(Studies in Central European Histories 49) by Gerhard A. Ritter, translated by Alex Skinner-German Refugee Historians and Friedrich Meinecke_ Letters and Documents, 1910–1977 (Studies in Central Europ.pdf

German Refugee Historians and
Friedrich Meinecke
Studies in Central
European Histories
Edited by
Thomas A. Brady, Jr., University of California, Berkeley
Roger Chickering, Georgetown University
Editorial Board
Steven Beller, Washington, D.C.
Atina Grossmann, Columbia University
Peter Hayes, Northwestern University
Susan Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona
Mary Lindemann, University of Miami
David M. Luebke, University of Oregon
H. C. Erik Midelfort, University of Virginia
David Sabean, University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Sperber, University of Missouri
Jan de Vries, University of California, Berkeley
VOLUME XLIX
German Refugee Historians
and Friedrich Meinecke
Letters and Documents, 19101977
By
Gerhard A. Ritter
Translated by
Alex Skinner
LEIDEN BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Friedrich Meinecke. English.

German refugee historians and Friedrich Meinecke : letters and documents, 1910
1977 / [introduced and edited by] by Gerhard A. Ritter ; translated by Alex Skinner.
p. cm. (Studies in Central European histories ; v. 49)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18404-6 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Meinecke, Friedrich,
18621954Relations with students. 2. Meinecke, Friedrich, 18621954
Correspondence. 3. Meinecke, Friedrich, 18621954Archives. 4. Historians
GermanyCorrespondence. 5. HistoriansGermanyArchives. 6. History
teachersGermanyCorrespondence. 7. HistoriansUnited States
Correspondence. 8. HistoriansUnited StatesArchives. 9. Historiography
GermanyHistory20th centurySources. 10. HistoriographyUnited States
History20th centurySources.
I. Meinecke, Friedrich, 18621954. II. Ritter, Gerhard Albert. III. Title. IV. Series.
DD86.7.M43F7513 2010
907.202dc22
2010000467
Friedrich Meinecke. Akademischer Lehrer und emigrierte Schler. Briefe und

Aufzeichnungen 19101977. Eingeleitet und bearbeitet von Gerhard A. Ritter.
2006 by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, Mnchen, and Institut fr
Zeitgeschichte, Mnchen-Berlin.
Geisteswissenschaften InternationalTranslation Funding for Humanities and
Social Sciences from Germany. A joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation,
the German Federal Foreign Office, and the German Publishers & Booksellers
Association.
ISBN 978 90 04 18404 6

ISSN 1547-1217
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,

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printed in the netherlands

CONTENTS
Foreword to the English Edition ...................................................... vii
Introduction: Friedrich Meinecke and his migr students ........ 1

I. Meinecke as historian and political contemporary ............ 3
II. Meinecke as academic teacher ............................................... 18
III. Meineckes migr students ................................................... 23
1. Hans Rothfels .................................................................... 23
2. Dietrich Gerhard .............................................................. 32
3. Gerhard Masur ................................................................. 36
4. Hajo Holborn ................................................................... 40
5. Felix Gilbert ...................................................................... 51
6. Hans Baron ....................................................................... 56
7. Helene Wieruszowski ...................................................... 61
8. Hans Rosenberg ............................................................... 65
9. Hedwig Hintze .................................................................. 79
10. Eckart Kehr ....................................................................... 91
11. Hanns Gnther Reissner ................................................ 97
12. Gustav Mayer .................................................................... 98
IV. Meinecke, his migr students and relations between
the discipline of history in Germany and the
United States ............................................................................ 107
Documents
List of Documents .............................................................................. 117

I. Hans Rothfels ........................................................................... 128
II. Dietrich Gerhard ..................................................................... 173
III. Gerhard Masur ......................................................................... 208
IV. Hajo Holborn ........................................................................... 237
V. Felix Gilbert .............................................................................. 272
VI. Hans Baron ............................................................................... 286
VII. Helene Wieruszowski .............................................................. 320
VIII. Hans Rosenberg ....................................................................... 330
IX. Hedwig Hintze .......................................................................... 448
vi contents
X. Eckart Kehr ................................................................................. 470

XI. Hanns Gnther Reissner .......................................................... 490
XII. Gustav Mayer ............................................................................. 492
Sources and bibliography .................................................................. 529

Index of names .................................................................................... 549
FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
The initial impetus for this book, which for the present editor increas-
ingly became a labour of love, came from an invitation from the Land
of Saxony-Anhalt, in which Meineckes birthplace of Salzwedel is
located, to give a talk in February 2004 at an event marking the 50th
anniversary of his death. It was suggested to me that I might draw on
some of my own memories of Meinecke. I grew up two houses away
from his house in Dahlem. Meinecke ultimately suffered from severely
impaired vision, and I used to read to him from academic works,
which naturally gave rise to numerous conversations. I was even bet-
ter acquainted with his wife, who survived him by seventeen years
and continued to maintain close contact with most of his American
students after his death.
I quickly came to realize that personal recollections would form an
inadequate basis for a talk. At the same time, as I re-read Meineckes
major works and reviewed many of the books and articles written
about him, I became aware of the deafening silence now surrounding
a man who, during the time of the Weimar Republic and the first few
years after the Second World Warin West Germany and probably
even more in other Western countrieswas regarded as the leading
representative of the discipline of history in Germany. His approach to
research, a subtle history of ideas focussing on the leading thinkers of
a given era, was considered obsolete in Germanyto a greater extent
than in other countries, where it was developed furtherbecause it
neglected not only the reality of economic and social life, but also
political structures and processes. The task of coming to terms with
National Socialism, which Meinecke had already begun in 1946, with-
out access to source materials, in his book The German Catastrophe,
developed into a highly sophisticated, specialized field of history draw-
ing on a wide range of source materials.
At the same time, however, it became clear that Meineckes students
often played a decisive role in shifting the focus of interest to new
areas, deploying new methods, drawn particularly from the related
social sciences, and disseminating the results of Anglo-Saxon research
produced after 1933 in West Germany. I thus began to ask myself
whether Meineckes most enduring impactthe impact of a man who
viii foreword to the english edition
never founded a school in the narrow sense of the termdid not in

fact lie in his activities as an academic teacher.
My study of Meineckes papers in the Secret State Archive (Geheimes
Staatsarchiv) of Prussia in Berlin-Dahlem, a voluminous and as yet
far from adequately evaluated source, then revealed that Meineckes
students who were compelled to emigrate because of their Jewish
descent or political viewsparticularly Hans Rothfels, Dietrich Gerhard,
Gerhard Masur, Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert, Helene Wieruszowski
and Hans Rosenbergresumed contact with Meinecke very quickly
after the war, supplying him with CARE packages and medicine and
thus keeping him alive. In many cases, the old teacher-student rela-
tionship was revived and his students provided Meinecke with detailed
accounts not only of their lives in the United States, but also of their
scholarly plans, though these often involved an extensiveand some-
times consciousprocess of their distancing themselves from the
historical topics and methods favoured by Meinecke. The letters bear
witness to their deep respect for their old teacher, the two-way flow of
human warmth between students and teacher, as well as their desire to
elucidate to Meinecke how they had developed as historians.
I realized that these letters from the migr scholars to Meinecke
are not only a deeply fascinating source on historiography, but also
shed light on problems of special concern to researchers in the field
of history and political science in the decades before and after World
War II. The letters touch on the attempts to come to terms with their
German-Jewish identity, at times touching on the tap-roots of their
own livesan effort forced upon Meineckes Jewish students by out-
side forces. Of these students, almost all were acculturated Jews,
baptised as Christians, who were closely identified with German schol-
arship and culture. As a result of cultural anti-Semitism, however, they
felt excluded, particularly at many universities; because of the often
hostile environment, they were forced to seek a new self-image. The
letters are a treasure-trove with regard to the issues of emigration and
remigration, as well as the significance of restitution to individuals.
Some of the letters also tackle the relationship between these schol-
ars love for their old homeland and their loyalty to the country that
had offered them asylum and aid after their expulsion. Almost all of
Meineckes American students ultimately saw themselves as bridge-
builders between the United States and Germany, in both a political
and academic sense. Time and again, they allude to the United States
foreword to the english edition ix
special relationship with Berlin from 1948 on, key issues of American
policy towards Germany, and the evaluation of political and social
developments in both countries. The letters also lay bare the migrs
major role in the Westernization or Americanization of West Germany
and the fusion of German and Western traditions.
But alongside these matters of general interest, publication of the
letters and other sources is also intended to enhance our knowledge
of the personal circumstances, political views, scholarly aims andin
some casesspecific research projects undertaken by these migr his-
torians. This applies, for example, to the emergence and development
of Hans Barons concepts of early humanism, which have greatly influ-
enced subsequent researchers, Dietrich Gerhards basic ideas about
the specific institutions and forces of old Europe prior to the French
Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, and the major, never com-
pleted research projects in social history by Hans Rosenberg on the
Junkers, German elites in the 19th century, and the inequality charac-
teristic of German society during the period 13481525. The sources
thus allow us to paint a more detailed picture of the academic profile
of at least some of these historians than has been possible so far.
The most important findings of my work with the source materials
were first summarized in a lengthy paper, but this was far too extensive
to appear as an essay in the Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte, as orig-
inally planned. I thus gratefully took up the suggestion of publishing
the paper, along with the sources, in a special volume for the Institut
fr Zeitgeschichte. The lengthy introduction to the sources points the
reader to particularly significant materials and provides information
about the historians dealt with here, their academic work, and the con-
temporary background to the questions they discussed. Of course, the
letters also contain a great many things that could not be addressed in
the introduction.
The core of the present volume consists of letters to Meinecke from
his students found among his papers in the Secret State Archive in
Berlin. These were supplemented by selected letters of Hans Rosenberg
and Hans Rothfels from the Federal Archive in Koblenz. This archive
also contained what I consider to be a highly informative and exten-
sive stock of letters from Hans Baron to Walter Goetz, which was
among the latters papers, and supplementary materials on Kehr in
Gerhard Ritters papers. I also drew on the papers of Gerhard Masur
in the Institut fr Zeitgeschichte and those of Dietrich Gerhard in the
x foreword to the english edition
library of Washington University in St. Louis. On the relationship

between Rothfels and Meinecke, which, primarily for political reasons,
was tense at times, I have included letters from Rothfels to his friend
Siegfried A. Kaehler from the Kaehler papers in the Gttingen State
and University Library and from the holdings of the Imperial Archive
(Reichsarchiv), which are now in the Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv),
Berlin. To cast light on specific problems, I consulted the files of the
Oldenbourg Verlag in the Bavarian Economic Archive (Bayerisches
Wirtschaftsarchiv) and the archive of the Historical Commission at
the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, both in Munich. I also consulted
the habilitation and doctoral records of the philosophy faculty and the
personal files of the Friedrich Wilhelm University from the 1920s and
early 1930s. These are in the present-day university archive of Humboldt
University in Berlin. Unfortunately, the papers of Felix Gilbert and
private papers of Hajo Holborn are unavailable to researchers. I have,
however, included a letter from Meinecke to Holborn relating to the
latters work on the development of the Weimar constitution from
Holborns academic papers in Yale University Library. I was also able
to incorporate letters from Hans Rosenberg to Rudolf Braun and to
myself.
The volumes main emphasis is on letters to Meinecke, which I was
able to supplement with replies from Meinecke or his wife, particularly
to Gerhard, Masur, Gilbert and Rosenberg. Meineckes most impor-
tant letters to Rothfels, Holborn and Gustav Mayer are already to be
found in Meineckes Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, to which I refer in the
footnotes.
The temporal emphasis is on the 1920s and early 1930s, as well as
the period from 1945/46 to 1954. I have, however, also included let-
ters from Rothfels, Mayer, and Gerhard from before or during the
First World War. In addition, I consciously incorporated a number of
letters from or to Frau Meinecke after Meineckes death in February
1954 that are especially informative about the migr scholars consid-
ered here.
The extent and character of the available sources naturally had a
major impact on the present volume. A broad range of source mate-
rials was available for Hans Rosenberg, from which I had to make a
selection. However, only a few of the more than 100 long letters from
Baron to Goetz could be included, and the sources were fairly scant in
the case of other historians such as Felix Gilbert, Helene Wieruszowski,
foreword to the english edition xi
Hedwig Hintze, and Eckart Kehr. Though Meinecke and his wife were
the main addressees of the letters, I have also included letters from one
student to another that reflect their relationship to Meinecke or show
how they tried to help one another. Also included is a lengthy report
by Hans Rosenberg for the State Department on the situation at the
German universities in 1950. A particularly large number of letters and
other documents from Rosenberg have been included. These reflect
the extent and quality of the Rosenberg papers, to which researchers
have yet to turn their attention, but also my attempt to illustrate the
problem of emigration and remigration in light of his example and to
present new material on his assessment of Germanys development
and his research projects. In the case of Rosenberg, my teacher and
later friend, whose chair at the University of California, Berkeley, I
took up as guest professor in 19711972, as I had previously done for
Gerhard at Washington University in St. Louis in 1965, I was also able
to draw on personal recollections and letters.
The main problem in putting together this volume was making out
the often scarcely legible handwriting. I often spent whole days hunched
over a single letter with a magnifying glass. Overall, though, with the
exception of a small number of words, which are indicated in brack-
ets, I have managed to decipher the text of the letters. I have also
made an effort to decipher allusions and introduce individuals who
are mentioned in the letters. Some abridgment was necessary in cases
of repetition or discussion of purely family-related matters. The forms
of address and complementary closings, which indicate the degree of
familiarity between the letter-writers and Meinecke and among them-
selves have been included.
It was clear to me from the outset that the main appeal of the letters
and documents reproduced here lies in the fact that they shed light on
the development of the discipline of history in America and the aca-
demic teaching of European, especially German, history at American
universities. The historians who fled Germany, and particularly
Meineckes students, did much to strengthen teaching and research on
modern continental European history at American universities, helped
rebuild the history of ideas, and fostered research on early human-
ism, the Renaissance and medieval Europe, previously focussed largely
on Great Britain. Conversely, the historians who fled the Nazi regime
and their students made key contributions after the Second World
War in Germanyto the institutional embedding of contemporary
xii foreword to the english edition
history, the integration of methods from the social sciences, the devel-
opment of American studies and the revision of the German view of
history, formerly of a strongly national character. Further, the migrs
played a decisive role in the intensive exchange with American histori-
ans so important to the discipline of history in Germany. I have there-
fore made a particular effort to disseminate the findings of my study
in the United States. After giving a lecture on Meineckes Protges.
German migr Historians Between Two Worlds on 15 May 2006 at
the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C., commented on
and expanded by James J. Sheehan, I was delighted to take up Roger
Chickerings offer to publish the book in English translation in the
series edited by him and Thomas A. Brady, Jr. For the English transla-
tion, I have added what I consider to be a highly instructive letter from
Gustav Mayer, the historian of the German labour movement, to Erich
Marcks. This letter relates to his situation and future academic plans
following his failed attempt to habilitate at the University of Berlin.
In addition, I have made minor corrections and included references
to a number of studies that have appeared since the completion of the
German edition.
I have received support from many quarters in putting together the
present volume. I am particularly grateful to the archives that made
their materials available. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Rudolf
Braun, who lent me a number of letters from Rosenberg to himself.
Andreas Daum took on the laborious task of acquiring material on a
number of the American historians mentioned in the letters. Stefan
Meineke, Klaus Schreiner and Marc Fcking helped me clarify several
unresolved issues. Simone Lssig helped me get hold of the publica-
tions by Hans Rothfels and Felix Gilbert during the immediate post-
war period that were not available in Germany, for which I would like
to thank her and the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.
Hermann Graml and Hans Woller helped decipher some of the near-
illegible letters from Hans Rothfels. I would like to thank Joachim
Stemmler for making me aware of Rothfels letters among the papers
of Siegfried A. Kaehler. Brigitta Oestreich taught me a great deal about
Hedwig Hintze. Peter Thomas Walther selflessly provided me with a
copy of his unpublished dissertation Von Meinecke zu Beard?. I am
also grateful to Nils Gttler, Henning Holsten, and Adrana Peitsch
for typing the manuscripts. In addition, Adrana Peitsch helped obtain
materials that clarified some initially unresolved questions in the foot-
foreword to the english edition xiii
notes. Nils Gttler helped compile the index of names. I am grateful

to Udo Wengst for editing the original manuscript and his secretary
Natalie Curry for transcription of the few typewritten letters. I would
also like to thank Roger Chickering, who moderated the presentation
of the German edition of the book in Washington, for his constant
encouragement. I am deeply grateful to the Thyssen Foundation for
funding the translation. My thanks also to the publishers, Brill, who
have incorporated the book into their programme, and to Alex Skinner
for a speedy and competent translation.
Gerhard A. Ritter
January 2010
INTRODUCTION: FRIEDRICH MEINECKE AND HIS
MIGR STUDENTS
Friedrich Meineckes life spans a full century. He was born in October

1862 in the town of Salzwedel, which was formerly a member of the
Hanseatic League, in Prussian Altmark, now part of Saxony-Anhalt.
He was the only son, alongside three daughters, of a Prussian postmas-
ter. As yet without a railway station, the town depended on the stage-
coach for its links to the outside world. Meinecke thus writes in his
memoirs of hearing the post horn ringing out with a cheerful blast in
front of his parents house during the first years of his life.1 As a result
of his fathers disciplinary transfer, Meinecke arrived in 1871 in the
1
Friedrich Meinecke, Autobiographische Schriften, Stuttgart 1969, p. 13. On
Meineckes life up to 1919, see the two sets of memoirs reprinted in one volume
as Erlebtes 18621901 (first published Leipzig 1941) and Straburg-Freiburg-Berlin
19011919. Erinnerungen (first published 1949) and his partly autobiographi-
cal book Die deutsche Katastrophe (first published 1946), which is included in the
same volume. For the period up to 1918, see also Stefan Meineke (no relation of F.
Meinecke), Friedrich Meinecke. Persnlichkeit und politisches Denken bis zum Ende
des Ersten Weltkrieges, Berlin/New York 1995. To the extent that they are inclu-
ded in it, Meineckes writings in the present volume are quoted from the 9-volume
edition of his Werke, published on behalf of the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut at the
Free University of Berlin by Hans Herzfeld, Carl Hinrichs, Walther Hofer, Eberhard
Kessel and Georg Kotowski: vol. 1: Die Idee der Staatsrson in der neueren Geschichte,
edited and with an introduction by Walther Hofer, Munich 1957; vol. 2: Politische
Schriften und Reden, edited and with an introduction by Georg Kotowski, Darmstadt
1957; vol. 3: Die Entstehung des Historismus, edited and with an introduction by Carl
Hinrichs, Munich 1959; vol. 4: Zur Theorie und Philosophie der Geschichte, edited and
with an introduction by Eberhard Kessel, Stuttgart 1959; vol. 5: Weltbrgertum und
Nationalstaat, edited and with an introduction by Hans Herzfeld, Munich 1969; vol.
6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, edited and with an introduction by Ludwig Dehio and
Peter Classen, Stuttgart 1962; vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung, edited
and with an introduction by Eberhard Kessel, Munich 1968; vol. 8: Autobiographische
Schriften, edited and with an introduction by Eberhard Kessel, Stuttgart 1969; vol. 9:
Brandenburg-Preuen-Deutschland. Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte und Politik, edi-
ted and with an introduction by Eberhard Kessel, Stuttgart 1979. A second volume
of Meineckes letters is in preparation. A bibliography of Meineckes works, which
includes the translations, Festschriften and writings about Friedrich Meinecke up to
1979, can be found in: Friedrich Meinecke Heute. Bericht ber ein Gedenk-Colloquium
zu seinem 25. Todestag am 5. und 6. April 1979. Prepared and edited by Michael Erbe,
Berlin 1981. Additions to the bibliography have been published by Stefan Meineke:
Friedrich Meinecke-Bibliographie 19802006 mit Nachtrgen fr die Zeit bis 1979
in: Bock/ Schnpflug (eds.), Friedrich Meinecke in seiner Zeit. Studien zu Leben und
Werk, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 257291.
2 introduction: friedrich meinecke and his migr students
vibrant metropolis of Berlin, the economic and political centre of the

newly founded German Empire. One of his most vivid early memories
was watching the victorious regiments march into Unter den Linden
in June 1871, along with a handful of older gentlemen wearing tall top
hatsveterans of the war of 1813.2
Apart from a few interruptions during his studies and in 1943, 1944
and 1945/46, he lived in Berlin from 1871 to 1901, at the end of which
period he worked as an archivist and lecturer (Privatdozent), and then
from 1914 until his death in 1954, as holder of a chair in history and
finally professor emeritus. These two periods bracketed his years, so
crucial to his scholarly endeavours and the development of his political
views, as a professor at the Imperial University of Strasbourg (1901
1906) and the University of Freiburg (19061914), during which he
experienced and learned to love the Upper Rhine cultural scene; the
years from 1906 also brought him into contact with the relatively
liberal climate that prevailed in the Grand Duchy of Baden. When
Meinecke died on 6 February 1954, Adenauer had won the second
Bundestag election of 1953, the economic upturn and the integration
of Germany into the West had begun, and the course was set for the
division of the country, overcome only in 1990.
I am unable to deal with Meineckes life here. I shall touch only
in passing on his crucial importance to the discipline of history in
Germany during the first half of the 20th century, as creator of the
history of political ideas and editor of the Historische Zeitschrift from
1893 until 1935. I shall restrict myself to some remarks on Meinecke
as homo politicus, a fascinating topic that has yet to be dealt with ade-
quately. My main focus is on Meinecke as an academic teacher, par-
ticularly on his relationship with his students who were Jewish or had
Jewish family ties and who fled Germany after 1933.
Meineckes wife, Antonie Meinecke, ne Delhaes (31 January 1875
2 February 1971), who long outlived her husband, played a crucial role
in his lifes work, especially in his relations with his studentsa role so
far virtually ignored in the academic literature on Meinecke. She was
not only his partner after 1895, but also his most important interlocu-
tor. His memoirs are dedicated to her. Above all, though, she made
their home a place of intellectual exchange with his colleagues and
students, as well as with politicians and leading officials of the time. It
2
Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, p. 23.
introduction: friedrich meinecke and his migr students 3
reveals much about the strength of her personality and human warmth
that, right up until her death, a number of Meineckes students paid
her frequent visits, during which lengthy conversations ensued, and
wrote to her on a regular basis.3 It is particularly moving testimony
to the migr students devotion to Frau Meinecke that Meineckes
American students and interpreters, who for a large part of her life,
have had the good fortune of being her friends, sent her a Festschrift
on her 90th birthday as a mark of their gratitude.4 Among the wives of
the university teachers, Frau Meinecke continued to play a major role
even after her husbands death. Apart from his wife, other women also
did much to enrich Meineckes life. These included his much-loved
mother, three sisters, four daughters, and female students, of whom
there were a large number for the time. These, he writes, proved par-
ticularly grateful for, and receptive to, the intellectual side of history.5
The Freiburg years were the happiest of his life, a fact due in no small
part to women who, with their combination of elegance, compelling
self-assurance and kindness, of joie de vivre and radiant intellectual-
ity6 moulded the society and conviviality of the university town.
I. Meinecke as historian and political contemporary
Meinecke was a great academic teacher, and it is hard to overstate his

