[Association of the Berlin German Academy of Science and the German Leopoldina Academy of Natural Scientists with the Nazi medical crimes of its members after 1945].

Abstract

The paper examines how two renowned academies based in East Germany handled the Nazi medical crimes of its members after 1945. It should be noted that both institutions were differently affected by these crimes. This applies both in terms of number of incriminated members, which is a consequence of the different membership structure of the two academies, as well as the extent of their involvement. Despite being apparently the less affected of the two, the former Prussian Academy of Sciences responded more radically to the Nazi past of its members and removed those accounted guilty from the academy before it was reopened by the Soviet military administration on 1 July 1946. The reasons for this are to be found mainly in the exposed situation of the academy, which was in the center of the Soviet occupying power. The Leopoldina did not make such adjustments of the membership lists. The reasons for the moderate dealing with the Nazi crimes of its members are primarily in the attitude of the leading representatives of the Leopoldina in Halle after 1945, in the continuity of the members, and thus the thought structures--regardless of the ruling political systems--and in the particular status of the Leopoldina as an all-German academy tolerated by the SED.