Many meant well, but it didn’t work: (“Werner Heisenberg thought that once Germany had won, the ‘good Germans’ would get rid of the Nazis.”)
Why should we be interested in this now? There is a lesson to be learned. Before a fanatic regime came to power, Germany had the greatest scientific establishment ever created. In a very few years it evaporated. The ambience for doing science is fragile. I have colleagues in Pakistan who are informed that all true science can be found only in the Quran. China has spent fortunes creating a class of scientists, but not one truly revolutionary discovery in any science has come from China. Revolutionary science thrives on dissent. Without it, science becomes mundane. (paywall, but it may be lifted later)
Of course their idealism wouldn’t work out. But then physicists are not always noted for their personal survival skills.
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