influence on many of the most gifted new historians between the turn
of the century and the end of the Weimar Republic. His influence
3
As one example of many, see Gerhard Masur, Das ungewisse Herz. Berichte aus
Berlinber die Suche nach dem Freien, Holyoke/Mass. 1978, p. 87: The house at
13 Am Hirschsprung remained an intellectual and social magnet for us, even after
Meineckes death in 1954. Frau Meinecke tends the memory of her husband with
touching devotion and treats all her husbands students like members of the family.
On 31 January 1970 I had the opportunity to celebrate her 95th birthday at her house
with a glass of champagne. Masur goes on to write that during his visiting profes-
sorship at the Free University in 1956, which lasted for six weeks, Frau Meinecke
attended all of his lectures and invited him to dinner every Sunday (ibid., p. 299f.).
4
This bound volume contains essays already published by Meineckes migr
students Dietrich Gerhard, Felix Gilbert, Hajo Holborn, Gerhard Masur and Hans
Rosenberg, his interpreters Richard W. Sterling and Fritz T. Epstein, who counted
himself one of Meineckes students in a broader sense, and friend of the Meinecke
family Carl C. Anthon. I have Meineckes granddaughter Frau Roswitha Classen to
thank for making me aware of this Festschrift, the dedication to sehr verehrte, liebe
Frau Meinecke (dear, most honoured Frau Meinecke) and the titles of the essays.
5
6
Ibid., p. 211.
was due to the fact that his approach to the history of political ideas
had breathed fresh life into the discipline of history in Germany.
Previously, German historians had generally focussed on the state
or Prussias rise to great power status in a one-sided way. Historians
such as Karl Lamprecht, with his studies in economic and social his-
tory, had been pushed to the margins of the historical profession. A
strong emphasis on the role of ideas in history was already evident in
Meineckes two-volume biography of the Prussian military reformer
and war minister, Hermann von Boyen, which was published in 1896
1899, and in his short, impressive monograph, The Age of German
Liberation, 17951815.7
But Meineckes history of political ideas truly broke through only
with his first major work of intellectual history, Cosmopolitanism and
7
Friedrich Meinecke, Das Leben des Generalfeldmarschalls Hermann von Boyen.
vol. 1: 17711814, vol. 2: 18141848, Stuttgart 1896 and 1899; The Age of German
Liberation, 17951815, Berkeley 1977; German title: Das Zeitalter der deutschen
Erhebung (17951815), Bielefeld 1906. In his obituary on Meinecke, who was a cor-
responding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences from 1911, Franz Schnabel,
underscores the novel approach taken in both works: Friedrich Meinecke 30. 10.
18626. 2. 1954, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Jahrbuch 1954, Munich
1954, pp. 174200, esp. pp. 179191. In constructing his history of ideas, Meinecke
could to some extent build on the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, Leopold von Ranke,
and Wilhelm Dilthey. On the question of whether the end of the Empire and the birth
of the Weimar Republic brought a fundamental shift in Meineckes political views
and his way of writing history, see especially: Walther Hofer, Geschichtsschreibung
und Weltanschauung. Gedanken zum Werke Friedrich Meineckes, Munich 1950;
Hofer, Geschichte zwischen Philosophie und Politik. Studien zur Problematik des
modernen Geschichtsdenkens, Stuttgart 1956; Richard W. Sterling, Ethics in a World
of Power: The Political Ideas of Friedrich Meinecke, Princeton 1958. Hofer emphasizes
the discontinuities, while Sterling, who is concerned especially with Meineckes for-
eign-policy ideas and Stefan Meineke stress the continuities. Hofer and Sterling had
close personal relationships with Meinecke. Meinecke himself wrote to Sterling on
13 November 1953 in Solomonic terms: The continuity of my development persists
alongside and above the profound shifts shown so convincingly by Hofer. Copy of
letter in Meinecke papers, no. 203. Of the vast number of essays on Meinecke as an
individual and writer of history, I can mention but a few: Ludwig Dehio, Friedrich
Meinecke. Der Historiker in der Krise, Festrede, Berlin 1953; Hans Herzfeld, Friedrich
Meinecke. Zu seinem 90. Geburtstag, in: GWU 3 (1952), pp. 577591; Hans Rothfels,
Friedrich Meinecke. Ein Rckblick auf sein wissenschaftliches Lebenswerk. Trauerrede,
Berlin 1954; Walter Bumann, Friedrich Meinecke. Ein Gedenkvortrag, Berlin
1963; Ernst Schulin, Friedrich Meinecke, in: Hans-Ulrich Wehler (ed.), Deutsche
Historiker, vol. 1, Gttingen 1971, pp. 3957; Felix Gilbert, Friedrich Meinecke,
in: Gilbert: History, Choice and Commitment, Cambridge/London 1977, pp. 6787.
Gerhard Masur, Friedrich Meinecke, Historian of a World in Crisis, in: The Origins
of Modern Consciousness, edited by James J. Ethridge and Barbara Kopala, Detroit
1963, pp. 133147. Walter Goetz, Friedrich Meinecke. Leben und Persnlichkeit,
in: HZ 174 (1952), pp. 231250.
the National State of 1908, which quickly went through several editions.
In the foreword to the second edition of the book in 1911, Meinecke
famously stated that historical research in Germany must again make
the effort to set itself freely in motion and establish contact with the
major forces of national and cultural life . . . it . . . can immerse itself
more boldly in philosophy and politics; indeed, only by doing so can
it develop its most unique character as both universal and national.8
This assertion struck a chord, particularly with outstanding students
who were open to new ideas. Yet with its attempt to demonstrate a
close link between power and spirit, its generally positive assessment
of the development of the nation state idea,9 its view of nation-states
as supra-personal individuals, and its tendency to sublimate politics,
state, and power, the book is probably the weakest of Meineckes major
intellectual histories in the eyes of the modern-day reader.
Machiavellism: the Doctrine of Raison dEtat and its Place in Modern
History, which was published in 1924 and is probably Meineckes most
important work, is more universal in orientation. After the experience
of the First World War, it is far more explicit about the dichotomy
between power and spirit and the tension between politics and ethics.
Meineckes third major work of intellectual history, which was pub-
lished long after his retirement in 1936 in an incomplete state, was
Historism, the Rise of a New Historical Outlook. It analyzed the dis-
covery of the principle of individuality and the sense of history char-
acteristic of historism, whose rise he described as one of the greatest
intellectual revolutions in Western thought.10 This work has attracted
a great deal of criticism. This focuses on its apologia for historism,
with its tendency to replace generalizing perspectives with an indi-
vidualizing approach, and the resulting relativization of moral values;
its inaccurate identification of historism with Rankes view of history
and the discipline of history; its lack of precision; its positive evalu-
ation of the decoupling of developments in Germany from natural
8
Meinecke Werke, vol. 1: Weltbrgertum und Nationalstaat, p. 1f. English edition:
Cosmopolitanism and the National State, Princeton/New Jersey 1970.
9
Gilbert for example states: It is almost shocking to discover that Meinecke
regarded the development from universalism and cosmopolitanism to nationalism as
clear, unquestioned progress. The process . . . is recognized as a supreme value and final
goal of history (Gilbert, Meinecke, p. 69).
10
Meinecke Werke, vol. 3: Die Entstehung des Historismus, p. 1. The book was never
completed. It ends with a long chapter on Goethe, but makes no connection with
Ranke and the historiography of the 19th century.
law; its inadequate investigation of the interaction between interests

and ideas; and its emphasis on fully-formed historism as a specifically
German achievement.11 In an astute foreword to the English edition of
the book, Isaiah Berlin highlighted the turn away from the universal-
ism and scientific rationalism of Western civilization and described
Meinecke as the last major representative of an almost official national
philosophy of history. However much he acknowledged the individu-
alizing outlooks capacity to broaden historians horizons and perspec-
tives, he saw Meinecke as the last authentic master of a school that
ends with him.12
This is not an unreasonable assessment. Meinecke managed to find
no suitable successor to carry forward his particular approach to his-
tory, though many of his ideas were developed by his students and
others. Yet as late as 1954, such a major historian as Franz Schnabel
saw Meinecke as a historian who, like no other of his time, has given
direction and character to historical research in Germany over the last
sixty years. With his comprehensive and profound lifes work in the
fields of politics and history, he can be considered on a par with the
great writers of history of the past.13 Indeed, Schnabel saw Meinecke
as the most representative figure of the Weimar Republic among the
scholars of the day, comparable to Adolf Harnack in the Wilhelmine
11
On historism, see above all the excellent introduction by Carl Hinrichs in
Meineckes Werke and the penetrating analysis by Ernst Schulin: Das Problem der
Individualitt. Eine kritische Betrachtung des Historismus-Werkes von Friedrich
Meinecke, in: Traditionskritik und Rekonstruktionsversuch. Studien zur Entwicklung
von Geschichtswissenschaft und historischem Denken, Gttingen 1979, pp. 97116,
252259; For a critique of Meineckes historism, see Otto Gerhard Oexle,
Meineckes Historismus. ber Kontext und Folgen einer Definition, in: Oexle,
Geschichtswissenschaft im Zeichen des Historismus. Studien zur Problemgeschichte
der Moderne, Gttingen 1996, pp. 95136; Eugene N. Anderson, Meineckes
Ideengeschichte and the Crisis in Historical Thinking, in: Medieval and His-
toriographical Essays in Honor of James Westphal Thompson, Chicago 1938, pp. 361
396; Benedetto Croce, Die Geschichte als Gedanke und als Tat, Bern 1944 (this is
a translation from the Italian of a text by Croce from 1938. See also Meineckes
attempt to come to terms with Croces critique, in: Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des
Historismus und des Schleiermacherschen Individualittsgedankens, first published
in 1939 in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 4: Zur Theorie und Philosophie der Geschichte,
pp. 341357, esp. pp. 342344); Robert A. Pois, Two Poles within Historicism: Croce
and Meinecke, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 31 (1970), pp. 253272; Jrn Rsen,
Friedrich Meineckes Entstehung des Historismus. Eine kritische Betrachtung, in:
Erbe (ed.), Meinecke Heute, pp. 76100.
12
Friedrich Meinecke, Historism. The Rise of a New Historical Outlook. Foreword
by Sir Isaiah Berlin, London 1972, pp. IXXVI.
13
Schnabels obituary on Meinecke, p. 124.
era.14 In fact, however, as a scholar-politician, Meinecke played noth-

ing like the same role beyond the discipline of history that Harnack
played before and after 1918. As an original, universally oriented histo-
rian, Otto Hintze, Meineckes longstanding, close friend and colleague
in Berlin, was surely at least as significant a figure. It is telling that
some of Meineckes most devoted studentsDietrich Gerhard, Felix
Gilbert and Hans Rosenberglater tended to look more to Hintze than
Meinecke for their academic inspiration.15 After the Second World
War, however, because of his scholarly achievements and rejection of
the Nazi regime, Meineckenow well over eighty years oldwas the
most respected German historian in the Allied occupied zones and
later Federal Republic, but especially in the nations of the West, where
he stood as a figurehead of the discipline of history in Germany.
Soon, however, greater emphasis was being placed on the weaknesses
in his approach to history. These included his focus on great individu-
als, his overestimation of the efficacy of ideas, his tendency to neglect
14
Ibid., p. 125.
15
Dietrich Gerhard, Otto Hintze: His Work and his Significance in Historiography,
in: Gerhard, Gesammelte Aufstze, Gttingen 1977, pp. 268295; Felix Gilbert, Otto
Hintze, in: History, pp. 3965 refers to Hintze as one of the most important, if not
the most important, German historical scholar of the period of William II and the
Weimar Republic (p. 39). In his lectures and seminars, Hans Rosenberg frequently
referred to Hintze as an exemplary practitioner of a comparative, universally oriented
history. In letters to Ernst Posner from 13 July 1964 and Gerhard Oestreich from
19 March 1965, he mentions his efforts to ensure the publication of some of Hintzes
essays in English, a project for which Felix Gilbert was later responsible, and to write
a brief introduction to it if necessary. See Otto Hintze and Hedwig Hintze, Verzage
nicht und lass nicht ab zu kmpfen. . . Die Korrspondenz. Compiled and prepared by
Brigitta Oestreich, edited by Robert Jtte and Gerhard Hirschfeld, Essen 2004, p. 256f.
In the preface to the German edition of his 3-volume history of Germany, Hajo
Holborn too makes special mention of Otto Hintze, alongside Ranke and Meinecke:
Hajo Holborn, Deutsche Geschichte der Neuzeit, vol. 1: Das Zeitalter der Reformation
und des Absolutismus, Stuttgart 1960, p. XII. He wrote to Gerhard Oestreich on 21
August 1964: I often wonder which were the greater historian in that generation,
Meinecke or Hintze? Although I was . . . a pupil of Meinecke, I have perhaps learned
as much from Otto Hintze, in: Otto Hintze and Hedwig Hintze, Verzage nicht,
p. 254. Though his close friendship with Hintze ended in 1933, Meinecke himself later
referred constantly to Hintzes significance. With his emphasis on collective forces,
economic factors and institutions, and his concept of the historical typean adapta-
tion of Webers concept of the ideal typehe represented a position on the other end
of the historiographic spectrum from Meineckes individualizing approach to history.
See Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, for instance his letters to W.
Hofer from 8 March 1947, K. S. Pinson from 23 September 1949 and Theodor Heu
from 7 June 1952 (pp. 273, 301, 313); see also: Winfried Schulze, Friedrich Meinecke
und Otto Hintze, in: Erbe (ed.), Meinecke Heute, pp. 122136.
the forces of economic and social history, his partial disengagement

from Western European and American traditions, which was bound
up with his rejection of the Enlightenment, and the consequences of
this disengagement for the discipline of history in Germany. In 1971,
inspired by developments abroad, Hans Herzfeld spoke of his hopes
for a Meinecke renaissance;16 but it was not to be.
This failure was due in part to the fact that Meineckes political
views, which were initially seen in an almost entirely positive light, had
begun to attract criticism. Furthermore, he was increasingly regarded as
typical of a narrow professorial variant of an outmoded, elitist tradi-
tion characteristic of the German educated classes, a tradition which
rejected the modern world of industrialization and mass democracy.17
It is beyond dispute that Meineckes intellectual roots lay in the Goethe
era and German Idealism. He also saw the Janus face of modernity
and mass politics. While politics had been made more democratic by
enabling all citizens to participate in the state, Meinecke experienced
the jingoism of the First World War and the Nazis fateful mobiliza-
tion of the masses and their criminal exploitation of modern technol-
ogy and science. For him, modernity and mass politics also contained
the potential for disaster.
Meinecke was no ivory-tower cultural pessimist, but he possessed a
clear vision of politics. He was an acute observer of, and commentator
on, the contemporary world. He broke with his originally conserva-
tive basic attitude in 1895,18 and over the following decade he went
on to develop a number of fundamental political convictions that he
espoused for the rest of his life. These included the idea, which he
16
Hans Herzfeld, Meinecke-Renaissance im Ausland?, in: Festschrift fr Hermann
Heimpel, vol. 1, Gttingen 1971, pp. 4262.
17
Imanuel Geiss, Kritischer Rckblick auf Friedrich Meinecke, in: Geiss, Studien
ber Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, pp. 89107 sees
Meinecke as a typical representative of a reactionary historical guild and condemns
him as a historicizing shaman of his class (p. 107). For a more nuanced but also
critical view of Meinecke as representative of an elite educational aristocracy which
is spiritually disconnected from modern democracy, see: Shulamit Volkov, Cultural
Elitism and Democracy: Notes on Friedrich Meineckes Political Thought, in: Jahrbuch
des Instituts fr Deutsche Geschichte Tel Aviv 5 (1976), pp. 383418. Of this article,
Rosenberg wrote to S. Volkov: You hit the nail on the head! You did a simply excel-
lent jobboldly, clearly and irrefutably (Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Hans Rosenberg
papers, no. 1376, vol. 19); Jonathan B. Knudsen, Friedrich Meinecke (18621954), in:
Hartmut Lehmann/James van Horn Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity. Central European
Historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s, Cambridge/Mass. 1994, pp. 4971.
18
took from Friedrich Naumann, that the workers must be won over
to the nation-state through social reforms and the extension of their
political rights.
In the last few years before 1914, Meinecke stood on the left wing
of the National Liberal Party. Unlike the Prussian National Liberals
and the party as a whole, the party in Baden advocated the fusion of
political forcesfrom the National Liberals to the Social Democrats
(who had a reformist hue in Baden)into a political bloc in order to
promote democratic reforms. This approach was based on the concept
of a Volksgemeinschaft or national community that would bridge, or
at least lessen, the sharp social and political divisions of the German
Empire. This national community, however, was supposed to intro-
duce the workers to the cultural ideals of the bourgeoisie in order
to establish a society of equal citizens; it was an inadequate response
to the realities of the industrial world. It was also intended to enable
Germany to make a powerful impact internationally without resort to
war. As public relations chief in the Reichstag elections of 1911/12,
Meinecke vigorously supported Gerhard von Schulze-Gvernitz, the
National Liberal candidate in Freiburg. He subsequently attended the
National Liberals conference as a delegate in 1912, but was unable to
get his left-wing views accepted within the party.
Meinecke argued for the reform of the Prussian three-class franchise
and the extension of the powers of the Reichstag. But he rejected a par-
liamentary system (with ministerial responsibility), primarily because
of the fragmentation of the German party system and the sharp dif-
ferences among the German parties, both in terms of world-view and
the economic and social interests they represented.19 However, unlike
many of his contemporaries, he accepted modern mass parties with
their organizational apparatus, and he saw conflict as a necessary part
of the modern political process.20 Meinecke produced a clear analysis
19
On Meineckes political views prior to 1918, see, in addition to the meticulous
study by Stefan Meineke, Meinecke, Georg Kotowski, Friedrich Meinecke als Kritiker
der Bismarckschen Reichsverfassung, in: Forschungen zu Staat und Verfassung.
Festgabe fr Fritz Hartung, Berlin 1958, pp. 145162.
20
See Meineckes unpublished chapter Die Reichsverfassung and especially the
chapter Die politischen Parteien, Meinecke papers, no. 122. The manuscript was
part of an introduction to contemporary political questions taken on by Meinecke in
1913, but it remained unfinished as a consequence of the Revolution. See Meinecke
Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, p. 202f., 260. Only the historical introduc-
tion to the planned volume was published, as Reich und Nation von 18711914, in:
Internationale Monatsschrift fr Wissenschaft, Kunst und Technik 11 (1917), p. 907ff.
of the relationship between Prussia and the Empire, each with its own
government and parliament, as an instrument of power deployed by
the government against the mass opposition parties in the Reichstag.21
His proposals to break up Prussia, which he put forward in 1918/19,22
were thus intended not only to strengthen the Empire but also to
promote democracy. During the First World War, after exhibiting
some annexationist tendencies in its early stages, Meinecke spoke out
clearly against the unrestricted submarine war that provoked Americas
entry into the war, and he advocated a peace of understanding, a
Hubertusburg peace, as concluded at the end of the Seven Years
War in 1763, without victors or vanquished. With respect to domestic
politics, he became a vehement exponent of political reform.
After the Revolution, Meinecke was one of the first major represen-
tatives of the educated classes to speak out in support of the Republic
and against restoration of the monarchy.23 After the Second World
War, Meinecke was often accused of having been no more than a luke-
warm supporter of the Republic. Critics referred to his statement dur-
ing the revolutionary period that he was still a monarchist of the heart
(Herzensmonarchist) with a devotion to the past but that he would be
a republican by reason (Vernunftrepublikaner) with a devotion to the
future.24 However, more detailed examination of his political impact
and the development of his views during the Weimar Republiconly
certain aspects of which have been adequately studiedwould reveal
21
Meineckes manuscript Die Reichsverfassung, p. 32, in: Meinecke papers,
no. 122.
22
Meinecke, Verfassung und Verwaltung der deutschen Republik, written in
November 1918 and published in January 1919, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische
Schriften und Reden, pp. 280298, esp. 283285. The problem of incorporating the old
Prussia, with its military and feudal structures, into the German state, already consti-
tutes the central topic in the second part of Weltbrgertum und Nationalstaat, namely
Der preuische Nationalstaat und der deutsche Nationalstaat and of his oft-noted
lecture delivered at the Deutscher Historikertag in Stuttgart in 1906 on Deutschland
und Preuen im 19. Jahrhundert; see the Bericht ber die 9. Versammlung deutscher
Historiker zu Stuttgart, Leipzig 1907, p. 13ff. On Meineckes views on the constitution
in early 1919, see also: Bemerkungen zum Entwurf der Reichsverfassung, published
in the weekly Deutsche Politik on 31 January and 7 February 1919 in: Meinecke Werke,
vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, pp. 299312.
23
See Hajo Holborn in his essay Verfassung und Verwaltung der Deutschen
Republik. Der Verfassungsentwurf Friedrich Meineckes aus dem Jahre 1918, in: HZ
147 (1933), pp. 115128, esp. p. 119.
24
Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, p. 281. See also the
defence of his position in the revealing letter to Siegfried Kaehler from January 1919,
in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, pp. 334336.
that however much he criticized the dysfunctional parliamentary and

party system, and despite his calls for a dictatorship of trust to
overcome the crisis of the Republic in its closing stages, he was an
unqualified if critical defender of the Republic and hence increasingly
a republican of the heart. This is apparent in a speech delivered at
the conference (on 2324 April 1926) of the Weimar Circle of uni-
versity teachers who were loyal to the constitution, a body he had initi-
ated. Meinecke stated: To say that something is necessary for reasons
of state is ultimately inadequate. Initially, we old monarchists could do
no more than become republicans by reason, repressing the internal
mental ruptures, which were quite enough to deal with, within the
recesses of our minds. But if you have taken the first step, you now
have to take a second step as wellagain, for reasons of stateand
desire that the German people take the new state form to heart, so that
it takes root firmly.25
Meinecke was committed to the proposition that the Republic must
be based on a political alliance between the bourgeoisie and the work-
ers, though in the early years he was prepared to concede a leading
role to Social Democracy, particularly as represented by Ebert.26 He
was a vigorous opponent of Marxism and the communists. He saw his
own task, in which he ultimately failed, as being to win over the bour-
geoisie and particularly university teachers and students for the new
state. He was a member of the left-liberal DDP, but he tried in vain
to expand it into a major liberal peoples party through a merger with
the DVP.27 In the same vein, he hoped that the conservative groupings
would merge to form a large-scale pro-republican party.28
25
Meinecke, Die deutschen Universitten und der heutige Staat, in: Meinecke
Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, pp. 402413, quotation on p. 412. See
also: Meinecke, Das Ende der Monarchie. Zum 9. November 1918/1928 and his con-
tribution to the ten-year anniversary of the constitution, Ein Tag des Denkens, from
11 August 1929, ibid., pp. 420424, 426431. Meineckes development into a republican
of the heart is also rightly emphasized by Harm Klueting, Vernunftrepublikanimus
und Vertrauensdiktatur: Friedrich Meinecke in der Weimarer Republik, in: HZ
242 (1980), pp. 6998, esp. p. 94. On the Weimar Circle, see Herbert Dring, Der
Weimarer Kreis. Studien zum politischen Bewusstsein verfassungstreuer Hochschullehrer
in der Weimarer Republik, Meisenheim a. G. 1975.
26
Bemerkungen zum Entwurf der Reichsverfassung in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2:
Politische Schriften und Reden, p. 307.
27
See his lecture Die Kulturfragen und die Parteien at the Liberal Association
(Liberale Vereinigung) on 16 May 1925 in: ibid., pp. 385392.
28
Lecture: Republik, Brgertum und Jugend, delivered at the Democratic Students
Association in Berlin on 16 January 1925 in: ibid., pp. 369383, esp. 378f.
His constitutional views differed in important ways from the basic

order set out in the Weimar imperial constitution. His plan to divide
up Prussia, which also appeared in Hugo Preus preliminary draft of
the constitution,29 came to nothing. Meinecke envisaged a Staatenhaus
to represent the states, half of whose members would be appointed
by the state parliamentsa chamber he intended to be a weak advo-
cate of the states interests. It proved impossible to gain acceptance for
this body, however, and its role was assumed by the Bundesrat, which
functioned in the Bismarckian constitution as the representative of the
Land governments and was renamed the Reichsrat after the war.
In the Weimar Republic, Meinecke rejected the parliamentary sys-
tem of government at both the federal and state levels. This rejection
was primarily because he considered the fragmented German party
system incapable of supporting parliamentary government. He came
to this conclusion in light of the historical burden imposed by the
traditions of the Imperial political system, the ideological and social
divisions that marked German society, and the German parties lack
of governmental experience.30 But he also thought that parliaments in
Germany and elsewhere had lost the idealistic sheen which they had
possessed during the early days of European liberalism, that their
29
In so far as it contains changes from the first published draft of 20 January
1919, the unpublished preliminary draft of 3 January 1919 was later published in the
Quellensammlung zum deutschen Reichsstaatsrecht compiled by Heinrich Triepel, 4th
edn., Tbingen 1926, pp. 68.
30
For a wealth of examples, see: Gustav Schmidt, Deutscher Historismus und der
bergang zur parlamentarischen Demokratie. Untersuchungen zu den politischen Gedan-
ken von MeineckeTroeltschMax Weber, Lbeck/Hamburg 1964; Georg Kotowski,
Parlamentarismus und Demokratie im Urteil Friedrich Meineckes, in: Zur Geschichte
und Problematik der Demokratie. Festgabe fr Hans Herzfeld, ed. by Wilhelm Berges
and Carl Hinrichs, Berlin 1958, pp. 187203; Waldemar Besson, Friedrich Meinecke
und die Weimarer Republik. Zum Verhltnis von Geschichtsschreibung und Politik,
in: VfZ 7 (1959), pp. 113129. A satisfactory analytical summary of Meineckes politi-
cal ideas after 1918 has yet to appear. Robert A. Pois, Friedrich Meinecke and German
Politics in the 20th Century, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1972 makes insufficient ref-
erence to the sources and presents a flawed analysis of Meineckes political statements;
he fails to view these in relation to the specific problems of the period 19181933
and imputes to Meineckewho was the first rector of the Free University, founded
as a symbol of West Berlins determination to resist during the Berlin Blockadea
total rejection of politics for the period after 1945. More convincing is an article by
Stefan Meineke that sees Meineckes constitutional conceptions during the Weimar
Republic as attempts to solve concrete problems of his time rather than the outcome
of an abstract notion of the ideal constitution: Parteien und Parlamentarismus im
Urteil von Friedrich Meinecke, in: Gisela Bock/Daniel Schnpflug (eds.), Meinecke,
Stuttgart 2006, pp. 5193.
heroic age lay in the past,31 and that the purely parliamentary system
was in serious crisis.32 In 1918/19, Meinecke therefore pressed for
an Imperial President elected by popular vote, on the model of the
United States, a president who would take over the leadership of the
government33 and integrate the civil servicewhich would play a key
role in carrying out the nationalization of large parts of the economy
that Meinecke initially expected to occurinto the state. Meinecke
disliked the unfortunate dualism of a parliamentary government and
a popularly elected imperial president with his far-reaching rights to
form or dismiss governments and emergency powers. In terms of
political practice, later on during the Weimar Republic he advocated
strengthening the position of the Imperial President and considered
a temporary dictatorship of trust an effective means of dealing with
the crisis of the Republic.34
However, it has been suggestedcorrectly in the view of the pres-
ent authorthat following the collapse of the Empire the introduc-
tion of a parliamentary system along Western European lines was the
only realistic option, and that the provision for an alternative presi-
dential system in Art. 48 of the Weimar constitution weakened the
pressure on the parties to accept necessary compromises and adapt
to the conditions of a parliamentary system35 and aided the survival
of authoritarian tendencies. Further, up until 1932, despite the inevi-
table friction between the two central governments and parliaments
in Berlin, Prussias continued existence provided a bastion of democ-
racy and promoted the stability of the Republic rather than being a
strain on it.36 Yet despite all his criticisms of the Weimar parties and
31
MS Die Reichsverfassung, p. 67. Meinecke papers, no. 122.
32
Lecture Republik, Brgertum und Jugend from 16 January 1925, in: Meinecke
Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, p. 379.
33
Meinecke, Bemerkungen zum Entwurf der Reichsverfassung, in: ibid., p. 310.
The Imperial President would have been his own Imperial Chancellor and would pos-
sibly have been given the title of Imperial Chancellor as well. See also Meineckes letter
to Holborn from 2 February 1930, below, pp. 248250.
34
On the concept of the dictatorship of trust in Meineckes work, see Klueting,
Vernunftrepublikanismus, esp. pp. 8393.
35
See Gerhard A. Ritter, Deutscher und britischer Parlamentarismus. Ein ver-
fassungsgeschichtlicher Vergleich, in: Ritter, Arbeiterbewegung, Parteien und Parla-
mentarismus. Aufstze zur deutschen Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte des 19. und 20.
Jahrhunderts, Gttingen 1976, pp. 190221, pp. 359372, esp. p. 211.
36
See Horst Mller, Parlamentarismus in Preuen 19191932, Dsseldorf 1985.
parliamentary system, Meinecke himself never called democracy or

