The cell as a social concept now normally refers to a unit of political organization. But the concept of an organism as a cell state, or Zellenstaat, has a neglected history associated with the rise of cell biology in nineteenth-century Germany. Professors of anatomy propagated the theory that an organism was a ‘social arrangement of parts’ both in their teaching and as a means of scientific explanation in their research. Moreover on the basis of their privileged social position many professors drew on biological theories to formulate opinions on national issues like the feminist movement, naval expansion or war strategy. German scientific achievements in cell biology may be considered as a form of nationalism, if it is accepted that social ideals were intrinsic to the scientific formulation of concepts of life.

That the theory of the cell as the elementary organism permeated other aspects of culture raises questions about the prestigious authority of science in Imperial Germany. Relations between scientific theory, institutional aspects of teaching and research, and broader social questions pose complex historical problems. German universities were to a considerable extent state financed and controlled. But academics also vociferously defended their privileges, arguing that German scientific achievements were the result of national traditions of academic freedom. The resulting conflict of interests raises the question examined here with regard to anatomy from the 1880s to 1918 at Berlin: to what extent was the theory of the cell state a response to the state's institutional control of the universities?