Transversal science: Applied mathematics and mechanics in Germany in its disciplinary, organisational, and political contexts, 1920-1970

• Applicant: Dr. Jason Lemberg
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570537257

In the beginning of the 20th century a new constellation of the scientific fields of applied mathematics and mechanics in Germany emerged. Both transcended their earlier disciplinary relationships and were dependent on each other in their rapid expansion. After World War I, this new constellation allowed both fields significant scientific development in new disciplinary contexts and practical fields of application. The ensuing and mutually stimulating dynamic growth of both fields continues to this day.The research project analyses this joint development and shaping of Applied mathematics and mechanics in the German states in three historical periods: the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, and the two post-war German states during the Cold War up to ca. 1970. The project’s aim is a structural and intertwined history of knowledge that examines the multiple transversality of the joint fields of Applied mathematics and mechanics with respect to the three levels of disciplinary development, scientific organisation and policy, and international scientific relations.Archival material and publications of the Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (GAMM), founded in 1922, and the closely associated journal Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (ZAMM) serve as a methodological basis for the historical analysis. GAMM and ZAMM are understood as productive expressions of the historical development under investigation, allowing to study the changing disciplinary relationships of the dual field of Applied mathematics and mechanics with mathematics, engineering, and the natural sciences, as well as the political aspects in changing political conditions and international contexts of the period investigated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Moritz Epple