the Republic into question.
In the period before 1933, Meinecke firmly rejected the National
Socialist movement. Three weeks after the Nazis had seized power, in
a newspaper article entitled National Community, not the Tearing
Apart of the Nation (Volksgemeinschaftnicht Volkszerreiung),
he criticized the handover of power to Hitler and Papen and called for
the results of the approaching Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933 to
demonstrate that the determination to resist a fascist dictatorship is
so strong, not just among the workers but also among the bourgeoisie,
that any prospect of eliminating our constitutional order, and domestic
freedoms, through de facto illegal means, will become inconceivable.37
Excerpts from Meineckes article were used by the German State Party,
successor to the DDP, in an election leaflet. Meinecke made no more
public statements on political matters after this date.
Over the next two years he made a number of concessions in an
ultimately futile attempt to defend the bastions of the Historische
Zeitschrift, wrested from his control in 1935, and the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission), which was wound up in
1935 in favour of the Imperial Institute for the History of the New
Germany (Reichsinstitut fr Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands), led by
fanatical Nazi Walter Frank.38 The highest human cost of these con-
cessions soon came with the dismissal, on 20 May 1933, of Hedwig
Hintze, who had written the regular report on new books and journal
articles on the French Revolution in the Historische Zeitschrift since
1926. This led to Otto Hintzes departure from the extended circle of
HZ co-editors and ultimately to the end of a close friendship, which
had existed since the late 1880s, between probably the two most impor-
tant German historians of the first half of the 20th century.39
Despite intensive efforts by the publisher and a number of younger
historians close to the Nazis, beginning in early 1934, to oust him from
37
Reprint of the article written as a newspaper correspondent and reprinted on
22 February and 26 February, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und
Reden, pp. 479482, quotation on p. 481f.
38
On Franks battles with the Imperial Historical Commission, chaired by Meinecke
from 1928 to 1934, and its disbandment in 1935, see Helmut Heiber, Walter Frank und
sein Reichsinstitut fr Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands, Stuttgart 1966, esp. p. 168ff.,
241ff.; Ingo Haar, Historiker im Nationalsozialismus. Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft
und der Volkstumskampf im Osten, Gttingen 2000, pp. 171182.
39
See below, p. 466.
the effective leadership of the HZ and prevent publications by Jewish

historians from appearing in the journal, Meinecke managed to protect
Dietrich Gerhard and Gerhard Masur, the other Jewish contributors,
alongside Hedwig Hintze, entrusted with regular summaries of new
books and articles. When the publisher wished to appoint as co-editor a
scholar closely associated with the NSDAP in the shape of ancient his-
torian Helmut Berve, and demanded that he and the existing co-editor,
the medievalist Albert Brackmann, be given full rights of participation
in decisions on which articles to accept and equal rights to decide on
the composition of each issue of the journal, for which Meinecke had
been solely responsible as chief editor since 1896,40 Meinecke curtly
refused. It is impossible, he wrote to the publishers on 25 October
1934, for me to agree to the conditions laid down by Herr Berve. Even
if I could renounce my own past, they would embroil me in ever more
clashes with his most likely increasing demands. In conversation with
me, he described an immediate abrupt Gleichschaltung of the HZ as
undesirable. But I cannot reconcile with my conscience even a gradual,
though presumably approaching Gleichschaltung as ultimate goal.41
Finally, by speaking out firmly against a savage attack by leading Nazi
historian Walter Frank on his Berlin colleague Hermann Oncken in
the HZ,42 Meinecke obstructed the publishers plans to oust him as
editor and replace him with a Nazi-inclined historian with as little fuss
as possible, something they were keen to do in order to avoid negative
perceptions in other countries, as well among the historical fraternity
in Germany.
After losing his formerly key position within the discipline of his-
tory in 1935, he withdrew from public life and became an internal
migrant. Though compromising statements can be found in certain
40
That Meinecke was in a superior position to Brackmann is also evident in
the fact that Meinecke received an editors fee of 540 Reichsmark per issue of the
HZ, while Brackmann received only a quarter as much, 135 Reichsmark. Letter
from W. Oldenbourg to Herr Bierotte, head of the publishers Berlin branch from
22 November 1934 (copy, Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, F 5, Verlag R. Oldenbourg,
Munich, box 244).
41
Ibid., box 244. For an analysis of Meineckes ousting as editor of the HZ, see
Gerhard A. Ritter, Die Verdrngung von Friedrich Meinecke als Herausgeber der
Historischen Zeitschrift, in: Historie und Leben. Der Historiker als Wissenschaftler
und Zeitgenosse. Festschrift fr Lothar Gall zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. by Dieter Hein,
Klaus Hildebrand and Andreas Schulz, Munich 2006, pp. 6588.
42
See Meineckes discussion of a book by Frank in HZ 152 (1935), reprinted in:
Meinecke Werke, vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 447449.
letters43in which, for instance, he welcomed the union with Austria

in 1938 and the prospect of retaking his beloved Alsace in 1940and
he maintained relations with his successor as editor of the HZ, Karl
Alexander von Mller, and with the Greater German nationalist
Heinrich Ritter von Srbik,44 he did in fact always regard the regime as
barbaric and criminal.
Once the war had ended, with his German Catastrophe, written
entirely without access to documentation or books during his exile in
Wsserndorf and Gttingen in 1945 and published in 1946, the 83-
year-old Meinecke was one of the few German historians45 to make
a serious effort to analyze the deeper historical roots of Germanys
abortive development. These he saw chiefly in Prussian-German mili-
tarism, a tendency to get carried away with the idea of the power-
ful state, in anti-Semitism and imperialism and in the failure of the
German bourgeoisie. He was emphatic about the need to revise the
German view of history.46 However, like other writings of the time,
Meineckes text fails to grasp the profundity of the historical rupture
caused by the Holocaust.47 Meinecke proposed the establishment of
Goethe communities, associations of friends with a shared cultural
orientation, as a means of at least rescuing the German spirit, a
proposal often met with a pitying smile. His aim here was to pick up
the thread of venerable values characteristic of the Goethe era and of
43
See Meineckes letter to Holborn from 7 April 1938, to his son-in-law Carl Rabl
from 12 June 1940 and his note to Siegfried A. Kaehler from 4 July 1940 (Meinecke
Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 180, p. 192, p. 363f.).
44
See Knudsen, Meinecke, p. 65f.
45
Alongside Meineckes Deutscher Katastrophe, see esp.: Gerhard Ritter, Geschichte
als Bildungsmacht. Ein Beitrag zur historisch-politischen Neubesinnung, Stuttgart 1946;
Gerd Tellenbach, Die deutsche Not als Schuld und Schicksal, Stuttgart 1947.
46
See the generally positive assessment of the book by Winfried Schulze, Deutsche
Geschichtswissenschaft nach 1945, Munich 1985, pp. 5055. For a penetrating anal-
ysis of mass Machiavellism as a key aspect of the book and the political ideas of
Machiavelli in Meineckes Staatsrson, see Gisela Bock, Meinecke, Machiavelli
und der Nationalsozialismus, in: Bock/Schnpflug (eds.), Meinecke, pp. 145175.
Meinecke was sometimes accused of wishing to shift attention away from German
guilt and portray Nazism as a mishap without deep roots in German history by refer-
ring to authoritarian developments in neighbouring countries and specific errors by
individuals that helped the Nazis take power, a claim I consider unjustified. In my
opinion, Meinecke was right to highlight the international context and, pointing to the
importance of historical contingency, to reject the idea that the seizure of power was a
necessary consequence of developments. But for him the crucial issue was to identify
which specific aspects of German history made the victory of Nazism possible.
47
On the delayed reception of the Holocaust, see Nicolas Berg, Der Holocaust und
die westdeutschen Historiker. Erforschung und Erinnerung, Gttingen 2003.
German Idealism and, following the discrediting of the German nation

state and its impending division, to continue the older and better tra-
ditions of Germany as a cultural nation (Kulturnation).48
His impressive Secular reflections (Skularbetrachtung) on the Revo-
lution of 184849 and profound attempts to come to terms with Ranke
and Burckhardt,50 which brought out the superiority of Burckhardts
assessments of the contemporary world and predictions for the future,
bear witness to Meineckes internal struggle to come up with a new
view of German history and new criteria of historical evaluation.
Meinecke eventually advocated a federal union of the Central and
Western European countries and an understanding with France, and
called for the zones occupied by the Western allies, and later Federal
Republic, to be tied closely to the United States.51 This did not repre-
sent a complete break with his earlier views. Following Ranke, he had
always underlined that the Latin and Germanic peoples had a great
deal in common. From the First World War onwards, he had lamented
the estrangement between them. The United States was clearly a source
of increasing fascination to him. As early as 1918, he saw the US presi-
dent as a model for the organization of the executive in Germany.
On 9 October 1936, after participating in the 300th anniversary cel-
ebrations of Harvard University, which awarded him an honorary
doctorate, he wrote to the historian Kurt Breysig that in the United
States slowly and hesitantly, a portion of the masses is developing
into cultured human beings [Kulturmenschen]. On our side, the cul-
tured human beings are rapidly and resolutely becoming mass-men
[Massenmenschen].52 After 1933, and 1945, Meinecke never missed an
opportunity to learn about the United States from his migr students.
Time and again in his discussions with me he spoke positively of the
US and its institutions, emphasizing its importance to the future of
48
Friedrich Meinecke, Die deutsche Katastrophe, Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen,
in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp. 442445. On Meineckes
motives in proposing the establishment of Goethe communities and what he imagined
they would do, see also his interview for Neue Zeit, 1 January 1947, newspaper cutting,
Meinecke papers, no. 39.
49
Lecture from 1948, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 9: BrandenburgPreu-
enDeutschland, pp. 345363.
50
Lecture at the German Academy of Sciences, Berlin, 1948, reprinted in: Meinecke
Werke, vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 93121.
51
See Meinecke, Ein ernstes Wort, essay for Radio Paris, in: Der Kurier, 31 December
1949, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, p. 492f.
52
Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 169.
democracy and liberty. This is another reason why we should be wary

of viewing Meinecke merely as an anti-modern representative of the
educational aristocracy, rather than a politically engaged contempo-
rary, as well as citizen and democrat.
II. Meinecke as academic teacher
Meineckes successes as an academic teacher can be traced back in

part to his political outlook, which I shall therefore examine briefly
here. During the Empire, his attempt to explain the ideas underlying
the nation state and his support for overcoming the gulf between the
workers and the middle classes attracted a large number of students
who felt repelled by the prevailing materialism and authoritarian struc-
ture of state and society. During the Weimar Republic, Meinecke was
considered one of the few resolute defenders of the Republic among
the university teachers of the time. This brought many liberal or social
democratically inclined students, and especially students of Jewish ori-
gin, to his door, prompting elements of the historical fraternity to refer
disparagingly to the Meinecke school as the Jews School.53
Meineckes impact as a teacher was based above all else on his per-
sonality. He was a brilliant letter-writer and conversation partner. With
his warm-heartedness and his ability to listen and to show an interest
in others, he was also a man with an exceptional talent for friendship.
Furthermore, as his later colleague in Berlin Gustav Mayer writes, he
was an unassuming scholar with absolutely no time for posturing and
platitudes.54 Anything but stiffly formal, he was always open to his
students and their ideas. Meinecke suffered from a life-long speech
impediment; he was no master orator, could not speak without notes
and always had to prepare thoroughly for his lectures, in which he
placed the events of national history within a European context. It was
in the seminar that his efficacy truly came to the fore. As a master of
interpretation,55 he had his students read and analyze the key texts by
53
Masur, Das ungewisse Herz, p. 86.
54
Gustav Mayer, Erinnerungen. Vom Journalisten zum Historiker der deutschen
Arbeiterbewegung (first impression Zurich/Vienna 1949, licensed edition Munich
1949), Hildesheim/Zurich/New York 1993, p. 282.
55
As Masur describes him in Das ungewisse Herz, p. 86; on Meinecke as a teacher
and the history department at the University of Berlin, see also: Felix Gilbert, Lehrjahre
im alten Europa. Erinnerungen 19051945, Siedler Verlag 1989, p. 79f.; Gilbert, The
major thinkers and statesmen with the utmost care and brought out
the dialectical aspects of their ideas. In other words, he insisted on
precise analysis of the sources. In addition, Meinecke regularly invited
a small group of students to his house for tea and had lengthy one-
to-one conversations with his doctoral students about their research.
As a mark of honour, some of his established students were invited to
join him for his famous fortnightly Sunday walks in the Grunewald
among colleagues, leading officials and politicians. He was extremely
tolerant. His circle of students included conservatives such as Siegfried
A. Kaehler, Hans Rothfels and Gerhard Masur, but also socialists like
Eckart Kehr and those with social democratic leanings such as Hans
Rosenberg, Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert and Hedwig Hintze. In an
article about his friend Hajo Holborn, Dietrich Gerhard writes that
above all others they had Meinecke to thank for their methodological
training as well as for intellectual and professional support. All our
lives we have acknowledged our position as students of Meinecke, with
whom each of uslike other students of hishad a very personal rela-
tionship. Holborn, however, had quickly rejected the term Meinecke
School.56 Felix Gilbert took much the same view. Meinecke was a
great teacher because he urged his students to find their own way,
the way most appropriate to their personality. But it is an error to
assume, as has frequently been done, that Meinecke founded a school
of historians of ideas. Actually his students have worked in the most
varied areas of history: political, social, institutional, intellectual. It was
Meineckes concern for their finding in history both a strict discipline
and creative expression that brought students close to him and gener-
ated veneration for him, even if in their life and work they went on
different roads.57
His students thus renounced the creation of a school in any nar-
row sense. Partly because of this, after the Second World War, they
were able to provide impetus to the revision of the German view of
history and help bridge the divide between the writing of history in
Historical Seminar of the University of Berlin in the Twenties, in: Hartmut Lehmann/
James J. Sheehan, An Interrupted Past. German Speaking Refugee Historians in the
United States after 1933, Cambridge Mass. etc. 1991, pp. 6770; Eberhard Kessel,
Friedrich Meinecke in eigener Sicht, in: Erbe (ed.), Friedrich Meinecke Heute,
pp. 186195, esp. p. 186.
56
Dietrich Gerhard, Hajo Holborn, in: Gerhard, Gesammelte Aufstze, Gttingen
1977, pp. 296303, esp. p. 297f.
57
Gilbert, Meinecke, p. 87.
Germany and in the United States and Western Europe. As Meinecke

wrote in his foreword to the Festschrift dedicated to Rothfels, it was
undoubtedly the greatest source of pride for any teacher to have
students from whom, over the course of time, you yourself can learn
so much.58
Meinecke went out of his way to help his students progress. Con-
trary to the existing traditions of the German university of the time,
which saw it as undesirable to gain ones habilitation (the post-doc-
toral qualification for senior university posts) in the philosophy faculty
of the same university from which one had obtained ones doctor-
ate, he eventually supervised both the doctorates and habilitations
of Dietrich Gerhard, Gerhard Masur and Hans Baron, all of whom,
despite Meineckes support, had tried in vain to achieve their habilita-
tion at other universities.
Although Meinecke had already been awarded emeritus status at
the end of the winter semester of 1927/28,59 he continued to exercise
a major influence. This he then lostfollowing the Nazi seizure of
poweras a result of his above-mentioned dismissal as editor of the HZ
in 1935 and the disbandment of the Imperial Historical Commission
in 1935,60 a body he had headed until 1934.
As Jews or half-Jews, or because of their Jewish family ties or
political views, many of his best students lost their jobs. Often endur-
ing great hardship, they had to rebuild their lives following their
expulsion from Germany, chiefly in the United States.61 I shall be pro-
58
Foreword from 1951, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der
Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 464466, quotation on p. 464.
59
It is often assumed that Meinecke was made emeritus professor only in 1932. In
fact this occurred at the end of the winter semester of 1927/28. However, Meinecke
continued to teach on a significant scale until 1931, for which he was paid a special fee
of 3,000 Reichsmark per annum. See archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, personal
files, vol. 140.
60
See above, p. 14f.
61
On emigration and that of historians in particular, see Biographisches Handbuch
der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933, edited by the Institut fr Zeitgeschichte,
Munich and the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, Inc. New York under
the overall direction of Werner Rder and Herbert A. Strauss, 3 vols., Munich/New
York/London/Paris 1983. This work, entitled The International Biographical Dictionary
of Central European migrs, 19331945 in English, appeared in two languages. The
first volume, Politik, Wirtschaft, ffentliches Leben (Policy, Economy and Public Life)
appeared in German. The second volume appeared in English in two parts and was
entitled The Arts, Science and Literature. The third volume is an index (Generalregister).
These volumes contain ca. 8,600 biographical sketches of migrs, including 2,400
2,500 academics. An important basis for research on the emigration of historians to
viding an account of their fate and ongoing links with Meinecke, and
finally of Meineckes efforts to persuade them to return to Germany
after the Second World War, by examining his students Hans Rothfels,
Dietrich Gerhard, Gerhard Masur, Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert, Hans
Baron, Helene Wieruszowski, Hans Rosenberg, Eckart Kehr and Hans
Gnther Reissner, along with Meineckes colleague Gustav Mayer,62
the United States is the volume by Catherine Epstein, A Past Renewed. A Catalog of
German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933, Cambridge 1993.
With CVs in tabular form and a bibliography of their most important writings, it lists
88 migrs who either left Europe with doctorates in history or became historians
in the United States having gained doctorates in other fields; see also Horst Mller,
Exodus der Kultur. Schriftsteller, Wissenschaftler und Knstler in der Emigration nach
1933, Munich 1984; Peter Thomas Walther, Von Meinecke zu Beard? Die nach 1933
in die USA emigrierten Deutschen Neuhistoriker, dissertation at the State University of
New York at Buffalo, 1989. The dissertation, however, deals only with developments
up to 1941; Walther, Zur Entwicklung der Geisteswissenschaften in Berlin: Von der
Weimarer Republik zur Vier-Sektoren-Stadt, in: Exodus von Wissenschaftlern aus
Berlin. FragestellungenErgebnisseDesiderate. Entwicklungen vor und nach 1933,
edited by Wolfram Fischer, Klaus Hierholzer, Michael Hubenstorf, Peter Thomas
Walther and Rolf Winau, Berlin/New York 1994, pp. 153183; Heinz Wolf, Deutsch-
jdische Emigrationshistoriker in den USA und der Nationalsozialismus, Berne etc.
1988. This volume deals in particular with the younger generation of migr histori-
ans born from around 1918 on, who attended schools and universities in the United
States. Of the older generation of migrs, only H. Holborn and Hans Kohn are
treated in depth; George G. Iggers, Die deutschen Historiker in der Emigration, in:
Bernd Faulenbach (ed.), Geschichtswissenschaft in Deutschland. Traditionelle Positionen
und gegenwrtige Aufgaben, Munich 1974, pp. 97111, 181183; Fritz Stern, German
History in America, 18841984, in: Central European History 19 (1986), pp. 131
163; Gerald Stourzh, Die deutschsprachige Emigration in den Vereinigten Staaten.
Geschichtswissenschaft und politische Wissenschaft, in: Jahrbuch fr Amerikastudien
10 (1965), pp. 5977; Stourzh, Bibliographie der deutschsprachigen Emigration in
den Vereinigten Staaten 19331963. Geschichte und Politikwissenschaft, Jahrbuch fr
Amerikastudien 10 (1965), pp. 232266; 11 (1966), pp. 260317; Lehmann/Sheehan (ed.),
An Interrupted Past; Lehmann/Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity; Jrgen Petersohn,
Deutschsprachige Medivistik in der Emigration. Wirkungen und Folgen des Aderlasses
der NS-Zeit (GeschichtswissenschaftRechtsgeschichteHumanismusforschung), in:
HZ 277 (2003), pp. 160.
62
I examine those migr students whose doctorates were supervised by Meinecke
with the exception of Johanna Philippson (b. 1887), who obtained her doctorate under
Meinecke in Freiburg shortly before the First World War and emigrated to England
in the 1930s. There she was in contact with Gustav Mayer, who mentions that she lent
him Meineckes German Catastrophe for 48 hours. Meineckes offer of a job at the
Academy of Sciences in Berlin (see below, p. 520) obviously came to nothing. As no
further information could be obtained about J. Philippson and Meineckes papers for
the period from 1914 include no letters from her, I have had to forego examination of
her. Rothfels, who obtained his doctorate under Oncken in Heidelberg in 1918, and
H. Wieruszowski, who obtained hers under Wilhelm Levison in Bonn in 1918, have
been included because they clearly regarded Meinecke as their most important teacher.
Eckart Kehr, who went to the United States on a scholarship from the Rockefeller
and Hedwig Hintze, who received her doctorate under Meineckes

supervision but was academically a student of her husband Otto
Hintze.63 It is telling that the exchange of letters between Meinecke
and a number of his migr students continued up until the war and
that, with the exception of Baron, all of his students still alive in 1945
quickly resumed contact with their old teacher once the war was over.
They often helped him out by sending CARE packages and provided
him with regular in-depth accounts of their academic research. Time
and again in their letters Meinecke and his wife emphasized their tre-
mendous gratitude for the generous support they had received, par-
ticularly from the United States. On 25 November 1947, for example,
Frau Meinecke wrote to Frau Rosenberg: Were now constantly being
helped by the USAits quite odd how our lives are being propped
up from there. Prof. Pinson brought us to Dahlem, it was Americans
that held on to the house for us and then we received your quite unex-
pected material support, without which we would never have survived
these times, which have been indescribably more difficult for others.
And now the Epsteins, who really show such loving devotion and
circumspection for all those in need, have provided us with penicil-
lin. This has saved my husbands life. We received a birthday cable
[marking Meineckes 85th birthday] from the history department at
Harvard with some words greatly honouring my husband. And there
on his bedside table with the gorgeous flowers was your tobacco tin
and the tin of coffee, which I had set aside for a rainy day, and for
which, through me, he now expresses his deepest gratitude. Indeed,
the coffee from all of you is a source of great pleasure for him twice
a day, and every time he sings out his gratitude! Hes long since back
in his study by now and his pipe is in continuous use, thanks to your
devoted assistance.64
Foundation before the Nazis seized power, and died there on 29 May 1933, is exam-
ined because it is unlikely that he would have returned to Germany. Gustav Mayer,
who had received his doctorate at the University of Basle in 1893 with a dissertation
on Lassalle as a social economist (publ. Berlin 1894), is included because Meinecke
helped clear his path to university and he felt particularly close to Meinecke.
63
On the inclusion of H. Hintze, see below, p. 79.
64
See below, p. 394.
III. Meineckes migr students
1. Hans Rothfels
One of Meineckes oldest students was Hans Rothfels (18911976).65
He was from a well-to-do liberal Jewish family resident in Kassel since
the late 18th century and was given a non-religious upbringing. He
converted to Protestantism at nineteen and was a member of the inner
circle of students around Meinecke in Freiburg. As a reserve second
lieutenant in the First World War, he lost a leg in a riding accident
in late autumn of 1914, which led to a lengthy spell in the military
hospital. In search of continued employment in the military field, at
Meineckes suggestion he began a study of the famous military theorist
Carl von Clausewitz, with which he gained his doctorate in Heidelberg
under Hermann Oncken in 1918.66
Rothfels was employed at the Imperial Archive from 1920 onwards.
From 1919, with numerous interruptions, until emigration in 1939,
he worked on a never-to-be-completed research project on state social
policies under Bismarck, originally conceived as an edited volume
and later as an independent account.67 With Meineckes support, he
received his habilitation in 1924 at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt
in Berlin with a study of Bismarcks policy of alliance with England68
and received a chair in Knigsberg in 1926.
Heavily influenced by the predicament of the border areas in East
Prussia, his research now turned to the nationalities problem in East-
Central Europe. Unambiguously rejecting the principle of the nation
65
On Rothfels, see Werner Conze, Hans Rothfels, in: HZ 237 (1983), pp. 311
360; Hans Mommsen, Hans Rothfels, in: Deutsche Historiker, vol. 9, ed. by Hans-
Ulrich Wehler, Gttingen 1982, pp. 127147; Klemens von Klemperer, Hans Rothfels
(18911976), in: Lehmann/Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity, pp. 119135; Johannes
Hrter/Hans Woller (eds.), Hans Rothfels und die deutsche Zeitgeschichte, Munich
2005; Jan Eckel, Hans Rothfels. Eine intellektuelle Biographie im 20. Jahrhundert,
Gttingen 2005.
66
Published in a substantially expanded form: Hans Rothfels, Carl von Clausewitz.
Politik und Krieg. Eine ideengeschichtliche Studie, Berlin 1920. Rothfels also produced
a volume of Politische Schriften und Briefe by Clausewitz (Munich 1922). See also
Rothfels, Clausewitz, in: Edward Mead Earle (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy,
Princeton 1943, pp. 93113 and 525f.
67
See Gerhard A. Ritter, Sozialpolitik im Zeitalter Bismarcks. Ein Bericht ber
neuere Quelleneditionen und neuere Literatur, in: HZ 265 (1997), pp. 683720, esp.
685688. An important by-product of Rothfels activities was his monograph: Theodor
Lohmann und die Kampfjahre der staatlichen Sozialpolitik 18711905, Berlin 1927.
68
Hans Rothfels, Bismarcks englische Bndnispolitik, Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig 1924.
state, he spoke in favour of the reordering of the East, explicitly

