Research programme history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism

Critical engagement with the KWG’s activities under the Nazi regime

In 1997, the Max Planck Society appointed a commission of independent historians to conduct a thorough investigation into the history of its predecessor organisation, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG), during the National Socialist era. The project was completed in 2007: 17 volumes of research and 28 preprints document the extent to which scientists and research administrators at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes (KWIs) and within the KWG’s General Administration were involved in the crimes of the Nazi state. In addition, a commemorative book records the biographical fates of 104 scientists who, beginning in 1933, were expelled from Germany for racial or political reasons.

Background

It was not until after the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials and in the wake of the student movements of the 1960s and 1970s that Germany began to fully and publicly confront the legacy of National Socialism. Research organisations and universities, in particular, took a long time to face up to their roles during the Third Reich. At the Max Planck Society, a tradition persisted into the 1980s of emphasising the outstanding scientific achievements and Nobel Prizes of its predecessor, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG), while largely ignoring the prominent role that the KWG had played in the Nazi system. Instead, the myth of politically detached, pure basic research was upheld. This policy of collective suppression was further supported by the fact that after 1945 neither active participants in the Nazi regime, nor hangers-on were called to account, and scientists who had been expelled rarely returned to the Max Planck Society.

It was not until the 1990s that the Max Planck Society – which from 1948 had continued almost all KWG institutes located in the western occupation zones under a new name – began critically examining its predecessor’s past. This delay had been reinforced in the 1950s and 1960s by the founding of numerous new Institutes and the closure or transformation of historical KWG institutes. These changes fostered the idea within the Max Planck Society that it was a new institution with only limited links to the Nazi past of the KWG.  

At the same time, public pressure for answers increased. Historians and journalists such as Ernst Klee, Götz Aly, Benno Müller-Hill, and Kristie Macrakis began publishing their initial findings on the KWG’s involvement in National Socialism. Some Max Planck Institutes also began to reflect on whether their scientific legacy was tainted. For example, the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research—successor to the Berlin-based Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research—held extensive collections of brain specimens from the 1920s and 1930s, some of which originated from victims of the Nazi “euthanasia” killing programmes. In 1990, the Max Planck Society decided to bury these brain specimens at the Waldfriedhof Cemetery in Munich. A memorial ceremony for the victims was held there three months later. It was during this time, under the Presidencies of Heinz Staab and Hans Zacher, that the idea of a comprehensive reckoning with the Society’s Nazi history began to take concrete form.

The work of the Presidential Commission

In 1997, Max Planck President Hubert Markl appointed a commission of independent historians to investigate the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society during the Third Reich. Reinhard Rürup (Technical University of Berlin) and Wolfgang Schieder (University of Cologne), both recognized experts on anti-Semitism, institutional history, and the Nazi period, were appointed to lead the project. Neither of them belonged to the Max Planck Society. Together with a large research team, they were given unrestricted access to all archives and personal collections. The investigation focused on the politics of the KWG’s General Administration, the bioscientific, medical, and psychiatric research conducted at KWG institutes, as well as armaments and plant breeding research in the context of war and Nazi expansionism in the East. The roles of prominent scientific figures, including Nobel Laureate and later long-serving Max Planck Society President Adolf Butenandt, were also examined.

The investigation focused on the politics prevailing at General Administration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the bioscientific, medical and psychiatric research conducted at the corresponding institutes, as well as armaments and agricultural plant breeding research in the context of war and the eastward expansion of the Third Reich. The project also looked at the role played by influential protagonists of the KWG, among them the Nobel Laureate and later long-time President of the Max Planck Society, Adolf Butenandt.

The project was completed in 2007. The results were published in 17 scholarly volumes and 28 preliminary publications, which laid bare the extent to which researchers and research administrators at the KWG were involved in the crimes of the Nazi state. In addition, a memorial book documented the biographies of 104 scientists who were driven out of Germany after 1933 for racial or political reasons.

Findings of the investigation

The commission concluded that many scientists and administrators at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society were deeply implicated in the Nazi system. Researchers often collaborated willingly, without coercion, by aligning their scientific goals with the political and military objectives of the regime. In most KWG institutes, the boundaries between scientific work and integration into Nazi policies were blurred. In the biosciences in particular, ethical lines were clearly crossed.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for Brain Research and Psychiatry obtained human specimens from “euthanasia” killing centres. Scientists at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics, chief among them founding director Eugen Fischer, declared their ideological support for Nazi racial policy as early as 1933 and actively promoted it through legislative collaboration and training for legal and medical professionals. Otmar von Verschuer, who would later become director of the institute, maintained close contact with Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele from 1942 onward, from whom he obtained specific blood samples and specimens from individuals murdered at the camp.

Technology- and physics-oriented Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes also aligned themselves with the Nazi system. From 1933, the KWI for Flow Research was developed into a large-scale research facility conducting armaments research for the Reich Ministry of Aviation. The KWIs for Metals Research, Silicate Research, and Leather Research worked on developing substitutes and improving materials critical to the war effort; their directors personally sympathised with National Socialism. Scientific research also profited from the territorial conquests of the Wehrmacht. The KWI for Plant Breeding Research developed new crop varieties suited to the occasionally harsh climates of occupied Eastern territories, supporting Nazi plans for “Lebensraum in the East” and concomitant plans for world domination. From 1944, the institute also ran a rubber tree breeding station in Auschwitz, which employed female forced labourers from the camp.

Moves to expel Jewish scientists from the KWG beginning in 1933 met with little resistance from leadership or the broader staff. Some of these researchers were able to continue their careers abroad due to their international reputations and contacts. However, many others failed to integrate into the academic systems of their host countries and could not regain their former success. Of the 126 persecuted KWG scientists, Fritz Epstein, Fritz Duschinsky, and two female employees of the General Administration were murdered in concentration camps.

During Max Planck’s Presidency (1930–1937), the KWG General Administration still attempted to maintain a degree of independence. However, under his successors, and especially during the war, it increasingly acquiesced to the expectations of the Nazi state. Presidents like Carl Bosch and particularly Albert Vögler were accepted by the regime; Vögler was an active supporter. Those researchers and staff members who remained sceptical or even opposed to the regime, such as Max von Laue, Otto Hahn, and even Max Planck himself, ceased to appear in public and avoided public confrontation with the government. A small number resisted more openly, including plant geneticist Elisabeth Schiemann.

Apology and commemoration of the victims

As the successor organisation to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Max Planck Society has acknowledged its historical responsibility for the involvement of its predecessor in Nazi crimes.

In 2000, together with other research institutions, the Max Planck Society erected a memorial at the Berlin-Buch research campus, the former site of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research. The memorial honours the victims of unethical research conducted there, where brain specimens of countless individuals murdered in psychiatric hospitals and care homes were received under the Nazi "euthanasia" killing programme.

In 2001, the Society organised a symposium titled “Biosciences and Human Experimentation at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes”, bringing together historians, MPG representatives, and survivors. During this event, President Hubert Markl offered a public apology for the crimes of the past, particularly to survivors of the criminal human experimentation and twin studies connected with the KWI for Anthropology in Auschwitz.

Markl stated: “In truth, only those who are guilty can beg for pardon. Nevertheless, I ask you, the surviving victims, most sincerely to forgive those who, for whatever reason, have themselves failed to beg your pardon.”

He also acknowledged that the Max Planck Society had long done too little to reveal the Nazi-era history of the KWG and had faced its historical responsibility too late. He concluded:

“The most honest form of apology lies in the disclosure of guilt.”