Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From Virus Research to Molecular Biology: Tobacco Mosaic Virus in Germany, 1936-1956

  • Published:
Journal of the History of Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In 1937, a group of researchers in Nazi Germany began investigating tobaccomosaic virus (TMV) with the hope of using the virus as a model system for understandinggene behavior in higher organisms. They soon developed a creative and interdisciplinarywork style and were able to continue their research in the postwar era, when they madesignificant contributions to the history of molecular biology. This group is significant fortwo major reasons. First, it provides an example of how researchers were able to produceexcellent scientific research in the midst of dictatorship and war. Coupled with the group'songoing success in postwar Germany, the German TMV investigators provide a dramaticexample of how scientific communities deal with adversity as well as rapid political and socialchange. Second, since the researchers focused heavily (though not exclusively) on TMV, theirstory allows us to analyze how an experimental system other than phage contributed to theemergence of molecular biology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ash, Mitchell G. 1995. "Science, Technology, and Higher Education under Nazism." Isis 86: 458–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avery, O.T., MacLeod, C.M. and McCarty, M. 1944. "Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types. Induction of Transformation by a Deoxyribonucleic Acid Fraction Isolated from Pneumococcus Type III." Journal of Experimental Medicine 79: 137–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäumer, Anne. 1990. NS Biologie. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyerchen, Alan D. 1977. Scientists Under Hitler: Politics and the Physics Community in the Third Reich. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • —1988. "On the Stimulation of Excellence in Wilhelmian Science." Jack R. Dukes and Joachim Remak (eds.), Another Germany: A Reconsideration of the Imperial Era, Boulder and London: Westview Press, pp. 139–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyler, Richard H. 1996. "Targeting the Organism: The Scientific and Cultural Context of Pascual Jordan's Quantum Biology, 1932-1947." Isis87: 248–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, Christina. 2002. Metapher und Experiment: Zur Forschung am Tabakmosaikvirus in Deutschland, 1940-1965. PhD diss. Technischen Universität Braunschweig.

  • Butenandt, Adolf. 1941. "Die Biologische Chemie im Dienste der Volksgesundheit." Preussische Adademie der Wissenschaften Vorträge und Schriften, Heft 8. Berlin: VerlagWalter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1953. "Diskussion über die Genetikvorträge." Die Naturwissenschaften 40: 101–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1969. "Nachruf für Gerhard Schramm." Mitteilungen aus der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 2: 65–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1977. "The Historical Development of Modern Virus Research in Germany, Especially in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Max-Planck-Society, 1936-1954." Medical Microbiology and Immunology 164: 3–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1980. "Carlo Schmid, 3.12.1896 bis 11.12.1979." Berichte und Mitteilungen der MPG 3: 882–891.

