philosophers during the time of Adolf hitler
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For over 70 years the world has been gripped by the horror of Nazism and the atrocities of the Holocaust. In the decades since Hitler’s death in a Berlin bunker, no sector of German society has remained untarnished: businessmen, scientists and doctors have all been shown to have bolstered the führer’s power. Yet among all these people, one group ought surely to have had both the intellectual insight and moral grit to stand up to Hitler – the philosophers. Philosophy, after all, is descended from the moral sciences.
Until 1933 there had been hundreds of Jewish academics, including philosophers, in universities across Germany. In the year that Hitler became chancellor, more than 1,600 scholars were expelled from their posts, the majority being Jews. They included some influential philosophers like Edmund Husserl and also, eventually, Karl Jaspers (whose wife was Jewish). In the wake of this purge, there is almost no evidence of any opposition from ‘Aryan’ philosophers – no letters, campaigns or protests. As one commentator expressed it: “Their silence was strong.”
The expulsion of so many Jews left a considerable number of jobs vacant, and the standard required to obtain these was vastly reduced. The remaining philosophers quickly spotted the opportunities.
Alfred Bäumler was a crude interpreter of the cult 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. From a meagre unknown, he underwent an immediate and dramatic ascent to fame due to his commitment to National Socialism. In 1933 he gained promotion to professor of philosophy at Germany’s prestigious University of Berlin and undertook the entire mental training of the Nazi party. Bäumler’s colleague Ernst Krieck, a member of the National Socialist party, despised pacifist and democratic ideas. Krieck became preoccupied with the annihilation of Jewish influence and was awarded a chair at Heidelberg University, where he spied on his colleagues, worked for the security services and helped run a number of prominent Nazi institutions.
Until 1933 there had been hundreds of Jewish academics, including philosophers, in universities across Germany. In the year that Hitler became chancellor, more than 1,600 scholars were expelled from their posts, the majority being Jews. They included some influential philosophers like Edmund Husserl and also, eventually, Karl Jaspers (whose wife was Jewish). In the wake of this purge, there is almost no evidence of any opposition from ‘Aryan’ philosophers – no letters, campaigns or protests. As one commentator expressed it: “Their silence was strong.”
The expulsion of so many Jews left a considerable number of jobs vacant, and the standard required to obtain these was vastly reduced. The remaining philosophers quickly spotted the opportunities.
Alfred Bäumler was a crude interpreter of the cult 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. From a meagre unknown, he underwent an immediate and dramatic ascent to fame due to his commitment to National Socialism. In 1933 he gained promotion to professor of philosophy at Germany’s prestigious University of Berlin and undertook the entire mental training of the Nazi party. Bäumler’s colleague Ernst Krieck, a member of the National Socialist party, despised pacifist and democratic ideas. Krieck became preoccupied with the annihilation of Jewish influence and was awarded a chair at Heidelberg University, where he spied on his colleagues, worked for the security services and helped run a number of prominent Nazi institutions.
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