Sigurdsson, Skuli: Quantum Mechanics and a New Thought Style: Die Naturwissenschaften in the Interwar Years

The scientific journal Die Naturwissenschaften was an important platform for producing and disseminating results at the frontiers of research in the interwar years. It was published weekly by Springer Verlag starting in 1913. The chief editor for 22 years was Arnold Berliner. In my contribution I will use this journal as a lens for analyzing changes in the scientific worldview resulting from the establishment of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. The German-speaking members of the quantum-mechanical network used Die Naturwissenschaften as a vehicle for communications, overview articles, celebrations, and book reviews. Taking a lead from the Polish-Jewish theoretician Ludwik Fleck, the German-speaking network might be characterized as a Denkkollektiv, the new scientific worldview a new Denkstil, and Die Naturwissenschaften a kind of Denkorgan or thought organ.