
This project aims to document the development of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (Imperial Physical Technical Institute (PTR)) during the Third Reich and examine its role in the National Socialist (NS) scientific community.
Following its foundation in 1887, the PTR was not just the supreme metrological institute in Germany, but also its largest and most venerable physical research institute. During the Third Reich the PTR was directed by two scientists, Johannes Stark (1874–1957) and Abraham Esau (1884-1955), who were high-ranking members of the Nazi Party. Although the core tasks of the PTR—to maintain the base units of measurement and to ensure their incorporation in national standards—were still at the focus of its activities, under the leadership of Stark and Esau, the institute became more and more integrated into the NS policy of promoting the economy and national defense. The activities of some of the divisions were changed and new laboratories were established accordingly. The impact of the institute’s fundamental research, which had made the institute unique within the international framework, was substantially decreased.
This project will investigate all of these processes in detail, embedding them into the scientific and political contexts of the time. It will give a survey of the then-current topics of research with the foundation of new research divisions and the reorganization of some traditional research fields. Apart from this description of the research praxis in this period, the study will also investigate the specific role of the PTR within the framework of NS science policy and the constellations of political power in the Third Reich, including an analysis of the Nazi Party membership of its employees, the expulsion of Jewish coworkers and the development of its budget and staff.
The planned publication will be the first comprehensive and detailed history of the PTR during the Third Reich and will provide a comparative perspective on the years before and after the despotic era of National Socialism, also touching on the issue of the continuities and discontinuities in the institute’s history.