The ''Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft'' (Emergency Association of German Science) or NG was founded on 30 October 1920 on the initiative of leading members of the ''

Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

'' (Prussian Academy of Sciences, PAW) –

Fritz Haber Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydroge ...

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

, and Ernst von Harnack – and former Prussian Minister of Culture Friedrich Schmidt-Ott. Physicist Heinrich Konen, involved in founding and building the organization due to his relationship with Schmidt-Ott, became a long-standing member of its executive committee. Member institutions of the NG included all German universities, all polytechnics (''

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ). ...

n''), the five German Academies of Science, and the

Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (German: ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften'') was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by ...

. In 1929, the NG was renamed the ''Deutsche Gemeinschaft zur Erhaltung und Förderung der Forschung'' (German Association for the Support and Advancement of Scientific Research); also known in short as the ''Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft'' (DFG). Until 1934, the NG acted under supervision of the ''Reichsinnenministerium'' (Reich Interior Ministry), and after that under the ''

Reichserziehungsministerium The Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture (german: , also unofficially known as the "Reich Education Ministry" (german: ), or "REM") existed from 1934 until 1945 under the leadership of Bernhard Rust and was responsible for unifying t ...

'' (Reich Education Ministry). In 1945, by the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in Germany, the NG was no longer active. In 1949, it was re-established in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany as the NG and from 1951 as the DFG.Heilbron, 2000, pp. 90-92. The objective of the NG was to provide the regional, disciplinary, and political factions of the academic community with a central institution to facilitate raising and distributing funds for the totality of German sciences and humanities. Originally, it was to alleviate especially the increased financial needs after World War I due to monetary inflation and generally higher costs in research. As presiding secretary of the PAW, Planck briefly headed the NG until Schmidt-Ott was installed as president. The NG was successful in raising funds and support from the central German government as well as financial contributions from corporate sources in Germany and abroad.

Presidents of the NG/DFG

From 1949 to 1951,

Walter Gerlach Walther Gerlach (1 August 1889 – 10 August 1979) was a German physicist who co-discovered, through laboratory experiment, spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern–Gerlach effect. The experiment was conceived by Otto Stern in 1921 an ...

was a vice-president of the NG.Flachowsky, 2008, Appendix I; see the entry for Gerlach, p. 8.

Bibliography

*Flachowsky, Sören ''Von der Notgemeinschaft zum Reichsforschungsrat. Wissenschaftspolitik im Kontext von Autarkie, Aufrüstung und Krieg'' (Steiner, 2008) *Heilbron, J. L. ''The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science'' (Harvard, 2000) *Hentschel, Klaus, editor and Ann M. Hentschel, editorial assistant and Translator ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996) *Zierold, Kurt ''Forschungsförderung in drei Epochen. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: Geschichte, Arbeitsweise, Kommentar'' (Steiner, 1968)

Notes

External links

* {{Italic title Scientific organizations established in 1920 Scientific organisations based in Germany