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5 - Atmos(fears): The Poison Gas Debates in the Weimar Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

Peter Thompson
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Summary

The fifth chapter continues the narrative of German poison gas production into the 1920s. Still tied to Fritz Haber and his protégés, most of this work was either hidden under the guise of pesticide research or conducted in the Soviet Union through clandestine armament deals. Both this illegal poison gas production and national debates surrounding rearmament inspired a significant interwar pacifist response. Focusing on the antigas activism of the chemist Gertrud Woker, this chapter further evaluates the rhetorical methods with which pacifists critiqued poison gas research and production. The antigas movement inspired several international disarmament and peace treaties throughout the 1920s. However, the enforcement and popularization of these treaties proved difficult as both fears over national security and visions of future aero-chemical war proliferated. A 1928 gas leak at a Hamburg chemical plant stoked these fears into a distinct call for greater national security, thus encouraging the swift political rise of the so-called gas specialists. Through their gas protection journals and their public demonstrations, this loosely affiliated group of scientists and engineers succeeded in putting pressure on the Weimar government to increase its focus on civilian air and gas protection at the expense of international disarmament agreements.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Gas Mask in Interwar Germany
Visions of Chemical Modernity
, pp. 132 - 178
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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