CB - Education

2011

CB - Education

Diskurse der Gelehrtenkultur in der Frühen Neuzeit: ein Handbuch [Discourses on Scholarly Culture of the Early Modern Period: A Handbook]. Ed. Herbert Jaumann. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011. xiii, 1054 p. ill. 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-11- 018901-8: EUR 169.95 [11-2]

In view of increased competition for sales to research libraries and the latter’s decreasing capacities to acquire new materials, there appears to be a trend toward publishing collections of essays as “handbooks”, giving them an elevated cachet in the eyes of acquisitions librarians and scholars. While this might be a good marketing strategy, it obfuscates the picture; the researcher expects a handbook to have solid information organized in a systematic structure, not a loosely gathered collection of essays.

The volume at hand is an example of this confusion, similar to the conference compendium Departure for Modern Europe: A Handbook of Early Modern Philosophy (see RREA 17:47). Although not stated in the introduction, Diskurse der Gelehrtenkultur serves as a supplement or second volume to the same publisher’s Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der frühen Neuzeit (see RREA 11:18), which is a bio-bibliographical dictionary of scholars of the Early Modern period. The forward to this second work does mention that the work has some 70 themes organized into six categories, but this organization is not reflected in the overall structure of the book or in the table of contents. Rather, the reader gets a long list of essay titles.

These objections aside, the volume does offer a large number of informative and useful essays (each 50-80 pages in length) that provide a good intellectual foundation on which to build. Topics include Petrarchism, Ciceronianism, Machiavelli, Paracelsus, general hermeneutics, the occult and magic, and religious-historical themes like confessionalism, tolerance, proselytism, religious denominations, the concept of revelation in Christianity and Judaism, literary exile, and the migration and flow of ideas in the Early Modern period. The appendix features a 75-page bibliography of articles, monographs, and anthologies (the works are listed by author or title, but there is no subject indexing), as well as informative biographies of the 22 contributors from several different academic disciplines: literary studies, philosophy, theology, cultural studies, and many aspects of history. The work concludes with an index of names and of illustrations. [tk/ga]

Das sechshundertjährige Jubiläum der Universität Leipzig 2009: eine Dokumentation [The Six-Hundredth Jubilee of the University of Leipzig, 2009: A Documentation]. Ed. Franz Häuser. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2011. 462 p. ill. 28 cm. ISBN 978-3-86583-627-4: EUR 98 [12-2]

This richly illustrated book commemorates the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig, which was celebrated for six months, culminating on December 2, 2009. Its 21 chapters cover key events and publications related to the jubilee, as well as the state of the university at the beginning of the 21st century. Chapters record the anniversary ceremonies, speeches, exhibitions, lectures, alumni reunions, student and departmental initiatives, conferences, a commemorative stamp, and publications related to the celebration. There is a separate chapter on the five-volume Geschichte der Universität Leipzig 1409-2009 (see RREA 15/16:155). Others of these publications are reviewed in RREA 15/16, as well. This volume will serve as a useful historical and pictorial record and resource on the university and its anniversary celebration. [mk/rg]

Die Berliner juristische Fakultät und ihre Wissenschaftsgeschichte von 1810 bis 2010: Dissertationen, Habilitationen und Lehre [The Berlin (Humboldt University) Law School and its Intellectual History from 1810 to 2010]. Ed. Rainer Schröder. Berlin: BWV, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2010. 400 p. ill. 23 cm. + 1 CDROM. ISBN 978-3-8305-1880-8: EUR 49 [12-1]

This first-of-its-kind survey focusing on the past 200-year history of the law school at the Humboldt University in Berlin takes no shortcuts, although the general index of archives and source materials is less than impressive. The impetus for this project was the 200th anniversary of the founding of the “university under the linden trees.” Students and faculty quickly supported the effort, using the rich holdings of both university and state archives to complete the work.

There are four dedicated chapters. The first contains information about the 2,367 persons who graduated between 1810 and 2010. Chapter two provides details about the 200 of those persons whose postdoctoral qualifying publications were approved between 1810 and 1900. Chapter three covers the academic curriculum between 1870 and 1914, as well as in the period of the German Democratic Republic, while chapter four is devoted to a number of different topics: careers of those who graduated between 1810 and 1933, academic and scholarly discussions from 1900 to 1911, as well as prize-winning essays of the law faculty from 1900 to 1933.

