‘German Science’ in Southern Europe, 1933-45

Lisbon, October 11-13, 2012 | Submissions deadline: June 15, 2012

Science in National-Socialist Germany – the term ‘Science’ being here understood in the broadest sense of ‘Wissenschaft’, including both ‘Naturwissenschaften’ and ‘Geistes­wissenchaften’ – has been the object of several conferences and studies since the sixties. However, and in spite of the interdisciplinary openness that some of them may show (mainly those published after the eighties), most of these studies still tend to operate at national levels, hence reproducing, to a certain extent, the typical parochiality of the cultural and political systems they analyze.

The European fascist period is certainly a time of exclusions, disruptions, and confrontations, but it is also a time of network building and scientific and cultural exchange: the exhibitions, public lectures, academic or even touristic exchange that Germany organizes between 1933 and 1945 in the southern European countries (from Portugal to Romania, not forgetting Spain, Italy or Greece) reflect a hybrid (i.e. political and scientific) concern to be “recognized and imitated” (to put it in the words of the Hamburger romanist and NSDAP member Wilhelm Giese).

The conference will address Science in National-Socialist Germany from the point of view of its relations, namely with southern Europe, considering not only the political inter­nationalization of the fascist regimes, but also the important role that international cultural relations and scientific networking played in the process.

The conference welcomes paper proposals from a broad range of disciplines. Questions that could be addressed, especially on case studies examples, might include, but are not limited to:

• Knowledge & Technology transfer
• Circulation and appropriation of Knowledge
• Fascism, Science, Culture
• Fascist Scientific Policies
• Science and the Economics of War
• Networks: Actors, Institutions, Events, Disciplines
• Academics: Exchange and Exile
• Influence, Persuasion, Coercion: Science, Culture and the ‘Weltanschauungskrieg’
• Crossing Borders: the Role of Science and Culture in the Internationalization of Fascism

The Conference is hosted by the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, New University of Lisbon, and organized by the Research project The Power of Science; German Science in Portugal, 1933-45 (http://pos.fcsh.unl.pt).

A selection of papers presented at the Conference will be published in a book.

Graduate and Postgraduate students are strongly encouraged to submit papers on research in-progress or recently completed studies.