Industrial Research 



109 



students and it appeared that German industry would 

 not be able to absorb all of the graduates. At that time 

 there was serious tallv of reducing the number of 

 students enrolled by selective examination. As the 

 self-sufficiency program developed, unemployment was 

 practically eliminated and the demand for technical 

 men absorbed all the unemployed with a resulting 

 shortage in technicians. The 3 j'^ears of combined 

 military and work service required of all J'oung men, 

 together with the rather unattractive economic stand- 

 ing of university graduates, tended to decrease the 

 number of students in universities, thus aggravating 

 the shortage of technically trained men. Race purges 

 and discouragement over the future outlook in the 

 academic field also contributed to this shortage. 



Student enrollment in nearly aU university courses 

 decreased in 1936-37 to 57.8 percent of the 1932-33 

 figures. Those in engineering sciences dropped from 

 14,477 to 5,188 students, and in mathematics and 

 natural sciences from 12,591 to 4,616 students. The 

 decrease in the number of students has continued and 

 with the outbreak of war some of the universities closed 

 or courses were eliminated. The university courses, 

 including those in technical subjects, have largely been 

 reduced from 4 to 2 years. 



The research strength of universities has been 

 weakened In other ways. Heads of universities, if not 

 members of the National Socialist Party, have been 

 replaced for the most part by members appointed 

 largely to prevent subversive activities. As faculty 

 chairs have become vacant for normal causes or other 

 reasons, they have been filled with men chosen primarily 

 for their party records and secondarily for their profes- 

 sional qualifications. A generation may be required to 

 restore these faculties to their former high planes. 

 Capable assistant professors have become discouraged 

 at not being advanced to these posts. Students have 

 engaged in party activities with the result that studies 

 became of secondary interest. Since the outbreak of the 

 war the Government has brought pressure to bear on 

 universities as well as industry to confine research to 

 problems concerned with national defense. 



Illustrative of the shift of university research from 

 one fundamental field of endeavor to another in co- 

 ordination with the progress of industry is the change 

 of work from dyes to biological chemistry. Prior to 

 1914 a very large part of the research on dyes was 

 carried on in the universities under the sponsorship of 

 industry. After the war the dye industry increased 

 at such an amazing rate that manufacturers had to 

 take over most of the research. University research 

 workers turned their efforts to biological chemistry, thus 

 starting Germany's remarkable era of development in 

 such fields as vitamins, hormones, pharmaceuticals, 



and tanning materials. This situation was comparable 

 to that existing in dyes before 1914. Industry may 

 eventually take over research in biological chemistry, 

 as it did in dyes. 



Industry 



Germany has a framework for industrial research 

 unequalled except in the United States and up to 1939 

 its research organization was developing more rapidly 

 than ever. Most of the large manufacturing industries, 

 particularly metals and chemicals, have been backed by 

 strong, well integrated research staffs which were 

 frequently larger for a given production than those in 

 the United States. Characteristic of German industry, 

 especially in chemicals, have been the large number of 

 small and moderate sized companies employing up to 

 50 research workers. In recent years there has been a 

 very marked trend away from the so-called "closeted" 

 research, more especially with the larger companies, but 

 not to the extent to which it has been carried in the 

 United States. 



The present regime appears to recognize the im- 

 portance of well organized industrial research, the 

 efforts of which are being directed toward self-sufficiency 

 and preparedness. In some research, including that 

 concerned with electric communications, biological 

 chemistry, and certain types of alloys, Germany excels 

 the rest of Eiu-ope, but is second to the United States in 

 most if not all of these fields. More people were 

 engaged about 1937 in laboratories for electrical com- 

 munication development and research in Germany than 

 in the United States, almost wholly on specific develop- 

 ments and designs immediately required. The develop- 

 ment of tools of research, in which Germany was 

 preeminent, is continuing, as witness outstanding work 

 in X-rays, electronic diffraction, optical instruments, 

 and other fields. Its engineers are equal to the best in 

 applying the results of research to practice, although 

 mechanization of industry is reported to be less de- 

 veloped than in the United States. 



Recent years have witnessed a pronounced decline 

 in the number of patents under the new regime, and 

 foreigners have experienced increasmg difficulty in 

 securing patent protection. 



In the past decade Germany has tended to license 

 concerns in other countries for the utilization of new 

 processes and manufacture of new products. These 

 licenses are only given on processes or products on 

 which an export trade could not be reasonably de- 

 veloped. This trend is due to the fact that since the 

 war of 1914-18 German export potentialities have been 

 reduced because of the well developed industries in 

 former export fields. Tariffs or embargoes in these 

 countries have made the export of chemicals, with the 



