The history of German-American scientific relations after 1945 has a special place in the complex story of the de- and reinternationalization of science in the twentieth century. In one sense, developments after 1945 are comparable with the realignment of international scientific research and communication networks following World War I. In both cases, involvement of German and Allied scientists in military and other government projects contributed, along with wider political factors, to an atmosphere of competition, mutual isolation, and mistrust that inhibited postwar cooperation at first. However, the realignment of international scientific relations during the Cold War was far more drastic than that which followed World War I. As a result, new frameworks for cooperation emerged while older ones were revitalized. At the same time, new political, social, and cultural realities affected German scientific research.

In the early postwar years, German-American relations in the sciences and technology were dominated by Allied exploitation of human and physical resources and by Allied efforts to control or redirect research in the occupation zones. During the first years of the chancellorship of Konrad Adenauer, a significant recirculation of scientific elites occurred; younger German scientists emigrated to the United States largely for economic reasons, while a number of scholars and scientists who had fled from Hitler returned to the Federal Republic. In strong interaction with this trend, a formal framework of scientific and cultural relations gradually emerged, the newest aspect of which was the Fulbright Program. Adenauer-era science and technology policies reflected an uneasy mix of cooperation and rivalry with the United States, while West German social scientists introduced research methods imported largely from that country – an effort hotly contested as “Americanization.”