Chemical Internationalism: Wilhelm Ostwald, Die Brücke, and the Energy Streams of Empire

Time: 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m.

Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Free

Open to the public

The great physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) was an avid internationalist. He strongly believed that science could connect people across borders, and his lab in Leipzig accommodated researchers of dozens of nationalities. After receiving the Nobel Prize in 1909 he decided to spend the money on the cause of optimizing international knowledge exchange. He started an organization called Die Brücke (the Bridge), which aimed to remove unnecessary barriers in the communication of science and scholarship. Die Brücke promoted a universal bibliographic system, the use of a simple artificial language, and the adoption of standard publication formats and library designs—all of this with the goal of uninhibited international understanding.

In this talk Somsen will compare Ostwald’s initiative to other forms of scientific internationalism and try to situate it among contemporary debates about the status of science and the position of Germany in Europe. Ostwald’s internationalism was rather unusual in that it was not based on general universal qualities of science (method, validity, etc.) but on a particular chemical theory. Communication was a physical-chemical process whose energy efficiency should be optimized. Although this theory was universalist, it gave Germany a central role in the world of science and trade. German infrastructures would spread out and dominate especially Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Ostwald’s schemes resonated with contemporary liberal imperialism, seeking a “world policy without war.”

Geert Somsen is a Marie Curie fellow at Columbia University’s Department of History, 2014–2016, on leave from Maastricht University, where he teaches history and science and technology studies. After receiving an MA in chemistry he obtained a PhD on the history of physical chemistry and also received graduate training at the University of California, San Diego. In 1997–1998 he was Donald Othmer postdoctoral fellow at CHF. Somsen’s recent research focuses on various forms of scientific internationalism and the uses of science (or ideas of science) as a model for international relations. Publications on this subject include “A History of Universalism: Conceptions of the Internationality of Science, 1750–1950” (Minerva 46 [2008], 361–379) and Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe: Intersections of Science, Culture and Politics after the First World War (London: Routledge, 2012), edited with Sven Widmalm and Rebecka Lettevall. At Columbia, Somsen investigates how ideas about science entered the designs of institutions like the United Nations and the League of Nations.

About Brown Bag Lectures

Brown Bag Lectures (BBLs) are a series of weekly informal talks on the history of chemistry or related subjects, including the history and social studies of science, technology, and medicine. Based on original research (sometimes still in progress), these talks are given by local scholars for an audience of CHF staff and fellows and interested members of the public.

For more information, please call 215.873.8289 or e-mail bbl@chemheritage.org.