On the Verdict of the German Physical Society Against the Karlsruhe Physics Course – a Chronicle of Events

The Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPC) is a novel approach to the teaching of physics at the secondary school. It was developed more than 30 years ago. The KPC textbooks have since been used in a certain, slightly increasing number of German schools. Simultaneously, ideas of the KPC have found their way into the mainstream textbooks. Only recently, the German Physical Society (DPG) got aware of the course. In their opinion the KPC represents a danger to the teaching of physic. Therefore, the DPG nominated an expert panel with the assignment of finding scientific errors in the KPC. The panel believed to have found such errors. Thereupon the DPG has initiated a campaign with the objective of eliminating not only the KPC textbooks from the market but to eradicate any other manifestation of ideas that might have originated in the KPC work. The DPG did so not only in Germany but worldwide. Among other things, the DPG alerted the European Physical Society and the Chinese Physical Society. As a result of these measures, a discussion of unusual fierceness arose, first in Germany, but then spreading to other countries. Thereby the physics community got more and more polarized. ... mehrA chronicle of an eventful year and a brief evaluation will be given from the perspective of the author of the course and of a teacher who uses the KPC in his classes.