# Did Johannes Stark Nobel Prize winner & Nazi proponent of "German Physics" ever apologize? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-johannes-stark-nobel-prize-winner-nazi-proponent-of-german-physics-ever-apologize/768269 "2016-10-11T19:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-johannes-stark-nobel-prize-winner-nazi-proponent-of-german-physics-ever-apologize/768269/1 "2016-10-11T19:03:37Z")
Re [Johannes Stark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Stark)I’ve poked around google and there does not seem to be anything more than short wiki style bios of him. He supported Einstein in early years then went full in as a Nazi against “Jewish physics”. The specific point I’m curious about is if he ever expressed any contrition for his actions? > [@](#): > > During the Nazi regime, Stark attempted to become the Führer of German physics through the Deutsche Physik (“German physics”) movement (along with Philipp Lenard) against the “Jewish physics” of Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg (who was not Jewish). After Werner Heisenberg defended Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity Stark wrote an angry article in the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps, calling Heisenberg a “White Jew”. > > On August 21, 1934 Stark wrote to physicist and fellow Nobel laureate Max von Laue to toe the party line or else. The letter was signed off with a “Heil Hitler.”[6] > > In his 1934 book Nationalsozialismus und Wissenschaft (English: “National Socialism and Science”) Stark maintained that the priority of the scientist was to serve the nation—thus, the important fields of research were those that could help German arms production and industry. He attacked theoretical physics as “Jewish” and stressed that scientific positions in Nazi Germany should only be held by pure-blooded Germans. > > In 1947, following the defeat of Germany in World War II, Stark was classified as a “Major Offender” and received a sentence of four years’ imprisonment (later suspended) by a denazification court. [Working and Living in Würzburg](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/ueber/university/roentgenring_science_mile/nobel_laureates/johannes_stark_1919/) > [@](#): > > In 1920, Wilhelm Wien was appointed Röntgen’s successor at Munich, and Stark could take over his position at the University of Würzburg. Stark was a difficult and power-hungry personality. It did not take long for his behavior to give rise to annoyance and anger, and there was a great deal of controversy in the faculty. His habilitation thesis did not meet standard requirements, and Stark chose to ignore his lecturing responsibilities. After a mere two years, he left the faculty and returned home. Due to the Nobel Prize, he had become financially independent. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-johannes-stark-nobel-prize-winner-nazi-proponent-of-german-physics-ever-apologize/768269/2 "2016-10-11T20:43:23Z")
From what I can tell Stark maintained a high level of self-delusion. He was, as you note, a major proponent of the “German physics” movement and he fought with other scientists, like Heisenberg, who supported a more realistic approach to science. Ideology was important in building up the movement but once the Nazis had taken power, they cared more about results than ideology. Stark’s problem was that German physics didn’t work as well as real physics. As the Nazi regime came to realize this, they moved away from supporting German physics to supporting what worked. Heisenberg ended up working for the Nazi regime while Stark was pushed aside. Stark refused to go along with the change in policy. He stuck with German physics even after the Nazis abandoned it. He even attempted to resign from the Nazi party but he was persuaded to officially remain a member. This peculiar position ended up helping Stark after the war. He was arrested and charged with being an early Nazi supporter, which was true. But he was able to argue that he had effectively repudiated the Nazis and attempted to resign from the Nazi party. He argued that it had been his ideological opponents like Heisenberg who had collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war while he had not worked on any government projects. He even claimed the German physics movement had become part of the opposition to Nazism. This last part was quite a stretch; the reality was Nazism had abandoned its support for German physics rather than the reverse and German physics had mostly disappeared rather than take an active stand against Nazism. But it is true that Stark hadn’t supported the Nazis during the war even if was mostly because the Nazis didn’t want his support anymore. In the end, Stark paid a fine for his early Nazi activities and was released to go back into retirement. (I’m summarizing here what I read in _Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, And The German Atomic Bomb_ by Mark Walker.) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-johannes-stark-nobel-prize-winner-nazi-proponent-of-german-physics-ever-apologize/768269/3 "2016-10-13T16:31:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > From what I can tell Stark maintained a high level of self-delusion. He was, as you note, a major proponent of the “German physics” movement and he fought with other scientists, like Heisenberg, who supported a more realistic approach to science. > > Ideology was important in building up the movement but once the Nazis had taken power, they cared more about results than ideology. Stark’s problem was that German physics didn’t work as well as real physics. As the Nazi regime came to realize this, they moved away from supporting German physics to supporting what worked. Heisenberg ended up working for the Nazi regime while Stark was pushed aside. > > Stark refused to go along with the change in policy. He stuck with German physics even after the Nazis abandoned it. He even attempted to resign from the Nazi party but he was persuaded to officially remain a member. > > This peculiar position ended up helping Stark after the war. He was arrested and charged with being an early Nazi supporter, which was true. But he was able to argue that he had effectively repudiated the Nazis and attempted to resign from the Nazi party. He argued that it had been his ideological opponents like Heisenberg who had collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war while he had not worked on any government projects. He even claimed the German physics movement had become part of the opposition to Nazism. This last part was quite a stretch; the reality was Nazism had abandoned its support for German physics rather than the reverse and German physics had mostly disappeared rather than take an active stand against Nazism. But it is true that Stark hadn’t supported the Nazis during the war even if was mostly because the Nazis didn’t want his support anymore. In the end, Stark paid a fine for his early Nazi activities and was released to go back into retirement. > > (I’m summarizing here what I read in _Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, And The German Atomic Bomb_ by Mark Walker.) Thank you for the context.