DWhen the First World War had ended, the Versailles Peace Treaty dictated, Germany disintegrated, disarmed and annexed – all that was left to do now was to defeat its language and its soul. Frenchman Picmile Picard threw himself into this fight.

In early 1915 – a year after the start of the war – the mathematician demanded that Germany be excluded from the International Science Congress in the future. Because these have become a “move to Germanism” and Germany has removed itself from the cycle of “barbarism” civilized countries.

It was a fierce retaliation for a disgraced man who saw his own country lagging behind Germany in the field of science. And personally also Picard felt a certain powerlessness in the pre-war international science organizations dominated by the Germans.

Together with the allies, Picard wanted to bring back German influence in international science with three strategies, which combined to form a holistic strategy.

First, international science organizations were established, in which the Germans were not allowed.