Max Planck

:This article is about Planck, the German physicist. For the proposed European Space Agency artificial satellite, see "Planck (satellite)".

World War and Weimar Republic

At the onset of the First World War Planck was not immune to the general excitement of the public: "... besides of much horrible also much unexpectedly great and beautiful: the swift solution of the most difficult issues of domestic policy through arrangement of all parties... the higher esteem for all that is brave and truthful..." Admittedly, he refrained from the extremes of nationalism, e.g. he voted successfully for a scientific paper from Italy receiving a prize from the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1915 (Planck was one of its four permanent presidents), although at that time Italy was about to join the Allies; nevertheless the infamous "Manifesto of the 93 intellectuals", a polemic pamphlet of war propaganda, was also signed by Planck, while Einstein retained a strictly pacifistic attitude which almost led to his imprisonment (from which he was only saved by his Swiss citizenship). But already in 1915 Planck revoked (after several meetings with Dutch physicist Lorentz) parts of the Manifesto,

Related Topics:
First World War - Lorentz

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1916 he signed a declaration against German annexionism.

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In the turbulent post-war years Planck, by now the highest authority of German physics, issued the slogan "persevere and continue working" to his colleagues. In October 1920 Fritz Haber and he established the "Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft" (emergency organisation of German science), which aimed at providing support for the destitute scientific research; the funds they could distribute were raised to a considerable part abroad. In this time Planck held leading positions also at Berlin University, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the German Physical Society and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften (KWG, Emperor-Wilhelm-Society for the advancement of science, which in 1948 became the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft); under such conditions he was hardly able to conduct any research himself any more.

Related Topics:
1920 - Fritz Haber - Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society - 1948 - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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He became a member of the Deutsche Volks-Partei (German People's Party), the party of peace Nobel prize laureate Gustav Stresemann, which aspired liberal aims for domestic policy and rather revisionistic aims for international politics. He disagreed with the introduction of universal suffrage and expressed later the view that the Nazi dictatorship was the result of

Related Topics:
German People's Party - Gustav Stresemann

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"the ascent of the rule of the crowds".

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