Technology Transfer out of Germany after 1945

164 Pages·1996·10.869 MB·English

by  Burghard Ciesla, Matthias Judt

Technology Transfer Out
of Germany After 1945
StudiesinThe HistoryofScience,Technologyand Medicine
Edited byJohn Krige, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Volume 1
Technological Change: Methods andThemes inthe History ofTechnology
RobertFox
Volume2
TechnologyTransferOut ofGermanyAfter 1945
Edited byMatthias Judt & BurghardCiesla
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Soraya de Chadarevian & Harmke Kamminga
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Paolo Palladino
This book ispart ofaseries.The publisherwill accept continuationorders which
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Technology Transfer Out of
Germany After 1945
Editedby
Matthias Judt
German Historical Institute, Washington DC, USA
and
Burghard Ciesla
ForschungsschwerpunktZeithistorische Studien, Potsdam, Germany
harwood academic publishers
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Copyright © 1996 by OPA(Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B.Y.
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Emmaplein5
1075AWAmsterdam
The Netherlands
BritishLibraryCataloguingin PublicationData
TechnologyTransferOut ofGermanyAfter
1945.- (Studies inthe Historyof
Science,Technology &Medicine, lSSN
1024-8048;Vol.2)
I. Judt, Matthias II. Ciesla, Burghard
III. Series
338.926094
ISBN 3-7186-5822-4
Contents
Contributors ix
Preface xi
1. Technology, Reparations,andthe ExportofIndustrial
Culture.Problemsofthe American-GermanRelationship,
1900-1950 1
VolkerBerghahn
2. ReparationsandIntellectualProperty 11
Jorg Fisch
3. ExploitationbyIntegration?The Re-Orientationofthe
TwoGermanEconomiesafter1945.The ImpactofScientific
andProduction Controls 27
MatthiasJudt
4. The NazificationandDenazificationofPhysics 49
Mark Walker
5. DenazifyingScientistsandScience 61
MitchellG. Ash
6. Assessing the Damages: ForcedTechnology Transferand
the German ChemicalIndustry 81
Raymond GStokes
7. GermanHighVelocityAerodynamicsand theirSignificance
for the USAirForce 1945-1952 93
BurghardCiesla
8. ImmaterialReparationsand the ReintegrationofWest
Germanyinto the WorldMarket 107
WernerAbelshauser
9. The Return ofGerman"Specialists"from the Soviet Union
to the GermanDemocraticRepublic: Integrationand Impact 119
Andre Steiner
v
vi Contents
10. ThePolitics ofAmbiguity: Reparations, Business Relations,
Denazification,andtheAllied TransferofTechnology 131
JohannesBahr, Paul Erkerand Geoffrey J. Giles
Index 145
Series Introduction
Studies intheHistory ofScience, Technology andMedicine isanew book series
which aims to stimulate research in the field, concentrating on the twentieth
century. It seeks to contribute to our understanding of science, technology and
medicine asitisembeddedinsociety,exploring thelinks between these subjects
ontheone hand andthecultural, economic, political andinstitutionalcontexts of
their genesis and development on the other. Within this framework, and while
not favouring any particular school of methodological approach, it welcomes
studies which examine relations between science, technologyand society innew
ways, e.g. the social constructionoftechnologies and large technical systems.
VII
Contributors
WernerAbelshauser
UniversitatBielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
MitchellG.Ash
University of Iowa, Iowa City,Iowa, USA
Johannes Biihr
Freie UniversitatBerlin, Berlin, Germany
VolkerBerghahn
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Burghard Ciesla
ForschungsschwerpunktZeithistorische Studien, Postdam, Germany
Paul Erker
Freie UniversitatBerlin, Berlin, Germany
JorgFisch
Historisches Seminarder UniversitatZurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Geoffrey J. Giles
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
MatthiasJudt
German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, USA
AndreSteiner
Universitat Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Raymond G.Stokes
University ofGlasgow, Glasgow, UK
Mark Walker
Union College, Schenectady, NewYork,USA
ix
Preface
The collapse of communism in East Germany gave researchers access to
archival sources whose very existence the GDR's authorities had denied for
many years. The newly available sources enabled historians to examine long
standing claims, e.g., by the Soviets regarding reparations made by East
Germany between 1945and 1953,aswell asprevious western estimatesof East
German reparations. East Germany's economic collapse had raised questions
about the underlying causes of its considerable economic lag. One explanation
favoured bypoliticians andsomehistorians referred tothedifferent burdens East
andWestGermany hadhadtobear asregards dismantlingandreparations.
In addition to the question of the material compensation paid by East
Germany, new approaches influenced the historical debate on the reparations
made byGermany after WorldWarII.Among these newapproaches, oneof the
most interestingwasJohn Gimbel'sattempt todescribe Allied technology trans
fer from Germany and the migration of German scientists to Allied countries
after 1945as "intellectual reparations." This term, introduced by Gimbel inhis
pathbreaking book Science. Technology. and Reparations. Exploitation and
Plunder inPostwarGermany,1argued that, byhaving scientists and intellectual
property taken away by the Allies, Germany had made additional and hitherto
unacknowledgedreparations.
In September 1993, the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC,
hosted a conference that dealt particularly with John Gimbel's approach.
Entitled Allied Technology Transfer from Germany or "Intellectual Repar
ations"?, it asked whether the confiscation of documents in Germany and the
hiring of German scientists byall theAllied powers could beconsidered aspart
of Germany's reparations or only as a special chapter in the already ongoing
technology transfer between the countries involved. The conference was made
possible by the generous support of the German Fritz Thyssen Foundation and
gathered together scholars from Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland
and the USA. Its proceedings have been supplemented in this volume by a
IStanford CA:Stanford University Press 1990.
xi