Kosmos, Koralle und Kultur‐Milieu. Zur Bedeutung der populären Wissenschaftsvermittlung im späten Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik

Kosmos, Koralle and Cultural Milieu. On the Role of Popular Science Communication in the late Kaiserreich and Weimar Germany. This paper discusses the role of popular science communication for the ‘cultural milieu’ or more generally the ‘environment’ of scientists and science in Germany between c. 1900 and 1933 in the sense of Paul Forman. On the rich basis of diverse journals aiming at a differentiated public the discourse on atomic physics is sketched. Since the thesis of a general hostility towards atomic physics in particular and science in general cannot be accredited the question arises how widespread and in which sense a crisis of science was discussed in the Weimar years.