The sixteen chapters of this collection offer a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly work on German science under National Socialism, in general, and the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, in particular. With chapters focusing on institutional policies and specific research programs, this collection provides an important addition to histories of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWS) by articulating how it successfully functioned within the National Socialist state. Aside from the editor's introduction, the essays assembled here were originally published in German between 2002 and 2007. Many of the translations in this collection are also excerpts from longer works. To the editors' credit, the chapters are well integrated and organized to address how the Kaiser Wilhelm Society facilitated research on race, self-sufficiency, and armaments.

The three essays in the first section place the Kaiser Wilhelm Society within the political context of National Socialism. Rüdiger Hachtmann describes the willing involvement of the General Administration with the National Socialist government, and the resulting expansion of the number of institutes and tripling of the overall budget. As leaders of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society during this time period, Friedrich Glum and Ernst Telschow adapted to the changing political situation to make the KWS a success. Bernhard Strebel and Jens-Christian Wagner continue in this analytic vein with their chapter on the use of forced labor by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. From a meager set of incomplete archival sources, they convincingly describe the reliance of the Institute for Breeding Research on forced agricultural laborers, and of a number of other institutes that used forced labor to relocate and construct new facilities during the war. Of the approximately 1,000 laborers used between 1939 and 1945, about 220 were drawn from concentration camp inmates with the knowledge of the institute directors. The role of leading scientists is examined in great detail in Wolfgang Scheider's analysis of Adolf Butenandt, director of the Institute for Biochemistry beginning in 1936. Although forbidden to accept the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1939 by the German government, Butenandt adapted work in his institute to meet National Socialist goals, including some ethically questionable work on human subjects.

In the second section, contributors turn from administrative leadership to racial research. Hans-Walther Schmuhl's chapter on the Institute for Brain Research demonstrates how its reorganization under the direction of Hugo Spatz, beginning in 1937, led to its complicity with “euthanasia” programs. In a similar vein, Achim Trunk's chapter carefully ties Butenandt's work on blood proteins based on samples from concentration camp inmates. Trunk's assessment is that Butenandt was not an accomplice to medical crimes, but was an accessory. Helga Satzinger's chapter diverges from the others in this section by discussing the development and reception of Richard Goldschmidt's work on sex determination. Unlike other essays in this collection that address research under National Socialism more directly, Satzinger offers an overview of Goldschmidt's genetic research in the Weimar period. While Goldschmidt had been a director at the Institute for Biology in Dahlem, he was forced to leave in 1936 as a person of Jewish descent. Satzinger interprets Fritz Lenz's rejection of Goldschmidt's gene concept in the context of his own racial research to have both antisemitic and antifeminist implications.

Issues of self-sufficiency occupy the third section of this collection with three essays on plant breeding and fiber research. Susanne Heim's essay on efforts to cultivate a local source of latex from the plant Taraxacum kog-sagyz reveals how deeply implicated the Institute for Breeding Research was with the use of concentration camp labor. Her conclusion regarding the ultimate failure of the program, however, is not that it was based on poor or inefficient science, but that the breeding program was too time intensive to meet wartime production demands. Günther Luxbacher's chapter on fiber research expertly describes the tensions between breeders at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the fiber and textile industries, and government agencies involved in food production. Like the Institute for Biology described in Bernd Gausemeier's chapter, the Breeding Research Institute had to negotiate its balance between its basic and applied roles. The contrast between these two institutes is powerful and offers one of the highlights of this collection.

In the fourth section, the editors have collected a set of essays that address the KWS's involvement in war research, whether that be through metals research or chemical weapons research. Helmut Maier's essay on metals research builds on themes of self-sufficiency from the preceding section, while offering a fascinating analysis of the concept of a “German metal.” Moritz Epple's essay on the Institute for Fluid Dynamics also highlights how quickly and seamlessly scientific research could be adapted to military use. Fluid dynamics, such as the chemical weapons research described by Florian Schmaltz, had a long history in Germany. In the realm of military research at the KWS, the National Socialists were not antagonistic toward science, but were avid supporters of research on scientific armaments. That said, not every scientist eagerly supported weapons research, as Mark Walker's essay on nuclear weapons research convincingly demonstrates.

This collection ends with two essays on postwar perspectives on the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In the first, Carola Sache looks at the whitewash culture that sought to rehabilitate the KWS. Michael Schüring's essay offers a more personal counterpoint by examining Butenandt's postwar relationship with Carl Neuburg. Both make a clear case for the importance of careful historical research that critically engages both with the events in the National Socialist era and with how those events have been remembered, recast, and historicized.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism is a valuable addition to the English-language literature on science under National Socialism. The editors have assembled a remarkable collection of essays that draw upon extensive archival research to offer a compelling portrait of the deep interconnections between the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the National Socialist state.