The Rise and Fall of an “Aryan” Physicist

Abstract

Without a doubt Johannes Stark is one of the most famous and infamous “Nazi” scientists. His Nobel Prize, irascible nature, and often vicious ideological attacks on modern physics and physicists make him both an intriguing subject and the perfect villain. Stark is perhaps best known for his infamous attacks on Werner Heisenberg, labeling him a “white Jew” in the Schutzstaffein (SS) newspaper. But there is much more to this story. Therefore Stark’s relationship with National Socialism will be broken up into two chapters, “The Rise and Fall of an ‘Aryan’ Physicist,” which ends before the attack on Heisenberg, and “The Alienation of an Old Fighter,” in order to place his attacks on Heisenberg into context. Stark’s successes, but especially his failures, during the Third Reich tell us a great deal about the interaction of physics and National Socialism.