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The mathematical work conducted in the research laboratories of the Osram and Telefunken Corporations, as analyzed in the previous chapter, persisted nearly unchanged throughout the political turbulence of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, and the Second World War. The development of applied mathematical methods – of business and techno-mathematics – unfolded with striking consistency, and this owes much to the continuity of personnel at these industrial firms. German aerodynamics and aeronautics, as Moritz Epple has noted, similarly witnessed an "astounding continuity of the scientific workforce" that spanned the period from imperial times to the founding of the federal republic.1 In general, businesses held fast to their research personnel throughout periods of crisis and left their scientific affairs in the hands of prominent experts. They also, however, buckled under (admittedly massive) political pressure by dismissing the last of their Jewish research directors in 1938.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-0348-0251-2_4

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