The German Genius

response to the “crisis conditions” than anyone else. The fact that two late twentieth-century popes, Jean Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) and Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) have picked up on their ideas, shows how these (Protestant) thinkers have been readily assimilated within the Catholic Church, if not yet outside it.
     
     
    L ION F EUCHTWANGER (1884–1958)
    A man who escaped as a prisoner of war twice is clearly out of the ordinary and very brave. Bravery runs through his masterpiece, Success , in which such “characters” as Hitler and IG Farben are identified and excoriated. Thankfully, Feuchtwanger escaped to America. Had he not escaped, and instead perished, he would probably be more well known now than he is.
     
     
    K ARL J ASPERS (1883–1969)
    Jaspers’s identification of the “axial age,” of the origins of modern spirituality right across the world at more or less the same time (Isaiah, Confucius, the Buddha, Plato), mark him as one of the great synthesizers in history, explaining our world in a way that is every bit as fundamental as, say, John Dewey or William James, and possibly more so.
     
     
    H EINRICH D RESER (1860–1924), A RTHUR E ICHENGRÜN (1867–1949), F ELIX H OFFMANN (1868–1946)
    More than 40,000 tons of aspirin are now produced every year, more than a century after the drug’s invention. This is certainly one measure of its impact. Having early on shown its efficacy in cases of pain control, migraine, rheumatoid arthritis, fever, and influenza, as well as in the control of various veterinary diseases, in the last decades of the twentieth century the drug was found helpful as an anti-blood-clotting agent, and effective in the prevention of angina, heart attack, and strokes. This is more than enough to suggest that the names of Dreser, Eichengrün, and Hoffmann are engraved on any role of honor. They have certainly helped mankind much more than, for example, the far better known Carl Jung, who would surely lead any list of the most over rated German-speakers.

Notes and References
     
    When two dates are given for a publication, the first refers to the hardcover edition, the second to the paperback edition. Unless otherwise stated, pagination refers to the paperback edition. All translations are from the German unless otherwise indicated. Every attempt has been made to trace the names of translators; the author would be grateful to hear from readers who can fill in the gaps that, inevitably, remain. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography , referred to throughout these notes and references, was originally published in 16 volumes between 1970 and 1980 under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies by Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York, with Charles Coulston Gillispie as editor in chief. The index may be found in volume 16. Several supplements were published up until 1990. In 2008 a New Dictionary of Scientific Biography , 8 volumes, was published in Detroit, also by Charles Scribner’s Sons and also under the auspices of the ACLS, with Noretta Koertge as editor in chief. This later venture, however, is nowhere near as comprehensive as the original DSB . In the references that follow, volume numbers given in roman numerals refer to the original DSB , while volume numbers given in Indo-Arabic numbers refer to the NDSB . Readers will thus be able to see for themselves which scientists were not included in the latest compendium. Some of the omissions are surprising.
    I NTRODUCTION : B LINDED BY THE L IGHT : H ITLER, THE H OLOCAUST, AND THE “P AST T HAT W ILL N OT P ASS A WAY”
     
1. These matters were discussed repeatedly in British newspapers, but many were collected together in John Ramsden’s Don’t Mention the War (London: Little, Brown, 2006), p. 393.2. Ramsden, Don’t Mention , p. 392.3. Ibid., p. 413.4. Ibid., p. 394.5. Ibid., p. 411.6. Ibid., p. 412.7. Ibid., p. 364. 8. Times Higher Education Supplement , February 2, 2007, p. 6.
2. Ramsden, Don’t Mention , p. 392.
3. Ibid., p. 413.
4. Ibid., p. 394.
5. Ibid., p. 411.
6. Ibid., p. 412.
7. Ibid., p. 364.
8. Times Higher Education Supplement , February 2, 2007, p. 6.
9. Ibid.
10. . Daily Telegraph , May 8, 2005, p. 18.
11. Ibid.
12. Ramsden, Don’t Mention , p. 402.
13. Ibid., p. 417.
14. International Herald Tribune , April 22, 2005.
15. D. D. Gutenplan, The Holocaust on Trial: History, Justice and the David Irving Libel Case (London: Granta, 2001).
16. Peter Novick, The Holocaust and Collective