6533b7d4fe1ef96bd1261f47
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Persecution and Patronage: Oscar Buneman’s years in Britain
Rita Meyer-spascheRolf Nossumsubject
Pleading010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciencesOperations researchmedia_common.quotation_subjectWorld War IINazismGeneral MedicineAlien01 natural scienceslanguage.human_languageEmigrationGermanForced migrationPolitical science0103 physical scienceslanguageEconomic history010303 astronomy & astrophysics0105 earth and related environmental sciencesPersecutionmedia_commondescription
The German student Oscar Bunemann, in trouble with the Nazi authorities in the mid-1930s, chose to emigrate to Britain and pursue a PhD there. After emigration, his surname appears as Buneman. On the verge of completing his degree in 1940, he was detained as an enemy alien and spent almost a year in internment. Upon release, he found work as an atomic scientist in England, and went on to lead a post-war career as a pioneering plasma physicist in the USA.We study forced migration of European scientists before and during the Second World War, and scientific patronage in the host countries. Buneman’s case is interesting from several points of view. Being a non-Jewish, non-communist, anti-Nazi activist, he belongs to a group not much investigated by historians. His emigration from Germany was facilitated by his family’s business contacts in Britain. Being caught up in the wave of detainments of enemy aliens in 1940, he was assisted in pleading for release by the Society for the Protection of Science and Learn...
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-07-01 |