The CD-ROM that accompanies the printed volume provides references to the wealth of documentary materials underlying this work, including dissertations, postdoctoral qualifying essays, faculties, courses and seminars organized by areas of the law, students (bar chart of student numbers between 1810 to 1951), prize-winning essays from 1900 to 1933, and illustrations. This pioneering work deserves high praise. It is very informative, nicely laid out, well proofread, and very useable. Although it is meant primarily for historians of legal studies, it is also appropriate for general research. However, it would have been helpful to provide some background on the underlying codifications of the law so as to avoid the impression of a uniform historical development in the time period covered and to account for the impact that political change had on jurisprudence and legal studies over the course of these 200 years, e.g., the legal texts from the GDR period, many of which are unknown to a wide audience. [frh/jb]

Akademischer Alltag zwischen Ausgrenzung und Erfolg: jüdische Dozenten an der Berliner Universität 1871-1933 [Everyday Academic Life between Exclusion and Success: Jewish Lecturers at the University of Berlin, 1871-1933]. Aleksandra Pawliczek. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2011. 529 p. 25 cm. (Pallas Athene, 38). ISBN 978-3-515-09846-5: EUR 84 [12-2]

In 2008 Andreas Ebert published a comprehensive study of the situation of Jewish lecturers at Prussian universities, Jüdische Hochschullehrer an preussischen Universitäten (1870-1924): eine quantative Untersuchung [Jewish University Teachers at Prussian Universities … A Quantitative Investigation] (see IFB 07-2-495). This topic is by no means a new one: for example, 100 years ago Bernhard Breslauer published, Die Zurücksetzung der Juden an den Universitäten Deutschlands [The Affront to Jews in German Universities] (Berlin, 1911) based on an opinion survey. There have been repeated discussions on whether one can speak of a conscious systematic discrimination (or not) against Jewish scholars in German academia. Alexandra Pawliczek’s detailed study and statistical analysis concentrates on the largest and most important university in Germany, the Friedrich-Wilhelm [now the Humboldt] University in Berlin. She writes that non-Jews, using a conglomeration of biological and genealogical factors in addition to religious affiliation, decided on who was a Jew and often classified persons as Jews who were not. To gain better professional chances, many Jewish scholars converted to Christianity, usually to Protestantism. Pawliczek differentiates between Jews and “Jewish” lecturers so as to clarify this difference between those who remained true to their religion and those who converted. Of 1,910 professors from this period, 460 were Jewish by religion or by ancestry.

Women could study in Prussia only since 1908 and thus had no chance for an academic career by 1918. In Weimar Germany only a few women became full professors (14 up to 1933, including 6 Jews, mostly in the natural sciences). Young Jews, although not they alone, took a big risk by choosing an academic career, due in part to financial and administrative stringencies at the universities. Nonetheless, as the first university in the Empire, Berlin was able to attract the most renowned professors, including the Jews Ernst Cassirer, Eduard Norden, and Richard Alewyn, and even Nobel prize winners such as Paul Ehrlich. Even these hard-won successes were completely overturned in 1933, after Hitler seized power.

Alexandra Pawliczek’s comprehensive work is systematically organized and covers a multitude of subjects: for example, university laws and regulations, conventions, and relations among faculty, the influence of Protestantism; and other overriding topics of debate. Several personal and departmental histories and case studies are included. The lengthy appendix includes a register of “Jewish” docents at the university, a bibliography of sources and works consulted, and a personal name index. Her study is convincing due to its broad basis of sources, its fluent narrative, and its confident conclusion. Although the results of the study are not new, the difficult position of Jewish lecturers in Berlin between exclusion and success is described in thorough and minute detail. [mk/gph]

Tübinger Professorenkatalog [Register of Tübingen University Professors]. Ed. Sönke Lorenz for the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen]. Ostfildern: Thorbecke. 25 cm.

Vol. 1, Part 2. Die Professoren der Tübinger Juristenfakultät (1477-1535) [The Professors of the Tübingen Law Faculty, 1477-1535]. Comp. Karl Konrad Finke. Ed. Oliver Haller, Stefan Kötz, and Friedrich Seck for the Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Eberhard- Karls-Universität Tübingen, 2011. 414 p. ISBN 978-3-7995-5452-7: EUR 39.80 [11-3]

This is the second volume of the comprehensive project Tübinger Professorenkatalog [Register of Tübingen University Professors]. The first volume, a registry of 3,300 lecturers in the Fine Arts Faculty from 1477-1535 (see RREA 12:172), was published in 2006. The second volume differs greatly from the first (and from other titles of the genre) by concentrating on 39 representative Tübingen law professors from the pre- Reformation era. This arrangement allows for substantial biographies, rather than short entries written by a variety of contributors. The subjects include the prominent jurists Martin Prenninger alias Uranius, Johannes Reuchlin, Konrad Braun, and Johannes Vergenhans alias Nauclerus, with an examination of their research and impressive bibliographies on each scholar. Until monographs are published on the lesser known academics, this text will surely provide definitive biographies of the subjects. In a broader context, the text serves as a departmental history prior to the Reformation and depicts the German and European university environment around 1500. A useful table records whether lecturers concentrated on Church or secular law and how well they were compensated. Name and place indexes and numerous footnotes complete this excellent work.

