The book offers a history of the agricultural sciences in Nazi Germany. It analyzes scientific practice under the Nazi regime, Nazi agricultural policy and autarkic strategies as well as expansion policy in Eastern Europe. It also offers new insights into the Auschwitz concentration camp. It outlines the Nazi's comprehensive nutritional and agricultural research program intended to prepare Germany for war by raising productivity through scientific means, researching the relation between nutrition and performance at the edge of starvation, and restructuring the agricultural economy of the continent. The book reveals the relation between science and power in Nazi Germany beyond the usual dichotomy that paints scientists in Nazi Germany either as victims of oppression or as sadistic beasts. It shows the involvement of a high ranking scientific elite in the Nazi regime of occupation and looting of cultural goods in the occupied eastern territories - largely for the sake of their own careers. The main audience the book addresses are students of history and the history of science, and anyone interested in the history of Nazi Germany.
Introduction: Politics and Agricultural Research Calories - Agricultural Research, the Food Economy and WarHerbert Backe and Science PolicyResearch on Plant and Animal BreedingForeign Currencies, Genetics and the Fodder GapAutochthonous Animal Species and Artificial InseminationThe Four-Year Plan, 'Greater Europe', and Substitute SubstancesHydrobiology and Limnology for the Four-Year PlanInstitute Projects in South-Eastern EuropeResearch on Native Textile PlantsProductivization of PeopleThe Science of Agricultural WorkWork Physiology and Nutritional ScienceResume: War as Opportunity Caoutchouc -- A Vital War ReserveThe Development of a Research ProgrammeDependence on Natural RubberThe Kok-Sagyz NetworkSlave Labour for ScienceKok-Sagyz Cultivation in German-Occupied EuropePlant Breeding Research in AuschwitzResume: Scientific Productivity and Terror Careers - Hans Stubbe and Klaus von RosenstielTwo Breeding ResearchersThe Pure Air of Scientific ResearchThe Seamy Side of Academic LifeThe Advance of ScienceWild Plants as a Genetic ResourceResearch Organisation in the Occupied EastPost-War CareersResume: Creators, Experts, Servants Conclusions: Science, Nazi Rule and War