    Google Scholar 

  • —1995. "Adolf Butenandt im Gespräch."Interview by Peter Friess, Ralf Hahn, Peter Steiner, and Carsten Reinhardt (Munich, 30 September 1993).Peter Friess and Peter M. Steiner (eds.), Forschung und Technik in Deutschland nach 1945,Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, pp.187–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butenandt, Adolf, Hartwig, S. and Friedrich Freksa, H. 1942. "Beitrag zur Feinstruktur des Tabakmosaikvirus." Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie. Reprinted in Adolf Butenandt, 1981. Werk eines Lebens: 916–925. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, J., Stent, G.S. and Watson, J.D. (eds.). 1992. Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology, Expanded Edition. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy, David. 1991. Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg. New York: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, Seymour. 1984. "Introduction." Trends in the Biological Sciences 9: 34–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, Elizabeth. 2001. "German Scientists and Hitler's Vendetta against the Nobel Prizes." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 23: 38–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creager, Angela N.H. 1996. "Wendell Stanley's Dream of a Free-Standing Biochemistry Department at the University of California, Berkeley." Journal of the History of Biology 29: 331–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 2002. The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick, Francis. 1957. "Nucleic Acids." Scientific American 192: 188–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Chadarevian, Soraya and Harmke, Kamminga (eds.). 1998. Molecularizing Biology and Medicine. New Practices and Alliances, 1910s-1970s. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deichmann, Ute. 1996. Biologists Under Hitler. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • om1 — 2001a. "The Expulsion of German-Jewish Chemists and Biochemists and Their Correspondence with Colleagues in Germany after 1945: The Impossibility of Normalization?" Margit Szöllösi-Janze (ed.), Science in the Third Reich, Oxford: Berg Publishers, pp. 243–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2001b. Flüchten, Mitmachen, Vergessen: Chemiker und Biochemiker in der NS-Zeit. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2002. "Emigration, Isolation, and the Slow Start of Molecular Biology in Germany." Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33: 449–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deutinger, Stephan. 2001. Vom Agrarland zum high-Tech-Staat: Zur Geschichte des 'Forschungsstandorts Bayern 1945-1985. München: Oldenbourg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fassnacht, Wolfgang. 2000. Universitäten am Wendepunkt? Die Hochschulpolitik in der Französischen Besatzungszone (1945-1949). München: Verlag Karl Alber Freiburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Ernst Peter and Carol, Lipson. 1988. Thinking about Science. Max Delbrück and the Origins of Molecular Biology. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraenkel-Conrat, Heinz. 1956a. "The Role of the Nucleic Acid in the Reconstitution of Active Tobacco Mosaic Virus." Journal of the American Chemical Society 78: 882–883.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1956b. "Rebuilding a Virus." Scientific American 194: 42–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraenkel-Conrat, Heinz and Williams, Robley C. 1955. "Reconstitution of Active Tobacco Mosaic Virus from Its Inactive Protein and Nucleic Acid Components." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 41: 690–698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraenkel-Conrat, Heinz, Singer, Beatrice A. and Williams, Robley C. 1957. "The Nature of the Progeny of Virus Reconstituted from Protein and Nucleic Acid of Different Strains of Tobacco Mosaic Virus." William D. McElroy and Bentley Glass (eds.), A Symposium on the Chemical Basis of Heredity, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, pp. 501–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, Rosalind E. 1955. "Structural Resemblance between Schramm's Repolymerized AProtein and Tobacco Mosaic Virus." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 18: 313–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1956. "Location of the Ribonucleic Acid in the Tobacco Mosaic Virus Particle." Nature 177: 928–930.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich-Freksa, Hans. 1940. "Bei der Chromosomenkonjugation Wirksame Kräfte und ihre Bedeutung für die Identische Verdopplung von Nucleoproteinen." Die Naturwissenschaften 24: 376–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich-Freksa, Hans. 1948. "Kräfte beim Aufbau Biologischer Struktureinheiten." FIAT Review of German Science 1939-1946. Biophysics Part I, Published by the Office of Military Government for Germany Field Information Agencies Technical, pp. 44–49.

  • — 1954. "Erkenntnisse und Probleme der Virusforschung." Jahrbuch der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Göttingen: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, pp. 18–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1961. "Genetik und Biochemische Genetik in den Instituten der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft und der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft." Die Naturwissenschaften 48: 10–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fruton, Joseph S. 1999. Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gausemeier, Bernd. Forthcoming. "Im Dienste der Volksgesundheit: 'Kriegswichtige' Forschungen am KWI für Biochemie." (Tentative Title) Achim Trunk (ed.), Adolf Butenandt zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • Giere, Ronald N. 1999. Science Without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gierer, Alfred. 1960. "Recent Investigations on Tobacco Mosaic Virus." Progress in Biophysics 10: 299–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1973. "Hans Friedrich-Freksa." Mitteilungen aus der MPG: 367–371.

