Since the 20th May, the science theoretician and mibrobiologist Ludwik Fleck's legacy is at home in Collegium Helveticum; side by side with his monograph "Genesis and development of a scientific fact". In the aforesaid monograph, which was published in 1935 by Schwabe in Basel, Fleck developed an unusual theory of how scientific knowledge is generated. What was most extraordinary about this theory was that he assigned central importance to sociological and historical moments in the genesis of scientific insight. This makes the connection to the interdisciplinary Collegium Helveticum understandable. Because, in addition to natural scientists, the institute is also home to numerous researchers from the humanities and the fields of social science (1).

A special kind of path through life

Despite numerous prizes that Fleck received in Poland, the microbiologist received little attention from science researchers until the 1980s. In his work, Fleck anticipated many things, that Thomas S. Kuhn pointed out in his well-known inquiry into the structure of scientific revolutions(2). Born on 11th July 1896 in Lwow, then Lemberg, Ludwik Fleck initially studied medicine. In 1935 he had his own bacteriological institute. Among other things he worked on developing a vaccine for typhus, for which he first isolated compounds from the urine of typhus patients. With the German occupation of Lemberg, he was deported as a Jewish scientist to the concentration camp Buchenwald, where he had to continue his research in order to provide a typhus vaccine for the German troops. Together with his family he survived the concentration camp and, over the next 25 years, held various head positions at scientific institutes in Poland. Following a heart attack and a diagnosis of cancer, Fleck immigrated with his wife to Israel to be with their son where he died on 5th July 1961.

A legacy at the Collegium

According to Martin Schmid, media speaker of the Collegium, the fact that Collegium Helveticum accepts a legacy is absolutely exceptional. The Collegium sees itself as a place for scientific dialogue, certainly not as an archive. That the legacy of this important 20th century scientist now resides in the former Observatory (Sternwarte), has to do with the research tradition at the Collegium, explains Schmid. Fleck's work has already been the subject of an exhibition, a lecture series and a workshop at the Collegium and this has led to close contacts with the executor of Fleck's legacy, Marcus Klingberg, and Thomas Schnelle who has done a lot of research on Fleck.

Ludwik Fleck's ideas are seen as seminal in science theory today.

Klingberg, who had been in Switzerland within the framework of events at the Collegium, developed a liking for the Observatory and had therefore waived his rights to legacy in favour of the Collegium. At any rate, the appearance in Zurich of Fleck's legacy seems to have happened in the right place at the right time. The city on the Limmat has developed into a veritable centre of science research. Examples are the many projects in process at the Center for Science Research, at the Collegium Helveticum and at the Research Centre for Social and Economic History at the University of Zurich.

A centre for Ludwik Fleck

Fleck's legacy comprises personal correspondence, biographical documents, records for publications and documents, actual publications as well as manuscripts of published and unpublished work. The Thomas Schnelle Archive is contributing with research material and documents from interviews with contemporary witnesses, as Martin Schmid said. In order to make Fleck's legacy accessible to interested parties in future, the Collegium Helveticum is establishing a Ludwik Fleck Centre. A celebration to mark the foundation of the centre will take place on 7th July 2005 in the Observatory in the presence of Marcus Klingberg and Thomas Schnelle.