History

An Initiative of Science and Politics

The opening of the Harnack-House on 7 May 1929 was a banner day for Berlin's academics and its political and economic elites. It was through their concerted efforts that Berlin finally acquired a lecture venue and social center for members of the famous Dahlem Institute, simultaneously serving as a guest house for academics worldwide. The primary initiators of the House were Adolf von Harnack and Friedrich Glum, who energetically fought for the project. The theologian Adolf von Harnack, first president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, had one single goal: to overcome the isolation of German academia after the First World War and enable outstanding achievement through international cooperation. Harnack's efforts to build an international research center in Dahlem were vigorously supported by KWS chairman Glum, who helped promote the idea among companies and private individuals. In June 1926 the senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society resolved to found the Harnack-House - also as a gesture of gratitude for the hospitality that German scholars had experienced abroad. The most important political godfathers of the Harnack-House were Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, and the influential Center-Party deputy Georg Schreiber. They undertook the political lobbying and gathered the necessary funds to build the House. In concrete terms, the government was willing to spend 1.5 million Marks, while the state of Prussia donated the real estate upon which the house would be built. The funds, however, were insufficient to complete the building designed by architect Carl Sattler.

Private Donors

In financial straits, Harnack and Glum availed themselves of a new (for Germany) funding concept: sponsoring. The building was not financed through public money. Rather, businesses, labor unions, and private parties were the chief benefactors. 900,000 Marks were obtained for the House's furnishings. In addition, individual companies and philanthropic families sponsored certain rooms, and in this way an extra 400,000 Marks were raised. Carl Duisberg, for example, donated a room for the institute's assistants, and German United Steel sponsored the room dedicated to Germany's Iron Chancellor, the Bismarck Hall. Large contributors were not the only benefactors. There were smaller donations of 1000 or 2000 Marks from people who simply believed in the project. Gustav Stresemann was particularly struck by the idea of the Harnack-House as an international rendezvous for academics. This notion accorded with his foreign policy "of forging stronger ties between Germany and the international community - give and take, take and give... I am quite certain of the major importance that this cohabitation and cooperation will have for not only academia, but for the world at large, promoting as it will a greater understanding among peoples." (From his speech at the opening of the Harnack-House on 7 May 1929.)

Forum of Academic and Cultural Excellence

Immediately upon opening its doors, the Harnack-House began to feed the "Dahlem Legend." Nobel Prize winners and their students met here in social exchange and for academic discussion, holding lectures and colloquia. The House served as a club for members of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Here they could lunch, read the international press, drink coffee in the garden, engage in sports, and play music. Foreign scholars were lodged in the guest apartments. The list of guests and lecturers reads like a "Who's Who of Science": Albert Einstein, Peter Deybe, Werner Heisenberg, Fritz Haber, Adolf Butenandt, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Otto Meyerhof, Max Planck, Max von Laue and Otto Warburg. One Nobel Prize winner, the biologist Hans Fischer, even received the news of his award during his stay at the Harnack-House. But it were not only scientists who enriched the Dahlem colony and the Berlin cultural scene with stays at the Harnack-House. Ricarda Huch, the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, and the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore also added to the House's lustre and prestige.

Under the Spell of National Socialism

Upon the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, life at the Harnack-House was radically altered, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society acceding to the new regime in many important respects. Researchers of Jewish ancestry were forced to leave the country; the lecture program increasingly reflected the Nazification of research and scholarship; Goebbels established his Reichsfilmarchiv here, and Nazi party functionaries were daily patrons. Yet a certain independence of will survived. In 1935, in direct contravention of the government, Max Planck led an impressive commemoration honoring the passing of Fritz Haber. It was Max Planck again who in a 1941 public lecture warned of the consequences for humanity in attempts to split the atom.

A US-Army Officer's Mess

Following a short period of Russian occupation, the US-Army assumed control of the Harnack-House and converted it into an officer's mess. Among the first visitors was President Harry S. Truman and supreme commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the following years the Harnack-House was adapted to the needs of the American military. Occasionally the House was opened to the Berliners. The German-American "Dahlem Music Society" organized concerts of world famous musicians like Yehudi Menuhin and Walter Gieseking, and the "Harnack-House Club" included not only Americans but distinguished citizens from the political, economic and the social life of the city. In order to meet the new demands placed on it, the House was constantly being renovated by the Army. In the final years of their stay they rented it out for weddings, dances, and bazaars - until 1994, when the Harnack-House was returned to the Max Planck Society.

Perspectives

Günter Stock, member of the board of directors of Schering, Inc., Berlin, and senator of the Max Planck Society: "First of all, I am very pleased to learn that the Max Planck Society will now have a venue in which it can be highly visible - and not only in the sense of a direct and personal academic discourse. This new venue offers the possibility of bridging those gaps in the social dialogue. And it is the government's move to Berlin that creates just such a golden opportunity for an ongoing exchange. I can imagine that the Harnack-House will play an important role in this regard not only in Berlin but beyond its borders; that is, within the context of a broader European discourse. This is a wonderful prospect." Gerhard Ertl, vice president of the German Research Community, and director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society: "We here in Berlin have a lively interest in reestablishing the Harnack-House as a meeting place for Berlin academics. In Berlin - in Dahlem - the Free University and the Max Planck Institute are close neighbors. And the Free University has a vested interest in such a meeting place. The Harnack-House was originally intended as an institutional meeting point for academic guests from Germany and abroad. It wishes now to resume this role, especially in its capacity as a conference venue." Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, emeritus member of the Max Planck Society: "I would hope that in the future the Harnack-House can fulfill the self-assigned role it had when I was resident there - or better put, the role it aspired to. In my experience, academia generates an international consensus with respect to its objects of research. And it is through this process that people from different nations and cultures can achieve a mutual understanding. Alexander Marian Bradshaw, president of the German Physics Society, and director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society: "What we above all need in Berlin is a meeting place, a center for the exchange of ideas that is inter-disciplinary in nature. Academics need to communicate with one another. They write their monographs, they attend conferences, they give papers - but they also enjoy conversing with their colleagues. And this is precisely what has been lacking in recent years: a certain inter-disciplinary communication among scholars. This particularly applies to scientists. The Harnack-House is well suited for discussion forums in small groups. It has a lovely garden and a charming terrace. Here one has the possibility of not only hearing lectures, but of having in-depth discussions with colleagues. And I always find that it is on these informal occasions that one can learn the most."

Shaping the Future

The future of the Harnack-House lies in the hands of the Max Planck Society. With the federal government's move to Berlin the House finds itself at the center of Germany's political and social life. The Max Planck Society wishes to reconnect with its august tradition through a resurrection of the Harnack-House. As a modern conference site, it will be an attractive forum of international academic discourse - not only for the Max Planck Society, but for the Berlin universities and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. It is here that a venue will be created for luminaries from science and society, from research, culture, politics, and economics, and whose discussions will assist in pointing the way to the future. As an intellectual center and meeting place, the Harnack-House will help address the most pressing problems of the new century. But in order to achieve these goals, it is first necessary that the proper environment be created. And so, in the wake of its foreign occupation and varied history, the Harnack-House must be renovated. Since the Max Planck Society is disallowed from using public money for purposes of renovation, it has decided to use its own private funds. But the Harnack-House's conversion to a fully functioning conference site and forum for academic and social dialogue still requires financial assistance. Therefore, the Max Planck Society welcomes private sponsors to help shape the future.