Applied Science in the Service of the State: A History of Applied Entomology in National Socialism
Final Report Abstract
The main aim of the research project was to investigate applied entomology and its development as a scientific sub-discipline in Nazi Germany. To this end, four central actors and their activities and careers in the most important institutions of the field in Germany were analysed: Karl Escherich, Karl Friederichs, Erich Martini, and Albrecht Hase. In addition to the intellectual biographies of the central players and an overview of the relevant institutions, the analysis was carried out on three levels. Firstly, the project traced how an ecological, holistic perspective on the complex interplay of different factors in insect population dynamics developed on the theoretical level during the 1930s. However, insects continued to be regarded and studied primarily as pests, so that the emerging ecological approach remained dominated by the concept of control (of ecological wholes). Secondly, the contemporary attempts at a “biological pest control” were analyzed. As our study shows, these were characterized by a multitude of failures, so that the theoretical design of a holistic applied entomology came up against practical limits. Thirdly, the research project investigated the use of practical entomology in the context of a “wartime entomology” during the Second World War. On the one hand, the focus was on militarily organized aspects of malaria and typhus control, in which Hase and Martini in particular were involved. On the other hand, a reassessment of the Wehrmacht's attempts to enable biological warfare through malaria vectors was carried out on a precise archival basis. It was shown that, although there was a clear intention to do so, practical limitations ultimately doomed these attempts to failure.
