Jewish Scientists in Imperial Germany (Parts I and II)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19150772 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shulamit Volkov (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Pages | 215-281 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Aleph (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1565-1525 • E-ISSN: 1553-3956 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ale.2001.-.1.215 |
| OpenAlex | W2092259482 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 5 |
The publication here presented under one title consists of two papers, originally published in 1987 and 1997. After reviewing the prevalent ways for explaining Jewish success in science, especially in Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the first article focuses on a group of 40 exceptionally successful Jewish scientists. In general, they seem to have come from a relatively prosperous environment and did not need success in science to climb the social ladder, but only, perhaps to integrate more fully into non-Jewish society. Although the academic establishment permitted them to study at the leading institutions, their professional careers were often blocked by antisemitism. This pushed them to what seemed at the time to be marginal scientific subdisciplines and to universities on the periphery. It is argued that precisely their position on the margin/frontier—both geographically and in terms of their specialization-made it possible for them to conduct original research and achieve significant scientific breakthroughs. The second article considers the shortcomings of the first, especially its failure to include a "control group" of non-Jewish scientists and its comparison of the most outstanding Jewish scientists with the mass of regular academic personnel. Accordingly, it compares 12 successful Jews with 12 equally successful non-Jews. The results show the need to qualify some of the conclusions of the earlier article. Examination of the social origins of the scientists in the two groups reveals that all of them came from well-to-do backgrounds. Among the non-Jews, however, academic fathers predominated, while most of the Jewish fathers were in commerce or industry. It is also apparent that the latter received a traditional education in the best German gymnasia and were so well prepared for an academic career that antisemitism could not really hamper their advancement in the earlier stages. Later, however, discrimination clearly made life more difficult for the Jews than for the non-Jews. As a result, the Jews usually found themselves in positions of lesser prestige and lesser academic power than their non-Jewish colleagues. Jews often succeeded because they were pushed into promising "creative niches." In addition, however, they succeeded because once in these niches they chose to adopt a specific academic and scientific style that was safe in the circumstances
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Judaism · Academic Freedom and Politics · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · German Social Sciences and History · History
| Citations per year | 0.09 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2003 - 2014 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |