The difficulty of integrating the history of chemistry into general narratives in the history of science recalls a historical (and historiographical) problem of how to deal with “Germany” within the general arc of European history. At most points of European history, defining where precisely “Germany” lay was a contested issue, but it has been even trickier to locate “the Germans.” The superficial solution is typically to focus attention on historical populations who lived on territory that today falls within the boundaries of the present-day Federal Republic, which excludes not only Austrians and Swiss Germans, but Bohemians, Transylvanians, Volga Germans, Pennsylvania Dutch, and more. This taxonomic dilemma presents an analogy with the history of chemistry: the boundaries of the discipline and who might count as a “chemist” over the centuries is notoriously difficult to pin down. Beyond drawing the comparison, this talk suggests that the two historiographical puzzles are historically related. The location of “Germany” as a site for alchemy, chemical industry, and chemical warfare consistently troubles the incorporation of the field into the general history of science, and into narratives of European history more broadly.