favouring the cohabitation of different peoples within a single politi-
cal community.69 From then on, Rothfels way of looking at history
was to be determined by the situation in the East. This is apparent in
his contribution to the Meinecke Festschrift issue of the HZ in early
1933, in which he distances himself from his teacher and his book
Cosmopolitanism and the National State. Meineckes students, who
initially felt the impact of the book in the peaceful southwest of the
Empire, were then compelled to consider new research subjects and
different views by the onset of the war. . . . As the students of a master
who taught them to submit to the oath of no master, it is incumbent
upon them to prove themselves, particularly by examining contrary
positions. . . . Hence, in what follows (coincidentally bound up with my
personal situation but surely reflecting a profound transformation of
historical reality itself ), I shift the emphasis to the other end of the
diagonal, to the northeast, a place where Meineckes terms cultural
nation (Kulturnation) and state-nation (Staatsnation) have taken on
a different resonance, where the nation state is no longer a progressive
principle but rather a reactionary theory, where we are dealing less
with intellectual combat between great thinkers than with a primal
struggle among peoples, a struggle going on behind the official national
peace and under changed social circumstances.70 Rothfels concept
of a federalist and corporatist order in the East underestimated the
dynamics of nationalism in East-Central Europe, and was rejected by
the neighbouring nations, especially Poland, not least because it was
linked with the idea that Germany would play a special educational
and leadership role.71 With his research and teaching, Rothfels also
69
See esp. Klemperer, Rothfels, pp. 125127. The essays from the Knigsberg
period, published in a wide range of different publications, some of them quite
obscure, were brought together in a volume typically entitled: Ostraum. Preuentum
und Reichsgedanke. Historische Abhandlungen, Vortrge und Reden (Leipzig 1935).
A reprint, minus some of the shorter pieces, was published by the Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, Stuttgart 1960. On Rothfels notions concerning a new
political order in East-Central Europe, see also: Wolfgang Neugebauer, Hans Rothfels
und Ostmitteleuropa, in: Hrter/Woller (eds.), Rothfels, pp. 3961.
70
Hans Rothfels, Bismarck und die Nationalittenfrage des Ostens, in: HZ 147
(1933), pp. 89105, esp. the introduction by the author, p. 69f. The first issue of vol-
ume 147, dedicated to Meinecke, appeared before the Nazis seizure of power.
71
See the comment on Klemperers article by Douglas A. Unfug, Comment: Hans
Rothfels, in: Lehmann/Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity, pp. 137154, esp. 140147.
On Rothfels Volkstumspolitik and Ostpolitik in particular, see Haar, Historiker im
Nationalsozialismus, pp. 70105. For the debate on Rothfels political outlook in the
provided stimulus to the study of popular history (Volksgeschichte),

which was taken up in particular by his students Theodor Schieder and
Werner Conze. Another key focus of Rothfels historical research was
Bismarcks idea of the state, which he distinguished from nationalistic
and unitary notions as essentially federalist.72
Hans Rothfels
Rothfels was a passionate German patriot. In everything he did he

assumed the unity of scholarship and life and the significance to poli-
tics of the discipline of history. He was a fascinating teacher. During
the Weimar Republic his impact was felt far beyond academia in
youth organizations and national circles. Rothfels disapproved of the
Republic. Particularly in the last few years before 1933, he was located
on the nationalist right. This, together with academic differences, led
to serious clashes with Meinecke, as is especially evident in correspon-
dence between Rothfels and his friend Siegfried A. Kaehler, a student
closing stages of the Weimar Republic, see also the controversy between Heinrich
August Winkler and Ingo Haar, based chiefly on differing classifications and interpre-
tations of sources, in the Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte 49, (2001), pp. 643652;
50, (2002), pp. 497505 and pp. 635652.
72
See esp. Hans Rothfels, Bismarck und der Osten. Eine Studie zum Problem des
deutschen Nationalstaates, Leipzig 1934; Rothfels, Otto von Bismarck. Deutscher Staat.
Ausgewhlte Dokumente, Munich 1925; Rothfels, Bismarck. Vortrge und Abhand-
lungen, Stuttgart 1970.
of Meineckes from the Freiburg period. The specific reason was the
decision by the Imperial Historical Commission, under Meineckes
leadership, to supplement Rothfels planned study of Bismarcks
state social policies with a volume of source materials on the Anti-
Socialist Law, under the supervision of Gustav Mayer, a member of
the Commission.73 Among other things, this was explained to Rothfels
as a means of justifying refusal of a request from the Soviet Union
to borrow the sources on the Anti-Socialist Law. Rothfels, who con-
stantly underlined that state social policies were of a piece with poli-
cies intended to combat the socialist labour movement, saw this as a
serious encroachment on his own research project. This also laid bare
the deep resentment he felt towards Gustav Mayer and the econo-
mist and social policy specialist Heinrich Herkner. How can a man
like M.[einecke] believe that social policy and the Anti-Socialist Law
can be considered separately? And how can he smooth the way for
those (G. Mayer and Herkner) whose background and party political
intentions are clear enough? Nonetheless, he refrained from asking
for a vote of academic confidence and probing into the underlying
politics of the situation. Meineckes dissatisfaction with him was, he
thought, far more political than scholarly in nature.74 This was essen-
tially correct. However, Meinecke will certainly have taken exception
to the fact that Rothfels did no more to further his research project,
which he had been working on for nearly eleven years.75 Rothfels failed
76
to stop Mayers rival project. The Nazi seizure of power then made it
impossible for either project to be completed.
Both politically and academically, Rothfels and Meinecke were
leagues apart at the time. This is apparent in the fact that Rothfels, in a
letter to Kaehler, referred to the election of 14 September 1930, which
turned the Nazis into a party of the masses with 18.3 percent of the
votes, as the first happy event since Novemberclearly a reference
73
See Ritter, Sozialpolitik im Zeitalter Bismarcks, pp. 685688; Lothar Machthan,
Hans Rothfels und die Anfnge der Historischen SozialpolitikForschung in Deutsch-
land, in: IWK 28 (1992), pp. 161210.
74
Rothfels to Kaehler, 3 March 1930, see below, p. 141.
75
On Rothfels writings on Bismarcks social policies published by this point, see
below, p. 141.
76
The claim by Ingo Haar, Anpassung und Versuchung. Hans Rothfels und der
Nationalsozialismus, in: Hrter/Woller (eds.), Rothfels, pp. 6381, esp. p. 65f., that
the dispute over Mayers access to the records was resolved in Rothfels favour, is
incorrect.
to November 1918.77 In the second round of the presidential election

of 10 April 1932, which pitted Hitler against Hindenburg, Rothfels
voted for Hitler, in contrast to his friend Kaehler.78 In a letter to the
chairman of the Historical Commission for the Imperial Archive
(Historische Kommission fr das Reichsarchiv), the retired permanent
secretary Lewald, of 2 March 1932, Rothfels had already criticized the
fact that everywhere you look at present extremely urgent scholarly
tasks are being neglected and even in threatened border regions . . .
a highly alarming cultural withdrawal was occurring; it was almost
impossible . . . to get down to those problems (German populations in
other countries, the recent history of colonization in the East, etc.),
which are of current foreign policy importance in the sense of intel-
lectual defence and which play or ought to play a role in uniting the
nation. According to Rothfels, large numbers of people [would] be
quite unable to understand why, at a time like this, imperial funds are
being spent on an exercise that will at best result in a new round of
bitter, partisan squabbling. He was particularly critical of the alloca-
tion of assignments to Oberarchivrat Veit Valentin, whose academic
qualifications, like those of Oberarchivrat Martin Hobohm, he called
into question. In more than twelve years, neither gentleman has man-
aged to carve out a role for himself within either the administrative or
research functions of the Imperial Archive; people have found things
for them to do with a greater or lesser degree of difficulty. I can under-
stand these efforts in human and administrative terms, but again this
is increasingly out of touch with current realities. While the best edu-
cated young students are obstructed at every turn, while hundreds of
able-bodied men are having to be laid off, sometimes under circum-
stances far more difficult than would be the case here, the issue which
I have touched on in the above cannot, so it seems to me, simply be
passed by.79 Rothfels thus pushed for the dismissal of the two histo-
rians and archivists.
77
Rothfels to Kaehler, 21 December 1930; see below, p. 149.
78
Kaehler to Rothfels, 25 April 1932, Kaehler papers, letter 176.
79
Rothfels to Lewald, 2 March 1932, Bundesarchiv Berlin, R 15. 06, 349, see below,
p. 151. At the meeting of the Historical Commission for the Imperial Archive on 8 March
1932, its president Hans von Haeften explained that, having completed his work at the
Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Question of Responsibilities for the World
War (see below, p. 151), Hobohm had returned to the Archive and set to work on a topic
in cultural history. He had, however, made no progress with this and had as yet done no
work for the Archive. Though no doubt academically gifted, [Hobohms] intellectual
Following the Nazi seizure of power, there were intensive efforts to

keep Rothfels in his chair in light of his emphatically nationalistic views.
Rothfels himself wanted to show through his own example that there
is such a type as the German of the will (though not of the blood) who
is ready to serve . . . Doctrinaire anti-Semitism (I continue to share the
real variety) is simply the most extreme aspect of all those things mixed
in like a murky residue with what is otherwise undoubtedly an ideal-
istic awakening.80 Rothfels, who was attacked precisely because of his
emphatically national outlook, which contradicted the Nazi stereotype
of the anti-national Jew, was a man of tremendous moral courage
prepared to fight for his academic teaching post, and his students
supported him in this. His emphasis on the state, which for him was
not merely the exponent of the blood and other facts of nature, but a
historical ordering principle and objective spirit, is clearly apparent
here. Yet his hopes for the state as a force for order were disappointed
by his dismissal in Knigsberg 1934 and pensioning off in 1935. He
was by now reconciled with Meinecke, who was deeply moved when
he read Rothfels farewell address at his Knigsberg seminar in 1934.81
Even now, however, Rothfels initially decided against emigration and
continued with a research assignment at the Prussian State Library
(Preuische Staatsbibliothek) while studying sources in the Prussian
Secret State Archive (Preuisches Geheimes Staatsarchiv).82 He also
tried to get involved in the work of the Northeast German Research
Association (Nordostdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) founded by
productivity is severely hampered by physical and mental impediments . . . and despite

the best of intentions . . . [he] is no longer capable of doing academic work. At the
request of the Commission chairman, permanent secretary a. D. Lewald, an applica-
tion to the minister of the interior to force Hobohm to take early retirement was
accepted (minutes of the meeting, R 1506/349). In fact, however, Hobohm was dis-
missed only after the Nazi seizure of power, on 30 June 1933, as a result of the law on
the restoration of the civil service of 7 April 1933.
80
Rothfels to Kaehler, 23 April 1933; see below, p. 155. On a card to Brackmann of
13 June 1933, he wrote: There can be no doubt that this spring has inflicted upon us
certain things for which we could not have been prepared, but an intervention of the
kind we have just seen also puts the real dimensions of life back in their proper place
and makes the problems that people cause one another seem smaller (Brackmann
papers, vol. 29).
81
Meinecke to Rothfels, 8 April 1934, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter
Briefwechsel, p. 145.
82
Haar, Anpassung und Versuchung, p. 79f.
Albrecht Brackmann.83 Only in 1939shortly before the outbreak of

wardid Rothfels emigrate, via Oxford, to the United States, where he
taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island from 1940, and
at the University of Chicago, a stronghold of migr Germans, from
1946.84 Rothfels, who lamented the return of old Nazis to the Federal
Republic in 1951,85 was much influenced by his time in the United
States, which caused a shift in his political valueshe came to accept
a society made up of free citizens and regulated by democracy.86
After the Second World War, Rothfels quickly resumed contact
with Meinecke. In a letter of 3 June 1946, Meinecke thanked him for
his excellent and courageous essay, in which he strongly criticized the
expulsion of Germans from the East.87 On 17 August 1947, Meinecke
praised an essay by Rothfels on Bismarck, in which the federalist and
anti-nationalistic element of Bismarcks thought [received] such pow-
erful emphasis.88 Meinecke was deeply moved by Rothfels famous
book on the German resistance movement, already published in 1948,89
in which he countered the notion of German collective guilt and the
stereotype of Germans subservient and amoral character and brought
out the ethical and Christian motives, anchored in moral decisions,
83
Rothfels to Brackmann, 5 August 1934, see below, p. 156f. On 30 July 1934
Brackmann had written to Rothfels: I have often thought about you and attempted
to change the current intolerable state of affairs. The book which Rothfels had sent
himevidently his work on Bismarck and the Eastshows just how much we need
you and your input, and I am quite confident that things will change in this connec-
tion in the not too distant future (Brackmann papers, vol. 29).
84
See Stourzh, Deutschsprachige Emigration, p. 59. Arnold Bergstrsser, Friedrich
von Hayek, Hans Morgenthau, Leo Strauss and Otto von Simson, among others, were
working at the University of Chicago at the same time as Rothfels. Within the frame-
work of a circle of migr German scholars, Rothfels again tried to forge links between
the United States and Germany and organize aid for German universities through the
dispatch of CARE packages (Conze, Rothfels, p. 344f.).
85
See Rothfels letter to the migr archivist Ernst Posner from 20 November 1951,
in which he advised him not to take the position he had been offered as director of
the Federal Archive in Koblenz. Quoted in: Peter Thomas Walther, Hans Rothfels im
amerikanischen Exil, in: Hrter/Woller (eds.), Rothfels, pp. 8396, esp. p. 95.
86
Ibid., p. 96.
87
Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 250f. He was referring to
the essay Frontiers and Mass Migrations in Eastern Central Europe, in: The Review
of Politics 8 (1946), pp. 3767.
88
Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, pp. 283285. The essay he had
in mind here was Problems of a Bismarck Biography, in: The Review of Politics 9
(1947), pp. 362380.
89
Hans Rothfels, The German Opposition to Hitler. An Appraisal, Hinsdale 1948.
of the conservative forces within the resistance and the Kreisauer

Circle of opponents to Hitler. Meinecke hoped that the book would
help turn the air bridge [Luftbrcke] [to Berlin] that currently links
Germany with the USA into a lasting bridge of stone.90 Yet it would
be wrong to see Rothfels book on the resistance movement merely
as an apologia for the Germans vis--vis the rest of the world.91 In
the context of the time, the book also had an educational role to play
in countering the view, still widespread in the Federal Republic, of
resistance as betrayal and in preventing the rise of a stab-in-the-back
legendof the kind that proved such a strain on the Weimar Republic
after the First World War.92
Rothfels praised Meineckes Secular reflections on 1848, which he
translated into English and whose publication in the Review of Politics
he saw to. . . . I have no doubt that your article will receive a great deal
of attention. It is head and shoulders above all the other examples of
German literature marking the anniversary of which I am aware . . . It
is of course a difficult anniversary to celebrate. I feel that you have
brought out marvellously the intricate nature of this tragic event. I
admire your sure hand. It will not surprise you that I see things dif-
ferently to some extent. In a long essay of my own, which will be
appearing in the December issue of the Journal of Modern History,
while referring appreciatively to your specifically German and essen-
tially social interpretation, I strongly emphasize two other aspects,
the universal character of a tragic decision made in the middle of the
century (in reality, all revolutions have failed, not only the German
one; and a turning point occurred in relations between West and East
more broadly) and, in connection with this, the dubious nature of
the national principle as such. I also wished to rebel against a theory
that traditionally sees revolutions in other countries (other than in
90
Letter from Meinecke of 22 August 1948, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter
Briefwechsel, p. 293. See also Meineckes foreword to the Rothfels Festschrift of
1951, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung,
pp. 464466.
91
For a typical example of this view, see Karl Heinz Roth, Hans Rothfels:
Geschichtspolitische Doktrinen im Wandel der Zeiten. WeimarNS-Diktatur
Bundesrepublik, in: Zeitschrift fr Geschichtswissenschaft 49 (2001), pp. 10611073,
esp. p. 1068; Berg, Holocaust, p. 120ff., 145ff.
92
See Heinrich August Winkler, Ein Historiker im Zeitalter der Extreme.
Anmerkungen zur Debatte um Hans Rothfels, in: Hrter/Woller (eds.), Rothfels,
pp. 191199, esp. pp. 194196; Horst Mller, Hans RothfelsVersuch einer
Einordnung, in: ibid., pp. 201206, esp. p. 203f.
South America) as a good thing and their failure as reflecting a flaw

in national character: very peculiar in a country that has never had a
revolution but merely a war of liberation and civil war and which in
many ways is the most conservative of all countries.93
On the issue of returning to Germany, on 14 November 1947
Rothfels wrote to Meinecke that he had turned down a professorship
at Heidelberg a few weeks earlier. It is impossible to simply give it all
up from one day to the next, as friends and colleagues seem to think
one can do. But I would be happy to come for a visit (perhaps even a
trial run) at some point.94 Rothfels went to Germany in the summer
of 1949, where his guest lectures and seminars at a number of universi-
ties were extremely well received. On 14 September 1949, he delivered
his highly regarded lecture at the first post-war conference of German
historians in Munich on Bismarck and the 19th century, in which he
highlighted the discontinuity between the Second and Third Reich.95
He subsequently took up a chair in modern history in Tbingen in
1951, though he taught again in Chicago in 1953 and 1956. Despite
being made emeritus in 1959, he held lectures and seminars in Tbin-
gen until 1969/70.
Rothfels, who could count some of the most distinguished German
historians of the following generationsuch as Waldemar Besson,
Hans Mommsen and Heinrich August Winkleramong his students,
was a key figure in the discipline of history in Germany in the first
post-war decades. It was characteristic of Rothfels that he wished to
have an impact politically. In contrast to Meinecke, he did this not
as a political journalist, through articles in newspapers and political
journals on topical issues, but by taking up historical issues which he
believed to be of great significance to key problems of contemporary
politics. He was a figure imbued with powerful moral impulses and
a deep-rooted patriotism, a man of tremendous moral courage and
exceptional personal magnetism. He represented Germany on the
international committee charged with publishing records on German
foreign policy from 1918 to 1945, was co-editor of the Documentation
93
Rothfels to Meinecke, 24 September 1948, see below, p. 170. For the article by
Rothfels mentioned here, see: 1848One Hundred Years After, in: JMH 20 (1948),
pp. 291319.
94
Rothfels to Meinecke, 14 November 1947, see below, p. 166.
95
First published in: Schicksalswege deutscher Vergangenheit. Festschrift fr S.A.
Kaehler, Dsseldorf 1950, pp. 233248.
of expulsion (Dokumentation der Vertreibung), member of the

Commission on Party Law (Parteienrechtskommission) 19551957,
bearer of the Order Pour le Mrite for Science and Arts from 1961
and chair of the German Association of Historians (Verband der
Historiker Deutschlands) from 1958 to 1962. But above all, as chair
of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institut fr Zeitgeschichte
(19591974), founded in Munich in 1949, and as de facto chief edi-
tor of the Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte (19531976), he played a
crucial role in establishing contemporary history as an independent
historical discipline in Germany.96
2. Dietrich Gerhard
Dietrich Gerhard (18961985)97 is the oldest of Meineckes students
from the Berlin years. His father was a respected lawyer and notary in
Berlin, while his mother, Adele Gerhard, who emigrated to the United
States in 1938, was a writer and friend of Meinecke.98 As a volunteer
in the First World War,99 Dietrich Gerhard finished his studies in his-
tory and economics, begun in Heidelberg in 1914, only in 1923, with
a study of The fundamentals of Barthold Georg Niebuhrs historical
and political Ideas100 in the tradition of Meineckes history of ideas.
He then edited the first two volumes of Niebuhrs correspondence in
collaboration with Danish classicist William Norvin.101 Gerhard Masur
thanked him for sending the introduction, in which he had, according
96
See for example Horst Mller/Udo Wengst (eds.), 50 Jahre Institut fr
Zeitgeschichte. Eine Bilanz, Munich 1999.
97
On Gerhard, see Rudolf Vierhaus, Dietrich Gerhard, in: HZ 242 (1986),
pp. 758762; Dietrich Gerhard, From European to American History: A Comparative
View, in: Journal of American Studies 14 (1980), pp. 2744.
98
99
In the CV attached to his application for habilitation he states that he joined
up in December 1915 and initially served in the West, then in the East, culminating
in a period in Ukraine, and was discharged as a reserve second lieutenant. Archive of
Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilitation records, vol. 1243.
100
The text, subtitled 1. Teil: Die Voraussetzungen was not published, as the pres-
sure to publish was temporarily relieved as a result of inflation. A summary of the
dissertation appeared in: Jahrbuch der Dissertationen der Philosophischen Fakultt der
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt zu Berlin, Dekanatsjahr 1922/23, Berlin 1925, pp. 295
299.
101
Die Briefe Barthold Georg Niebuhrs, ed. by Dietrich Gerhard and William Norvin,
2 vols., Berlin 19261929. The key conclusions reached in Gerhards dissertation on
Niebuhr were incorporated into the introduction to this volume.
to Masur, so powerfully portrayed the tragic inner conflict between

the vita activa and vita contemplativa in Niebuhrs life as a famous
historian of ancient history and as a diplomat during a period in which
the separation of the intellectual-artistic sphere from political life was
unknown.102
Dietrich Gerhard
From 1925 to 1927, as assistant to the editor, Gerhard was responsible

for editorial work on the HZ, mainly the literature reports and the
notes and news section, and developed a particularly close relation-
ship with Meinecke during this period.103 From 1929 to 1935, he also
regularly took on the literature and journal reports on the age of abso-
lutism for the HZ. Following a period of research in England (1927
1929) supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, he was habilitated at
the University of Berlin in 1931 with a study published as England
and the rise of Russia. The Question of the connections between the
European States and their political and economic expansion into the
102
Masur to Gerhard, 6 September 1926. Gerhard papers in the University Library
of Washington University, St. Louis, Series 02, Box 02.
103
On his editorial work for the HZ, see Meineckes letter to Gerhard of 29 May
1925 (see below, p. 181f.), and the records concerning his lively correspondence with
Oldenbourg Verlag, Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv F 5, Box 243.
non-European world in the 18th century.104 Particularly by bringing

out the importance of economic relations, this work shows that he had
freed himself from the influence of Meineckes history of ideas.
Though a Protestant, from 1933 on any further career development
in Germany was rendered impossible on account of his half-Jewish
background. His authority to teach was withdrawn and the allowance
he had received hitherto cancelled as early as 24 September 1933. The
withdrawal of his authority to teach was initially rescinded because
of his front-line service on 10 January 1934, but on 29th January the
same year he was informed that there were no plans to continue paying
the allowance. Nonetheless, he received one further teaching payment
in 1934.105 Before he had even been finally dismissed, Gerhard had
accepted an invitation to take up a visiting professorship at Harvard
in 1935/36, which led to permanent emigration. From 1936 to 1965,
he enjoyed great academic success, first as assistant professor, and later
professor of history, at Washington University in St. Louis.
In a twelve-page, hand-written letter of 30th August 1948,106 he told
Meinecke, whom he had seen during the latters visit to Harvard in
1936, about his scholarly development in the intervening period and
his research plans. Building on Otto Hintzes work in comparative
constitutional history, he saw his lifes work as a comparative constitu-
tional and social history of Europe from the High Middle Ages to the
19th century. He was more interested in emphasizing constant factors
than changes, and wished to focus attention on the common features
of Europes institutions and social forces rather than national differ-
ences. The forces driving his interest in this topic were his personal
experiences in the United States, the upheavals of the time, during
which the old European order had been largely destroyed, and the tasks
with which he was confronted as a teacher of European history in the
104
England und der Aufstieg Rulands. Zur Frage des Zusammenhangs der euro-
pischen Staaten und ihres Ausgreifens in die auereuropische Welt in Politik und
Wirtschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich/Berlin 1933. In HZ 150 (1934), pp. 339344,
Gerhards work, an early study in the history of globalization, was discussed in great
depth and in highly positive terms by Adolf Hasenclever. The topic of his trial lecture
for habilitation was Die englische Navigationsgesetzgebung von 1650/1660 mit ihren
Auswirkungen. Das Verhltnis von Staat und Wirtschaft beim Aufstieg Englands. His
inaugural lecture dealt with Hauptprobleme einer Geschichte des britischen Empire
(habilitation files, vol. 1245).
105
Personal files of Dietrich Gerhard in the archive of Humboldt University, Berlin,
vol. 59.
106
See below, pp. 188197.
United States. Dietrich Gerhard presented his conception in an essay

on Regionalism and the corporative system as a fundamental theme
of European history in a volume of the HZ dedicated to Meinecke on
the occasion of his 90th birthday;107 he elaborated it, at least to some
extent, in his work Old Europe. A Study in Continuity, 10001800108
and other essays, mainly on the corporative system, the role of the
cities within the old European order and office-bearers between royal
power and the estates.109 The key hallmarks of his ideas are a new
periodization of European history, in which the period from the 11th
century to the late 18th century is regarded as a unity,110 a universal
perspective that constantly strives to include the United States and
Russia alongside the Western and Central European countries, and his
masterful use of historical comparison.
As early as 1948, Gerhard made it clear to Meinecke111 that he would
be happy to go to Germany for a visiting lectureship for a summer
or longer. Following visiting professorships in Mnster in 1950 and
Cologne in 1951 and 1954, without giving up his position in St. Louis,
he took up a professorship in American Studies at the University of
Cologne from 1955 to 1961, and was head of the modern history
division of the Max Planck Institute of History in Gttingen from
1961 to 1967. He was one of the co-founders of the German Society
for American Studies (Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Amerikastudien).
Gerhard taught European history in America and American his-
tory in Cologne and also wrote a number of essaysfor example on
Tocqueville, Turner and his thesis of the frontier, the development
of American society, and the American university and education sys-
tem in comparison with its European counterpart.112 In contrast to
107
Regionalismus und stndisches Wesen als ein Grundthema europischer
Geschichte, in: HZ 174 (1952), pp. 307337. Reprinted in: Dietrich Gerhard, Alte
und Neue Welt in vergleichender Geschichtsbetrachtung, Gttingen 1962, pp. 1339.
108
New York 1981. A German edition appeared under the misleading title: Das
Abendland 8001800. Ursprung und Gegenbild unserer Zeit, Freiburg/Wrzburg
1985.
109
Gerhards most important essays on this topic appear in the essay collection
mentioned above: Alte und Neue Welt and in the volume Gesammelte Aufstze,
Gttingen 1977.
110
Dietrich Gerhard, Zum Problem der Periodisierung der europischen
Geschichte, in: Gerhard, Alte und Neue Welt, pp. 4056.
111
Letter from Gerhard to Meinecke of 30 August 1948, see below, p. 195f.
112
The most important of these were published in the two essay collections from
1962 and 1977 mentioned above.
Rothfels, whose historical writings essentially remained geared towards

