NRRS_05012021_LUPIN.pdf (2.74 MB)
Unity in bronze: German universities and the 250th anniversary of the Royal Society
journal contribution
posted on 2021-08-01, 00:33 authored by Heike JonsHeike Jons, Michael Heffernan, Dean BondThis essay explains the emergence of a new era in global science and politics through increasing scientific nationalism in the years leading up to World War I. Based upon original archival research, we examine how the cultural geopolitics of international scientific jubilees triggered a major change in the self-representation of Prussian and non-Prussian German universities from delivering individual congratulatory addresses to the demonstration of unity through one joint address and present. The analysis focuses on the first centenary of the Royal Frederick University in Kristiania and the quincentenary of the University of St Andrews, both held in 1911, before discussing how all 21 German universities agreed to convey their felicitations with one voice—as Universitates Germaniae—and one address—an inscribed bronze votive tablet—to the Royal Society in London on the occasion of its 250th anniversary as a chartered institution in 1912. We argue that in the context of growing imperial and economic rivalry between European nation states, the politicisation of these jubilees reinforced scientific nationalism and encouraged a unified appearance of German universities overseas, no less than 41 years after the constitution of the German Empire. By analysing changing material, practical, and imaginative resource ensembles in science and politics, we reveal how the geographical imagination of national unity materialised in the German universities’ use of bronze tablets for conveying academic appreciation and geopolitical messages in London, and at the Groningen tercentenary in 1914, and thereby heralded a new era characterised by a national university system, an escalation of scientific nationalism, and global wars.
Funding
Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Grant 10.16.2.014GE)
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Geography and Environment
Published in
Notes and Records of the Royal SocietyVolume
76Issue
3Pages
407 - 443Publisher
The Royal SocietyVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Notes and Records of the Royal Society and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2020.0051.Acceptance date
2020-12-09Publication date
2021-03-03Copyright date
2021ISSN
0035-9149eISSN
1743-0178Publisher version
Language
- en