Nuclei in a supersaturated solution. Utrecht chemists and the crystallization of international relations after the First World War

In 1925, the Dutchman Ernst Julius Cohen (1869-1944) was unanimously elected president of the IUPAC (in absence) at the annual meeting in Bucharest. Although quite well known as able linguist, physical chemist and student of J.H. van ‘t Hoff, no one could have suspected this turn of events three years earlier. On 21 June 1922, Cohen had organized an informal, purely scientific meeting in Utrecht— the International Chemical Reunion Utrecht (ICRU)—to restore friendly relations between scientists from all previously warring nations. However, Belgian and French chemists, headed by Jean Timmermans and Charles Moureu, boycotted this meeting as they had not yet forgotten the atrocities of the ‘chemists’ war.’ At the subsequent IUPAC meeting in Lyon (27 June - 1 July), Cohen, together with Hugo Kruyt, had to fend off harsh criticisms by their international colleagues [1].

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ernst Cohen and the Challenge of a Truly International Union

Smit¹

2019

The Garden Party at Wiltzangk

Smit¹

2022

What is the story behind this photo, of the “Garden party at Wiltzangk”? It first caught my attention over eight years ago when I was researching interwar chemistry during my studies. Since then, I moved to post-war science policy in my PhD, and the photo faded into the margins of my attention. Yet recently the image of this fabulous garden party came back to me—and I finally wondered what was actually going on there [1].

Reconciling Science and Foreign Relations in The Hague

Somsen¹

2023

From 18 to 25 August, IUPAC will convene in The Hague. This is not the first time. One of the earliest IUPAC conferences, in 1928, also took place in the Dutch city. This was a truly historic meeting, because it was there that decisive steps were taken toward the reintegration of German, Austrian, and Hungarian chemists who had been banned from international science since the First World War, as has earlier been described by Jorrit Smit and Danielle Fauque in this magazine. An informal gathering the following year, in The Hague’s beach resort Scheveningen, finalized the process [1]. The rifts of war had been repaired; internationalism revived.