A personal account of coming of age in Germany in the 1930s that highlights the danger of politicizing universities and of teaching an ideology that divides people…
by: William Schoenl
My uncle Gunther fought in the trenches in World War I. He believed that politicians stabbed the German army in the back by surrendering and he espoused Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic rhetoric. He enthusiastically marched in the torchlit parade of stormtroopers through Berlin when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. The Nazi flag, the black swastika encircled in white on a red background moving counterclockwise — in the wrong direction — then bedecked the Chancellery building. Gunther became even more enthusiastic when stormtroopers were made “auxiliary police” to the Prussian state police in February. This allowed them to patrol the streets of Berlin and beat people more freely.
My cousin Josef accepted his father Gunther’s beliefs. He and I were first-year students at the University of Berlin. Like many of his peers he became a member of the Nazi German Student Federation. The Great Depression made employment prospects bleak for university students as well as others. They hoped Hitler would deal with unemployment and looked forward to Germany’s revival under him.
When the Reichstag fire occurred in February, Nazis blamed the Communists and Hitler received emergency powers. An Enabling Act in March enabled him to govern by decree. A new Civil Service Law in April dismissed “non-Aryans” — including Jews — and those deemed unreliable from the Civil Service. This Law was extended to apply to university teachers. Josef told me: “It will strengthen our nation.” In May the German Student Association coordinated book burnings at universities across Germany. Josef participated as thousands of books students considered “unGerman” in spirit went up in flames on the square across from Humboldt University in Berlin. Some professors also participated in book burnings throughout Germany.
I asked a professor whom I had come to know what he thought of the book burnings. He reversed the question and asked: “What do you think?” I replied: “Outstanding novels like Erich Maria Remarque’s All’s Quiet on the Western Front and works by Thomas Mann as well as by Jewish authors such as Sigmund Freud were burnt. The poet Heinrich Heine predicted: “where books are burnt, people are eventually also burnt.” I understood, however, my professor’s reluctance to answer the question as it might jeopardize his position at the University. Many students like Josef supported correct Nazi ideology and could report faculty they considered politically unreliable.
Faculty either cooperated with the Nazi government or kept silent. They quietly accepted another major change: government appointment of university heads and deans. The impact of the first months of Nazi rule included more willingness to politicize universities and enact ideologically-oriented teaching and research. German Volk (translation: people) classes became popular with Josef and other students. The Chair of my Department taught about Germany’s past and broader borders in line with the Nazi doctrine of Lebensraum — expansion for more living space for the German people. Faculty did research in and taught so-called “racial science” about which Josef was also enthusiastic. Many faculty and students jumped on the bandwagon of Nazi ideology.
The Nazis’ racism reached a peak on the night of November 9-10, 1938 when they destroyed many synagogues and Jewish shops — shards of glass littered pavements in front of the shops — and arrested many Jews. Even my cousin Josef was taken aback, but believed that Hitler did not know and that Goebbels and other underlings organized it. Many Germans continued to believe in Hitler and that he was making Germany greater.
A country or a university can be transformed for the better or worse. Changes in Germany and German universities began during the first months of Nazi rule. Many students and faculty thought they were transforming their country and university for the better. But they participated in changing them for the worse.
What might be learned from this? First, the danger of politicizing universities. Secondly, the danger of teaching an ideology that divides people into two classes: Aryan and others in the case of Nazi Germany. These contradict a basic mission of the university which is to teach students to think critically for themselves — not in accordance with an ideology, whether Nazi ideology then or any other ideology today. We cannot learn from the past what will happen, but dangers that may occur.
William Schoenl’s creative nonfiction has appeared in Wilderness House literary Review and Litbreak Magazine. He is retired from Michigan State University. Besides writing, he is presently interested in establishing programs for dire human needs in Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria.
