This volume continues the efforts by the Leopoldina to analyze the history of the academies
during and after the First World War. Based on examples from scientific policy astronomy
psychology and meteorology it primarily examines the phase after the end of military
hostilities following the armistice of November 1918 on up to the mid-1920s. The period was
characterized by conflicts between the Allies and the central powers also in the area of
international scientific relations. The scientific representatives of five leading Allied
countries elected to exclude the former central powers from the new structure of international
science. This was formalized in a series of conferences in 1918 and 1919 and led among other
things to the establishment of the International Research Council. This proved to be
particularly problematic in the postwar years.
