In this short essay, I write about one of my favorite historical places, the University of Göttingen, a rare history of ingenuity that has shaped the way we think and do science, and a temple of knowledge brutally destroyed by fascism, now reborn from its ashes.
University of Göttingen, source: Wikipedia
If you were asked to pick just one historical place and talk about it, which one would you pick?
Often when we are asked to choose the most important and impactful events in the history of the humankind, we think of legendary battles and pompous revolutions. Historical battlefields, bloody castle walls and loyal palaces where the fates of nations have been written appear in front of our eyes.
But now I think we have reached an inflection point regarding the ways we perceive what is glorious, progressive and historical. I believe that the tough and the war strategist hero must be gradually replaced by the humanist, wise and intelligent one.
Following this logic, when I’m asked to pick a historical place, I choose a German university, the University of Göttingen. Nowadays it may not be as well-known as Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, but the University of Göttingen hides universal, crucial and fundamental messages for Europeans and the entire humankind.
The city of Göttingen, where the university is located, was founded in 1150-1180 by “Henry the Lion”, duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Since its beginnings, the city was well-organized, gradually expanding in the upcoming years.
The University of Göttingen stands proud, emerged in the architectural harmony that this German city offers. During the three centuries of its existence, the university has welcomed many talented professors and students. Here we can list some names that are familiar to most high school students all over the world, e.g., Otto Von Bismarck, a German politician and strategist, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, or some of the most prominent names in natural sciences like Gauss, Riemann, Dirichlet, Max Born, Landau, Euler, etc.
I admit that while I admire the photographs of the old auditorium “Maximum”, and the 13 modern faculty buildings, I cannot dismiss my desire to travel many decades back in time and to witness that particular element that gave birth to the real beauty of this university: the vitality and the passion of the dedicated and innovative students, who became a natural part of the progress and change of the old continent. These walls that today carry portraits of different historical personalities, once upon a time must have “witnessed” fiery debates and fruitful discussions on questions that concerned worldwide issues and science. The real beauty of this university does not lie in its pillars, or in its warm and well-lid classrooms, or in its parks located between the faculty buildings and the Observatory, but it lies in the rare history of the human geniality and virtue that this university did everything to cultivate and protect in front of tyrants who unfortunately sealed a dark fate for many citizens of Europe in the 20th century.
Göttingen University Library, source: graphicarts.princeton.edu
The university which became the birthplace of the most famous theories in modern mathematics and physics, that are studied with the highest level of curiosity in the most important academic environments (such as the Riemann's Hypothesis about prime numbers - if you prove it you win a prize of $1 million) could not escape from the claws of the fascist and racist politics that were spread in Germany and Europe at that time.
The wild persecution against Jews penetrated this academic institution as well as the rest of Europe. As Albert Einstein describes it, in 1933 the University of Göttingen was targeted by the Nazi cleansing campaign. Many excellent academic personalities, such as Max Born, a German-British physicist and mathematician, and one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, were expulsed and forced to immigrate towards other countries such as the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, etc.
This is what John Derbyshire writes in his book Prime Obsession:
“Between April and November that year (1933), Göttingen as a mathematical center was gutted. Not only Jewish faculty were involved; anyone thought to have leftist leanings came under suspicion. The mathematicians fled – most eventually finding their way to the United States. Altogether 18 faculty members left or were dismissed from the Mathematics Institute at Göttingen.”
The Nazis, in their antihuman insanity, ruined this cradle of knowledge by forcefully removing its intellectual elite, by killing its civilization cells and by injecting the poison of a sick extremist ideology. This is how Europe "lost her mind", not just an expression that means a form of insanity, but also an expression that tells us how the intellectual cast migrated from continental Europe to other regions.
Nowadays, the University of Göttingen remains one of the most prestigious universities in Germany; anyone who wants to learn about the history of numbers theory will certainly encounter the name of this university. But, now the most important international academic centers are located elsewhere, mainly in the United States. The prestige and the center of thought was “transferred” to the Princeton University in the US during the 20th century, while Göttingen was living its darkest days.
Göttingen: a temple of knowledge that was born out of passion for knowledge, that thrived like no other institution, that was destroyed and then reborn. More than a university. Rather, a world of its own, that can teach us everything we need in order to make progress and act in justice. Its walls speak to us, they inspire us with histories of genius individuals, and they advise us to avoid the fatal mistakes and sins of our predecessors.
Democracy must never be taken for granted. Anytime we see individuals persecuted because of their background, let's remember Göttingen. Anytime certain backgrounds are excluded from academic circles, the ghost of old Göttingen is shouting at us to act before it's too late.
Europe seems to have learned its lesson. Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, recently gave a very heartfelt speech on how the history of Jewish people is a European history, how Jewish culture, values and science have shaped Europe. EU has decided to co-finance a new section at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem, to remember Jewish life in Europe before the Shoah.
Comments