The Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics, 1944-1963: From „National Institute for Mathematics“ to international "social research infrastructure“

Oberwolfach数学研究所自2005年以来一直是莱布尼茨协会的成员，在国际上享有盛誉。1944年底由弗莱堡数学家威廉·S(1895年-1958年)创立，当时名为“数学帝国”，在20世纪50年代和60年代发展成为一个日益国际化的会议中心。虽然对其成立的历史进行了分析，但数学史学家/科学学家很少涉及1945年后的发展，该项目旨在填补这一空白，即分析MFO的历史，因为它在体制上从一个具有广泛但标准范围职责的国家数学研究所转变为一个国际社会研究基础设施。这在德国学术界的框架内是全新的。该项目侧重于1944年至1960年代初最惠国组织机构身份的演变，即最惠国组织科学方案(讲习班、团队工作、布尔巴基)和所采用的研究工具(图书馆、讲习班)的发展和重要性，以及为保障最惠国组织的存在而采取的相应战略(例如在最不发达国家组织的羽翼下)。这些主题与20世纪50年代和60年代在公共和政治领域对数学的感知这一主题密切相关。1963年标志着该项目的结束，因为1963年MFO的董事职位从西奥多·施耐德(1911-1988)移交给马丁·巴纳(*1921,1963-1994董事)。在这一点上，最惠国待遇基本上是有制度保障的。在分析发展一个新的和永久的最惠国机构身份的方法框架中，有三个方面将是该项目的关键，即分析(1)最惠国组织讲习班活动的发展和形成的历史进程，(2)最惠国组织的(复杂)体制保障，以及(3)最惠国组织在德国数学重新国际化中所起的作用。因此，该项目为科学史上更具普遍意义的主题打开了一扇窗，例如科学资助的复杂性和德意志联邦共和国早期科学的重新国际化。

The Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach/MFO) has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 2005 and is internationally highly renowned. Founded in late 1944 by the Freiburg mathematician Wilhelm Süss (1895-1958) as „Reichsinstitut für Mathematik“, in the 1950s and 1960s the MFO developed into an increasingly international conference centre. While the history of its foundation has been analysed the development after 1945 has scarcely been touched on by historians of mathematics/science.The project aims at filling this gap, namely to analyse the history of the MFO as it institutionally changed from a projected National Institute for Mathematics with a wide, but standard range of responsibilities to an international social infrastructure for research. That was completely new in the framework of German academia. The project focusses on the evolvement of the institutional identity of the MFO between 1944 and the early 1960s, namely the development and importance of the MFO’s scientific programme (workshops, team work, Bourbaki) and the instruments of research employed (library, workshops) as well as the corresponding strategies to safeguard the MFO’s existence (for instance under the wings of the MGP). These topics are closely connected to the topic of the perception of mathematics in the public and political realms in the 1950s and 1960s.The year 1963 marks the end of the project as in 1963 the MFO’s directorship was handed over from Theodor Schneider (1911-1988) to Martin Barner (* 1921, director 1963-1994). At this point the MFO was basically institutionally secured. In the methodological framework of the analysis of the development of a new and permanent institutional identity of the MFO three aspects will be key to the project, namely the analyses of the historical processes of (1) the development and shaping of the MFO’s workshop activities, (2) the (complex) institutional safeguarding of the MFO, and (3) the role the MFO played for the re-internationalisation of mathematics in Germany. Thus the project opens a window on topics of more general relevance in the history of science such as the complexity of science funding and the re-internationalisation of the sciences in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany.