The KWS introduces the ‘Führerprinzip’

1937

The Senate elected Carl Bosch the new President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1937. Bosch was a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Chairman of the Board of IG Farben, the company which had bankrolled the Nazi Party since 1932. He succeeded Max Planck, who had not put himself up for re-election, partly on the grounds of age. Secretary General Friedrich Glum was also replaced. He was sent into retirement at the age of 46 to make way for Ernst Telschow, who enjoyed the confidence of the Nazi Party. The Senate decided in parallel to follow Statutes prepared by the Ministry and introduce the ‘Führerprinzip’, or leader principle, in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, too. The new Statutes also granted the responsible Minister extensive powers of intervention. The provisions of the Nazi state were now also implemented in the KWS. However, Bosch was not destined to hold office for long. He was critical of Hitler’s Jewish policy, suffered progressively from depression and increasingly withdrew from the Presidential office after the outbreak of war. He died in 1940.

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