The Role of the Scientific Community in the War Crimes of Their States: A Critical Bibliography of Walter Christaller

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https://doi.org/{{DOI}}

Published

2026-01-12

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CC BY 4.0

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Article

Local ID

2026-0003

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VoR

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Nikolaenko Dmitry. The Role of the Scientific Community in the War Crimes of Their States: A Critical Bibliography of Walter Christaller. Pollution and Diseases. Repository. 2026

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of scientific expertise in the operation of aggressive and totalitarian state systems, focusing on a critical examination of Walter Christaller and the scientific community within the Third Reich. The research positions Christaller’s central place theory within its historical, institutional, and ideological framework, illustrating how a seemingly abstract spatial model was incorporated into tangible practices of territorial reorganization, administrative planning, and occupation policy. The analysis establishes a structural comparison between the historical case of Nazi Germany and the current state of Russian academic geography, especially regarding Russia's ongoing military actions in Ukraine. The stance of impartiality maintained by specialists operating in authoritarian systems facilitates the conversion of scientific knowledge into a functional element of state violence. Special attention is given to anomalies in the accessibility and circulation of Christaller’s original publications. The paper demonstrates that the persistent reliance on secondary interpretations and schematic representations obscures the direct historical linkage between theory and its practical implementation under conditions of occupation and coercion. The bibliography is therefore treated not merely as a reference tool, but as a critical analytical instrument that exposes the continuity between technocratic planning, ideological alignment, and ethical responsibility. The research dismisses the idea that scientific endeavors can be separated from their ethical implications and political and material outcomes. The assertion is that expertise, when integrated into systems of domination and territorial control, represents a form of participation rather than a neutral observation.

Key words: Walter Christaller; central place theory; scientific responsibility; applied geography; spatial planning; Third Reich; Generalplan Ost; technocratic expertise; occupation regimes; totalitarianism; ethics of science; political geography; history of geography; contemporary Russia; war and knowledge