Global trial against the Instituto Nacional de Física y Química

Abstract

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, francoist authorities dissolved the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (Board for the Extension of Studies and Scientific Research) (JAE) and initiated a process of purging scientific personnel considered disloyal to the dictatorship. This process is well-documented through the university purges and summary trials conducted by military courts, always on an individual basis. Until now, it was not known that an entire scientific institution of the JAE had been subjected to such a trial, as was the case with the Instituto Nacional de Física y Química (National Institute of Physics and Chemistry) (INFQ). This study aims to demonstrate, using the trial’s dossier as the primary source of information, how this process was carried out, what the underlying objectives were, and how the reports submitted during the trial reveal another reality: the internal power struggles within Francoism itself, as different factions vied for future control over scientific research.