New publication by Academy member Heinz Duchhardt: Wissenschaftsmanagement in der Nachkriegszeit. Die »zweite Karriere« des Multifunktionärs Helmuth Scheel in Mainz 1946–1967

Prof. Dr. Heinz Duchhardt, member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, has published a new monograph on Helmuth Scheel, the first secretary general of the Mainz Academy.

The Turkologist Helmuth Scheel came from a modest civil servant background in Berlin and, with the support of academic teachers and the NSDAP, rose to the top of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and held several professorships in Berlin in the early 1940s. After his dismissal as director of the Prussian Academy, which he never accepted, he embarked on a post-war career and took on key positions in Mainz: as professor, dean, and vice-rector of the university, as well as co-founder and first secretary general of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. This made him one of the most influential science managers in Rhineland-Palatinate and an important player in the international community of Oriental studies. 

The book deals with the topic of the 'second careers' of compromised scientists in the early Federal Republic of Germany. Archives in Mainz, Berlin, Halle, and at Schloss Vollrads offer exciting insights into academic practice and science policy in the two postwar decades—and into the life of an (often strong-willed) man who was restlessly on the move and left a deep mark on universities and academia.

Bibliographic details:
Heinz Duchhardt: Wissenschaftsmanagement in der Nachkriegszeit. Die »zweite Karriere« des Multifunktionärs Helmuth Scheel in Mainz 1946–1967 (Science management in the postwar period. The "second career" of multifunctional official Helmuth Scheel in Mainz, 1946–1967), Abhandlungen der Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse Vol. 18, Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 349 pages, format: 17 x 24 cm, hardcover, thread stitching, EUR 38,-, ISBN: 978-3-515-14085-0

Heinz Duchhardt is one of Germany's most renowned historians. He studied history, political science, and art history in Mainz, Bonn, and Vienna and held professorships at the universities of Mainz, Bayreuth, and Münster. From 1994 to 2011, he was director of the Department of Universal History at the Institute of European History in Mainz, and from 2009 to 2014, he was president of the Max Weber Foundation. He is the author of over 30 monographs on the history of the Old Empire, international relations in the early modern period, the turn of the century around 1800, European basic research, and the history of science. Heinz Duchhardt is a full member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Finnish Academy of Sciences.

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