Heinrich Matthias Konen (16 September 1874 in Cologne – 31 December 1948 in Bad Godesberg) was a German physicist who specialized in spectroscopy.

In 1920, due to his relationship with Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, Konen was involved in the founding and organization of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (NG, Emergency Association of German Science) and he became a longstanding member of its main committee.

Konen’s opposition to National Socialism resulted in his forced retirement from academia in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

Finkelnburg would go on to play a major role in the campaign against and political victory over the Deutsche Physik movement, as the organizer of the Münchner Religionsgespräche, known as the “Munich Synod.”[2] After 1945, Konen became rector of University of Bonn and then headed the Culture Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia.

In 1949, after formation of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Konen used his position in the Culture Ministry to re-found the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, which had become inactive in 1945.