From 1912, a „German Oxford“ emerged in Berlin-Dahlem. On the outskirts of the booming capital city, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society founded its first Institutes, establishing the first German research campus. The Society opened Harnack House in 1929 as its social centre. The scientific meeting place soon became an intellectual and social hub. Its guests from all over the world included 35 Nobel Prize winners as well as leading figures of the time from the worlds of politics and art. Harnack House has always reflected the spirit of the times. Committed to democratic principles from the outset, it was later subjected to Nazi policy and after the war became a place of German-American reconciliation as a US Army officers’ club. After German reunification, the Max Planck Society renovated and modernized the building, re-establishing it as a place of exchange for international science. Dr. Susanne Kiewitz outlines Harnack House’s eventful history and portrays some of its most illustrious guests, including democratic Foreign Affairs Minister Gustav Stresemann, Hitler’s armaments chief Albert Speer, the resistance fighter Arvid Harnack and leading scientists of the day, such as Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg and Konrad Lorenz.
