World War I is a heavy burden for relations between international scientists. In 1915, the experimental physicist Wilhelm Wien, a professor at the University of Munich, composes an appeal against the supposedly unduly large influence of English physics in Germany. Fifteen physicists sign, among them the later Einstein adversary and National Socialist Johannes Stark. The appeal finds little support. One of the signatories, Arnold Sommerfeld, fears conflict within the field and later would “almost rather suppress” the appeal.