1. For an explanation of the term and a thorough study of a group to whom it applied, the German academic humanists and social scientists, see Fritz K. Ringer; The Decline of the German Man darins: The German Academic Community 1890–1933 ( Cambridge; Mass.: Harvard University Press; 1969 ).
2. For their helpful comments on and criticisms of this article; I wish to thank Joseph Caggiano; Paul Forman; Loren Graham; Christa Jungnickel; and Theodore Roszak; among others. The research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
3. My findings on Wilhelmian scientists lend support to Ringer’s “impression that; in their attitudes toward cultural and political problems; many German scientists followed the leads of their humanist colleagues” (ibid.; p. 6). In his analysis of the role of the academic researcher in Germany; Joseph Ben-David; too; calls attention to certain shared values of scientists and humanists (The Scientist’s Role in Society [Englewood Cliffs; N. J.: Prentice-Hall; 1971]; pp. 108–138). In this article; where I write “scientists” I mean “natural scientists.”
4. For a perceptive analysis of this and related aspects of German scientific ideology; see Paul Forman; “Scientific Internationalism and the Weimar Physicists: The Ideology and Its Manipulation in Germany after World War I;” Isis; 64 (1973); pp. 151–180. My understanding of Wilhelmian science is heavily indebted to this and other writings by Forman.
5. Max Planck; “The Unity of the Physical Universe” (1908),