Johannes Stark und die gescheiterte Erklärung deutscher Nobelpreisträger zur Volksabstimmung vom 19. August 1934

Abstract

Drawing on previously unknown sources, this article documents the physicist Johannes Stark's unsuccessful attempt to publish a declaration by German Nobel laureates in support of the August 1934 referendum. Following the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, this referendum aimed to legitimize the transfer of the two highest state offices—Reich President and Reich Chancellor—to one single person, thereby making Adolf Hitler the head of state and Führer of the German people. At the suggestion of the Propaganda Ministry, Stark sent a telegram to eleven “Aryan German Nobel laureates” in chemistry and physics, and urged them to sign a public appeal to participate in the referendum and support “the great national commitment of the entire German people” to Adolf Hitler as “Führer of the German people.” Responses to Stark's telegram ranged from wholehearted support to rejection. The majority of the laureates declined to lend their signature, and the initiative ultimately failed. The episode reveals that Stark—although at the height of his influence as president of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (Imperial Institute of Physics and Technology) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)—was largely isolated within the scientific community of the so-called Third Reich.