Nobel Prize Controversies

I've been reading a book, The Demon Under the Microscope, which although a little too scientific for me, is quite interesting.  It's about the discovery of sulfa in the 1930's and how it changed medicine.  Many of the scientists featured in the book were German.  Germany, from the beginning of the 20th century, was a powerhouse in the field of medicine.  Chemistry and physics were their forte, and the training received in Germany was the best in the world, so many important discoveries came from Germany.

When Hitler came to power, this all changed.  Jewish scientists were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.  What caught my attention in the book, was that Germans who were awarded the Nobel Prize in the 1930's were not allowed to accept the award.

The prize of 1935 for chemistry was retroactively awarded one year later to Carl von Ossietzky, a German pacifist who had been convicted of high treason and espionage for exposing German re-armament. In an unprecedented move, King Haakon VII of Norway was absent from the award ceremony, two committee members resigned in protest, and the Norwegian conservative press, including leading daily Aftenposten, condemned giving the award to a convicted criminal. Ossietzky, interned in the concentration camp Esterwegen and severely ill with tuberculosis, accepted the award by letter but was prevented from traveling to Oslo. The award led to Adolf Hitler's forbidding any German to receive any of the Nobel Prizes in the future, and his prize was not allowed to be mentioned in the German press. In 1932, Gerhard Domagk discovered Prontosil, the first of the sulfa drugs.  He won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, but was not allowed to accept it.  It wasn't until 1947 that his discovery was finally acknowledged, when he traveled to Oslo to receive his prize.

The Nobel Prize was set up after the death of Alfred Nobel, and was first awarded in 1901 for service to humanity in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.  (other categories were added later).  The prizes have occasionally engendered critici sm and controversy, mostly in the field of literature.  77% of physics prizes have been given for discoveries, not inventions, and the prize is often a reward for contributions over an lifetime, not just work from one year.

The reason that German scientists were not acknowledged as Nobel Prize winners during the 1930"s was that Carol vo Ossietzky outspoken rejection of Nazi dogma infuriated Hitler.  No Germans could accept the award during the 1930"s, in fact recipients of the award had to sign letters refusing to accept the award.  Germans made some amazing discoveries that helped humanity, but were not allowed world wide recognition.  The most ironic fact I discovered while researching this blog was that Adolf Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939.  They did not give an award that year for peace.