Science diplomacy has recently been seen as a beacon of hope in tackling the global challenges of international politics. And the Max Planck Society sees itself today as an actor in German science diplomacy. This was not always the case. During the Cold War, despite all efforts to keep its extensive scientific relations separate from the political sphere, the MPG was unable to escape realpolitik. This study explores how the MPG positioned itself in this field, both when it cooperated with the foreign policy of the Federal Republic as well as when it distanced itself from it, and how it combined its roles as a national, European and global science policy actor.

lgrsnf/8.pdf

Germany, Germany

Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Body
Foreword
Editorial Note
1. Introduction
2. International Relationships of the MPS during the Cold War: Changing Historical Constellations
2.1 How the MPS Asserted Itself in Postwar Germany and Became Established Within the Bloc System
Negotiating with the Occupying Powers
(Re-)Integration into International Scientific Communities and International Organizations, including the CERN
“Going International” with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Other Organizations
2.2 Foreign Science Policy in the “CDU-State”
Defining Roles within the Federal German Science System: MPS and DFG
Diplomacy by Other Means: The Case of Israel
The Europeanization of Big Science
A Foreign Policy Mandate for the President
Butenandt’s Intellectual Network and Its Initiatives in Establishing Social Science Institutes
Learning Policy Consultancy from the American Model
The (Un-)American Founding of the Starnberg Institute
The Mission: A Scientific Understanding of the World
2.3 Science and Technology in the Socio-Liberal Decade of Détente
Brandt’s New Foreign Policy
Detente-Oriented Foreign Science Policy and Its Contradictory Demands on the MPS
The European Science Landscape Through the Eyes of Two MPS Presidents
Administering European Research: The MPS’s International Relations Unit
Policy Consultancy in the Storeroom of the MPS
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: The Last Mandarin of the MPS
How Political Can a MPS Scientist Be? Dürr Versus Lüst
2.4 From the End of Détente to the Collapse of the Soviet Empire
The MPS in Relation to Politics and the Public
Imagine a War Without the MPS Involved
“Star Wars”—Collateral Effects on Research
Fusion Research and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War
Where Will the Money Come From: Project Grants or Base Funding?
From Politics to the Administration of International Scientific Relations
2.5 After the Cold War: German Reunification in an Expanded Europe
The Administrative Headquarters in a State of Emergency
Europe: Constant “Erosion” of the German Research System
The End of the Cold War and Its Significance for the MPS’s Science Foreign Policy
3. Special Relationships: The Cultural and Scientific Policy Missions of the MPS in Italy, Spain, the USSR, and China
3.1 Italian and Other (Lost) Outposts in South(east) Europe
Welcome and Unwelcome Donations: Zoological Station Rovigno and Bibliotheca Hertziana
The Vision of a “Central European” Science Space
Denazification and the Late Arrival of the Hertziana in the MPS
Institutes Abroad: A Negative Balance Sheet and Its Lessons for the MPS
3.2 Old Comrades and New Instruments: Spain
Early Arms Patronship
The Role of the MPS in the Spanish Nuclear Program
Regaining Cultural-Political Terrain
Crypto-Fascists Get Involved
A Fiesta for Butenandt and a Gift to Spain
Scientific-Technical Collaboration 2.0
Diplomacy for One’s Own Sake
3.3 Collaboration with the Political Adversary: The USSR
Science Transfer: From Mutual Benefit to Security Risk
Scientific Rapprochement Under Foreign-Policy Fire
The MPS on the Short Leash of the Foreign Office
Autonomy or Plan, Purpose-Free or Useful Science?
New State Agreements and Other Obstacles
New Cooperations—In Spite of Existing Agreements
The Cold War Resumes
“Star Peace” or the Commercialization of Space Exploration
Science and Diplomacy Before and After the Collapse of the Soviet Union
3.4 Scientific Ping-Pong Diplomacy: China
Geopolitics in Motion
Foreign Science Policy in Limbo
The Art of Informality
Staying on Course Abroad: Basic Research!?
The MPS in the Booming China Business of the Federal Republic
A Lane for Basic Research in China
Laboratory Explorations in the Far East: “It Can Be Done Another Way, But This Way Works, Too”
Permanent Academy Reform and the Role of the MPS
Tiananmen—What Was It?
Globalized Elite Development
3.5 International Relations in Comparison
4. The Trail of Concern for World Peace and the Earth
4.1 The Era of Memoranda: From Mainau via Göttingen to Tübingen
A Parallel Action by Nobel Laureates
“Paths in Danger”
On Invisible Paths
“Pastoral Care for Bundestag Members” or Telling the People the Truth
4.2 Rethinking Science and Politics: the VDW and Pugwash
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Self-Education, Realpolitik, and Ambivalence
Between Informal Diplomacy and Government Loyalty
Pressure from All Sides
4.3 Starnberg Strategy Games
Everyone Has (No) Chance: Civil Defense during the Cold War
The Consequences of War Study
Defensive Defense
Bifurcations
Stability-Oriented Security Policy on the International Stage
But the MPS Does Not Play Along
4.4 New Social Movements: From Krefeld via Mainz and Hamburg to Moscow
From Theoretical Physicist to Peace Activist: Hans-Peter Dürr
Congresses and Appeals to the Public
Let Politics be Private
Against the Militarization of Space
Ex oriente lux: Gorbachev’s Disarmament Initiatives and the Mainz Twenty-Three
... et umbra: “Save Sakharov”
The Brief Dream of One World
4.5 A Scientific Response to Concern: The Expansion of Earth System Research at the MPS
Environmental Research avant la lettre
Ecological Revolution—Revolutionary Research?
Paul Crutzen: A Polluted Atmosphere Needs Impure Science
The Resistible Rise of Environmental Research at the MPS
4.6 The Search for Traces in Fast Motion
5. The Science Foreign Policy of the MPS and International Politics: Looking Back—and Forward
Abbreviations
Picture Credits
Sources and Literature
Archival Sources
Conversations and interviews with contemporary witnesses
Published sources and serial publications
Bibliography
List of Persons

2025-03-14