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For all its success, the society is not without its critics. Only last month, at its annual meeting, a group of Young Turks demanded more democratic rule in the various member institutes, some of which have long been run as personal fiefdoms by their directors. Such autocracy can be costly. The new radio telescope near Bonn, for example, has been plagued by serious vibration problems because, critics say, the institute acted as its own general contractor.
Critics also feel that the institutes are not innovative enough, and that the Germans tend to rush into ineffective "panic science" programs in a frenetic effort to catch up with research abroad.
Such criticism may dwindle in the future. Last month the society's senate elected a new president, Physicist Reimar Lüst, a modest young (49) scientist whose easygoing and informal manner should fit in with the Young Turks ambitions to speed the democratization process. A U-boat engineering officer during World War II, Lüst was captured after his submarine was hit. Sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Texas, he began attending courses given by some P.O.W. professors. Lüst soon developed a liking for physics, which he continued to study in both Germany and the U.S. after the war. During his internment, he also showed a penchant for Hogan's Heroes type of pranks: he and fellow prisoners snatched up wandering turtles, painted their shells with swastikas and then let them crawl over the Texas countryside.
Among his fellow scientists, Lst is well known for his experiments involving the firing of rockets laden with canisters of barium high into the atmosphere. Once released, the barium particles formed into ionized clouds that were used to study the movements of winds in the upper atmosphere and the shape of the earth's magnetic field. To the German public, Lüst is even better known for his lucid scientific commentaries over television during Apollo moon shots. That combination of talents may be highly productive. By using his influence with his fellow scientists as well as promoting greater public understanding for basic scientific research, Lüst could lead the Max Planck Society —and, indeed, all of German science —into new avenues of knowledge.