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In the Service of the Reich: Aspects of Copernicus and Galileo in Nazi Germany’s Historiographical and Political Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2002

Volker R. Remmert
Volker R. Remmert
Affiliation:
Arbeitsgruppe Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
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Abstract

Argument

Focus of this paper is on the historiographical fate of Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei in Nazi Germany. Both played interesting roles in Nazi propaganda and the legitimization of Nazi political goals. In the “Third Reich,” efforts to claim Copernicus as a German astronomer were closely linked to revisionist policies in Eastern Europe culminating in the war-time expansion. The example of Galileo’s condemnation by the Catholic Church in 1633 became a symbol of its unjustified opposition to new “scientific” results, namely Nazi racial theory. After Catholic opposition against Nazi racial theory had reached a peak in 1937, the Galileo affair was turned into an instrument of Nazi propaganda against the Catholic Church.

Auch der Historiker steht in der Zeit, nicht über ihr.

Das Ewigkeitspostament hat er verloren.

Siegfried Giedion

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2001 , pp. 333 - 359
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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