German history and the discipline of history in Germany, in Gerhards
case his encounter with the United States reinforced already existing
tendencies towards universal and comparative history and led him to
engage intensively with research outside of Germany.
3. Gerhard Masur
113
Gerhard Masur (19011975) grew up in an affluent middle class
familyhis father was a lawyer with a successful practiceof Jewish
descent in Berlin. Both his parents had been baptized in 1900 and
were Protestants with a highly secular outlook. Masur himself later
converted to Catholicism.
Masur was an elegant figure, well liked by women, of a marked
artistic inclination. Politically, he started out on the extreme right; he
was a member of a volunteer corps and took part in the Kapp Putsch,
intended to bring down the Weimar Republic. Subsequent to the rise
of Stresemann, he dropped his ultra-conservative stance and opposi-
tion to the Weimar Republic, which he initially viewed as a form of
mob rule, shifted allegiance to the German Peoples Party (Deutsche
Volkspartei) and supported Stresemanns Locarno policy.114
After it had proved impossible to implement his original plan, to
obtain a doctorate on Schopenhauers relationship to history under
Ernst Troeltsch,115 at Meineckes suggestion he examined Rankes
concept of world history in his doctoral thesis.116 He was deeply dis-
appointed by the rejection he encountered, despite being a baptized
Jew with a decidedly national outlook, when he attempted to achieve
habilitation at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He expressed this
in a deeply moving letter to Meinecke: Love that withers as a result
of disappointments is not real love. So I cannot say to this Germany
that I seek to win over, If I love you, then why does this matter to
you?, but I can say: I wont leave you. Then you would bless me.117
113
On Masur, see: Walter Bumann, Gerhard Masur (19011975), in: HZ 223
(1976), p. 523f.; Masur, Das ungewisse Herz, and the Erinnerungen an Gerhard
Masur. Wegweiser zu seinem Werk by Wilmont Haacke which appear at the begin-
ning of this book.
114
See Masur, Das ungewisse Herz, esp. pp. 6772, 111.
115
Ibid., p. 85.
116
Gerhard Masur, Rankes Begriff der Weltgeschichte, Beiheft 6 of the HZ, Munich/
Berlin 1926.
117
Masur to Meinecke, 20 April 1927, see below, p. 210.
Gerhard Masur
The post-doctoral thesis finally accepted by the University of Berlin in

1930, after his plans to habilitate at other universities had failed, exam-
ined the development of the conservative political thinker Friedrich
Julius Stahl, an assimilated Jew, up to 1840.118 Methodologically he
followed in the footsteps of his teacher Meinecke, who described him
as an individual exhibiting a high level of intellectual development
at a remarkably early stage in his detailed, extremely positive expert
reference for the faculty.119
Meinecke also took him on as contributor to the HZ, in which
he wrote reports on general literature and, from time to time, on
the period from 1815 to 1871. In addition, the Archive for Cultural
History (Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte) employed him to write reports
on works in the philosophy of history. Even in his student days, Masur
118
Gerhard Masur, Friedrich Julius Stahl, Geschichte seines Lebens. Aufstieg und
Entfaltung 18021840, Berlin 1930. His trial lecture dealt with Die Entstehung
der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirchenverfassung whrend des 18. Jahrhunderts in
Deutschland. His inaugural lecture was on Die Bedeutung des Reichsgedankens
fr das deutsche Leben im Zeitalter Friedrichs des Groen und der franzsischen
Revolution.
119
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilitation records,
vol. 1244.
had begun to formulate the goal of writing an intellectual history of

Europe.120
The Nazi seizure of power put an abrupt end to these dreams. In
February 1934, in order to meet the conditions of the scholarship from
the Rockefeller Foundation for which he had applied but which had
not yet been awarded, Masur had declared that he had managed to
increase his teaching since 1933 and that the publication of his aca-
demic work was guaranteed.121 However, the grant from the Prussian
state, which he had received since 1 April 1925 on Meineckes rec-
ommendation, was not extended beyond the 31 March 1935. Some
weeks after being asked, on 16 October 1935, to indicate whether and
which of his grandparents were racially of wholly Jewish descent
and which [had belonged to] the Jewish religious community he was
informed that he had been suspended; his teaching days were over.122
In 1935/36, Masur hastily emigrated via Switzerland to Bogot in
Columbia. There, from 1936 to 1938, he worked as an adviser to the
education ministry and then as professor. In 1946 he moved to the
United States, where, interspersed with numerous visiting professor-
ships, he taught at Sweet Briar College, an exclusive girls college cater-
ing chiefly to the upper classes of the American South, until being
made emeritus in 1966. One fruit of his activities in Columbia was
a major biography of Simn Bolivar, state founder and liberator of
South America from colonial rule.123
He resumed contact with Meinecke, whom he kept constantly
updated on his activities in Columbia,124 after the end of the war.125
On 18 August 1948, Masur informed his teacher that he would shortly
be sending him his biography of Bolivar and that he had received, via
Rothfels, an inquiry from the University of Heidelberg as to whether
he would accept the offer of a chair in modern history. Obviously one
cannot simply answer yes or no to such a question; Ive heard nothing
120
See Gerhard Masur, Propheten von gestern. Zur europischen Kultur 18901914,
Frankfurt a. M. 1965, p. 5.
121
Masur to Fehling, see below pp. 212214.
122
Personal files of Gerhard Masur in the archive of Humboldt University, Berlin,
vol. 86.
123
Gerhard Masur, Simn Bolivar, Albuquerque 1948. In German translation:
Simn Bolivar und die Befreiung Sdamerikas, Constance 1949.
124
See the three long hectographed reports that he sent to Meinecke on 28 July
1936, 30 December 1936 and 2 December 1937. Meinecke papers, no. 161.
125
Masur to Meinecke, 3 January 1947, see below, p. 215f.
more since.126 Two months later he thanked Meinecke for sending

him his text on Ranke and Burckhardt, which he said displayed his
old mastery in bringing out contrasts and relationships. I myself,
though a great admirer of Ranke, have long considered myself a stu-
127
dent of and successor to . . . Burckhardt.
Finally, Masur was closely associated with the Free University (FU)
of Berlin, where he held several visiting professorships and which
made him emeritus in 1956 and remunerated him accordingly.128
When he was offered the opportunity to take over from Rothfels,
made emeritus in 1959, in Tbingen, or to take up a professorship
at the FU in Berlin,129 he turned down both offers. His key reason for
doing so, he indicated to Rothfels, was that he was unwilling to give up
his American citizenship, while the constant shuttling back and forth
between Germany and the United States, in which Dietrich Gerhard,
political scientist Ernst Fraenkel and previously Rothfels too had been
forced to engage in order to retain their American citizenship, repre-
sented a tremendous physical, financial and nervous strain130 which
he was unwilling to accept. In his memoirs he wrote with reference
to his rejection of these appointments that the trench of blood sur-
rounding Germany since 1933 [had been] too wide and deep . . . to leap
over, that he did not want to be disloyal to his new adoptive country,
which had taken him in with such magnanimity, and that he had,
moreover, decided to marry his longstanding American partner.131 We
might add that, had he taken up a professorship in West Germany, he
would have lost his income as emeritus in Berlin.
In the last years of his life, Masur devoted himself mainly to intel-
lectual and cultural history. This is evident in his study, illustrated
through examination of individual actors, of the various strands of
European intellectual life in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is
also apparent in his history of imperial Berlin, whose transformation
126
Masur to Meinecke, 18 August 1948, see below, p. 220.
127
Masur to Meinecke, 11 October 1948, see below, p. 220f.
128
See below, pp. 225228. On the question of restitution for those members of the
civil service forced out by the Nazis, see also Winfried Schulze, Refugee Historians, p.
212f. As assistant to Hans Herzfeld, I myself remember having to compile material
for my teachers testimonials. These backed up the case of lecturers likely to have been
appointed professors in the absence of Nazi rule and thus to have enjoyed civil servant
status, entitling them to pension payments.
129
130
Masur to Rothfels, 12 February 1961, see below, pp. 231-233.
131
Masur, Das ungewisse Herz, p. 313.
from a residential and garrison town into one of the intellectual and
culture hubs of the Western world he described with profound love
for the city of his birth, and an anthology, Essays and lectures on
European intellectual history.132 According to Hans Herzfeld, Masur
may have held fast to the methods in the history of ideas developed
by Meinecke because, as an migr, he was relatively insulated from
revisionist tendencies within the discipline of history in Germany
since 1945.133 Masur was impressive not only as a scholar and lively
academic teacher, but also as a distinguished man of the world with a
fascinating, cultured personality.
4. Hajo Holborn
Of all Meineckes migr students, Hajo Holborn (19021969) had the
most meteoric rise.134 Son of the leading physicist Ludwig Holborn,
director of the Department of Heat and Pressure of the Imperial Physical-
Technological Institute (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt), he
grew up in Berlin in an academic environment and was considered
something of a Wunderkind while still a student. He emigrated later
because of his marriage to Annemarie Holborn, ne Bettmann, daugh-
ter of a Jewish professor of medicine with her own doctorate. She was
his closest collaborator and translator into German of his later texts
written in English. Holborn was also a convinced supporter of the
Weimar Republic.
132
Gerhard Masur, Prophets of Yesterday: Studies in European Culture, 18901914,
New York 1961. In German translation: Propheten von gestern. Zur europischen
Kultur 18901914; Masur, Imperial Berlin, New York 1970. In German translation:
Das Kaiserliche Berlin, Munich/Vienna/Zurich 1971. He dedicated this latter book
to his Friends at the Free University of Berlin; Masur, Geschehen und Geschichte.
Aufstze und Vortrge zur europischen Geistesgeschichte, Berlin 1971. Among other
things, this volume includes the essay Max Weber und Friedrich Meinecke in ihrem
Verhltnis zur politischen Macht, pp. 114134.
133
Foreword by Hans Herzfeld, dated August 1971, to the volume Geschehen und
Geschichte, by Masur, published by the Historische Kommission zu Berlin, p. 5.
134
On Holborn, see: Bernd Faulenbach, Hajo Holborn, in: Deutsche Historiker,
vol. 7, ed. by Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Gttingen 1982, pp. 114132; Hajo Holborn,
Inter Nationes Prize 1969, Bonn 1969. In German: Inter Nationes Preis, Bonn-Bad
Godesberg 1969, and the articles on Holborn by Felix Gilbert, Dietrich Gerhard, Hans
Kohn, John L. Snell and Leonard Krieger in issues 1 and 2, dedicated to Holborn, of
the 3rd 1970 volume of the journal Central European History, co-founded by Holborn
in 1968. This also contains a bibliography of Holborns writings and a list of doctoral
dissertations supervised by him.
Hajo Holborn
Holborn obtained his doctorate in Berlin in 1924 with a study later pub-
lished under the title Germany and Turkey (18781890).135 This, as
well as his study of the Radowitz mission,136 emphasized Bismarcks
policy of peace in the 1870s and 1880s and showed Holborns mas-
tery of the historical craft. These works do not, however, go much
beyond the conventional diplomatic history typical of the period since
the opening of the foreign ministry records. In contrast, his biogra-
phy of Ulrich von Hutten, prompted by Protestant church historian
Karl Holls pioneering research on Luther, with which he was habili-
tated with Meineckes help in Heidelberg in 1926, already points to
his profound insight into political, religious and intellectual develop-
ments in Germany in the 16th century and hints at his future status
as great writer of history.137 In the tradition of Meinecke, he makes
connections between the development of Huttens personality and the
135
Deutschland und die Trkei 18781890, Berlin 1926.
136
Hajo Holborn, Bismarcks Europische Politik zu Beginn der siebziger Jahre und
die Mission Radowitz. Mit ungedruckten Urkunden aus dem Politischen Archiv des
Auswrtigen Amtes und dem Nachla des Botschafters von Radowitz, Berlin 1925. In
addition, Holborn also edited Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des
Botschafters Joseph Maria von Radowitz, 2 vols., (Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig 1925) and
the collection Briefe aus Ostasien by Radowitz (Stuttgart 1926).
137
Hajo Holborn, Ulrich von Hutten, Leipzig 1929. Dedicated to Friedrich Meinecke
with gratitude and admiration. Revised and expanded for the English edition: Ulrich
von Hutten and the Reformation, New Haven 1937.
ideas of the time, humanism, an embryonic national consciousness,

Protestantism and Huttens social status as a knight. Holborn places
particular emphasis on the autonomy of humanism as a movement
distinct from the Reformation.138
In 1929, Holborn was charged by the Imperial Historical Commission
with writing an account of the origin of the Weimar imperial consti-
tution, a work whose completion was impeded by his emigration; his
research was intensively supported by Meinecke.139 In 1931 he accepted
a temporary chair, financed by the American Carnegie Foundation,
in history and international relations at the German College for the
Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule fr Politik) while also teach-
ing, following his Umhabilitation (transfer of authority to teach to a
new institution) in 1932,140 as a lecturer at the University of Berlin.
Politically, and within the discipline of history, Holborn advocated
left-wing, anti-authoritarian and emphatically pro-republican posi-
tions. In his essay Protestantism and the history of political ideas
(Protestantismus und politische Ideengeschichte), he sharply rejected
138
His later essay The Social Basis of the German Reformation in: Church History
5 (1936), pp. 330339, reprinted in Holborn, History and the Humanities, Garden
City, New York 1972, pp. 168178, went even further in bringing out the social bases
of the Reformation.
139
See Meineckes letter to Holborn of 2 February 1930, below, pp. 248250.
140
Holborns Umhabilitation in Berlin had not gone as smoothly as Hermann
Oncken, who was in charge of it, had wished. As normally happens in German univer-
sities in cases of Umhabilitation, Oncken applied to have Holborn exempted from the
trial lecture and subsequent colloquium and deliver only the public lecture. Despite
the support of Meinecke and Karl Sthlin, historian of Russia, this was rejected by a
majority of the faculty. Fritz Hartung was particularly firm in his opposition. In his
expert opinion on Holborns writings, he had argued that depth and originality were
not Holborns strengths. I cannot see an intellectual development, a wrestling with
problems, in Holborns work. Meinecke thought Hartungs vote unjust. Holborn
finally delivered a trial lecture on The Involvement of the German States and the
Imperial Parliament in the execution of foreign policy under Bismarck and Wilhelm
II and an inaugural lecture on Politics and the Discipline of History (archive of
Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilitation records, vol. 1246).
Given that most university teachers were very cool towards the Weimar Republic,
in the early 1930s Holborn had only meagre prospects of being put forward by a
philosophy faculty for appointment to a chair. In a letter of 25 April 1932, Kaehler
told Rothfels of a conversation with the Prussian minister for education and cultural
affairs Adolf Grimme and Werner Richter, the head of the section for university poli-
cies and appointment issues within the ministry, in which the minister declared that
not just any imposition at all but especially that of Herr Holborn in Halle would
inspire the establishment of a united front from the rector down to the youngest
Nazi student and that on account of an enquiry concerning Holborn the faculty had
expressly rejected him (Kaehler papers, letter 176).
the identification of Luthers theology with political conservatism and

the authoritarian state as well as the thesis of an unbroken tradition
extending from Luther to Bismarck.141 Part of what Holborn was trying
to do here was liberate the Protestant religion and churches from their
close association with monarchical and conservative ideas in order to
strengthen the development of democracy. His clear understanding
of the impending dangers is apparent in a lecture, published shortly
before Hitlers seizure of power, on the The Weimar imperial consti-
tution and academic freedom, in which he underlined the connection
between the mind and the state and warned against the illusion that
academic freedom could be maintained in an authoritarian polity that
had ceased to be a state based on the rule of law and the will of the
people.142 Holborn, who sought throughout his life to achieve a public
impact, would in all probability have been active in party politics and
in the parliament, had democracy in Germany lasted. Because of his
Jewish wife and because there was no longer any prospect of career
advancement, in 1933 he decided to emigrate, via Great Britain, to the
United States.
There, from 1934 until his death in 1969, with a number of inter-
ruptions, he worked at the famous Yale University, where he rose from
the post of assistant professor to holder of a prestigious endowed pro-
fessorship. Meinecke, a godfather of Holborns son, wrote to him on
12 June 1934: I believe you have the mental vigour to cope with all
the internal and external demands of your new life, and the sliver, and
legacy, of German scholarship that you are transplanting will no doubt
bear fruit over there. Above all, your heart will remain German, and it
is one of the components of the German character to weave intellectual
threads between the various nations and cultures.143 Initially, Holborn
obviously believed that his emigration would be no more than tempo-
rary, and wrote to Dietrich Gerhard in September 1933, shortly before
141
Hajo Holborn, Protestantismus und politische Ideengeschichte. Kritische
Bemerkungen aus Anla des Buches von Otto Westphal: Feinde Bismarcks, in: HZ
144 (1931), pp. 1530.
142
Hajo Holborn, Weimarer Reichsverfassung und Freiheit der Wissenschaft, Leipzig
1933, esp. p. 5f., 26ff. This lecture was given by Holborn on 25 October 1932 at the
conference of the Weimar Circle of German university teachers; in it, Holborn not
only rejects a one-party state of a communist or fascist hue, but also Papens concept
of a return to the authoritarian state. The afterword is dated January 1933.
143
leaving Germany, that he saw this as a kind of educational and study

trip, one that will eventually bring us back home again.144
In a long letter to Meinecke of 7 February 1935, Holborn described
in detail the difficulties of settling in to a new environment. But he
also underscored the migr German colleagues readiness to help
one another and emphasized that he had been gratified to find that
the Americans, with the rarest of exceptions, were entirely approving
about the growing numbers of German migrs. But above all, the
letter shows how intensively he was coming to terms with his host
country. . . . the country is going through a crisis on a scale certainly
comparable to that in which Europe finds itself. However, the mental
attitude, and the external resources, are significantly different, and the
results will probably be fundamentally different as well. It is astonishing
to see what has become of the self-confident and optimistic Americans
over the last five years. Above all, of course, the young peoples faith
in traditions has been radically shaken. It is interesting to see that the
crisis has made the people here far more socially-minded and liberal.
They have become far more open and unprejudiced than they used to
be. Things European have always been studied, but what was formerly
more a matter of the play of curiosity is now becoming the medium of
a more serious comparison. Under these circumstances, the activities
of the Germans here may even prove truly productive.145
With the United States entry into the war, interest in Germany
and especially in Europe as a whole then increased rapidly, acceler-
ating the process of Holborns Americanization.146 In 1943, Holborn
was recruited to the Research and Analysis branch of the Office
of Strategic Studies (OSS), predecessor to the CIA, founded in 1941
by order of President Roosevelt. He worked as a special assis-
tant to the director of the branch, well-know diplomatic historian
William Langer, and was responsible mainly for contact with the War
Departments Civil Affairs Division, headed by John H. Hilldring. This
division later helped plan the occupation regime. Other German mi-
grs such as Felix Gilbert, the political scientists and social theorists
Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, John Herz and Otto Kirchheimer
and art historian Richard Krautheimer, as well as a number of younger
144
See below, p. 255.
145
See below, p. 259.
146
See Otto Pflanze, The Americanisation of Hajo Holborn, in: Lehmann/Sheehan
(eds.), An Interrupted Past, pp. 170179.
American historians such as Carl Schorske, Gordon A. Craig, Leonard

Krieger, Franklin L. Ford and H. Stuart Hughes, were employed in
the research division of the OSSall scholars who later made key
contributions to German and European history.147 The exact nature
of the influence exercised by Hajo Holborn, who produced a book
on American Military Government. Its Organization and Policies in
1947,148 on American occupation policy in Germany would require
thorough examination of the sources and is beyond the scope of the
present study. In any event, even after he had returned to his teaching
post at Yale from 1946 to 1948, and on numerous subsequent occa-
sions, Holborn was called in by the State Department to advise on
issues relating to US policy on Germany. In a report on Germany of
January 1948, for example, he criticized the lack of progress in democ-
ratizing Germany, the central aim of American policy, while at the
same time calling for unification of the Western zones as a means of
improving the desperate economic situation.149
Holborn, who had been visited by Meinecke at Yale in 1936, resumed
contact with him just a few months after the end of the war. On 27
September 1945, he reminded Meinecke that in 1936 and 1938 they
had debated the question of whether the Third Reich represented an
epoch or merely a historical episode: There is no doubt left that it was
merely an episode, but an episode which has brought on a fundamen-
tally new period in world history. This is true not only with regard to
147
See Barry M. Katz, German Historians in the Office of Strategic Services, in:
Lehmann/Sheehan (eds.), An Interrupted Past, pp. 136139; Erich J. C. Hahn, Hajo
Holborn: Bericht zur Deutschen Frage. Beobachtungen und Empfehlungen vom
Herbst 1947, in: VfZ 35 (1987), pp. 135166, esp. 137142.
148
Published Washington 1947.
149
See the document published by Hahn entitled Einige Beobachtungen und poli-
tische Empfehlungen zum Deutschen Problem, in: VfZ 35 (1987), pp. 146166. In
his laudatio marking Holborns receipt of the Inter Nationes Prize of 1969, the influ-
ential CDU deputy Kurt Birrenbach claimedthough without citing evidencethat
Holborn influenced the United States turn towards a positive Germany policy evident
in Secretary of State James E. Byrnes keynote speech on 6 September 1946. He also
stated that Holborn had advised the American supreme commander in Germany,
General Clay, the first High Commissioner of the United States in Germany John
J. McCloy, Secretary of State Herter and President Kennedy on US policies on the
occupation and Germany. Holborn, Inter Nationes Preis 1969, pp. 916, esp. 12f.; the
volume published on the occasion of Holborns receipt of the Inter Nationes Prize
contains a number of Holborns essays on foreign policy issues after 1945 in German
translation. Holborn continued to write the annual reports on Germany for the years
1952 to 1963 and 1965 to 1967 in the Americana Annual (New York).
Germany, but to practically any country the world over.150 He and a

number of others would do everything within their power to improve
Meineckes situation. But he soon made it clear that there were limits
to his commitment to Germany and the discipline of history in that
country. On 23 September 1946, he wrote to Meinecke: In general I
would love nothing better than to help German historians to rebuild
historical studies in Germany and you may call on me any time you
think I could be of help . . . However, I would not consider accepting
an appointment in a German university. Our children are American
children. They have spent all their formative years in this country and
if we go back to Germany they would be exiles. Knowing what that
means, we certainly would not want them to go through that experi-
ence unnecessarily. Moreover, we have not become American citizens
by name only. We are deeply devoted to the country of our adoption.
We have been happy here after getting through the first years of dif-
ficult adjustment. I have been particularly lucky in attracting a large
number of unusually good students. Some of them are already teach-
ing in various places, others, delayed by the War, will soon start their
academic careers. I do not feel that I could leave them. I believe it to
be my function in life to finish the task of helping to educate and train
a new generation of college teachers of European history in this coun-
try and I feel that by doing this I shall contribute at least indirectly to
maintaining or rebuilding German historical research. On the other
hand, he expressed a willingness to visit Germany regularly and to
publish and teach there as far as possible.151
It is not clear when Holborn gave up hope of writing the account
of the origin of the Weimar constitution that he had taken on, the
working materials for which he had brought with him to America.
In his letter of 7 February 1935, he could still write to Meinecke that
it was a matter of urgent importance to him to complete the work
in its entirety and he would try to do everything he could to that
150
See below, p 263. For an attempt to flesh out this basic idea, see Holborns
The Political Collapse of Europe, New York 1951, published in German as Der
Zusammenbruch des Europischen Staatensystems, Stuttgart 1954.
151
See below, p 266f. In a letter from 19 March 1946, Meinecke had asked Holborn
whether he generally thought it possible that migrs who have acquired American
citizenship would now take up a chair at a German university (Meinecke Werke,
vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 247).
end.152 After the war, on 23 September 1946, he told Meinecke that he

wished to write a social and constitutional history of Germany, as he
did not believe that a mere history of the origin of the Weimar con-
stitution would be widely read in the Anglo-Saxon world. Of course,
he explained, he would use the near-complete, in some ways unique
source materials that he had accumulated for the 19171920 period.
For the German edition of his book, he would be happy to publish
some of the documents.153 He did not, however, take up Meineckes
suggestion that he expand the planned documentary appendix of the
German edition into a proper documentary publication dealing spe-
cifically with the years 1917ff. and the origin of the Weimar consti-
tution and have it published by the Berlin Academy of Sciences,154
and neither did he provide the later German edition of his History of
Modern Germany with a documentary appendix.155
As a historian, Holborn grappled intellectually with Meinecke both
directly and indirectly after 1945. He praised Meineckes lecture on
1848 on account of its inspired linkage of the social and political with
the realm of intellectual history. Further, it is by no means merely
a revision of your earlier views, but also represents a higher-level
point of observation. The same applies to your essay on Ranke and
Burckhardt. Holborn, who saw himself in the tradition of Ranke,156
152
See below, p. 260f. Meinecke clearly thought at first that Holborn, through a
relatio ex actis destined for the archive rather than publication, ought to safeguard all
the material collected for the future and subject it to an initial critical organization. A
similar approach should be taken to the materials on the Anti-Socialist Law collected
by Dr. Alfred Schulz (Meinecke to Brackmann, 9 September 1933, Brackmann papers,
vol. 21). In neither case was a compendium of this kind produced.
153
See below, p. 266.
154
Meinecke to Holborn, 1 December 1946, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter
Briefwechsel, p. 263.
155
For some of the results of Holborns research on the Weimar constitution,
alongside the lecture mentioned in fn. 142, see his essays: La Formation de la
Constitution de Weimar, problme de politique extrieure, in: Dotation Carnegie
pour la paix internationale. Division des relations internationals et de leducation,
Bulletin No. 6, Paris 1931; Verfassung und Verwaltung der deutschen Republik.
Ein Verfassungsentwurf Friedrich Meineckes aus dem Jahr 1918, in: HZ 147
(1932), pp. 117128; Historische Voraussetzungen der Weimarer Verfassung und
ihrer Reform, in: Reichsverwaltungsblatt 53, 19 December 1932, pp. 921924; Die
geschichtlichen Grundlagen der deutschen Verfassungspolitik und Reichsreform, in:
Deutsche Juristenzeitung 38, No. 1, 1 January 1933, pp. 38; The Influence of the
American Constitution on the Weimar Constitution, in: Conyers Read (ed.), The
Constitution Reconsidered, New York 1938, pp. 285295.
156
Hajo Holborn, Deutsche Geschichte in der Neuzeit, vol. 1: Das Zeitalter der
Reformation und des Absolutismus, Stuttgart 1960, p. XII.
initially feared that influenced by the present disaster, the essay

