Manoeuvring Across Academia in National Socialist Germany

The Life and Work of Devendra Nath Bannerjea

Bibliographic Data

ID21392477
AuthorsMaria Framke (0000-0003-4687-2763, University of Erfurt, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume31
Issue3
Pages307-332
Publication date2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften Technik und Medizin (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-6978 • E-ISSN: 1420-9144
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s00048-023-00363-0
PMID37532873
OpenAlexW4385490561
LanguageEN
References cited20

The article investigates the possibilities and limits for the academic Devendra Nath Bannerjea to find employment in National Socialist Germany by producing—what he imagined to be—useful knowledge for the state. Bannerjea, who came from the Punjab in northwestern India via London, Geneva and Rome to Berlin, defies neat categorization. He was neither a National Socialist scholar, nor can he be solely understood as an Indian anticolonial nationalist. In the more than four decades he spent in Europe, Bannerjea appeared in many different roles—as an anticolonial rebel, false diplomat, researcher, and endeavouring professor. Despite his employment in different educational institutions, his publications, and his political and academic networks, he remained a second row intellectual and political activist. His activities led to repeated conflicts, first with British and later Nazi authorities, because of his radical ideas and claims to intellectual egalitarianism on the one hand, and, even more often, because of his ‘creative’ efforts to improve his precarious living conditions on the other. The article explores the relationship between knowledge production and National Socialist state politics through the lens of Bannerjea’s life, focussing on the exchange of resources between Bannerjea and the National Socialist apparatus. Against the backdrop of the social circumstances of his livelihood, it investigates the knowledge produced by Bannerjea and the rewards he received from the National Socialist regime in return

Political science · Work (physics) · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Engineering · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Mechanical Engineering · Public Administration · South Asian Studies and Conflicts