Research: Focus on history
History of Science
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BMWi joint project: History of the authorities subordinate to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) during the National Socialist era and the post-war period (apl Prof. Dr. Helmut Maier (IZWT), Prof. Dr. Carsten Reinhardt (Universität Bielefeld); term 2020-2023)
- DFG network: The Literary and Philosophical Legacy of the Spanish Exile in Mexico (Prof. Dr. Matei Chihaia)
- Iconography on Early Modern Scientific Instruments (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
- Enforcing the New. About the „invention“ of Natural Sciences in the Early Modern period (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
- Jesuits and the Natural Sciences in the Early Modern period (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
- Theory and practice of gardens in the Early Modern period and its interrelation with science, technology and society (16.-18. centuries) (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
- Repertory of German scientific periodicals of the 18. century: The repertory of German scientific periodicals of the 18. century lists the content of nearly every periodical that published scientific essays, notes and reviews in German speaking countries in the 18. century
- History of catography and fotography of the moon (1840-1959) (Dr. Carmen Pérez González)
History of Mathematics
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History of the Society for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics ("Gesellschaft für angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik", GAMM). Preliminary study for a research project (Dr. des. Jason Lemberg)
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The Oberwolfach Research Institute of Mathematics, 1944-1963: From "National Institute for Mathematics" to international "social research infrastructure" (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
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History of Mathematics in Germany, 1920-1960 (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
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Jewish mathematicians and Germany after 1945 (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
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Oberwolfach Digital Archive (ODA). Digitalization and development of historical source information at the Oberwolfach Research Institute of Mathematics (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert and Dr. Maria Remenyi)
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A discipline and its publishers: Forms, functions and initiators of mathematical publications in Germany, 1871-1949 (Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert)
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Forms and functions of popular mathematical texts in Germany 1871-1945 (Dr. Maria Remenyi)
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(Re-)Internationalization of Mathematics in Germany after the Second World War (Antina Scholz, M.A.)
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Wilhelm Fiedler, his works (Prof. Dr. Klaus Volkert)
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Fight for Geometry (1870 - 1900), especially Fiedler's network (Prof. Dr. Klaus Volkert)
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Mathematical models and polytechnic tradition (Prof. Dr. Klaus Volkert)
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Mathematical models - an international comparison (Prof. Dr. Klaus Volkert)
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The Early History of Quaternions in German speaking countries - from Geometry to Number theory (Prof. Dr. Klaus Volkert)
History of Climate Research
„Ice Cores, Small States and Global Climate Change: The rise of a new scientific discipline”
„Ice core research“explores glacial ice in order to re-construct climatic conditions of the past. Today, it is one of the supporting pillars of modern climate research. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, studies of ice and climate research have not interacted at all. Studying ice and snow was a small field of research of local interest only until then. Only in the 1950s it became one of the most important disciplines of climate sciences. The physicists Willi Dansgaard (1922-2011) from the University of Copenhagen and Hans Oeschger (1927-1998) from the University of Bern played a central role in this development. Their work on old glacial ice fundamentally changed our understanding of climate and its global change. Thanks to them, a new field of research was born: ice core research. Our project explores the development of ice core research as a discipline of climate sciences from the 1950s to the 1980s for one. And second, it tries to find out which scientific co-operations and networks as well as diplomatic moves or political strategies were necessary to enable the research of Dansgaard and Oeschger and thus allow for the establishment of an internationally strong discipline. As a third aim, we want to analyse the scientific, political and cultural conditions that enabled two scientists from small European States to establish their locations as international centres of ice core research.
Using an approach of history of science and technology, our project explores the fundamental change of climate research in the 20th century, which role ice core research played and what consequences its results had on the understanding of global climate change. Furthermore, we want to show the conditions that enable the establishment of a new scientific field of research.
This project is funded by the Schweizerischen Nationalfonds (SNF) [national fond of Switzerland] and a collaborative work of the IZWT, the Institute of History of the University of Bern as well as the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research.
Read the project description in English here.