The compiler, Karl Konrad Finke, is perfectly suited for the task, as his dissertation covers this particular time period of the university’s Law Faculty, and he has continued to pursue the topic throughout his career. It is hoped that forthcoming volumes on medical doctors and theologians will be compiled in a similarly skilled manner. [mk/rg]

Die Geisteswissenschaften im “Dritten Reich” [The Humanities in the “Third Reich”]. Frank-Rutger Hausmann. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2011. 981 p. 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-465-04107-8: EUR 119 [12-1]

Frank-Rutger Hausmann, retired professor of Romance philology at the University of Freiburg, scholar of the history of academic scholarship, and frequent contributor to IFB, has published many works in both these fields. In the past decade he has authored several large volumes on academic disciplines in German universities during the Nazi period, particularly at the universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg. These include
Anglistik und Amerikanistik im “Dritten Reich” [English and American Studies in the “Third Reich”] (Frankfurt am Main, 2003—see IFB 04-1-150)
“Vom Strudel der Ereignisse verschlungen”: deutsche Romanistik im “DrittenReich” [Devoured in the Strudel of Experiences: German Romance Studies in the “Third Reich”] (Frankfurt am Main, 2008)
Hans Bender (1907-1991) und das “Institut für Psychologie und Klinische Psychologie” an der Reichsuniversität Straßburg 1941-1944 (Würzburg, 2006— see IFB 06-2-308)
Das Fach mittellateinische Philologie an deutschen Universitäten von 1930 bis 1950 [Middle Latin Philology at German Universities from 1930 to 1950] (Stuttgart, 2010 —see IFB 11-1)
“Deutsche Geisteswissenschaft” im Zweiten Weltkrieg: die “Aktion Ritterbusch” (1940-1945) [“German Humanities” in the Second World War: the “Ritterbusch Action”, 1940-1945] (Heidelberg, 2007, 3d expanded ed.—see IFB 07-2-497)
“Auch im Krieg schweigen die Musen nicht”: die Deutschen Wissenschaftlichen Institute im Zweiten Weltkrieg [Even in War the Muses are not Silent: German Research Institutes in the Second World War] (Göttingen, 2002, 2d rev. ed.-- see IFB 02-2-224)

In the foreword to this nearly 1,000 page work, Hausmann provides an indispensable key to the motifs, content, methodology, and results of his historical-systematic study of humanities scholarship in the German academy from 1933-1945. In the ensuing pages, to demonstrate the co-existence of traditional scholarship and a new sort influenced by National Socialist ideology that steered the fields of the humanities in its direction, he broadly evaluates ca. 2,000 titles from numerous publishers, citing works by 700 faculty members, often senior ones, from 23 German and three Austrian universities, along with several others from adjoining geographic areas. The author states that his aim is to evaluate without moral intent the effect of Nazi ideology on the scholarship of the era. Thus the “what” and “how” is at the center, not the “why.” But the ample inclusion of passages from publications of the period enables the reader to judge for him/herself.

This study has been carefully edited; subsequent editions would benefit from the inclusion of more recent literature on the subject, as Hausmann’s publication will be considered a standard work for a long time to come. [jc/rlk]

Universität und Disziplin: Angehörige der Universität Wien und der Nationalsozialismus [University and Discipline: University of Vienna Personnel and National Socialism]. Andreas Huber. Wien; Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2011. 319 p. ill. 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-643-50265-0: EUR 29.90 [12-1]

This work is a collection of three essays that originated as theses or academic papers, centered on the theme of “discipline,” both in the sense of “obedience/order” and that of “academically established subject,” at the University of Vienna in the 1940s. The first and third essays deal with the first meaning and the middle essay deals with the second—in this case, the discipline of journalism. The first essay classifies disciplinary infractions addressed by the Academic Senate as “positive” misbehavior (unambiguous anti-Nazi acts such as refusing the Nazi salute, participating in national Slovenian movements, political graffiti) or “negative” misbehavior (such as “treachery,” “betrayal of a National Socialist,” or attempting to get one’s pre-Anschluss job back) and comes to the conclusion that actions impeding discipline were more common during the early stages of the Nazi period, but that later most of the university community had become assimilated and “obedient.” The second essay chronicles the prewar founding of the university’s journalism institute, which remained somewhat insulated and well-funded at first, but which eventually came into conflict with Nazi-controlled student and teacher organizations, even as various propaganda agencies tried to co-opt the institute’s professionalizing function. The final essay documents the course of the denazification process and concurrent “return to normalcy” at the University of Vienna between 1946 and 1950, based on news stories, disciplinary records, and admissions records. This lucid and user-friendly volume manages to convey even the most complex issues in precise summaries. [frh/rb]

