Political crises and disciplinary development. Mathematics in Germany, 1920-1960

该项目侧重于1920年至1960年间德国的数学历史，这是一个以政治危机为特征的时期（魏玛时期：1920-1933，纳粹时期，1933-1945，战后时期：1945-1960），特别关注内部学科发展以及制度动态和人力资源。该项目将通过一个开放获取的网站提供一个人文学-文献计量学数据库，其目的是从科学史和科学社会学的综合角度详细绘制德国大学系统内的数学地图。该项目将回答在特定的研究领域中谁在什么时候与谁在什么主题上合作的问题。这将允许绘制特定的子学科领域以及数学作为跨学科资源的角色。从理论角度来看，该项目借鉴了历史制度主义的概念，这些概念似乎特别适合于探索政治危机背景下的渐进累积变化。在这个框架中，我们将探讨几个假设，包括在国家社会主义期间，数学的抽象子领域被“与战争有关”的领域（置换）所取代，更多的应用领域得到了有针对性的资助（分层）。此外，我们将研究冷战期间的军事赞助是否导致了对数学中特定研究领域的关注（漂移）。在方法学方面，该项目将专门的基于档案的人物学方法与文献计量学分析相结合。这种双重方法既可以系统地记录数学的历史和制度发展，又可以开发和测试一种可以转移到其他学科和时期的研究工具。通过这种方式，该项目被视为一个模型项目，因为其开放访问存储库被概念化为未来项目的通用工具。

The project focuses on the history of mathematics in Germany between 1920 and 1960, a period characterised by political crises (Weimar period: 1920-1933, Nazi period, 1933-1945, postwar period: 1945-1960), with special attention to internal disciplinary developments as well as institutional dynamics and human resources. Based on a prosopographic-bibliometric database, which will be provided via an open access website, the project aims at a detailed mapping of mathematics within the German university system from a combined perspective of history of science and sociology of science. The project will offer answers to questions of who has worked when on what subjects in collaboration with whom in specific research fields. This will allow to map specific sub-disciplinary fields as well as the role of mathematics as a transdisciplinary resource. From a theoretical point of view, the project draws on concepts from historical institutionalism which seems particularly suited to exploring gradual-cumulative changes in the context of political crises. In this framework, we will probe several hypotheses, including that during national socialism abstract subfields of mathematics were substituted with “war-related” fields (displacement) and more applied fields were supported with targeted funding (layering). In addition, we will examine whether military patronage during the Cold War has led to a focus on particular research fields within mathematics (drift). In methodological terms, the project connects a dedicated archive-based prosopographic approach with bibliometric analyses. This double approach will allow both to systematically charter the historical and institutional development of mathematics and to develop and test a research tool that can be transferred to other disciplines and periods. In this way, the project is conceived as a model project, because its open access repository is conceptualized as a generally available tool for future projects.