would too simply shift the focus of our affections towards Basle. His
concerns had however been entirely unjustified and Meinecke had
succeeded in garnering new elements from the work of both histo-
rians in light of a new historical perspective. He had shown both
essays to some of his best American students, all of whom had been
very enthusiastic.157 The Berliners brave attitude during the blockade
was, he stated, arousing much admiration in America. He also writes
that Meineckes role as first rector of the Free University was exciting
much admiration among professors in the United States, just as the
Free University itself is the object of much interest in America.158
But his great liking and respect for Meinecke did not prevent Hol-
born from subjecting Meineckes short essay Did Germany go down
the wrong historical path?, which appeared in the journal Der Monat
in October 1949, an essay in which he partially retreated from his cri-
tique of German history,159 to very thorough and critical examination.
If, Holborn argued, one considered Meineckes essay in isolation and
forgot his critical comments on German history made elsewhere, one
would gain the impression that, in essence, he can see no more than
tragic mishaps in German history and very few genuinely mistaken
paths. He also felt that Meinecke portrayed the course of German
history from 1648 . . . as more or less inevitable. With reference to
Ranke, Holborn underlined the free moral decision of the individual
person or People and criticized the power politics of the Bismarckian
Empire, the constitutionally detached position of the Prussian-German
army and the failure of genuine liberalization and democratization.
He also viewed Meineckes distinction between cultural and politi-
cal values as still influenced chiefly by the theory of those liberals,
who attempt to justify philosophically their resigned renunciation of
efforts to establish political freedom in favour of power-political unity
by seeking to interpret the world of politics as a realm of tragic neces-
sity. In contrast, philosophy, world-view, science and art are seen as the
sphere of genuine freedom. Holborn was concerned with the respon-
sibility of power, the recognition of the unity of life and the states duty
157
Holborn to Meinecke, 30 October 1948, see below, p. 268.
158
Ibid. and letter from Holborn to Meinecke of 9 April 1949, see below, p. 269.
159
Friedrich Meinecke, Irrwege in unserer Geschichte?, in: Der Monat 2, issue 13,
October 1949, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 4: Zur Theorie und Philosophie der
Geschichte, pp. 205211.
to achieve ethical goals. A radical historical critique was one of the

most urgent national duties in Germany, a major contribution to the
domestic freedom and unity of the German People and to the neces-
sary development of a new pan-European consciousness.160
Holborns famous essay German Idealism in the Light of Social
History (Der deutsche Idealismus in sozialgeschichtlicher Beleuch-
tung), which appeared in a 1952 volume of the HZ dedicated to
Meinecke, also contains a quite fundamental, if implicit, critique
of Meineckes specific version of intellectual history.161 It analyzes
German idealism, which Holborn believed had brought about a split
with the pan-European tradition of natural law, as the creation of a
small, specific stratum of the educational aristocracy, made up mainly
of civil servants. For him, idealism had no real understanding of the
importance of religion and the churches in the integration of society
and, because it failed to become a national creation of all Germans,
deepened Germanys class divide. Moreover, Holborn felt, the empha-
sis on the significance of power and the state within idealism, as well
as the German culture of introspection (Innerlichkeit), had diverted
attention away from the crucial issue of abolishing the traditional
authoritarian state.
This process of grappling with Meinecke in the critique of the
Irrwege and the essay of 1952 already features some of the basic
ideas found in Holborns major three-volume modern history of
Germany,162 for decades the basis for the study of German history in
the United States. Rather than abandoning Meineckes intellectual his-
tory, Holborn developed further his teachers conceptual apparatus,
linking intellectual history closely with both political and social his-
tory; at the same time, from a broader perspective, he implicitly pro-
vided a critical comparison of developments in Germany with parallel
developments in Western Europe and the United States. His main aim
160
Hajo Holborn, Irrwege in unserer Geschichte? Zwei auslndische Historiker
kommentieren Friedrich Meineckes Aufsatz, in: Der Monat 2, issue 17 (1950),
pp. 531535. British historian Geoffrey Barraclough provided the second major cri-
tique, ibid., pp. 535538.
161
HZ 174 (1952), pp. 359384. In English in: Holborn, Germany and Europe:
Historical Essays, Garden City, New York 1970, pp. 132. The book is dedicated to
Dietrich Gerhard and Felix Gilbert.
162
The work appeared under the title History of Modern Germany in three vol-
umes, New York 1959, 1964, 1969. The first volume of the German edition, translated
by his wife, was published in Stuttgart (1960), vols. 2 and 3 in Munich (1970 and
1971).
here was to achieve a more in-depth analysis of the roots of National

Socialism.
It is hard to overstate Holborns significance to the development
of German and Central European history as a discipline in its own
right in the United States. With his numerous students, among
them Henry Cord Meyer, Leonard Krieger, Otto Pflanze, Theodore
S. Hamerow, Harold Jackson Gordon Jr., Arno J. Mayer, Richard N.
Hunt, Herman Lebovics and Charles E. McClelland,163 he became the
doyen of American historians of Germany. In 1967 he was elected
as the first foreign-born President of the American Historical Asso-
ciation. His core ideathe responsibility of powerbecame the title
of the 1967 Festschrift dedicated to him.164 His life was characterized
by a close connection between academic work and his efficacy as a
political advisor, as well as his view of the historian as educator of the
nation, a figure who ought to use his historical knowledge to benefit
the present.
Both intermediary and bridge-builder, he played a key role in
German-American relations, as interpreter of German history in the
United States, advisor to the US government as it built a military
administration in occupied Germany then transformed it into a civil-
ian authority, interpreter of German politics in America and American
politics in West Germany and, from 1960, as director of the American
Council on Germany. It thus seems symbolic that Holborn, who was
awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star by West Germany and an
honorary doctorate by the Free University of Berlin in 1967, became
the first recipient, as he sat in his wheelchair, of the Inter Nationes
Prize for international understanding in a deeply moving ceremony on
19 June 1969, shortly before his death in the early hours of 20 June.
163
List of the students and the topics of their doctoral dissertations, in: Central
European History 3 (1970), pp. 187191.
164
Leonard Krieger and Fritz Stern (eds.), The Responsibility of Power. Historical
Essays in Honor of Hajo Holborn, New York 1967. In his speech of thanks when accept-
ing the Inter Nationes Prize in 1969, Holborn confirmed that the title of the Festschrift
had captured his central concern, to examine the relationship between power and
justice and the responsibility associated with power. Erwiderung und Dank von
Prof. Holborn bei der Verleihung des Inter Nationes Preises 1969, pp. 2022.
5. Felix Gilbert
Felix Gilbert (19051991),165 a close friend of Hajo Holborn, came
from an upper middle class family of Jewish origin, one with particu-
larly deep roots in German culture that had long since converted to
Christianity. His father was English. Through his mother, a grand-
daughter of the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, he was related
to Moses Mendelssohn as well as the Oppenheims, the renowned bank-
ing dynasty. As he writes, he found his way to history because he grew
up in a world of politics.166 Disillusioned by the war, he became a
Social Democrat voter following the Revolution. His studies from 1923
onwards in Heidelberg, Munich and Berlin were supplemented by two
years as one of the assistants to the editors of the diplomatic records
of the pre-war foreign ministry. He held Meinecke in high regard as
a scholar who tackled the connection between intellectual movements
and political action, an academic teacher who gave his students the
space for autonomous development, and a defender of the Weimar
Republic. He originally wanted to write his doctoral thesis on the
Origin of the idea of the balance of power in the Renaissance,167 but
this was rejected by Meinecke as too difficult and he gained his doc-
torate in 1930 with a study of the historian Johann Gustav Droysen
and the Prussian-German question (Johann Gustav Droysen und
die preuisch-deutsche Frage).168 He demonstrated that Droysen,
whose Politische Schriften (political writings) he edited,169 had ini-
tially declared himself in favour of Prussias absorption into Germany
during the Revolution of 1848 and only laterafter the failure of the
Revolutionadvocated a Germany largely dominated by Prussia.
But Gilbert retained his primary interest in the Renaissance and was
engaged in intensive research in Italian archives in 1932/33.
165
On Gilbert, alongside his autobiography up to 1945, mentioned earlier,
Lehrjahre im alten Europa (A European Past), see Hartmut Lehmann (ed.), Felix
Gilbert as Scholar and Teacher which contains a lecture by Gordon A. Craig, Insight
and Energy. Reflections on the Work of Felix Gilbert, Washington 1992, pp. 1728;
Franklin L. Ford, Introduction to Felix Gilbert, in: Gilbert, History, pp. 114; Hans
Rudolf Guggisberg, Felix Gilbert: Werk und Wirkung, in: Felix Gilbert, Guicciardini,
Machiavelli und die Geschichtsschreibung der italienischen Renaissance, Berlin 1991,
pp. 713; a bibliography of Gilberts writings published by 1976 can be found in:
Gilbert, History, pp. 457463.
166
Gilbert, Lehrjahre, p. 33.
167
Ibid., p. 82.
168
Published in Munich in 1931 as Supplement 20 of the HZ; see also his later
essay, Johann Gustav Droysen, in: Gilbert, History, pp. 1738.
169
Published in Munich in 1933.
Felix Gilbert
He emigrated to England in 1933 before moving on to the United States

in 1936. Meinecke supported his search for an academic post with
positive references.170 In the United States he started off by working at
smaller colleges and then at the famous Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton from 1939 to 1943. Following a highly successful stint at
Bryn Mawr College from 1946 to 1962, he returned to Princeton until
his retirement until 1975. Like Holborn, Gilbert too was recruited by
the Research and Analysis Branch of the OSS from 1943 to 1945 and
did research work for the State Department in 1945/46. After work-
ing in Washington, in 1944 he was transferred to the US outposts
in London and later Paris and in 1945 was employed as an observer
of the reconstruction of political, cultural and academic life in occu-
pied Germany.171 In 1947 he returned to Germany and in an article
of October 1947 produced a highly critical account of developments
since the summer of 1945. He was disappointed that so little had
changed, that the ruins of the war were still so omnipresent and that
in contrast to other European countriesthe immediate presence and
atmosphere of the war could still be felt everywhere. Furthermore, he
stated, the intellectual climate had declined since 1945, corruption and
170
See Walther, Von Meinecke zu Beard?, p. 275, 277f.
171
Katz, German Historians, p. 138.
demoralization had increased, and the political situation was charac-

terized by apathy among the people, who saw the newly founded Land
governments and political parties largely as instruments of the occu-
pying powers. He felt that democratization in Germany had made very
little progress and that because of the fragmentation of German life,
nationalism was becoming increasingly attractive as an alternative to
the present situation. Eradicating the legacy of the Nazi period was a
far more complicated and fundamental task than the Americans had
initially believed.172
Gilbert resumed contact with Meinecke as early as 1945. Later, in
a letter of 14 June 1947, he thanked Meinecke for sending him the
German Catastrophe, which he had of course [read] with the greatest
of interest and mentioned how much he would like to take part in
Meineckes colloquium on Ranke and Burckhardt: In the present era,
Burckhardt is increasingly emerging as a quite unique and powerful
figure. Yet he was a very continental European figure and a trans-
lation of his Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen (Eng. title: Reflections
on History) had met with little understanding in the USA. He was,
he stated, interested to see how the planned translation of Rankes
Politisches Gesprch (Political dialogue) and his Die Groen Mchte
(The major powers) would be received in America. On the whole,
the influence of German historiography, which was predominant in
America around the turn of the century, has greatly weakened; the
field is largely dominated by issues in economic and social history,
which, by the way, has its good side, as the connection between his-
tory and politics has remained very lively as a result. Commenting
on the results of a study of The intellectual situation in Germany
(Die geistige Situation in Deutschland), he remarked critically on the
Germans strong tendency to view their own crisis as a world crisis.173
In a long letter of 25 November 1948, he spoke of a trip to the
American West, which was a major experience for him, and thanked
Meinecke for sending him his studies on the Revolution of 1848 and on
Ranke and Burckhardt, both of which he had found very interesting.
172
Felix Gilbert, Germany Revisited. Some Impressions after two Years, in: The
World Today 3, no. 10, October 1947, pp. 424431.
173
See below, p. 277f. On Gilberts later assessment of the history produced by
Ranke and Burckhardt, see his text: History: Politics or Culture? Reflections on Ranke
and Burckhardt, Princeton 1990. In German translation: Geschichte. Politik oder
Kultur? Rckblick auf einen klassischen Konflikt, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1992.
In a seminar of his own on the Revolution of 1848, he stated, he

had paid particular attention to the connections between the various
European revolutions and the conflicting views within the leftist camp.
He hoped that, given the influence of refugees from the 1848 revo-
lution in the United States, the sessions of the American Historical
Association dedicated to the Revolution of 1848 at its annual confer-
ence in December 1948 would also provide an opportunity to get
European and American historians to mix a little; for the most part
they maintain a clear distance, which, in my opinion, is of no benefit
to American history.
Gilbert also commented on American foreign policy. He explained
Trumans surprising election as president in 1948 by stating that the
Roosevelt administration had represented a revolution, one which
has in fact largely been accepted by the people. It is also an indication
of how the countrys centre of gravity has shifted away from the East;
I myself was quite astonished during the summer to see how much
the Mid-West and West have developedeven in the few years since
I was last there. From an intellectual point of view, there seems to be
no doubt that this is where the future of the major universities lies;
Chicago and California are already leaders in the natural sciences.174
He later criticized the fact that the Americans had a very hard time
adapting to the necessities of power politics.175 His work on the vol-
ume of essays on Makers of Modern Strategy. Military Thought from
Machiavelli to Hitler (Princeton 1943) edited by Edward Mead Earle
and the book The Diplomats: 19191933 (Princeton 1953),176 which
he later edited in collaboration with Gordon A. Craig, thus aimed to
make the Americans more familiar with the prerequisites of modern
foreign policy and strategy.
174
See below, p. 281f.
175
Gilbert to Meinecke, 25 May 1951, see below, pp. 282285.
176
Edward Mead Earle (ed. with the collaboration of Gordon A. Craig and Felix
Gilbert), fourth printing, Princeton 1952 (first published 1943). Gilbert wrote: ch.
1: Machiavelli: The Renaissance of the Art of War, pp. 325; ch. 4 was produced
by Gilbert in collaboration with Crane Brinton and Gordon A. Craig: Jomini,
pp. 7792. Two more of Meineckes students contributed to the volume in the shape
of Hajo Holborn and Hans Rothfels, who wrote articles on: Moltke and Schlieffen:
The Prussian-German Military School (pp. 172205) and Clausewitz (pp. 93113);
Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert (eds.), The Diplomats 19191939, Princeton 1953.
Here, Gilbert wrote the article: Ciano and his Ambassadors and Two British
Ambassadors: Perth and Henderson, pp. 512536, 536554. Hajo Holborn contrib-
uted to this volume with the article: Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Early Weimar
Republic, pp. 123171.
Finally, Felix Gilbert was visiting professor in Cologne in 1959/60

and did what he could to promote cooperation between German
and American universities. However, partly because he was firmly
anchored in the United States, it is clear that he never seriously con-
sidered returning to Germany. Gilbert was a teacher of great erudition
with a vast range of scholarly interests. From 1932, his research cen-
tred primarily on the Italian Renaissance. His study of Machiavelli and
the historian Guicciardini,177 on which he had begun to work before
emigration, became a standard work with its analysis of the roots of
modern political ideas and their contribution to politics. His study
of economic diplomacy in the early 16th century, in which the chief
protagonists were Pope Julius II, his banker Agostino Chigi and the
Republic of Venice,178 also attracted much interest among historians
of the Renaissance.
Gilberts great interest in recent history found expression in the
book The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present (New York
1970), written for a broad public. His strong attachment to his new
country, but also his interest in the fundamentals of foreign policy,
led to an important study on the linkage of ideas and diplomacy in
the evolution of the basic concepts of early American foreign policy
up to the famous Farewell Address of 1796, the political testament of
President Washington.179 His family background ultimately prompted
him to present hitherto unpublished letters of the Mendelssohn family
from the 19th century, in the volume Bankiers, Knstler und Gelehrte,
thus making a key contribution to the social and cultural history of
the acculturated Jewish upper middle class in Germany.180 In addi-
tion, Gilbert was concerned with issues of historiography and in the
United States he did his best to disseminate the research of Otto
Hintze, whose most important essays he published, and the works of
177
Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli und Guicciardini. Politics and History in Sixteenth-
Century Florence, Princeton 1965.
178
Felix Gilbert, The Pope, His Banker and Venice, 1980, Cambridge/Mass. 1980.
179
Felix Gilbert, To the Farewell Address. Ideas of Early American Foreign Policy,
Princeton 1961. Gilbert first got the idea for this book from his seminar on American
Isolationism at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton 1939/40. The book, of
which some of the chapters had been published already, was finally completed during
Gilberts visiting professorship in Cologne 1959/60, where he held a lecture on the
beginnings of American foreign policy.
180
Felix Gilbert (ed.), Bankiers, Knstler und Gelehrte. Unverffentlichte Briefe der
Familie Mendelssohn aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, Tbingen 1975.
Meinecke.181 Gilbert continued the tradition of Meineckes history of

ideas, but developed it further by placing greater emphasis on how
ideas interact with interests, with the social position of individuals and
groups and with the addressees of their ideas; in other words, with the
political, social and cultural conditions of a given era.182
6. Hans Baron
Like Gilbert, Hans Baron (19001988)183 too made vital contributions
to the study of the Renaissance. The son of a doctor, he grew up in
Berlin in an educated middle class German-Jewish family.184 As a stu-
dent of history, philosophy, German language and literature, geogra-
phy, history of art and political economy, in Leipzig he took much
of his inspiration from Walter Goetz, a distinguished Renaissance
expert and Reichstag deputy for the DDP (19191928), and from Ernst
Troeltsch and Meinecke in Berlin. Baron gained his doctorate in 1922
with a study on Calvins view of the state and the confessional age
(Calvins Staatsanschauung und das konfessionelle Zeitalter) that
grew out of one of Meineckes seminars and was supervised by him.185
181
Otto Hintze, The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze. Edited with an Introduction
by Felix Gilbert, with the assistance of Robert M. Berdahl. New York 1975. Gilbert
also wrote the introduction to the English translation of Weltbrgertum und
Nationalstaat: Cosmopolitanism and the National State, Princeton 1970. See also
Gilberts essay: Political Power and Academic Responsibility: Reflections on Friedrich
Meineckes Drei Generationen deutscher Gelehrtenpolitik , in: Krieger/Stern (eds.),
The Responsibility of Power, pp. 402415. Alongside his work on the historiography of
the Renaissance and his studies of Droysen, Meinecke and Hintze, Gilberts research
focussed mainly on Jakob Burckhardt and Leopold von Ranke.
182
For Gilberts analysis of the significance of ideas in the history of historiogra-
phy and his conception of a modern intellectual history, see his essay: Intellectual
History: Its Aims and Methods, in: Felix Gilbert and Stephen R. Graubard (eds.),
Historical Studies Today, New York 1972, pp. 141158.
183
On Baron, see the articles by Denys Hay and August Buck in the Festschrift ded-
icated to Baron: Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi (eds.): Renaissance: Studies in
Honor of Hans Baron, De Kalb 1971, pp. XIXXIX, pp. XXXILVIII. This also contains
a bibliography of Barons writings up to 1969, pp. LXXILXXXVII; Riccardo Fubini,
Renaissance Historian: The Career of Hans Baron, in: JMH 64 (1992), pp. 541574;
Klaus Groe Kracht, Brgerhumanismus oder Staatsrson. Hans Baron und die
republikanische Intelligenz des Quattrocento, in: Leviathan 29 (2001), pp. 355370.
184
In his CV, attached to his application for habilitation, he writes that he was born
the son of a doctor of the Jewish faith, butin contrast to the other students of Jewish
descent habilitated by Meinecke, who explicitly referred to their Protestantismdoes
not mention his own religion (Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy
faculty habilitation records, vol. 1243).
185
The study, published as Supplement 1 to the HZ, Munich, 1924, is dedicated to
Meinecke.
After Troeltschs death in 1923, he edited the famous Spectator Letters

and two volumes of essays by Troeltsch.186 Thanks to a state grant,
which he received from 1 October 1923, he had the opportunity to
continue with academic work rather than taking up a teaching post at
a secondary school.187 In parallel to editing the Troeltsch volume, he
worked on a book, with which he had been entrusted by Meinecke,
on the Worldview of the Renaissance and Reformation (Welt-
anschauung der Renaissance und Reformation) for a multi-volume
textbook planned by Meinecke and Georg von Below on medieval and
modern history. Barons project never made it to publication.188
Hans Baron
In 1925, in order to carry out research on this topic, he travelled to

Italy for 18 months with a scholarship from the Emergency Committee
on Academic Research in Germany (Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen
Wissenschaft). His aim, as he wrote in the CV he submitted as part of
186
Ernst Troeltsch, Spektator-Briefe. Aufstze ber die deutsche Revolution und die
Weltpolitik, 19181922. With a foreword by Friedrich Meinecke, ed. by Hans Baron,
Tbingen 1924; Troeltsch, Aufstze zur Geistesgeschichte und Religionssoziologie
(Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 4), ed. by Hans Baron, Tbingen 1925; Troeltsch, Deutscher
Geist und Westeuropa. Gesammelte kulturphilosophische Aufstze und Reden, ed. by
Hans Baron, Tbingen 1925.
187
See Barons CV in: Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty
habilitation records, vol. 1243.
188
Groe Kracht, Brgerhumanismus, p. 359.
the habilitation process, as well as gathering source materials for the

volume, was initially merely to exploit as yet unpublished human-
istic manuscripts for a study, planned as a future habilitation thesis,
of Florentine humanism and Platonism and the relationship of the
latter to the circle around Erasmus. . . . During my work in Italy, how-
ever, it emerged that the current state of published source materials
concerning the Florentine Humanists can only be described as so
inadequate that it seems advisable to first glean from the manuscripts
the major portion of relevant texts and publish them in a coherent
form.189 While engaging in intensive study of the source materials,
Baron came across the Italian humanist and chancellor of the city of
Florence, Leonardo Bruni (13691444, chancellor from 1427), a fig-
ure who was to preoccupy him for the rest of his academic life. In
1928, with Meineckes support, he gained his habilitation with an as
yet unpublished thesis on Leonardo Bruni Aretino and the humanism
of the Quattrocento (Leonardo Bruni Aretino und der Humanismus
des Quattrocento).190 He had ambitious plans to edit the writings of
Florentine citizens and humanists on the state, church and religion,
all of which were to be published by an Institute for cultural and uni-
versal history at the University of Leipzig led by Walter Goetz,191 but
managed to edit just one volume of Brunis writings.192
After his habilitation, as an employee of the Historical Commission
at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Historische Kommission bei der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), he was commissioned to
edit the Reichstag records of Maximilian I. But he continued to live
in Berlin, worked as a lecturer at the Lindenuniversitt and, along-
side his work for the Munich Commission, continued his research on
Florentine humanism.
189
Barons CV in: Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty
habilitation records, vol. 1243.
190
The text is being prepared for publication by Friedrich Wilhelm Graf and Klaus
Groe Kracht. See Groe Kracht, Brgerhumanismus, p. 362. First reference for the
habilitation thesis by Meinecke, second from Brackmann.
191
See Barons letter to Goetz of 2 July 1925, below, p. 292, as well as his further
correspondence with W. Goetz in Goetzs papers in the Federal Archive in Koblenz,
which is not included here.
192
Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Humanistisch-philosophische Schriften und eine
Chronologie seiner Werke und Briefe, ed. and with a commentary by Dr. Hans Baron,
Leipzig/Berlin 1928.
The material basis of his academic work was abruptly snatched away
from him after the Nazi seizure of power: as a Jew, he was dismissed
on 30 June 1933 and his teaching contract was terminated in a mis-
sive dated 2 September 1933.193 He had already described his desperate
situation in a letter to Walter Goetz from 23 March 1933: This will be
a sad time for you as well, but the worst and most terrible thing, that
your own compatriots, who you have considered yourself one of your
whole life, can come and take from you your People and Fatherland
and everything that you thought sacred, thats an experience reserved
for us Jews. Our generation has already been through a lotwar, col-
lapse, the diktat of Versailles, inflationbut all of that now seems
like a minor, fleeting episode in comparison with this slow process of
being torn apart and dying while still alive. He now wanted to put all
his energies into collating and publishing the findings of his years of
study in his book on humanism.194 It was, however, some time before
he managed to do this.
After several years in Italy in 1935/36 and England from 19361938,
he finally emigrated to the United States. Baron, who was very hard
of hearing, failed to gain a permanent position as professor despite
a number of years teaching at Queens College, City University of
New York (19391942) and, later, numerous visiting professorships
at American universities. Having been a member of the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton from 1944 to 1948, he found his aca-
demic home as research fellow and bibliographer, and later as distin-
guished research fellow, at the famous Newberry Library in Chicago.
In 1955, he published his pioneering work The Crisis of the Early
Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age
of Classicism and Tyranny.195 He advocated the thesis that, influenced
mainly by humanistic studies of an Aristotelian tenor and practical
political activities, a Florentine civic humanism had already developed
by the early 15th century, a humanism that was indissolubly linked
with republican liberty. Barons ideas, backed up by a whole series of
193
See below, p. 278, as well as Barons personal files in the Archive of Humboldt
University, Berlin, vol. 50.
194
See below, p. 298f.
195
2 vols., Princeton 1955, 2nd edn. 1966.
studies,196 attracted a good deal of criticism and kicked off an intensive

