In the 19th century, a general tendency towards professionalization and specialization in science and academia, but also in politics and other areas of society, has resulted in a decrease of non-academic activities by university members. Instead, academics focused on public activities within their respective research fields, commented on political and social development mostly from the perspective of their own scientific expertise and increasingly reached out to other scientists rather than to members of the general public. Thomas Fuchs describes the processes underlying the professionalization in academic research as well as within scientific associations using the example of members of the University of Bonn.