Bridging the Baltic Sea
- Symposia
- Düsseldorf
- Start date
- End date
- Location Düsseldorf
More information
During the 19th century, and up to the first decades of the 20th, Scandinavian physicians and natural scientists were heavily influenced by German academia. German was the prime scientific language in Scandinavia, students and researchers went on study trips to Germany and published their research in German journals.
Although the exchange was encouraged from both sides of the Baltic Sea, it is fair to say that Swedish researchers had a stronger interest in German science than vice versa – what has come to be known as “Swedish provincialism”. However, this relationship was to change rather abruptly with the Second World War.
A number of studies on Scandinavian-German scientific relations between 1933 and 1945 have been published in recent years, but the relationships after the war have not yet been systematically examined – particularly as regards the fields of medicine and the natural sciences. Case studies suggest that “neutral” Scandinavian countries could act as a gateway to the West for researchers from the GDR and as a German-German contact zone.
The conference will focus on the transfer of knowledge across the Baltic Sea as well as the personal relationships between researchers in Northern Europe, and not least on the political and technological aspects of these contacts.
The symposium will be held in English and German. It is jointly organised by the Department for the History, Philosophy, and Ethics of Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, the Department for History of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Picture: Mickeln House (Tom K./Wikimedia Commons)
Weitere Informationen und Anmeldung
Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an alle fachlich Interessierten. Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei. Um eine Anmeldung bis zum 15. März 2019 an nils.hansson(at)hhu.de wird gebeten.
Kontakt
PD Dr. Nils Hansson
Inst. für Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
E-Mail: nils.hansson(at)hhu.de
Tel.: 0211-81-14101