1. The Need of New Approaches - Kritische Stimmen zur ...

Serial Numbers 3295 - 3933 / 2008-03-05
Chapter 9: The Thought Experiment
Open Letter on Scientific Freedom
Sent to the 639 Members of the
Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer
[Society of German Constitutional-Law Teachers]
At a conference held in October 2005 the Society of German Constitutional-Law Teachers had addressed the
topic of “Grund und Grenzen der Wissenschaftsfreiheit” [Reasons for and Limitations of Scientific Freedom]. In
their publication of volume 65, “Kultur und Wissenschaft” [Culture and Science], Berlin 2006, they had reported
on this (pp 110-237). The society’s statutes (pp 609-611) envisage in section § 1, point 3, the possibility of public
statements made by the society.
Enclosed: 1 CD-ROM with all of the publications of the research project.
In the “Open Letter” G. O. Mueller formulates, as a layman in the field of jurisdiction after reading the “Bonner
Kommentar” [Bonn Commentary] on the German constitution and the interpretations given at the conference held
by the society, the legal position of the project in 10 theses, and requests examination of the submitted problem of
scientific freedom in theoretical physics.
Extracts:
“Thesis 1 - Scientific freedom is decisive for an open, critical and fruitful development of every special field.
Thesis 2 - Scientific freedom implies the participation of the representatives of all of the various positions in
the scientific dialogue and in the research funding of a subject.
Thesis 3 - Scientific freedom is guaranteed in Article 5, point 3 of the German Constitution as a basic right that,
in keeping with Art. 1, paragraph 3 of the German Constitution (“The following basic rights oblige legislation,
executive powers and the judiciary as directly valid law.”) is directly valid, i.e. needs no further special law and no
instruction or ruling by any other authority to establish its validity.
Thesis 4 - A limitation or refusal of scientific freedom vis-à-vis individual scientists in a specialist field would
constitute a violation of this person’s basic rights.
Thesis 5 - The expulsion and complete exclusion of critical minority viewpoints from a specialist field by the
majority of this specialist field would not only be a serious violation of the basic rights of individuals, but would
also amount to the abolition of this basic right for the entire specialist field.
Thesis 6 - A complete exclusion of minority viewpoints from a specialist field would also violate the freedom
of choice of career, which is also guaranteed by the German Constitution, in that persons interested in pursuing the
career in question but expressing critical views as to the dominating majority view would be refused permission to
sit their final academic examinations.
Thesis 7 - According to civil-service law, the civil servants representing an academic science in senior
positions are obliged, through their oaths of office, to abide by the Constitution and to take an active role, at all
times, in supporting the enforcement of the Constitution. With the complete exclusion of critical minority
viewpoints from the scientific discussion of a specialist field the civil-servant representatives of this specialist field
would abolish the basic right of all scientists of the specialist field to scientific freedom and would thereby break
their oaths of office. (As a reminder: in the Federal Republic of Germany there have already been cases involving
applicants who were rejected solely on the suspicion that they might not necessarily take action in support of the
146
G. O. Mueller: STR 2012