[A utopian episode - Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in the networks of the Max-Planck Society].

Abstract

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker was a key figure in the history of the Max Planck Society (MPS). This essay contextualises his work with the development of the MPS, highlighting the institutional and personal networks upon which it was based. Some of the stations addressed in the following are his role in the German Uranium Project, in preparing the Mainau Declaration, the Göttingen Manifesto, and the Memorandum of Tübingen as well as his involvement in the foundation of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Human Development and his own MPI for the Research of Living Conditions in the Modern World located in Starnberg. The relationship between Weizsäcker and Hellmut Becker, long-time friend and founding director of the MPI for Human Development, will be of particular interest. Another issue broached here is the connection between natural science and the humanities in Weizsäcker's work, and subsequently the relation between these two science cultures in the MPS. Finally, we look at the challenges Weizsäcker's work could present to the MPS today.