Paul Weyland


Paul Wilhelm Gustav Weyland was the anti-semitic leader of the Anti Einstein League.
In 1919 Weyland published the novel Hie Kreuz - hie Triglaff, which gives a chauvinistic account of the historical events of the tenth century A.D. in Pomerania. It ends with an open allusion to the contemporary conflicts between Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia. A second book Der Tanz als kulturelles Ausdrucksmittel was promised, with a chapter on modern dance as a sign of cultural decline. However this book never appeared and Weyland was to move on to scientific theory.
Weyland was a key figure involved in organising an anti-semitic campaign against relativity. In August 1920 he organised a mass meeting at the Berliner Philharmonie to contest Einstein's theory of relativity. After ensuring the meeting had been well-advertised in the newspapers, Weyland delivered a vituperative attack on Einstein, described as "with heavy artillery" in one newspaper. This attack consisted primarily of unsubstantial insults against the theory of relativity alongside claims that it was promoted by a "the clique of academic supporters". Weyland claimed that the theory constituted a form of hypnotic mass suggestion and Jewish arrogance, which was a product of an unsettling spiritually chaotic period and that it amongst other repellent ideas it was poisoning of German thought. It was this speech which culminated in the statement: "Relativity theory is scientific Dadaism".
He was later granted American citizenship.