespread and growing anti-Semitism, and later with the rise of Nazism, Albert Einstein’s physics faced hostility and was attacked on racial grounds. That assault was orchestrated by two Nobel laureates in physics, who asserted that stereotypical racial features are exhibited in scientific thinking. Their actions show how ideology can infect and inflect science. Reviewing this episode in the current context remains an instructive and cautionary tale.

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Author Biography

Philip Ball, Science writer and author (London, UK).

Science writer and author (London, UK). He previously worked as an editor at Nature , and his many books on science and its interactions with the broader culture include Serving the Reich: The struggle for the soul of physics under Hitler (2014). His last book is Beyond weird: Why everything you thought you knew about quantum physics is different (2018).

References

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Van Dongen, J. (2007). Reactionaries and Einstein’s fame: “German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science”, relativity, and the Bad Nauheim Meeting. Physics in Perspective, 9(2), 212–230. doi: 10.1007/s00016-006-0318-y

Walker, M. (1995). Nazi science: Myth, truth and the German atomic bomb. New York: Plenum.

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Published

2020-01-08

How to Cite

Ball, P. (2020). Einstein and Nazi physics: When science meets ideology and prejudice. Metode Science Studies Journal, (10), 147–155. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.10.13472
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Issue

Shades of science (2020)

Section

Science and Nazism. The unconfessed collaboration of scientists with National Socialism

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