Expulsion, migration, and changing Networks. Mathematics during the NS-Period in Germany and Switzerland

Based on our dataset we will digitally trace in some detail the direct results of the declaration of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the mathematicians at Göttingen University and focus on the changing academic reputation of the Göttingen Institute for mathematics. In the second part, focusing on Switzerland and based on two examples, we will show how digital approaches can be used to illustrate the interdependencies of Swiss universities and/or professors working at Swiss universities within the transnational network of science to clarify to what extent these digital approaches can also stimulate questions about Swiss appointment policy(s).

The biographical perspective on the impact of the forced migration in the 1930s and 1940s on individual careers is one of three main objectives of our research project.  We are equally interested in the way the transnational academic network and the academic landscape as such changed due to the expulsion of academics. [....]

The visualization displays the career steps of the Göttingen mathematics between 1925 and 1950. Hence it shows their worldwide movements in terms of career but also illustrates how the academic standing of the mathematical institute in Göttingen changes over time. The dots indicate career positions, which mean places of graduation or scientific appointments. The larger a dot the more career steps of mathematicians are located at this place or institution.

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This pie chart visualizes the reasons for termination of mathematicians at European universities between 1933 and 1939. The reasons were grouped thematically in order to the information in our database. If one clicks on a category it is possible to hide it and thus to compare different universities on a specific issue.

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The geographical visualization shows the career paths of all mathematics professors who occupied a full professorship at a Swiss university between 1900 and 1950. The visualization thus depicts the (inter)national mobility of this group of mathematicians in the first half of the 20th century.

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The geographical visualization shows the career paths of all professors of mathematics who held a full professorship at a Swiss university between 1900 and 1950. In order to better trace the career paths of George Polya and Anton Huber, they have been drawn in a different color.

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