The 'case' of Georg Friedrich NICOLAI, a Berlin physiologist and pacifist, who vehemently stood against a chauvi- nistic academic world in Germany in August 1914, is typical for the academic situation and the role of nationalistic professors as 'mandarines' at German universities and academies at the outbreak of the Great War. NICOLAI suffered a lot from his pacifist internationalism: he was brutally excluded from scientific community, and his academic career was destroyed. Had he not successfully escaped to Denmark, his physical existence would have been endangered as well. On the other hand his dignity was never endangered while NICOLAI successfully resisted military dictatorship and a kind of submissive chauvinism of a perishing Kaiserreich.