scholarly debate that was to run for decades.197 Most contested were
the dating of Brunis writings, the narrowing down of the emergence
of civic humanism to the foreign policy crisis around 1400 and Barons
rejection of the notion that civic humanism was a mere ideology. It
is however beyond dispute that his studieslike that of other migrs
such as Gilbert and Paul Oskar Kristeller198were a milestone on the
United States path to becoming one of the leading centres, alongside
Italy, of modern historical research on the Renaissance and especially
Florence, despite the fact that research on the Renaissance was under-
developed there prior to 1933.
After 1945, Barons financial situation was improved in 1956 through
the conferment of the status and allowance of a retired associate pro-
fessor (auerordentlicher Professor) in Germany.199 Though he did not
rule out the possibility of returning to Germany, he lacked any real
opportunity to do so.200 I find it hard to imagine . . . that it might still
be possible for me to return to Germany, he wrote to Walter Goetz
on 15 October 1954, though Ive often dreamt of it. I dream of it
when the intellectual isolation here becomes too onerous and when,
time and again, new German literature confirms the impression that
the tradition of Renaissance studies in Germany, which I absorbed
through you and your Institute in Leipzig, threatens to peter out
entirely. In view of the financial difficulties facing the German uni-
versities, returning to Germany would, he stated, be near-impossible
in material terms, particularly given that his income would have to be
large enough to allow us, in our otherwise frugal existence, either to
196
See Hans Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at
the Beginning of the Quattrocento: Studies in Criticism and Chronology, Cambridge/
Mass. 1955; and Barons essay collections: From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni: Studies in
Humanistic and Political Literature, Chicago 1968; In Search of Florentine Civic Huma-
nism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought, 2 vols., Princeton
1988.
197
See James Hankins, The Baron Thesis after Forty Years and some Recent Stu-
dies of Leonardo Bruni, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 56 (1995), pp. 309338;
Ronald Witt, The Crisis after Forty Years, in: AHR 101 (1996), pp. 110118.
198
On this important scholar of humanism, coming from a philosophical back-
ground, see: Petersohn, Deutschsprachige Medivistik, pp. 4248.
199
200
See below, p. 316f. But see also the criticisms of Germany and Europe in
Barons letter to Herbert Grundmann of 24 December 1951, quoted in: Groe Kracht,
Brgerhumanismus, p. 366.
travel annually to America ourselves or to allow our children to make

the trip to Germany.201
Baron clearly had no contact with Meinecke after 1945. He had
written to him repeatedly in 1923/24 because of his study on Calvin
and Meineckes support in various endeavours,202 and Meinecke tried
to smooth his way with a letter of recommendation even after he had
left the country.203 However, there are no letters from Baron for the
period after 1924 among Meineckes unpublished papers. His key con-
tact in Germany was Walter Goetz, to whom he dedicated his book on
the early Italian Renaissance.
Baron advanced the history of political ideas, whose close associa-
tion with concrete political activities he underlined through the case of
the civic humanists of Florence. In contrast to the United States and
Italy, where they have become classics, his studies have so far attracted
little attention in Germany, which is still struggling to come to terms
with the brain drain of migrs scholars working on the Renaissance
and humanism, despite the fact that civic humanism may be seen as a
predecessor of the now much-discussed civil society.
7. Helene Wieruszowski
The medievalist Helene Wieruszowski (18931978)204 grew up in
Germany as the daughter of upper middle class Jewish parentsher
father was chairman of the senate at the Cologne higher regional court
(Oberlandesgericht), her mother a granddaughter of the sister of lead-
ing liberal parliamentarian Ludwig Bamberger.205 She was baptised
and brought up as a Protestant. But her true love was the medieval
Catholic milieu in Cologne and the surrounding area: while still a
school-girl at the humanistic girls school in Cologne, she decided to
devote herself to the Middle Ages and the auxiliary sciences of history
(Historische Hilfswissenschaften).
201
See below, p. 316.
202
Letters from Baron to Meinecke from 22 August and 29 November 1923,
15 January, 5 April, 14 April and 17 August 1924, Meinecke papers, no. 2, and letters
reproduced below, pp. 286288, from 5 and 16 October 1924.
203
204
On H. Wieruszowski, see esp. her foreword to her volume of essays: Politics and
Culture in Medieval Spain and Italy, Rome 1971, pp. IXXVII, which also contains a
bibliography of her publications up to 1969, pp. 667669.
205
H. Wieruszowski to Meinecke, 11 August [1946], Meinecke papers, no. 52. The
year is missing from her letter, but can be inferred from the content.
Helene Wieruszowski
She was a student of Meinecke from the Freiburg period, but ulti-
mately gained her doctorate in Bonn in 1918 under the guidance
of Wilhelm Levison with a study of the Gaulish and Frankish epis-
copate before the Treaty of Verdun (843).206 After initially working
as research assistant at the Society for Rhenish History (Gesellschaft
fr Rheinische Geschichtskunde) in Cologne (19221924) and at the
Prussian Historical Institute (Preuisches Historisches Institut) in
Rome (19251926), she completed a course in librarianship at the
Prussian state library in Berlin from 1926 to 1928. During this period
she again came into contact with Meinecke, who suggested that she
examine Machiavellianism prior to Machiavelli.207 Study of the source
materials, however, led her back to the conflicts between state and
church in the 13th and early 14th century and their manifestation in
the documents kept in the chancelleries of Kaiser Friedrich II and King
206
Published under the title: Die Zusammensetzung des gallischen und frnki-
schen Episkopats bis zum Vertrag von Verdun (843) mit besonderer Bercksichtigung
der Nationalitt und des Standes. Ein Beitrag zur frnkischen Kirchen- und
Verfassungsgeschichte, in: Bonner Jahrbcher 127 (1922), pp. 183.
207
See below, p. 320.
Philip IV (the Fair) of France as well as the scholarly and popular

writing of the time.208
Working as a librarian at the university library in Bonn from 1928
on, Wieruszowskis hopes of habilitation209 and further research on
related themes were dashed by her dismissal on 31 January 1934. Her
attempts to continue working within German academia in one capacity
or another through an unpaid position with the Monumenta Germaniae
Historica or a post at one of the German historical institutes abroad,210
came to nothing. After years of intensive research in Barcelona and
Madrid (19341938) and in Florence from 1938, she emigrated to the
United States only in 1940. After several difficult years of transition
during which she held temporary research and teaching posts, one of
them as a colleague of Hans Rosenberg at Brooklyn College in New
York, she finally acquired a permanent position as assistant and later
associate professor at City College in New York from 1949 until her
retirement in 1961. But her true academic home was the Medieval
Academy of America.
Alongside the book on the era of Charlemagne,211 written with a
colleague for a broad public, and one on the medieval university,212
in which she set out an original analysis, especially in her treatment
of the relationship between students and their academic teachers, she
produced essays based on broad and intensive study of the sources.
Some of the most important of these studies were brought together
in an anthology entitled Politics and Culture in Medieval Spain and
208
Helene Wieruszowski, Vom Imperium zum Nationalen Knigtum. Vergleichende
Studien ber die publizistischen Kmpfe Kaiser Friedrichs II. und Knig Philipps des
Schnen mit der Kurie, Supplement 30 of the HZ, Munich/Berlin 1933. The book
is dedicated to Friedrich Meinecke, my revered teacher, with gratitude. In the
foreword, H. Wieruszowski writes that the key question posed by Meinecke as to
the origins of the modern idea of the state in the Middle Ages . . . [has] nonetheless
[remained] the guiding principle of her studies.
209
On 4 March 1931 she wrote to Brackmann that she had begun to turn her study
Vom Imperium zum Nationalen Knigtum into a manuscript and that Prof. Levison
had promised to examine [it] as a possible habilitation thesis (Brackmann papers,
vol. 40).
210
See the letters by H. Wieruszowski to Brackmann from 22 October [1933] and
4 November 1933 and Brackmanns letter to H. Wieruszowski from 25 October 1933,
below, pp. 320323.
211
Stewart C. Easton and Helene Wieruszowski, The Era of Charlemagne. Frankish
State and Society, Princeton 1961.
212
Helene Wieruszowski, The Medieval University: Masters, Students, Learning,
Princeton 1966. The book is dedicated to Hannah Arendt and the memory of Ludwig
Edelstein. The migr Ludwig Edelstein was a respected historian of medicine.
Italy from 1971. These dealt chiefly with the Mediterranean expan-
sion around Sicily and Italian culture in the age of Dante.213 Helene
Wieruszowski was a leading historian whose studies, published in
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish, opened up new points
of access to the medieval world, particularly that of Italy and Spain.
Once the war was over, Helene Wieruszowski and Meinecke began
writing to each other again. In her letters, Wieruszowski grappled with
the question of a possible return to Germany. On 11 August [1946],
after reading Meineckes appeal to German students printed in an
American newspaper,214 she wrote to him that she had believed that a
door into the old days was being reopened, into my intellectual past in
Germany, a past in which I am rooted. All in all, though, it had been
an illusion. As happy as she was to re-establish personal friendships
in Germany, she could feel the difficulties and obstacles mount when
I try to understand and imagine myself back in Germany. Too much
has happened, the scale is too enormous, the collective acts go beyond
the episodic and individual kind that history may pass over, other than
in special works. Germany, your great Germany, Herr Geheimrat, the
one I first came to appreciate in your Cosmopolitanism, was lost in
the Germany of the Third Reich; I at least cannot see it anymore.
She had not, however, forgotten her debt of love and gratitude to
individuals. You wouldnt believe how much I am able to draw on
the treasures obtained during my university days and especially from
your classes.215
On 16 February [1947], she sent Meinecke a CARE package with the
remark that he ought not to thank her for it. Can I ever thank you
enough? She also told him of a lovely evening in Rosenbergs house
with Masur, who was beginning to feel bored in South America and
has therefore settled in our more interesting, but, as he remarked dis-
dainfully, unromantic North. They had talked about almost nothing
but Meinecke. She hoped to be able to send Meinecke her essay on
The view of the middle ages in Goethes Helena (Das Mittelalterbild
in Goethes Helena). It was an expression of my longing for Germany
and for my father, who brought the medieval episode of Helena in
Faust II to my attention back in the old days.216
213
Wieruszowski, Politics and Culture.
214
See below, p. 324.
215
See below, p. 324f.
216
See below, p. 328.
Her ambivalent, tense relationship with Germany also finds expres-

sion in her account of her visiting lectureship in Heidelberg in the
summer semester of 1948. It had been an interesting period, rich in
experiences: It may even trigger a decisive change in my life at some
point. But for the time being the University of Heidelberg was unable
to offer me anything financially secure. As I am also supporting two
of my sisters to some extent, for now I must carry on earning money
in a good currency and wait for any decent offer of a lectureship in
medieval history that may come along. She had had diligent, highly
engaged students, but her reaction to their political outlook was less
positive; I found them alarmingly obdurate and blind with regard to
the events of the recent past.217 Helene Wieruszowski, who taught for
another four years, from 1962 to 1966, at the New School for Social
Research in New York after retiring from City College, lived out her
last years in Switzerland, home to one of her sisters.
8. Hans Rosenberg
Hans Rosenberg (19041988)218 was born in Hanover; his father was a
businessman of Jewish descent, while his mother came from a family
of Protestant civil servants from the Prussian province of Brandenburg.
From 1910, however, he grew up in Cologne, his true home, and was
raised as a Protestant. The experience of the First World War and the
217
Letter from H. Wieruszowski to Meinecke, 9 October 1948, see below,
p. 329. A critical account of her regular discussions with students in Heidelberg
was published under the title Gesprche mit deutschen Studenten in the journal
Wandlung, Heidelberg 1949, pp. 8291.
218
On Rosenberg, see Gerhard A. Ritter, Hans Rosenberg 19041988, in: GG 15 (1989),
pp. 282302; Heinrich August Winkler, Ein Erneuerer der Geschichtswissenschaft.
Hans Rosenberg 19041988, in: HZ 248 (1989), pp. 529555; Arnold Sywottek,
Sozialgeschichte im Gefolge Hans Rosenbergs, in: AfS 16 (1976), pp. 603621,
Hanna Schissler, Explaining History: Hans Rosenberg, in: Lehmann/Sheehan (eds.),
An Interrupted Past, pp. 180189; Hans-Ulrich Wehler, foreword to: Sozialgeschichte
Heute. Festschrift fr Hans Rosenberg zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. by Hans-Ulrich Wehler,
Gttingen 1974, pp. 921, which also contains a bibliography of publications up to
1974, p. 652f.; foreword by Gerhard A. Ritter in: Entstehung und Wandel der moder-
nen Gesellschaft. Festschrift fr Hans Rosenberg zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. by Gerhard
A. Ritter, Berlin 1970, pp. VX; see also the essays by William W. Hagen, Eugene de
Genovese, Shulamit Volkov and Morton Rothstein on Rosenberg as scholar and aca-
demic teacher in the issue, dedicated to him, of Central European History, vol. 24,
no. 1, 1991, pp. 2468. See also: Hans Rosenberg, Rckblick auf ein Historikerleben
zwischen zwei Kulturen, in: Rosenberg, Machteliten und Wirtschaftskonjunkturen.
Studien zur neueren deutschen Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Gttingen 1978,
pp. 1123.
Revolution of 1918/19 left a lasting impression on him. His school-

leaving certificate, in which he received an A in German and history
but failed physical education, states that he wished to study political
economy and sociology.219 His studies in Cologne, Freiburg and Berlin,
however, centred on history, his major subject, and philosophy and
political economy as minor subjects.
Hans Rosenberg
On 23 April 1924 he wrote in his first letter to Meinecke that his

academic inclinations drew him primarily to problems in intellec-
tual history and philosophy of history, and he asked Meinecke to
admit him to his seminar and allow him to write his doctoral thesis
on Wilhelm Dilthey as a historian. With astonishing frankness and
self-confidence he stated that his aim in life was to carry out academic
research and teaching; he wrote to Meinecke that he not only revered
him as a great scholar and researcher, but also felt a sense of per-
sonal love for him.220 For Rosenberg, a very warm-hearted individual,
who never enjoyed a close relationship with his utterly different father,
who, moreover, had died in 1918, Meinecke was clearly something of
a father figure. Though he had already broken away from Meineckes
form of intellectual history prior to 1930, the emotional, very close
personal relationship with Meinecke and, after his death, with his wife,
did not suffer as a result. He helped Meinecke after 1945 by sending
219
Rosenberg papers, vol. 1.
220
See below, p. 330.
him CARE packages; during his first visits to Berlin, he rented a room
opposite Meineckes home and regularly joined him for breakfast. A
picture of a bust of Meinecke hung in his study until his death. It now
hangs alongside one of Rosenberg and Jakob Burckhardt in my own.
As one of Meineckes students, Rosenberg had already obtained his
doctorate in 1927, but it dealt not with Dilthey but with the child-
hood and young adulthood of Rudolf Haym, philosopher, historian
and old-school liberal politician.221 As he wrote in the CV submitted
along with his doctoral application, the inspiration for the study came
from Meinecke. His studies, we read, had centred on history, espe-
cially intellectual, economic, social and constitutional history. In his
reference on Rosenbergs doctoral thesis, which was passed summa
cum laude, Meinecke remarked that at times, the young historians of
today . . . cheerfully [take on] subjects, which their counterparts thirty
or forty years ago would have baulked at. They would have lacked the
courage to write an account of the educational history of a leading
thinker from the recent past, in light of the overall intellectual life of
the time.222
The habilitation thesis which Rosenberg submitted in 1932 with the
backing of the liberal historian Johannes Ziekursch at the University
of Cologne also dealt with Rudolf Haym, detailing his development
up to 1850/51.223 From 1927 to 1928, Rosenberg received a grant from
the Emergency Committee (Notgemeinschaft) to produce an edition
of letters from Haym,224 published by the Historical Commission
in Munich. From 1928 to 1934, he was employed by the Imperial
Historical Commission (Historische Reichskommission) to prepare a
critical bibliography and summary of 1,338 pamphlets and journal
221
Hans Rosenberg, Die Jugendgeschichte Rudolf Hayms, Borna/Leipzig 1928. The
publication contains only the first three chapters of the dissertation.
222
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty doctoral records,
vol. 669.
223
Hans Rosenberg, Rudolf Haym und die Anfnge des klassischen Liberalismus,
Supplement 31 to the HZ, Munich 1933. The book is dedicated to Meinecke with
gratitude and admiration.
224
Hans Rosenberg (ed.), Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel Rudolf Hayms, Stuttgart/
Berlin/Leipzig 1930. See also: Rudolf Haym, Hegel und seine Zeit. Vorlesungen ber
Entstehung, Wesen und Werk der Hegelschen Philosophie, 2nd edn., ed. by Hans
Rosenberg, Leipzig 1927.
articles reflecting the intellectual debates on the movement for a

German nation state from 1858 to 1866.225
Through a protracted process of inner struggle, during which
Rosenberg also grappled with philosophical problems and questions
of faith and came to understand that he was by nature a quiet scholar
too delicately strung for public engagement,226 his view of the tasks
and methods of history also began to change under the influence of
Eckart Kehr and Eugene N. Anderson. In his second book on Haym,
Rosenberg criticized the fact that the liberal German intellectual aris-
tocracy had distanced itself from petty bourgeois and proletarian mass
democracy and clung to the dogma of constitutional monarchy; he
tried to link intellectual history and the history of ideas not only with
political history but also with processes of social change. In a number
of further essays, written between 1927 and 1929, Rosenberg supple-
mented Meineckes individualizing analysis of the ideas of leading fig-
ures with a history of collective ideas based on the world of ideas,
values and emotions of the middle and lower classes. Rosenberg
was concerned to link intellectual history, social history, political
attitudes and party history. However, because he was as yet inad-
equately trained in the social sciences, these new methodological ideas
were realized only in embryonic form in a total of five essays on early
German liberalism and the structural transformation of public life in
the Vormrz.227 Rosenberg continued to move away from Meinecke
intellectually and broke through to new methods and problems after
the experiences of the world economic crisis and the collapse of the
Weimar Republic in 1932/33 with his pioneering study, written while
still in Germany, of The world economic crisis from 1857 to 1859
(Die Weltwirtschaftskrisis von 18571859).228 In the context of an
examination of European and North American economic develop-
ment since 1848, and taking up the methods and problems character-
225
Hans Rosenberg, Die nationalpolitische Publizistik Deutschlands vom Eintritt der
Neuen ra in Preuen bis zum Ausbruch des Deutschen Krieges. Eine kritische Biblio-
graphie, 2 vols., Munich/Berlin 1935.
226
See Rosenbergs letter to his mother and siblings from 13 February 1929,
below, p. 341.
227
The essays were reprinted by Rosenberg under the title Politische Denkstrmungen
im deutschen Vormrz, Gttingen 1972. On his methodological intentions, see his
introduction to this volume, pp. 717, and Rosenberg, Rckblick, p. 13f.
228
Published in 1934 as Supplement 30 to the Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Stuttgart/Berlin. 2nd edn., with a preliminary report under
the slightly modified title: Die Weltwirtschaftskrise 18571859, Gttingen 1974.
istic of the economic theory of business cycles and empirical-analyti-

cal research on economic cycles, this study analyzes the first world
economic crisis in human history,229 its causes, its course over time
and its consequences, stretching into the early 1860s.
On 23 January 1933just a few days before the Nazi seizure of
powerRosenberg held his inaugural lecture on Periods of party
political liberalism in Germany (Die Epochen des parteipolitischen
Liberalismus in Deutschland).230 The trial lecture, already reflecting
his new interest in the relationship between economy and state and
comparative studies going beyond German history, examined The
importance of mercantilism to the Western European state system in
the early modern period (die Bedeutung des Merkantilismus fr das
westeuropische Staatensystem in der frhen Neuzeit).
Rosenberg gave no more lectures in Cologne. In early April, a few
days after the anti-Semitic riots of 1 April, he informed the dean that
for special reasons he felt bound to cancel the lectures and seminars
he had planned to hold. On 2 September, as a half-Jew, his authority
to teach was finally withdrawn officially by the Prussian ministry of cul-
tural affairs.231 On 21 April 1933, Rosenberg wrote despairingly to his
American friend Anderson: Quite apart from the associated mental
distress, for me personally the national revolution in Germany means
the radical destruction of my livelihood. As he had done already with
Josef Redlich in Harvard, he asked him for help in his efforts to create
a new life (abroad, above all in the United States). As long as there
is even a glimmer of hope, I want to try to progress within the frame-
work of my discipline and academic profession.232 A few weeks later,
he saw his situation in somewhat less dramatic terms and informed
Anderson that he could be reasonably sure of being able to con-
tinue his work at the Imperial Historical Commission until the end
of 1933.233 In fact, Meinecke managed to ensure that he continued to
229
According to Rosenberg in Rckblick, p. 15.
230
The unpublished text can be found in Rosenbergs papers in the Federal Archive,
Koblenz, vol. 97.
231
On Rosenbergs habilitation, as well as the harsh attacks on him on 27 January
1933 in an article entitled Jewish cultural politics (Jdische Kulturpolitik) in
the Westdeutscher Beobachter, organ of the Rhenish NSDAP, see Otto Dann, Hans
Rosenberg und the University of Cologne. Ein Nachruf , in: Klner Universitts
Journal 18, 4, 1988.
232
See below, p. 347f.
233
Rosenberg to Anderson on 9 June 1933, see below, p. 353.
receive funding from the Commission up until the end of November

1934 in order to quickly complete his book National political journal-
ism (Nationalpolitische Publizistik), and that he received payments
for his input to the printing of the book afterwards.234 This provided
Rosenberg with the opportunity to continue his work for another two
years, an opportunity he used both to improve his knowledge of the
English language and to publish, with Meineckes support, his books
on Haym and on national political journalism, as well as his manu-
script on the world economic crisis from 1857 to 1859 in supplements
to the Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte edited by
Hermann Aubin.235 Despite all the difficulties he had to overcome over
the next few years, this crucially enhanced Rosenbergs prospects of
continuing his academic career.
In 1933, Rosenberg initially considered abandoning his main field
of activity, namely the study of problems in German and Central
European history and instead turning to those of the British Empire
and the United States. His main focus would then be on economic
and social issues and the interplay of world economy and world
politics.236
Rosenberg emigrated to England as early as 1933. There, despite a
letter of recommendation from Meinecke to the Academic Assistance
Council, in which he described Rosenberg as a particularly gifted
researcher who has already achieved a good deal and promises to
make an important contribution in future,237 he failed to find a per-
manent position. In September 1935, following an arduous detour
through Canada and Cuba made necessary by American immigration
laws,238 he and his wife travelled on to the United States. After almost
a year of unemployment and very badly paid entry-level positions at
the City College of New York and at Illinois College in Jacksonville,
he finally taught European economic and social history since the high
Middle Ages and modern German history at Brooklyn College in
New York from 1939 to 1959. His situation, characterized by a truly
punishing teaching schedule, was improved decisively in 1959, when
234
See below, p. 366f.
235
Walther, Von Meinecke zu Beard?, p. 285.
236
Addendum to Rosenbergs letter to the secretary of the International Institute of
Education, 18 November 1933, see below, p. 358f.
237
See below, p. 361. The letter of recommendation shows how positively Meinecke
viewed his students scholarly progress and interest in economic history.
238
See Wehler, foreword to Sozialgeschichte Heute, p. 13.
he was appointed, with massive support from leading American eco-

nomic historian David Landes,239 to the Shepard chair in history at the
University of California, Berkeley, from which he retired in 1970.
From the 1940s, aided by a lengthy sabbatical from his univer-
sity and a grant from the Social Science Research Council of $500,240
Rosenberg worked primarily on a comprehensive history of Prussian-
German Junkerdom as a social class, from its establishment around
1200 to its collapse at the end of the Second World War. He saw this
as a crucial problem of Prussian-German history. His motives were
thus partly political, as he wanted to provide a historical perspective
on the problem of rebuilding Germany after the war.241 The study,
in which comparative perspectives became ever more important to
him,242 was finished in June 1947 with the exception of the final two
of a total of 15 chapters243 in the manuscript; yet Rosenberg was never
to write them.
Instead, in 1958, he published a study, based largely on his research
for the book on the Junkers, on Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy.
The Prussian Experience 16601815.244 Here, Rosenberg combined
the older, more institutionally inclined historical research of Gustav
Schmoller and Otto Hintzewhom he considered the leading German
historian of the 20th century on account of his universal historical
perspective and his methodological originalitywith the concepts and
239
Landes to Rosenberg, 2 March 1959, Rosenberg papers, vol. 42.
240
Social Science Research Council to Rosenberg, 25 March 1943, Rosenberg
papers, vol. 1.
241
See Rosenbergs research plan, below, pp. 372374.
242
See Rosenbergs report on the project to the president of Brooklyn College,
Harry D. Gideonse, of 31 January 1947, below, pp. 382387.
243
The manuscript of the work, whose table of contents, together with a letter of
5 January 1947, Rosenberg sent to Meinecke (see below, pp. 380382), can be found,
along with notes on possible revisions, in Rosenbergs papers at the Federal Archive,
Koblenz, vols. 130137. Related to this project is an essay on The Rise of the Junkers
in Brandenburg-Prussia, 14101653, which appeared in the AHR in 1943/44 (vol. 49,
pp. 122, 228242). It was republished in a radically changed German version entitled
Die Ausprgung der Junkerherrschaft in Brandenburg-Preuen 14101618 along
with the brilliant essay Die Pseudodemokratisierung der Rittergutsbesitzerklasse, in:
Rosenberg, Machteliten, pp. 2482, 298308 and pp. 83101, 308312. The second,
extremely influential essay initially appeared under the title: Die Demokratisierung
der Rittergutsbesitzerklasse in: Berges/Hinrichs (eds.), Zur Geschichte und Problematik
der Demokratie, pp. 459486.
244
Hans Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy. The Prussian
Experience 16601815, Cambridge/Mass. 1958. The book contains a postscript which,
among other things, criticizes the unsatisfactory revision of the German view of his-
tory after 1945, and which is not included in the later paperback edition of 1966.
problems of modern sociology and especially those found in the work