  • — 1998. Im Spiegel der Natur Erkennen wir uns Selbst. Hamburg: Rohwalt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gierer, Alfred and Gerhard, Schramm. 1956a "Die Infektiosität der Nucleinsäure aus Tabakmosaikvirus." Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 11b: 138–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gierer, Alfred and Gerhard, Schramm. 1956b. "Infectivity of Ribonucleic Acid from Tobacco Mosaic Virus." Nature 177: 702–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore, Richard. 1973. France's Postwar Cultural Policies and Activities in Germany: 1945-1956. Washington DC: Balmar Reprographics, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldschmidt, Richard. 1960. In and Out of the Ivory Tower: The Autobiography of Richard Goldschmidt. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grohnert, Reinhard. 1991. Die Entnazifizierung in Baden 1945–1949. Konzeption und Praxis der "Epuration" am Beispiel eines Landes der französicschen Besatzungszone. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, Jonathan. 1993. Styles of Scientific Thought: The German Genetics Community, 1900-1933. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim, Susanne. 2001. "Research for Autarky: The Contribution of Scientists to Nazi Rule in Germany." Forschunsgprogramm "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" Ergebnisse 4.

  • Helvoort, Ton v. "What is a Virus? The Case of Tobacco Mosaic Disease." Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 22: 557–588.

  • Hershey, Alfred D. and Martha, Chase. 1952. "Independent Functions of Viral Protein and Nucleic Acid in the Growth of Bacteriophage." Journal of General Physiology 36: 39–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herwig, Holger. 1997. The FirstWorld War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918. New York: St. Martins' Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, David L. 1988. Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacob, François. 1988. The Statue Within: An Autobiography, trans. Franklin Phillip. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarausch, Konrad. 1990. The Unfree Professions: German Lawyers, Teachers, and Engineers, 1900-1950. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judson, Horace Freeland. 1979. The Eighth Day of Creation: The Makers of the Revolution in Biology. New York: Touchstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlson, Peter. 1990. Adolf Butenandt: Biochemiker, Hormonforscher, Wissenschaftspolitiker. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, Doris (ed.). 2000. Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus: Bestandsaufnahme und Perpektiven der Forschung. Berlin: Wallstein Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, Lily E. 1986. "W.M. Stanley's Crystallization of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, 1930-1940." Isis 77: 450–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2000. Who Wrote the Book of Life? A History of the Genetic Code. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

  • Klee, Ernst. 1997. Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin, und ihre Opfer. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag Gmbh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, Robert. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry: The Making of a Biomedical Discipline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederman, Muriel and Tolin, Sue A. 1993. "OVATOOMB: Other Viruses And The Origins Of Molecular Biology." Journal of the History of Biology 26: 239–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Jeffrey. 2002. Continuity in German Science, 1937–1972: Genealogy and Strategies of the TMV/Molecular Biology Community. PhD diss. The Ohio State University.

  • — Forthcoming. "Ein Kalter Krieg in der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Die zögerliche Vereinigung zwischen Göttingen und Tübingen, 1945–1949." (Tentative Title)Achim Trunk (ed.), Adolf Butenandt Zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • Macrakis, Kristie. 1993. Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarty, Maclyn. 1985. The Transforming Principle: Discovering that Genes are Made of DNA. NewYork: W.W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehrtens, Herbert. 1994. "Irresponsible Purity: The Political and Moral Structure of Mathematical Sciences in the National Socialist State." Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (eds.), Science, Technology, and National Socialism Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 324–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melchers, Georg. 1948. "Phytopathagene Viren." FIAT Review of German Science 1939-1946. Biology Part I, Published by the Office of Military Government for Germany Field Information Agencies Technical, pp. 111–129.

  • Melchers, Georg, Schramm, Gerhard, Friedrich-Freksa, Hans and Trurnit, H. 1940. "Die Biologische Chemische, und Elektronmikroskopische Untersuchung eines Mosaikvirus aus Tomaten." Biologisches Zentralblatt, pp. 524–556.

  • Müller-Hill, Benno. 1997. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933–1945, trans. George R. Fraser. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1999. "Das Blut von Auschwitz und das Schwiegen der Gelehrten." Doris Kaufmann (ed.), Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus: Bestandsaufnahme und Perpektiven der Forschung, Berlin: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 189–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, Herman J. 1922. "Variation due to Change in the Individual Gene." American Naturalist 56: 32–50. Reprinted in Studies in Genetics: The Selected Papers of H. J. Muller, pp. 175-188, 1962. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mundry, Karl-Wolfgang. 1999. "TMV in Tübingen (1945-1965)." Karen-Beth G. Scholthof, John G. Shaw and Milton Zaitlin (eds.), Tobacco Mosaic Virus: One Hundred Years of Contributions to Virology, St. Paul: The APS Press, pp. 155–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munk, Klaus. 1994. "Jeder lebt in seiner Zeit-Meine Errinerungen als Internist und Virologe." Otto M. Marx and Annett Moses (eds.), Emeriti Erinnern Sich: Rückblicke auf die Lehre und Forschung in Heidelberg. Band II: Die Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultäten, Weinheim: VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, pp. 445–465.

