No label defined (Q4331483)

The author uses the analogy of the Behemoth, suggested by the sociologist Franz Neumann in 1942, to depict how a group of power blocs, namely the armed services, large corporations, the state bureaucracy, and the Nazi Party, revolved around a center of power (Hitler) like spokes in a wheel. Access to power was in this sense strictly centralized. This model is used to explain the fate of the scholars and engineers who made up Hitler's technocracy. The sections titles give a good idea of the contents. They are (after the introduction): 2. The purges; 3. National Socialist academic institutes; 4. The rise and fall of ``Aryan science''; 5. Racial hygiene and genocide; 6. Science and the war; 7. Conclusion: Science and ideology under National Socialism. The role played by academic institutions such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and certain individuals, among them Werner Heisenberg, is also examined. The article, a translation from English by E. A. Belozerova, is followed by an afterword written by the editor, explaining that the article is one of a series devoted to examining the critical periods in the development of science in a number of countries.