The University of Göttingen and Its Postwar Response to Persecuted Colleagues: A Broken Relationship
Anikó Szabó demonstrates how the postwar process of rebuilding the German university system frequently failed to achieve its goals. The Senate of the University of Göttingen, its highest decision-making body, established a policy of Ergänzung der Besten [appointing only the best] in selecting new fa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Indiana University Press
2022
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| In: |
The betrayal of the humanities
Year: 2022, Pages: 491-521 |
| Further subjects: | B
Professor
B National Socialism B Politically persecuted person B Lower Saxony B Reparation B History 1950-1960 |
| Summary: | Anikó Szabó demonstrates how the postwar process of rebuilding the German university system frequently failed to achieve its goals. The Senate of the University of Göttingen, its highest decision-making body, established a policy of Ergänzung der Besten [appointing only the best] in selecting new faculty members for the regeneration of the university after the war. However, the university’s use of this criterion would be implemented by academics who, even if they had passed muster during the British purge, still had lived within and often accepted many of the attitudes and practices of the Nazi regime. Furthermore, the rebuilding of the university took place during those years when German control over denazification gradually softened that process. In real terms, as a result, the implementation of appointing only the best primarily benefited colleagues who had been removed from their positions during the first phase of denazification, as well as those who had fled positions in the Soviet zone of occupation during the postwar period. Through a series of case studies, Szabó demonstrates the many barriers to a postwar reconciliation and reconstruction of the Germany university system. |
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| ISBN: | 0253060796 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The betrayal of the humanities
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