Annette Vogt

From exclusion to acceptance, from acceptance to persecution

The exhibition “Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematicians in the German- Speaking Academic Culture” illustrates the personal and professional lives of Jewish mathematicians, presenting typical places where they lived and worked and familiarizing visitors with their mathematical achievements, their books and publications, and their participation in professional organizations like the German Mathematical Society. Because of the long history of exclusion of Jewish scientists and mathematicians from the academic world, our overview does not begin until about 1820. Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (1804-1851) was the first Jewish mathematician to be granted a professorship at a German-speaking university. In 1827 he was appointed Extraordinarius and in 1832 full professor at the University of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He had, however, already converted to Christianity by the time these appointments were made. This essay will illustrate why conversion seemed to be necessary, why Jewish mathematicians did not begin to appear at German universities until after 1820, and what the general circumstances were for them in the German-speaking academic world. The essay will also describe the ongoing discrimination of Jewish university students. German universities were slow to open their doors to Jewish students, who even then remained confronted by the negative attitudes of Christian students, professors and officials and by the omnipresence of stereotypes and discrimination. Looking back, these decades of the mid-nineteenth century can be described as a period of transition from exclusion to acceptance, but nevertheless as a period in which discrimination never fully disappeared.

Dismissal and Exile

Charlotte Auerbach (1899–1994), a research fellow in genetics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin Dahlem who emigrated in 1933, later told friends and colleagues: “Thanks to Hitler I became a scientist.”1

Academic anti-semitism

Anti-Semitism remained a stable element in the history of Christian Europe for centuries. This hardly changed when, starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Jews gradually gained acceptance to academic careers. A closer look at the academic life of German-Jewish mathematicians reveals the extent to which anti-Semitic prejudices were responsible for career obstacles and discrimination.

Das Gift des Antisemitismus

Wie bereits in der ersten Station skizziert, gehort die Judenfeindschaft seit Jahrhunderten zur Geschichte des „christlichen Abendlandes“. Uber lange Zeit war sie religios motiviert. Erst Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts erhielt sie durch den Begriff der Rasse eine scheinbar wissenschaftliche Legitimation, sie wurde zum modernen bzw. rassistischen Antisemitismus. Auch noch im 21. Jahrhundert ist dieses Gift vorhanden und virulent.1

Von der Ausgrenzung zur Akzeptanz, von der Akzeptanz zur Ausschließung

In der Ausstellung werden Beispiele judischer Mathematiker genannt, exemplarische Orte ihres Wirkens vorgestellt, ihre mathematischen Leistungen gezeigt und ihre Publikationstatigkeit sowie ihre Mitarbeit in Berufsvereinigungen wie der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung hervorgehoben. Wer genauer hinsieht, bemerkt jedoch, dass uber judische Mathematiker an deutschen Universitaten erst ab ca. 1820 berichtet werden kann. Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (1804–1851) war der erste judische Mathematiker, der an einer deutschsprachigen Universitat eine Professur erhielt — 1827 als auserordentlicher und 1831 als ordentlicher Professor an der Universitat Konigsberg (heute Kaliningrad/Russland). Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte er sich aber bereits aus der judischen Gemeinschaft ausgeschlossen, denn er lies sich um 1825 taufen. Warum er dies tun musste, warum judische Mathematiker an deutschen Universitaten erst nach 1820 in Erscheinung treten konnten, was es mit Sprachregelungen und Diskriminierungen auf sich hatte — die Rahmenbedingungen und die Spielraume, die Wechsel von Ausgrenzung und Akzeptanz sowie die permanente Judenfeindschaft ihrer Umgebung, auch und gerade im akademischen Milieu — dies wird im folgenden skizziert.

Vertreibung — Exil — Rückkehr?

Die 1933 emigrierte Genetikerin Charlotte Auerbach (1899–1994), Stipendiatin am Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut (KWI) fur Biologie, erzahlte spater ihren Freunden und Kollegen: „Thanks to Hitler I became a scientist“.1

Sergej Stepanovich Tschachotin: Experimental Cytologist and Political Critic (1883–1973)

Publisher Summary Sergej Stepanovich Tschachotin was born September 13, 1883 in Constantinople (Istanbul) where his father was vice-consul of the Russian empire in Turkey. He studied medicine from1901 to 1902 at Moscow University (now Lomonosov Moscow State University) and from 1902 until 1912, he lived in western Europe, studying medicine at the universities in Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg until 1907, and receiving his doctoral degree from Heidelberg University in 1908 with a thesis, ‘‘Die Statocyste der Heteropoden.’’ Between 1908 and 1912, Tschachotin conducted scientific research at several institutes in Messina, Villafrance, Triest, and on the island of Helgoland. In 1912, he started to operate on individual cells with miniature surgical tools that he invented, many of which were quite advanced even by modern standards. He developed a series of experimental techniques that are still being used in cell physiology, among which are microperfusion, cellular transplantation, and instantaneous fixation of individual cells on the microscope stage. In 1912, he constructed the first microirradiation apparatus, which allowed him to selectively irradiate individual cells or even subcellular organelles. After returning to Russia, he worked as an assistant in the laboratory of the famous Ivan Petrovich Pavlov in St. Petersburg. From 1917 until 1927, Tschachotin acted in different capacities as a politician and publisher and was not able to do further scientific research. He was actively involved in the revolution against the tsarist regime in February in 1917. But he considered the Bolsheviks revolution to be a usurpation, and in 1918 he joined the ‘‘White’’ army which was fighting against the Bolsheviks in the civil war.