Plant Breeding and Agrarian Research in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institutes 1933-1945: Calories, Caoutchouc, Careers

ISBN-13: 9781402067174 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 235 str.

Heim, Susanne

Opis

A history of the agricultural sciences in Nazi Germany is presented in this book. The book analyzes scientific practice under the Nazi regime, Nazi agricultural policy and autarkic strategies, and the expansion policy in Eastern Europe. It offers new insights into the Auschwitz concentration camp and new perspectives on the cooperation between German elite scientists and the Nazi regime. The book goes on to dismiss the assumption that "Arian physics" were typical for Nazi Germany.

Spis treści

Introduction: Politics and Agricultural Research

Calories - Agricultural Research, the Food Economy and War
Herbert Backe and Science Policy
Research on Plant and Animal Breeding
Foreign Currencies, Genetics and the Fodder Gap
Autochthonous Animal Species and Artificial Insemination
The Four-Year Plan, 'Greater Europe', and Substitute Substances
Hydrobiology and Limnology for the Four-Year Plan
Institute Projects in South-Eastern Europe
Research on Native Textile Plants
Productivization of People
The Science of Agricultural Work
Work Physiology and Nutritional Science
Résumé: War as Opportunity

Caoutchouc – A Vital War Reserve
The Development of a Research Programme
Dependence on Natural Rubber
The Kok-Sagyz Network
Slave Labour for Science
Kok-Sagyz Cultivation in German-Occupied Europe
Plant Breeding Research in Auschwitz
Résumé: Scientific Productivity and Terror

Careers - Hans Stubbe and Klaus von Rosenstiel
Two Breeding Researchers
The Pure Air of Scientific Research
The Seamy Side of Academic Life
The Advance of Science
Wild Plants as a Genetic Resource
Research Organisation in the Occupied East
Post-War Careers
Résumé: Creators, Experts, Servants

Conclusions: Science, Nazi Rule and War

O autorze

Susanne Heim ist Politikwissenschaftlerin und Historikerin. Habilitation an der Freien Universität Berlin. Publikationen zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus sowie zur Bevölkerungspolitik und Migration im 20. Jahrhundert. Seit 1999 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Forschungsprogramm "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus".

Blurb

The book offers a history of the agricultural sciences in Nazi Germany. It analyzes scientific practice under the Nazi regime, Nazi agricultural policy and autarkic strategies as well as expansion policy in Eastern Europe. It also offers new insights into the Auschwitz concentration camp. It outlines the Nazi’s comprehensive nutritional and agricultural research program intended to prepare Germany for war by raising productivity through scientific means, researching the relation between nutrition and performance at the edge of starvation, and restructuring the agricultural economy of the continent. The book reveals the relation between science and power in Nazi Germany beyond the usual dichotomy that paints scientists in Nazi Germany either as victims of oppression or as sadistic beasts. It shows the involvement of a high ranking scientific elite in the Nazi regime of occupation and looting of cultural goods in the occupied eastern territories – largely for the sake of their own careers. The main audience the book addresses are students of history and the history of science, and anyone interested in the history of Nazi Germany.