Abstract
TRANSLATIONS of extracts of speeches made at the ceremonial dedication of the Philipp-Lenard-Institut at Heidelberg in December last were given in an article in NATURE of January 18, p. 93. The speech made by Prof. J. Stark, president of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt and of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, is published in full in the February issue of Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte. This journal, edited by the “Reichsleiter fur welt-anschauliche Schulung”, Alfred Rosenberg, is intended to be the leading periodical for German intellectual and academic circles. Prof. Stark's speech expresses even more extreme views than were represented in the extract given in NATURE. It appears from a letter published this week in our correspondence columns that 1935-36 is not really the 550th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg, but the 549th. The facts as stated by our correspondent have been verified by reference to original sources at the British Museum. It has seemed curious to many of us that the University should have arranged for a half-century celebration, but it is even more strange that the 549th anniversary should have been chosen for it. No news has reached us officially from scientific societies or universities as to whether they propose to send delegates or not, or merely to present addresses. Announcement has been made, however, in the public Press, that the senate of the University of Birmingham has unanimously decided not to accept the invitation. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge will also probably decline to send representatives. The Cambridge branch of the Association of Scientific Workers has sent to NATURE a letter, in the course of which it is urged that “a refusal to send representatives must not be interpreted as an affront to the University of Heidelberg, but as an indication that scientific opinion in Great Britain condemns the atmosphere in which members of that University are compelled to work”.
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Heidelberg and Academic Freedom. Nature 137, 352 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137352a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137352a0