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

2012
Chapter 9: The Thought Experiment
308 / 2003-11-14 - News Magazine FOCUS, Fields of Culture and Science. München.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
309 / 2003-11-14 - Gero von RANDOW, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Frankfurt a. M.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
Extract:
“The abolition of scientific freedom is also very much a matter of public-law concern, since the field of
theoretical physics in the Federal Republic of Germany is almost entirely maintained from taxpayers’ money, which
is used by the powers that be in physics to silence the critics and to bring any possible related research to a
standstill. This is a clear misuse of taxpayers’ money that was originally intended to serve the purpose of research,
which can only be conducted in a free environment and can only be advanced by criticism. Where the persons
actively involved here are civil servants, they have taken an oath on the constitution and must at all times stand up
for the protection of basic rights, to which - not least - the freedom to research and to teach belongs.
In your contributions in the FAZ, particularly in “Das Gesicht der Wissenschaft” [The Face of Science] from
15.1.02, you have addressed the problematic nature of the freedom of science and its anchoring in the German
constitution. In your latest review of Enzensberger’s anthology “Elixiere der Wissenschaft” [Elixirs of Science]
you evaluate his “highly topical criticism of science” and his criticism of the “hegemonial position” of certain
specialist fields approvingly. This has moved us to send you our documentation and to ask you for journalistic help
in the reintroduction of scientific freedom in the field of theoretical physics. In this field, since 1922, every bit of
criticism of the special theory of relativity has been suppressed by concealment and slander, as a means of
protecting an untenable theory, the invalidity of which could only be concealed from the public by the abolition of
scientific freedom. The canonization of the theory and its author in the megalomaniac years of the twenties has led
to a dogmatic paralysis of physics and to the dismissal of every bit of critical research.”
310 / 2003-11-15 - Die Neue Gesellschaft / FRANKFURTER HEFTE c/o Friedrich-EbertStiftung. Berlin.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
311 / 2003-11-15 - FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU, Editorial Office. Frankfurt a. M.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
312 / 2003-11-15 - The magazine GEGENWORTE, Prof. Dieter Simon, President of the
Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie d. Wiss. Berlin. STR Research Report, Nov. 03
Extract:
“Dear Mr. President
Your magazine “Gegenworte” having concerned itself with the matter of “Lies and Deception in Science” in
issue 2, though unfortunately addressing only the trifling examples of everyday lies, we allow ourselves to draw
your attention to the above-mentioned documentation, which presents a topic of other dimensions, against which
the celebrated principles of scientific ethics could be tested.
We respectfully request that you check the soundness of our documentation and, in the event of a positive result
of this examination, that you give your support to the restoration of scientific freedom in the field of theoretical
physics in Germany. This scientific freedom is, by the way, supposed to be a basic right in the Federal Republic of
Germany since the coming into force of the German Constitution.”
313 / 2003-11-15 - Magazine JUNGLE WORLD, Editorial Office. Berlin.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
314 / 2003-11-15 - Magazine MERKUR, Editorial Office. Berlin.
STR Research Report, Nov. 03
Extract:
“Recently the feuilletons in German newspapers have seen the freedom of the arts as being endangered as a
result of court decisions on two novels, and have committedly engaged themselves on behalf of the freedom of the
arts. Whereas in the case of the arts the matter at least had to do with court decisions in keeping with orderly public
proceedings with the possibility of revision by the higher courts, the suppression of the freedom to research and to
teach in the field of theoretical physics has not been decided by a court ruling, but by decision and abuse of office of
the academic powers that be. And this is something that has not taken place publicly, but in secret, unnoticed by the
public and supposedly unnoticed by the appointed “guardians” of public welfare, which is why the public and the
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G. O. Mueller: STR