Die Verwissenschaftlichung der “Judenfrage” im Nationalsozialismus [Giving the “Jewish Question” Scholarly Status under National Socialism]. Horst Junginger. Darmstadt: WBG (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft), 2011. 480 p. 23 cm. (Veröffentlichungen der Forschungsstelle Ludwigsburg der Universität Stuttgart, 19). ISBN 978-3-534-23977-1: EUR 59.90 [11-3]

Tübingen theologian Horst Junginger’s book scrutinizes the history of research on the “Jewish question,” especially at the University of Tübingen, from 1477 through the 1970s, with a strong emphasis on the National Socialist era. This is a more detailed account of his contribution to the book Die Universität Tübingen im Nationalsozialismus [The University of Tübingen under National Socialism] (Stuttgart, 2010). The Nazis sought to encourage the embittered German people to focus their ire on one enemy, the Jews. The party’s policy of anti-Semitism was bolstered by questionable scientific research along with Christian-theological, economic, biological/racial, cultural, and political arguments. After 1933, the biological/racial argument held particular resonance, as it was the only one that allowed for scientific research to support it. However, it quickly became apparent that there was no anthropological basis for a separate Jewish race, just a religious one. Nevertheless the anti-Semitic Nürnberger Gesetze (Nuremberg Laws) were adopted on September 15, 1935, with devastating consequences to the Jewish population and those with “mixed blood.”

Important in this context were the two Tübinger Protestant theologians Gerhard Kittel (1888-1948) and his student Karl Georg Kuhn (1906-1976). At the University of Tübingen there was a nationalist, Protestant sentiment that went back centuries, resulting in a more or less overt Christian anti-Semitism. In Kittel’s 1933 publication Die Judenfrage [The Jewish Question], he suggests four possible solutions to the issue: pogroms resulting in the extermination of the Jews, Zionism leading to emigration, assimilation into the German people, and the bestowal of alien status allowing for segregation with limited rights. Kittel preferred the last option, but it is significant that he considers the possibility of extermination. His student Kuhn taught on the Jewish question at numerous universities and gave the official speech in Tübingen to kick off the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933, but he was nevertheless occasionally accused of Philo-Semitism. Both men were involved in the Forschungsabteilung Judenfrage, Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des Neuen Deutschlands [Research Department for the Jewish Question, Imperial Institute for History of the New Germany].

Interestingly, Junginger’s investigation found that a considerable number of people active at the institute joined the SD or Sicherheitsdienst [Security Force], helping to annihilate Jews either directly or indirectly. There are also shorter biographies of several men active in the SD or SS (Schutzstaffel) [Defense Corps]: Gustav Adolf Scheel, Martin Sandberger, Erich Ehrlinger, Walter Stahlecker, Eugen Steimle, Erwin Weinmann, Albert Rapp, Eberhard Reichel, Rudolf Bilfinger, Hans Reichle, Wilhelm Kinkelin, Ernst Weinmann, Paul Zapp, and Theodor Dannecker. All but Dannecker and Zapp studied in Tübingen. They were ideological anti-Semites; many of them grew up in Protestant—and often nationalistic and anti-Semitic—households, as did Kittel and Kuhn.

With its focus on its Tübinger protagonists, who enjoyed influence beyond the university, Junginger’s book is an important contribution to the understanding of Nazi anti-Semitism. It contains extensive bibliographies of primary and secondary literature as well as an index. [frh/rg]

Himmlers Waffenforscher: Physiker, Chemiker, Mathematiker und Techniker im Dienste der SS [Himmler’s Weapons Researchers: Physicists, Chemists, Mathematicians, and Technicians in Service to the SS]. Günter Nagel. Aachen: Helios-Verlag, 2011. 388 p. ill. 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-86933-068-6: EUR 36 [12-2]

The author has laid a good foundation for subsequent research into this hitherto little illuminated corner of Nazi history with his well-documented and richly illustrated book. One result of his thorough study is to undercut the notion of systematic research by the SS into weaponry. Nagel’s work shows that the institutionalization necessary for this to have happened was never effectively cultivated. On the other hand, there was a close interrelationship between the Nazi state, the military, science, and industry during this period (see Forschung als Waffe: Rüstungsforschung in der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft und das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung 1900-1945/48 [Research as Weapon: Armaments Research in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society and the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Metals Research 1900-1945/48]—RREA 15/16:146). Nagel’s book is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the SS and the reaches of its activities. [frh/rlk]

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