Introduction

In 1914 the first Institute for Genetics (Institut für Vererbungswissenschaft) in Germany was founded in Berlin-Dahlem at the semi-academic Agricultural College (Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule). Professor of genetics Erwin Baur (1875–1933) was its first director. The scientific staff consisted almost exclusively of women: there were five of them, to be joined from 1921 by only a single male. In 1930, as the historian Werner Pfarre wrote in 1987, ‘Thanks to the efforts of Baur and his colleagues the Dahlem Institute had reached a position of world renown by the time Baur left.’ Nevertheless, a potential successor of Baur, Theodor Roemer, who headed the institute of plant breeding at the University of Halle, was not very keen to take over the institute. When asked whether he was interested in succeeding Baur, he wrote: ‘The fact that I … will in a certain sense take over a convent of noble women … is most discouraging. A possible solution to this problem will have to be discussed.’ Although the research results of the almost exclusively female staff had brought about the prestige of the institute, its gender composition apparently made the directorship of the institute unattractive to this professor. He would not become Baur’s successor.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, universities all over Europe and the United States expanded. Science was set on a new experimental footing. Data collection, mostly by means of experiments, was considered essential.