ABSTRACT
This paper explores geology in Germany during the Third Reich, 1933–1945. It deals with the effect of the political regime on the daily life in institutes and universities, with victims, perpetrators and bystanders, with geologists supporting the regime with their expertise in administration, economy and military, with ideological influences on geology as such and most of all with German geologists of that time and the broad spectrum of attitudes they cultivated. 
Dedicated to Thomas Kaemmel (1931–2013) in memory of 4 October 2002