    Google Scholar 

  • —1995. Virologie in Deutschland: Die Entwicklung eines Fachgebiets.Basel: Karger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olby, Robert. 1994. The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA, Second Edition. New York: Dover.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1986. "The Biochemical Origins of Molecular Biology: A Discussion." Trends in the Biological Sciences 11: 303–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palatschek, Sylvia. 2001. Die Permanente Erfindung einer Tradition: Die Univesistät Tübingen im Kaiserreich un in der Weimarer Republik. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2002. "Entnazifizierung und Universitätsentwicklung in the Nachkriegszeit am Beispiel der Universität Tübingen." Rüdiger vom Bruch and Brigitte Kaderas (eds.), Wissenschaften und Wissenschaftspolitik. Bestandsaufnahmen zu Formationen, Brüchen und Kontinuitäten im Deutschland des 20. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 393–408.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polodsky, Scott. 1996. "The Role of the Virus in Origin-of-Life Theorizing." Journal of the History of Biology 29: 79–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proctor, Robert N. 1991. Value Free Science: Power and Purity in Modern Knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1999. The Nazi War on Cancer. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2000. "Adolf Butenandt (1903-1995): Nobelpreisträger, Nationalsozialist, und MPGPräsident. Ein erster Blick in den Nachlass." Prasidentenkomission "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" Ergebnisse 2: 33–36. Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravin, Arnold W. 1977. "The Gene as a Catalyst; the Gene as an Organism." Studies in the History of Biology 1: 1–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg. 2000a. "Virusforschung an den Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten für Biochemie und für Biologie." Doris Kaufmann (ed.), Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus: Bestandsaufnahme und Perpektiven der Forschung, Berlin: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 667–698.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 2000b. "Ephestia: The Experimental Design of Alfred Kühn's Physiological Developmental Genetics." Journal of the History of Biology 33: 535–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — Forthcoming. "Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Butenandt and Alfred Kühn." (Tentative Title) Achim Trunk (ed.), Adolf Butenandt zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • Sachse, Carola and Benoit, Massin. 2000. "Biowissenschaftliche Forschung an Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten und die Verbrechen des NS-Regimes. Information über den gegenwärtigen Wissenstand." Präsidentenkommission "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" Ergebnisse 3.

  • Schmid, Carlo. 1981. Errinerungen. Berlin: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schönhagen, Benigna. 1991. Tübingen unterm Hakenkreuz: Eine Universitätstadt in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Stuttgart: Konrad Thiess Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramm, Gerhard. 1941. "Über die Enzymatische Abspaltung der Nucleinsäure aus dem Tabakmosaikvirus." Berichte der Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft 74: 532–536.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramm, Gerhard. 1944. "Über die Konstitution des Tabakmosaikvirus." Die Chemie (Angewandte Chemie Neue Folge) 57: 109–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1954. "Die Struktur des Tabakmosaikvirus und Seiner Mutanten." Advances in Enzymology 15: 449–484.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramn, Gerhard, Bergold, G. and Flammersfeld, H. 1946. "Zur Konstitution der Hefenucleinsäure." Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 1: 328–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramn, Gerhard, Munk, Klaus and Albrecht, W. 1952. "Über die Enzymatische Spaltung der Desoxyribosnucleinsäure aus Thymus and der Ribonucleinsäure aus Hefe." Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 7b: 10–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramn, Gerhard, 1955a. "An Infectious Nucleoprotein from Tobacco Mosaic Virus." Nature 175: 549–550.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramn, Gerhard, Schumacher, G. and Zillig,W. 1955b. "Über die Struktur des Tabakmosaikvirus. III Mitt.: Der Zerfall in alkalischer Lösung." Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 10b: 481–492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schramn, Gerhard and Zillig, W. 1955. "Über die Struktur des Tabakmosaikvirus. IV Mitt.: Die Reaggregation des Nucleinsäure-freien Proteins." Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 10b: 493–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schüring, Michael. 2002. "Ein 'Unerfreulicher Vorgang.' Das Max-Planck-Institut für Züchtungsforschung in Voldagsen und die Gescheiterte Rückkehr von Max Ufer." Susanne Heim (ed.), Autarkie und Ostexpansion. Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sime, Ruth Lewin. 1996. Lise Meitner: A Life in Science. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, Wendell M. 1935. "Isolation of Crystalline Protein Possessing the Properties of Tobacco-Mosaic-Virus." Science 81: 644–645.

