German universities under the Nazis

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The takeover of public life in Germany began after Hitler's 'Ermaechtigungsgesetz', or enabling law, which declared that there was a state of emergency, and that therefore the government required emergency powers. The law was passed on 23 March 1933; as many as 90 MPs courageously voted against it, no doubt at serious personal cost to themselves. The Nazis imposed a policy of 'Gleichschaltung' (co-ordination), by which  a system of totalitarian control and coordination was extended over all aspects of German society, universities included.

The regime imposed changes to the regulations of educational institutions. Universities, no matter whether organized publicly or privately, had to align without being given the opportunity to protest or dissent. 

On 11 November 1933, scholars of all disciplines had to sign a ‘vow of allegiance of the professors of the German universities and high-schools to Adolf Hitler and the National-Socialistic state’(Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund, 1934) and most did so. Of the remainder, by the autumn 1933 5% of academics had been fired because of being Jewish, 10% for their political beliefs.

On 1 May 1934, the Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung (Reich Ministry of Science and National Education) was established. It assumed the right to appoint university deans.

At Goettingen University, a new constitution was approved in June 1934, giving the Dean comprehensive authority. Appointed by the Ministry, he assumed power for all academic and curricular decisions, with the Senate, previously responsible for these issues, now taking an advisory role only. Subsequently, the Ministry issued further guidelines that effectively replaced all university constitutions and made all Deans their schools’ 'Führer', solely accountable to the Reichsminister of Science.

Paul Deutsch, the Dozentenschaftsführer at Handelshochschule Leipzig, reported in a February 1935 letter that his tasks were to oversee that research and education were aligned with Nazi ideology (UAL HHS sig. 158).

A shift of academic accountability took place from adherence to professional values, to adherence to the political ideology of the Nazis. Throughout Germany, academics responded to these pressures either by willingly making a political commitment to the regime or by giving up their personal values and going along with it. Only a few dared to resist the Nazi rhetoric and symbolism in their teaching and research.

In the course of the “Gleichschaltung”, the leader principle was also introduced at the universities, which made the rector the “leader” of the university with the authority to issue directives. The first Goettingen rector with this new authority was Friedrich Neumann, who took up his post in May 1933 and at the same time became a member of the NSDAP. He was well suited for this task in the eyes of the new rulers, being acceptable not only to them but also to the majority of his national conservative professorial colleagues. During his period of office (until 1938 as rector, then until 1943 as pro rector) Neumann conducted the Nazi alignment of the University energetically and thoroughly, with misgivings about what he was doing.

With few exceptions, the German academic elite welcomed and justified the acts of the Nazi regime, uttered no word of protest when their Jewish and liberal colleagues were dismissed, and did not react when Jewish students were barred admission.

Typical of the almost unopposed submission to Nazi rule were the political staff purges. These were brought in under the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7th, 1933. They brought about the dismissal of 45 professors from the Georgia Augusta. Among the victims were important scientists such as Max Born, Richard Courant, Emmy Noether, Herman Nohl, Nikolaus Pevsner, Wolfgang Stechow and Gerhard Leibholz. It took several years for the Georgia Augusta to recover from this great loss. 

Taking exclusion and humiliation further, the National Socialists stripped their victims and opponents of their academic degrees. In Göttingen, 72 such cases are known to have occurred during the winter semester 1935/36.

The failure of German academics to resist is illustrated by the outcome of a faculty meeting in Frankfurt in March 1933. A Nazi commissar took over a faculty meeting to tell academics how things were now going to be run, including the expulsion of Jews, and threats to department heads to follow his orders or face being sent to a concentration camp. A distinguished biochemist-physiologist got up and said, “Very interesting, Herr Commissar, and in some respects very illuminating: but one point I didn’t get too clearly. Will there be more money for research in physiology?" At the end of the meeting, most academics took care not to leave the building in the company of Jewish faculty members.


Sources

 https://oneworld-publications.com/nazi-germany-and-the-humanities-pb.html

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/%22gleichschaltung%22+under+the+nazi+regime/30772.html

Education.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1032373219836301

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