History
The Leopoldina was founded in the city of Schweinfurt on 1 January 1652 under the Latin name Academia Naturae Curiosorum, sometimes translated into English as "Academy of the Curious as to Nature." The four founding members were physicians, namely Johann Laurentius Bausch, first president of the society, Johann Michael Fehr, Georg Balthasar Metzger, and Georg Balthasar Wohlfarth.
In 1670 the society began to publish the Ephemeriden, the world's first medical and scientific journal.
In 1677, Leopold I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, recognised the society and in 1687 he gave it the epithet Leopoldina., p. 7–8;
At first, the society conducted its business by correspondence and was located wherever the president was working. It was not permanently located in Halle until 1878 and did not meet regularly until 1924., pp. 8–9
When Adolf Hitler became Germany's chancellor in 1933, the Leopoldina started to exclude its Jewish members. Albert Einstein was one the first victims, more than 70 followed until 1938. Eight of them were murdered by the Nazis.
At the end of World War II, the city of Halle, and hence the building of the academy, became part of East Germany and the communist government tried repeatedly to nationalise it. However, the Leopoldina successfully resisted these attempts and continued to think of itself as an institution for the whole of Germany. In 1991, after German reunification, the Leopoldina was granted the status of a non-profit organisation. It is presently funded jointly by the German government and the government of the state of Saxony-Anhalt., pp. 10–14
In November 2007, German science minister Annette Schavan announced the renaming of the Leopoldina to "German Academy of Sciences" (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften), and said that "due to its international prestige, the Leopoldina is predestined to represent Germany within the circle of international academies." As the German Academy of Sciences, it is a counterpart to the rights and responsibilities of institutions such as Britain's Royal Society and the United States' National Academy of Science.
Read more about this topic: German Academy Of Sciences Leopoldina
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