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One lesser-known and deeply unsettling fact from academic history is that a significant number of professors at major German universities supported the Nazi reg
by tlogan 1y ago
One lesser-known and deeply unsettling fact from academic history is that a significant number of professors at major German universities supported the Nazi regime during its rise to power. Far from being passive bystanders, many actively embraced Nazi ideology, joined the party, or participated in the purge of Jewish and politically dissident faculty.
A detailed exploration of this phenomenon can be found in the books “Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany” by Robert P. Ericksen
and “Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft und der Nationalsozialismus” by Richard J. Evans. An accessible summary is also available via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-role-of-academics-and-teachers https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-role-o...
This isn’t just a historical footnote—it’s a sobering reminder of how institutions of knowledge can be wrong.
- analog31 1y agoAlso, institutuons of knowledge are not right or wrong. It's the people and their ideas who are. And they are not ideologically monolithic.
- littlestymaar 1y agoAnd like the head of École Polytechnique (France's top university) once said in an address to the students: “there are 10% of complete idiots in the population, and I see no reason to assume the ratio is any different in here”. If you have a political power that rewards stupidity, then those people will become empowered everywhere they are, including in the universities.
- lo_zamoyski 1y agoCompare this with the fate of universities in occupied countries[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligenzaktion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligenzaktion
- idoubtit 1y agoIsn't it just obvious? When the Nazi ideology was widespread, of course it permeated into every domain of the society. I haven't read the books, but the presentation by this holocaust museum was not informative. For instance, it fails to mention a relevant fact: some people earned their academic position to their activity in the party. And, most of all, the existence is irrelevant without some prevalence. I would be very surprised if the established scholars that "actively embraced Nazi ideology" were a majority. From the Vietnam wars to nowadays, there have been US academics that embraced war or actively supported genocides, but I think most academics and students are less heinous or indifferent than the average population. That's why some German scholars were oppressed by their government, even when they were not Jews, and chose to emigrate.
- Telemakhos 1y ago> When the Nazi ideology was widespread, of course it permeated into every domain of the society. One of the architects of that ideology was Carl Schmitt, who formulated the concept of the Totalstaat or "total state" as a state that did exactly what you say: permeated into every domain of society. He considered a state "total" when it was co-extensive with the entirety of its people's endeavors, co-opting or liquidating any alternative authority such as media, academia, or church. This was a novel concept at the time, especially after the swing to liberal (small and restrained) republics in the late eighteenth century. As a novel concept, the total permeation of the Nazi state into academia and the rest of the spheres of non-governmental authority would have been far from obvious at the time to observers of prior governments, but it was also the intent. The Nazis were not the only ones to adopt an illiberal, totalitarian stance: the twentieth century saw a huge growth in government authority and its permeation through other parts of human life, like academia, in regimes that rejected other aspects of the Nazi ideology. The Soviet Union comes to mind as an example: the government coopted authorities like academia and liquidated others like churches in order to pervade as far as possible every aspect of society. The fact that it seems obvious in retrospect that Nazi ideology would permeate academia and every domain of society shows how successful the concept of a Totalstaat was, even in an age that looks back with horror upon the Nazis. The way to counter the spread of government is to put strong limits on government, keeping it out of academia, the media, religion, and so forth completely, with no government funding for any of them. If academia requires government funding, the government of the day will always control academia.
- edding4500 1y agoAmong them were jewish nationalists like Fritz Haber. He was allegedly a very proud german. Didnt help him though.
- klipt 1y agoHe saw the writing on the wall enough to quit his job in Germany and move his children to the UK.
- cenamus 1y agoAlso a big fan (and basically the father) of gas warfare
- eternauta3k 1y agoAlso saved the world from starvation. And provided Germany with synthetic fuels which prolonged the war. Bit of a mixed bag. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Dis...
- realo 1y agoAnd with all the trumpist shit going on in US universities right now, I wonder how many professors suddenly feel a need to advertise pro-Donald propaganda in order to keep their funding.
- whatshisface 1y agoThat's not going to happen with the current people, all of whom see credibility as their only tool.
- RajT88 1y agoSome may think differently once a few are killed in a Salvadorean prison. Unless SCOTUS or Congress puts the kibosh on some of this nonsense, that's where we're heading.
- youreth4tguy 1y agoThat last sentence sounds very ChatGPT-like