Introducing the Arnold Berliner Award

The Science of Nature, Sep 2012

Sven Thatje

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00114-012-0958-5.pdf

Introducing the Arnold Berliner Award

Sven Thatje 0 ) Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre , Southampton, University of Southampton , European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK - Arnold Berliner was the founding editor of Naturwissenschaften (NAWI). In 1912, he proposed to Ferdinand Springer, owner of the Springer Publishing Company, the founding of the journal, which he led and developed over the following 22 years. In his first editorial published in 1913, Berliner stated that NAWI should inform all those working in scientific fields, either researchers or teachers, about what interested them outside their own fields (translated from German; Naturwissenschaften 1(1):1; published 3 January 1913; Autrum 1988) (Fig. 1). Berliner's vision to fill a gap in the communication of science, in particular the need for synthesising knowledge from all the branches of science, and to translate this knowledge to lay audience was well ahead of most journals of his time. During the Weimar Republic, NAWI gained acceptance across wide parts of educated German-speaking society and emerged as a voice for science that did not only address scientific peers (Stltzner 2002). His dedication and success in taking on board this difficult task was acknowledged by the great level of support expressed on the occasion of his 70th birthday, including by Einstein (1932) who, among others, had continuously encouraged Berliner in his activities. Berliner was Jewish. On 13 August 1935, he was dismissed from the journal as part of the non-Aryan policies implemented by the NAZI government. On 22 March 1942, aged 79, Arnold Berliner, the German Jewish Physicist, committed suicide. NAWI is turning 100 years in 2013, and this occasion will be celebrated as a milestone for science. Today, NAWI is part of an international system of scientific journals that seek for standardisation of quality and advance in science (Thatje 2012), and from today's perspective, the role of academic journals during the volatile political decades of the first half of the twentieth century is difficult to comprehend. The journal's history is a success history of twentieth century science, but at the same time cannot be separated from some of the very darkest parts of modern history, over-shadowing its early existence. To honour Arnold Berliner's dedication to science and his journal, I herein, and on behalf of the publisher Springer, introduce the Arnold Berliner Award. In recognition of our founding editor, this award will be given annually, for the We direct our request to scientists of all countries, irrespective of political borders, with the hope for collaboration, in the interest of all and for a common task, which equally concerns all scientists. (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00114-012-0958-5.pdf

Sven Thatje. Introducing the Arnold Berliner Award, The Science of Nature, 2012, pp. 675-676, Volume 99, Issue 9, DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0958-5