Emigrated neuroscientists from Berlin to North America

ABSTRACT

The highest number of German scholars and physicians, forced by the National Socialist regime to emigrate for “race” or political reasons, were from Berlin. Language and medical exams were requested differently in their new host country—the United States—leading to a concentration of immigrants in the New York and Boston areas. Very early Emergency Committees in Aid of German Scholars and Physicians were established. Undergraduate students (like F. A. Freyhan, H. Lehmann, and H.-L. Teuber) from Berlin seemed to integrate easily, in contrast to colleagues of more advanced age. Some of the former chiefs and senior assistants of Berlin’s neurological departments could achieve a successful resettlement (C. E. Benda, E. Haase, C. F. List, and F. Quadfasel) and some a minor degree of success (F. H. Lewy and K. Goldstein). A group of neuropsychiatrists from Bonhoeffer’s staff at the Berlin Charité Hospital could rely on the forceful intercession of their former chief. The impact of the émigré colleagues on North American neuroscience is traced in some cases. Apart from the influential field of psychoanalysis, a more diffuse infiltration of German and European neuropsychiatry may be assumed. The contribution to the postwar blossoming of neuropsychology by the émigré neuroscientists K. Goldstein, F. Quadfasel, and H.-L. Teuber is demonstrated in this article.     

Friedrich Heinrich Lewy (1885-1950) and his work

In 1912, Friedrich Heinrich Lewy first described the inclusion bodies named after him and seen in paralysis agitans (p.a.). Tretiakoff had found (1919) that the nucleus niger is most likely to be affected but in a subsequent large-scale series of post-mortem examinations (1923). Lewy was able to confirm this for a minority of cases only, with the exception of those that displayed postencephalitic Parkinsonism (and an unknown number of atypical Parkinson syndrome cases not identified until the 1960s). In a speculative paper (1932), he saw similarities between inclusion bodies in p.a. and viral diseases like lyssa and postulated a viral genesis of p.a. In a historical review of basal ganglia diseases (1942), he did not mention the putative significance of the inclusion bodies for the post-mortem diagnosis. It seems that their importance was seen only after Lewy's death, long after Tretiakoff's initial naming of the 'corps de Lewy'. Lewy, however, had already described their diffuse and cortical distribution (1923). An identification of diffuse Lewy body disease or dementia followed much later. Lewy's career in many diverse branches of neurology and internal medicine was strongly affected by World War I and the difficult situation faced by Jews in Germany. Shortly after the Neurological Institute was founded in Berlin in 1932 (as a clinic and research institute), he was forced, in 1933, to emigrate. His exile in England and the United States mirrors the fate of many German Jews and academics in the first half of the 20th century.     

European Union Constructive Engagement with Iran (2000–2004): An Exercise in Conditional Human Rights Diplomacy

In 2002, the European Union (EU) announced that it would enter a Trade and Cooperation Agreement with Iran. The deepening of economic and diplomatic relations between the EU and Iran was, however, linked by the Commission to progress in four areas: human rights, non-proliferation, terrorism and the Middle East Peace Process. This article argues that the current focus on efforts to find a solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions has overshadowed the dynamics of EU human rights diplomacy towards that country. Unlike diplomatic pressure on the non-proliferation issue, the EU-Iran Human Rights Dialogue did not only enjoy great support by politicians and human rights activists, but did indeed result in changes in legislation and policies aimed at the protection of human rights. Europe's multi-track strategy allowed Iranian activists and members of the legal profession to approach the notion of human rights from within the Shi'a notion of justice and rationality and thus managed to assert Islamic roots for human rights and uncovered the very secular realities of human rights violations in the Islamic Republic. The Dialogue was launched at a critical juncture in Iran's reformist movement and helped likeminded politicians, particularly the executive and parliament, to gain momentum domestically and credibility internationally. While efforts at reform were and still are often impeded by the country's competing centers of power, this article argues that efforts to promote and protect human rights in Iran must not be sacrificed for concerns over the nuclear issue.     

Mapping of subsurface shell midden components through percussion coring: examples from the Dundas Islands

Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we employ percussion coring to identify early Holocene shell midden components at two types of sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. We describe a method for mapping subsurface components at shell bearing sites including basal deposits, paleosols and transitions between distinct cultural components. Our research was undertaken for the purpose of identifying early Holocene shell middens above the modern shore, and as components below large shell midden villages. Our results augment the developmental trajectory of shell middens on the Northwest Coast by suggesting that pre-5000 BP forms of these sites may be more common than previously thought. In light of these results, we argue that the Northwest Coast cultural historical sequence, which locates an increase in the number and rate of accumulation of shell middens beginning 5000 years ago, to be premature. However, there are insufficient data from shell middens in the early Holocene, a sampling problem that the percussion coring methods described here can address.     

Neoliberalising the Fordist University: A Tale of Two Campuses in Frankfurt a. M., Germany

Abstract: In 2009, the central building of the new IG Farben Campus of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (JWGU), Frankfurt, Germany was occupied by students protesting against the neoliberalisation of higher education. While similar occupations at the old Bockenheim Campus were usually tolerated, if not welcomed, by the university management, this time 176 students and members of staff were forcefully evicted after only 3 days, when the university's presidential board called in the police. To better understand this way of ending such protest, a level of oppression almost unheard of at a German university in the last 20 years, we reconstruct the way in which JWGU, as part of the state apparatus university, has produced the two campuses as particular places that are bound up in and expressions of the national and local condensations of forces of Fordism and neoliberalism respectively.     

Die regionalökonomische Bedeutung der Wissenschaft für das Ruhrgebiet

The Ruhr area has advanced to the largest university region in Germany – often unnoticed within and outside. At the same time scientific institutions have become a major economic factor. Because of the higher and extra-university research institutions about 2.5 billion euros are effective as a demand potential in the region. 1.7 billion euros of this amount are directly associated with investments and operating expenditures of the scientific institutions as well as consumptions of employees and students. Additional 770 million euros result in revenues of many branches such as trade, housing, gastronomy sector, handcraft industry etc. It should not be underestimated that higher and extra-university research institutions generate with their research activities particular funding from the European Union or the rest of Germany for benefit of the region. Each euro spent by the state government for basic funding creates 39 cents third-party funding. These regional-economic effects result in noticeable employment impacts within the region. Around 25,000 people are directly employed in higher and extra-university research institutes or student unions (Studierendenwerke), about 22,000 jobs in other economic sectors are ensured or created by the induced demand. Science has thus become an important economic factor and represents an essential counterbalance to employment decline in shrinking industries of the region. The specific inclusion of science in a regional development strategy and targeted relining with appropriate measures to strengthen the science creates therefore an effective starting point for the design of structural change.     

Debates over Palaeolithic chronology – the reliability of C is confirmed

The debate about the complex issues of human development during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition period (45–35 ka BP) has been hampered by concerns about the reliability of the radiocarbon dating method. Large ¹⁴C anomalies were postulated and radiocarbon dating was considered flawed. We show here that these issues are no longer relevant, because the large anomalies are artefacts beyond plausible physical limits for their magnitude. Previous inconsistencies between ¹⁴C radiocarbon datasets have been resolved, and a new radiocarbon calibration curve, IntCal09 (Reimer et al., 2009), was created. Improved procedures for bone collagen extraction and charcoal pre-treatment generally result in older ages, consistent with independently dated time markers.