    Google Scholar 

  • Starlinger, Peter. 1986. "No Research on Mobile Genetic Elements without Mobile Scientists." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 29: S154–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stent, Gunther S. 1998. Nazis, Women, and Molecular Biology: Memoirs of a Lucky Self-Hater. Kensington, CA: Briones Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoff, Heiko. "Adolf Butenandt als Wissenschaftspolitiker in der Nachkriegszeit, 1945–1956. Reinigungsstrategien und Assoziierungspraktiken." (Tentative Title) Achim Trunk (ed.), Adolf Butenandt zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • Summers, William C. 1999. Felix d'Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trunk, Achim. Forthcoming. "Rassenforschung und Biochemie. Ein Projekt-und die Frage nach dem Beitrag Butenandts." (Tentative Title) Achim Trunk (ed.), Adolf Butenandt zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • Walker, Mark. 1989. German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1945-1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1994. "Science, National Socialism, and the Longue Durée." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 24: 395–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, James. 1954. "The Structure of Tobacco Mosaic Virus I: X-Ray Evidence of a Helical Arrangement of Sub-Units Around the Longitudinal Axis." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 13: 10–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1957. "X-Ray Studies on RNA and the Synthetic Polyribonucleotides." William D. McElroy and Bentley Glass (ed.), A Symposium on the Chemical Basis of Heredity, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, pp. 552–556.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weindling, Paul. 1988. "The Rockefeller Foundation and German Biomedical Sciences, 1920-1940: From Educational Philanthropy to International Science Policy." Nicholaas A. Rupke (ed.), Science, Politics, and the Public Good: Essays in Honor of Margaret Gowing, London: MacMillan Press, pp. 119–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weindling, Paul. Forthcoming. "Control of German Science or Condoning Scientific War Crimes? The Place of Butenandt in Inter-Allied Scientific Policy." (Tentative Title)Achim Trunk(ed.),Adolf Butenandt zwischen Naturwissenschaft, Politik, und Industrie von der Weimarer Republik bis in die Nachkriegszeit.

  • White, David. 2001. Upper-Middle-Class Complicity in the National Socialist Phenomenon in Germany. PhD diss. University of Edinburgh.

  • Wieland, Thomas.2000. " Wir beherrschen den pflanzlichen Organismus besser,..." Akademische Pflanzenzüchtung in Deutschland, 1889-1945. PhD diss.München: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis, F. Roy. 1962. The French in Germany 1945-1949. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wise, M. Norton. 1994. "Pascual Jordan: Quantum Mechanics, Psychology, and National Socialism." Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (eds.), Science, Technology, and National Socialism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 224–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfrum, Edgar. 1991. Französische Besatzungspolitik und deutsche Sozialdemokratie: Politische Neuansätze in der "vergessenen Zone" bis zur Bildung des Südweststaates, 1945-1952. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dulles Hall, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Jeffrey Lewis

Authors
  1. Jeffrey Lewis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lewis, J. From Virus Research to Molecular Biology: Tobacco Mosaic Virus in Germany, 1936-1956. Journal of the History of Biology 37, 259–301 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HIST.0000038206.09052.7a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HIST.0000038206.09052.7a

Search

Navigation