of Max Weber. With constant reference to parallel or differing develop-
ments in other countries, Rosenberg produced a collective biography
of Prussian officials as a political and social group and their relations
with Junkerdom and the absolute monarchy. The book, a contribu-
tion to the history of the bureaucratization of the modern world, was
very well received in the United States, butbecause of the lack of a
translation,245 but probably also because of its radical critique of old
Prussiamet with a muted response in Germany.246
By contrast, with his study Great Depression and the Bismarck era.
Economic developments, society and politics in Central Europe (Groe
Depression und Bismarckzeit. Wirtschaftsablauf, Gesellschaft und Politik
in Mitteleuropa) published in German in early 1967,247 which uninten-
tionally developed into a book out of the translation of an older essay
for an anthology,248 Rosenberg became the role model and mentor of
the critical social history that became established in Germany from
the late 1960s. Inspired by the long waves model developed in the
1920s by N. D. Kondratieff, the Moscow-based expert on economic
cycles, and using the example of the economic downturn from 1873
245
After initial plans for a translation were apparently hindered by the intervention
of Freiburg historian Gerhard Ritter, Rosenberg himself hesitated to publish a German
edition. The proposed translations, samples of which are to be found in Rosenbergs
papers, failed to meet his high expectations. Ultimately, he would have had to largely
rewrite the book, which he evidently wished to combine with his older study on
Junkerdom. Partly because of the shift in his interests, however, he lacked both the
energy and enthusiasm for the task. He therefore wrote to me on 27 May 1972 that for
him personally it was actually a mental relief that nothing is now likely to come of
a German edition of his book on the Prussian bureaucracyit would after all have
been rather more than a mere translation (Ritter, Rosenberg, p. 295f.).
246
Rosenberg to R. Braun, 6 July 1970, below, p. 440.
247
Published in Berlin, 1967. A forerunner to the book may be seen in an article
by Rosenberg published in the EconHR (vol. 13, pp. 5873) in 1943 on the Political
and Social Consequences of the Great Depression of 18731896. For an analysis
of the book and its impact, as well as a critique of the concept of long waves and
Great Depression, which Rosenberg later wanted to replace with that of the Great
Deflation, see the article on the book by Gerhard A. Ritter in: Volker Reinhardt
(ed.), Hauptwerke der Geschichtsschreibung, Stuttgart 1997, pp. 536539. The planned
American edition of the book, intended both to correct factual errors and conceptual
and terminological uncertainties and deepen and extend its arguments, ultimately came
to nothing because, among other things, of his criticisms of the miserable attempt
at a translation with which he was presented (letter from Rosenberg to Gerhard A.
Ritter, 21 December 1967). As a result, the books reception in the English-speaking
world remained far weaker than in West Germany.
248
See Rosenbergs letter to his wife of 25 April 1965, below, pp. 433435.
to 1896, the book examines the connections between economic cycles

and the economic, social, political, social psychological, ideological
and moral changes that occurred during this period. Rosenbergs aim
here was to build a bridge between economic history on the one hand
and social, intellectual and political history on the other andas in
his earlier study of the Prussian bureaucracycontribute to a deeper
analysis of the conditions that made Nazism possible.
After the war, Rosenberg quickly resumed contact with Meinecke,
provided him with a thorough report on his academic work and com-
mented on Meineckes own research. He was deeply moved by The
German Catastrophe. The strength of the book, he stated, lay in the
diagnosis . . . rather than the cure.249 Rosenberg was obviously refer-
ring here to Meineckes proposal, so often met with a pitying smile,
to establish Goethe communities250 as a step towards the renewal
of Germany. Rosenberg, an extremely shrewd and critical thinker,
admired Meineckes Secular reflections on 1848 as masterful, wise
and penetrating: You are the last living representative of several gen-
erations of great German professors of history.251 His lecture on Ranke
and Burckhardt, Rosenberg thought, showed Meineckes tremendous
capacity, both in the details and on a broad scale to look at old
issues and problems . . . in a quite new and exciting way.252
In contrast to Rothfels, Masur and Gilbert, in none of his publications
did Rosenberg deal directly with Meinecke. Nevertheless, alongside his
essays of the late 1920s and a critical lecture on the discipline of his-
tory in Germany, held in 1935 in the seminar of the English historian
Tawney,253 it is his notes on a lecture254 that reveal how intensively he
grappled with Meinecke as an individual, political contemporary, but
above all as a historian. As a person, he saw him as a humanistic liberal
who combined tremendous erudition and profound modesty and who
249
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 29 June 1947, see below, p. 392.
250
Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp. 442444.
251
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 2 May 1948, see below, p. 398.
252
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 6 October 1948, see below, p. 402.
253
Paper in Rosenberg papers, vol. 96. Published with an introduction by Winfrid
Halder: A Forum on Contemporary History: Being accustomed to march with the
stronger battalions, the German science of history was fully prepared to become rec-
onciled with Hitlerism. Eine zeitgenssische Sicht zum Verhltnis von deutscher
Geschichtswissenschaft und Nationalsozialismus: Hans Rosenbergs Referat an der
London School of Economics im Mai 1935, in Storia della Storiografia 51 (2007),
pp. 83123.
254
had always defended freedom of conscience. He had, Rosenberg felt,

been a tolerant teacher. Politically, he saw Meinecke as a representa-
tive of a Notables politics, one who had frequently shifted his political
loyalties and preferences over the course of his life. As a conservative
reformer, he had tried to integrate the working class into the nation
and nation state and had been appalled by the Nazi regime. For long a
defender of the Bismarckian Empire, he had ended up as a sharp critic
of Prussian militarism. For Rosenberg, along with Otto Hintze he had
been the leading German historian of his time; alongside the historical
school of political economy, he had tried to inject new vigour into the
stagnant discipline of history in Germany with the aid of a history of
ideas initiated by Dilthey and Haym. For Rosenberg, Meinecke was an
epigone of classical idealism from Herder to Ranke and, especially in
light of his book on the emergence of historism, the last of the great
romantic historians.
He was very clear about the limits of Meineckes history. Rosenberg
felt that Meinecke was ignorant of economic history and had under-
estimated and failed to understand the social and especially the eco-
nomic bases of ideas and historical action. Meinecke thus tended to
examine the history of ideas in a social and economic, and sometimes
even political vacuum. On the other hand, he emphasized the pro-
found subtlety of his analyses of ideas and stressed that Meinecke
had always involved himself intellectually as well as emotionally in
the issues he studied. Rosenberg counted Rothfels, Kaehler, Holborn,
Gerhard, Gilbert, Masur, but also the heretics Kehr and himself, as
members of the Meinecke School. It is clear from these notes just how
much Rosenberg admired Meineckes personal integrity and dedica-
tion to his work, while at the same time rejecting his history of ideas
as outmoded, one-sided and a quite inadequate means of achieving a
deeper understanding of the past.
The question of Rosenbergs possible return to Germany played a
major role in the correspondence between Rosenberg and Meinecke.
As early as 6 May 1946, he informed Meinecke that despite the dreadful
situation in Germany, which would no doubt continue for many years,
he was prepared, should the occasion arise, to return to a German
university.255 Meinecke thanked Rosenberg for his courageous stance
255
See below, p. 377.
and assured him that if asked he would mention Rosenbergs name in

connection with proposed appointments.256 In 1947, Rosenberg turned
down an offer to take up the chair in modern history formerly held
by his habilitation supervisor Johannes Ziekursch at the University of
Cologne, later occupied by Theodor Schieder.257 It had not, as he told
Meinecke, been an easy decision, for despite the dreadful material
situation and political uncertainty, I am drawn to return for many
reasons. Furthermore, I believe that the spirit lives on even amid the
ruins, or at least that it can be revived.258 Just one year later, he felt that
he had made the wrong decision, one in which family considerations
[had] played a decisive role. He did not think that he would say no
again in future, [should] another opportunity arise at a good German
university.259 Rosenberg expressed himself in even clearer terms in a
letter to his wife of 10 September 1948 following a visit to Cologne:
My stay in Cologne basically confirmed my expectations and calcula-
tions, apart from the fact that I found the material living conditions to
be far better than I had assumed. As far as the intellectual and political
meaning and purpose of professional life, within the context of ones
personal abilities, is concerned, an academic teaching post in Germany
offers a quite unique and unrepeatable opportunity over the next 10
to 15 years. Seen from this perspective, I now know even more clearly
than I did last winter that it was a fundamental mistake, and a betrayal
of my innermost convictions, of my better convictions, to turn down
the appointment in Cologne.260
Meineckes aim of winning Rosenberg for the Free University in
early 1949 came to nothing, as Rosenberg was clearly put off by the
256
Meinecke to Rosenberg, 12 June 1946, see below, p. 377.
257
No formal offer was made: out of consideration for his wife, unwilling to return
to her devastated native city of Cologne because of the appalling conditions, Rosenberg
made it clear that he would not accept it. He was originally placed second on the list of
candidates after Theodor Schieder. However, after the addition of further information
about his scholarly evolution and future plansparticularly his planned book on the
Junkersthe list was corrected and Rosenberg was asked first. See Rosenberg papers,
vols. 41, 43 and 47.
258
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 4 December 1947, see below, p. 395.
259
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 6 October 1948, see below, p. 402.
260
See below, p. In Americanisation as Globalisation? Remigrs to West Germany
after 1945 and Conceptions of Democracy: The Case of Hans Rothfels, Ernst Fraenkel
and Hans Rosenberg, in: Year Book 2004 of the Leo Baeck Institute 49, pp. 153170,
Arnd Bauerkmper wrongly states that Rosenberg had no desire to return quickly to
the country of his birth after the end of the war (p. 169).
uncertain political situation in the divided city, cut off by the Berlin
Blockade of 1948/49. On 6 October 1948, he wrote to Meinecke that
he considered the situation of the Western powers in Berlin to be
untenable, unless they are willing to go to war, which I neither
believe nor desire.261 Shortly afterwards, he thought that there was
probably only one alternative over the long term: Either Berlin will
absorb the Eastern Zone or the Eastern Zone will absorb Berlin. At the
same time, he admired the Berliners, and Meineckes, composure dur-
ing the blockade and in founding the Free University. That Meinecke
had made up his mind to place every last ounce of his strength at the
service of the Free University is a source of moral support and guid-
ance to your students and admirers in America.262
Rosenberg enjoyed exceptional success as visiting professor at the
Free University in the summer semesters of 1949 and 1950. In a report
to the State Department from 11 November 1950, following his second
semester as visiting professor at the FU Berlin, Rosenberg produced a
highly critical analysis of the discipline of history in Germany. It had
not, he asserted, taken note of important studies by political scientists,
economists, sociologists and historians in the United States, Great
Britain and France. He criticized the education of history students,
claiming that they learned almost nothing of the achievements of the
social sciences. However, most German students were still highly mal-
leable and it would therefore be a good idea to send promising students
to the United States and Great Britain for one or two years to inject
new vigour into their current and future professional work, enable
them to produce critical analyses of significant political and economic
problems and prepare them for leadership roles within society. It was
also characteristic of Rosenberg that he took a critical view of devel-
opments at the Free University, which was increasingly becoming a
normal West German university, and feared thatagainst the wishes
of its German and American foundersit was losing its original role
of trailblazer within the German university system, which he saw as
no longer in keeping with the times.263
261
See below, p. 401f.
262
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 15 January 1949, see below, p. 405.
263
Over the medium and longer term, Rosenberg himself had a major
impact as a result of his visiting professorship at the FU in Berlin.
Through his critical assessment of German history and by imparting
new methods and problems, he exercised a significant influence on a
large number of political scientists and historians later active in West
Germanysuch as Gilbert Ziebura, Gerhard Schulz, Wolfgang Sauer,
Franz Ansprenger, Otto Bsch, Friedrich Zunkel, Helga Grebing and
Gerhard A. Ritter and, directly and indirectly, on some of their stu-
dents as well.264
His involuntary emigration prompted Rosenberg to think long and
hard about his German-American identity and the significance of his
education in Germany to his academic work, including that done in
the United States. To his wife, who obviously had reservations about
taking American citizenship in 1944, he wrote that essentially, one
really [ought] to look at these things from a purely practical point of
view. With an American passport and American currency, the world
will be your oyster after this war. Thats the flipside of emigration. An
American court itself recently ruled that the acquisition of citizenship
does not entail the moral obligation to become an American patriot,
but merely the obligation to respect American laws. In terms of my
political persuasion, I myself have been a democrat since I was twenty
years old, so I have no need to change my attitude in America in that
regard. And narrow-minded, bigoted political nationalism, whether of
the German or American or English variety, is equally odious to me.
In terms of my cultural affiliation, I am German and always will be. It
was, he stated, ultimately no coincidence that in the United States he
quickly devoted himself [once again] chiefly to the study of German
history and culture and tried to render the German Problem more
comprehensible to educated Americans and Englishmen.265 Two
and a half years later, he wrote to the president of his college: My
outlook is no longer that of an emigrant. By degrees I have acquired
the mentality of an immigrant who has taken roots in the land of his
264
Rosenberg regarded his time as visiting professor in Berlin as the peak of his
academic influence and dedicated his book The Great Depression and the Bismarck
era (Groe Depression und Bismarckzeit) to his old students at the Free University
of Berlin from 1949 to 1950 in grateful remembrance and in honour of our bond of
friendship.
265
Rosenberg to his wife, 24 June 1944, see below, p. 375f.
adoption . . . At the same time, however, I do not consider it a disloyal

attitude if I endeavour in a humble and restrained way to remain faith-
ful to what I value as the fruitful kernel of the German university tradi-
tion which, however gleamed or perverted in recent years, has made no
trifling contribution to the common treasures of western civilization.
In all fairness to my old academic masters, now dead, maimed, or
halfstarved, it must be said that it was the magic of that, to some
extent transplantable tradition rather than stirring intellectual events
at Brooklyn College which furnished me with the major incentive to
tackle a bigger and more difficult job than I had ever ventured to han-
dle before.266
Rosenberg had a close attachment to Germany, and particularly to
his German students. It was therefore not only his wifes desire for
closer contact with her grandchildren267 that prompted the Rosenbergs
to return to Germany following his retirement in 1977. There he was
made honorary professor at the University of Freiburg and honorary
doctor at the University of Bielefeld and quickly settled in despite his
initial doubts and reservations.268
Rosenberg and his American students did much to enhance the
understanding of German history in the Anglo-Saxon world. But his
influence on the discipline of history in Germany was greater still.
With his academic studies and his intensive personal contact with
many young German historians, he became the most important pio-
neer, probably more important even than Conze, of modern German
social history. Thus, the key foundation stone of modern social his-
tory in West Germany was not popular history, advanced by Conze
in particular, but a process of drawing on the research of historical
political economists and Otto Hintzes embryonic attempts to develop
a historical sociology based on the method of comparison, as well as
the taking up of problems dealt with by adjacent social sciences in
Germany and abroad.269
266
Rosenberg to the president of Brooklyn College, 31 January 1947, see below, p. 386f.
267
Hans Rosenberg to Rudolf Braun, 12 December 1975, below, p. 445.
268
Hans Rosenberg to Rudolf Braun, 9 November 1977, below p. 446.
269
See George G. Iggers criticisms of Winfried Schulze, who places heavy emphasis
on the continuity of popular history with modern social history in Germany. Winfried
Schulze, German Historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s, and the Comment
by Iggers, in: Lehmann/Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity, pp. 1947. There is a
general tendency to associate the efforts to fundamentally revise the German view
9. Hedwig Hintze
Hedwig Hintze (18841942) is treated here as a student of Meinecke,
as he was technically her doctoral supervisor,270 though she rightly saw
herself as a student of her husband Otto Hintze. She dedicated her mag-
num opus, The unity of the state and federalism in old France and in
the Revolution (Staatseinheit und Fderalismus im alten Frankreich
und in der Revolution),271 to my revered teacher and beloved husband,
with gratitude and wrote to the Swiss historian Bonjour that her hus-
band had always called [her] his best student.272
of history and enhance German historians methodological toolkit with the debates
on Fritz Fischers book Griff nach der Weltmacht (1961) but this is simplistic and
posits too late a date. See Gerhard A. Ritter, The New Social History in the Federal
Republic of Germany, London 1991, esp. pp. 1931. Perhaps I may be allowed to add
that the present authors dissertation on The labour movement in the Wilhelmine
empire. The Social Democratic Party and the free trade unions, 18901900 (Die
Arbeiterbewegung im Wilhelminischen Reich. Die Sozialdemokratische Partei und die
Freien Gewerkschaften 18901900) (2nd edn., Berlin 1963), approved in 1952, but
published only in 1959, essentially explains the reformism and revisionism within
the social democracy in the ascendant during the 1890s as a resultalongside social
democracys expanded field of activity in the German states, municipalities and the
organs of social insuranceof the agricultural crisis of the early 1890s and the eco-
nomic upturn from 1895/96; in addition, the discussion of the development of the
trade union movement of the time has a strong social history orientation.
270
On H. Hintze, see Hans Schleier, Hedwig Hintze, in: H. Hintze, Die brger-
liche deutsche Geschichtsschreibung der Weimarer Republik, Cologne 1975, pp. 272
302; Brigitta Oestreich, Hedwig und Otto Hintze. Eine biographische Skizze, in:
GG 11 (1985), pp. 397419; Oestreich, Hedwig Hintze, geborene Guggenheimer
(18841942). Wie wurde sie Deutschlands erste bedeutende Fachhistorikerin?,
in: Annali dell Instituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 22 (1996), pp. 421432;
Robert Jtte, Hedwig Hintze (18841942), Die Herausforderung der traditionellen
Geschichtsschreibung durch eine linksliberale jdische Historikerin, in: Jahrbuch des
Instituts fr Deutsche Geschichte, Supplement 10: Juden in der deutschen Wissenschaft,
Tel Aviv 1986, pp. 249279; Bernd Faulenbach, Hedwig Hintze-Guggenheimer (1884
1942). Historikerin der Franzsischen Revolution und republikanische Publizistin,
in: Barbara Hahn (ed.), Frauen in den Kulturwissenschaften. Von Lou Andreas-Salom
bis Hannah Arendt, Munich 1994, pp. 136151. Peter Th. Walter, Die Zerstrung
eines Projekts: Hedwig Hintze, Otto Hintze und Friedrich Meinecke nach 1933, in:
Bock/Schnpflug (eds.), Meinecke, pp. 119143. For a comprehensive analysis of her
academic work and political views, see Steffen Kaudelka, Rezeption im Zeitalter der
Konfrontation. Franzsische Geschichtswissenschaft und Geschichte in Deutschland
19201940, Gttingen 2003, pp. 4145, 241408.
271
Berlin/Stuttgart 1928.
272
Hedwig Hintze to Edgar Bonjour, 21 April1 May 1942, in: Otto und Hedwig
Hintze, Verzage nicht und lass nicht ab zu kmpfen. . . Die Korrespondenz. Compiled
by Brigitta Oestreich, ed. By Robert Jtte and Gerhard Hirschfeld, Essen 2004,
p. 225.
Hedwig Hintze
Hedwig Hintze was an outsider within the discipline of history in

Germany and in the university. She was the second woman habilitated
in history, and the first high-ranking professional woman historian.273
She came up against the prejudices towards women in academia and,
as she was of Jewish descent, albeit a Protestant, against the wide-
spread disapproval of Jews at universities. What is more, she was also
marginalized politically at the university as a radical republican left-
wing intellectual, who ultimately inclined ever more towards socialist
ideas, and as a pacifist.
Only in recent decades, in connection with the increased interest in
womens history, persecution of Jews, emigration and historians posi-
tion in relation to the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, have
researchers begun to study her in depth, though so far their task has
been impeded by the dearth of source materials.274
273
The first was Ermentrude Bcker, a relative of the famous historian Leopold von
Ranke. She was habilitated in 1922, made professor at the Pdagogische Hochschule
Dortmund and died at the age of 38. See Oestreich, Hedwig Hintze, p. 421.
274
There is no literary estate as such. Alongside the above-mentioned volume of
letters published by B. Oestreich, we can expect the stock of source materials to be
expanded substantially by the publication of newly discovered sources, found chiefly
among the Hedwig Hintze papers in the Houghton Library, Harvard Universitys
Hedwig Hintze was the daughter of the very wealthy banker Moritz
Guggenheimer. As kniglicher Kommerzienrat (an honorary title con-
ferred on industrialists), honorary commercial judge at the Court of
Appeal, first president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
founded in 1869, chairman of the local council and leader of the
Israelite community in Munich, he was among the most distinguished
citizens of the Bavarian capital and royal seat of Munich. The family
enjoyed an upper class lifestyle in a villa with a living area of more
than 1000 square metres and separate coach house in one the most
exclusive streets in Munich. As well as attending a higher girls school,
the familys wealth made it possible for Hedwig, who had a very lively
mind and great thirst for knowledge, to receive an introduction to
historical and philological problems through private lessons from pro-
fessors. At the age of 17, H. Hintze passed the Bavarian state exam
for teachers of the French language, after which she went to a board-
ing school for girls in Brussels for a year. The mechanical way in
which it was run and perfunctory atmosphere of this establishment,
as she wrote in the CV attached to her doctoral application, were so
repellent to me that I subjected the whole system of such education
for girls to thorough and severe criticism.275 In 1904, she was admit-
ted to the University of Munich as Gasthrerin (which allowed her to
attend lectures and seminars without working towards a degree) and
over the next few years she published two short studies in cultural his-
tory on Richard Wagner and prepared the index of names for the new
Lachmann-Muncker edition of Lessing.276
In 1908, with a view to acquiring a knowledge of the ancient lan-
guages and preparing for her Abitur, which she passed in Easter 1910,
library of manuscripts and unpublished materials, among them the manuscripts of her
lecture courses at the University of Berlin. See Steffen Kaudelka and Peter Th. Walther,
Neues und neue Archivfunde ber Hedwig Hintze (18841942), in: Jahrbuch fr
Universittsgeschichte 2 (1999), pp. 203218. On newly discovered source materials
relating to her time in the Netherlands, see Peter Th. Walther, Werkstattbericht:
Hedwig Hintze in den Niederlanden 19391942, in: . . . immer im Forschen blei-
ben. Rdiger vom Bruch zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. by Marc Schalenberg and Peter Th.
Walther, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 415433.
275
See below, p. 452f. For her criticisms, see the article Zur Erziehungsfrage, in:
Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 December 1903, supplement, p. 438f.
276
Hedwig Hintze, Novalis Hymnen an die Nacht und R. Wagners Tristan und
Isolde, in: Neue Musik-Zeitung, 6 July 1905, pp. 425428; Hintze, E. T. A. Hoffmann
und Richard Wagner, in: Richard-Wagner-Jahrbuch 2 (1907), pp. 165203; index of
names for the Lachmann-Muncker edition of the works of Lessing, Berlin/Leipzig
1924.
she moved into the house of a relative, a grammar school teacher in

Berlin. There she began to study German language and literature, his-
tory and political economy in 1910. It was the lectures of Otto Hintze
that made the most profound impression on her; she was especially cap-
tivated by the productive fusion [which Hintze] sought to achieve,
of true history with political science and Staatenkunde [the study
of the state], while taking full account of the institutional factor.277
Eventually, in one of Hintzes seminars, she was asked to produce a
paper on The formation of the unified French state (Die Bildung
der franzsischen Staatseinheit), which benefited from her studies in
the National Library in Paris over the holidays. This paper exercised
a determinate influence on the future course of her studies and her
academic oeuvre as a whole.278
Her encounter with the then 50-year-old Hintze was of crucial
importance to the rest of her life both academically and personally.
Hintze was clearly fascinated by this wealthy, elegant woman, 23 years
his junior, who was also a gifted scholar. They married in 1912. Hedwig
Hintze initially broke off her studies and aided his scholarly endeav-
ours by becoming his assistant, primarily because of the poor state of
his health. However, in 1915 she resumed her studies and attended
lectures by Ernst Troeltsch and political economist Heinrich Herkner
in particular. Her studies and research were repeatedly interrupted by
her husbands illnesses and the need to look after him, but she finally
registered for her doctoral examination in December 1923. By then
she had also advanced her historical studies and gained great inspira-
tion for her doctoral thesis from a lecture by Meinecke on The age of
the French Revolution and the wars of liberation (Das Zeitalter der
Franzsischen Revolution und der Befreiungskriege) in the summer
semester of 1919.279
The sources do not allow us to paint a more precise picture of
her personal and academic relationship to her doctoral supervisor
Meinecke, a close friend of her husband. The Meineckes and Hintzes
clearly saw each other socially on a regular basis and as a cheerful
letter from her to Frau Meinecke of 30 August 1921 suggests,280 this
keen mountain climber seems to have gone hiking with Meineckes
277
CV submitted as part of doctoral application, see below, p. 455.
278
CV submitted as part of doctoral application, see below, p. 455f
279
280
daughter Sabine. The sources do not, however, provide us with com-

ments on any scholarly exchange. In his autobiography, Meinecke
describes with mild surprise but also much affection the marriage,
which was to remain childless, between the formal, older scholar, gen-
erally conservative in his habitus as well as his political views, and his
vivacious, politically far more radical young wife with her independ-
ent academic ambitions, as a marriage of a unique kind, no doubt
possible only within modern academic life and which Hintze is now
carrying on with gallant dignity. . . . Before he married, he had years of
serious illness behind him, during which he had a very hard time of
it, and the marriage may have saved his life.281
During the famous gatherings over tea on Saturday afternoon,
attended by Hintzes colleagues, friends and students, she clearly
played a highly independent role alongside her husband, whom she
quite often contradicted.282 As Brigitta Oestreich has convincingly
brought out (though the scanty sources have so far made it impossible
to prove this), Hedwig Hintze not only benefited from this scholarly
partnership, but also encouraged Otto Hintzes development from a
historian of Prussia into the author of major essays in comparative
constitutional history, one with a universal orientation deploying the
methods of sociology.
Hedwig Hintzes doctoral thesis centred on the federalistic under-
current that was the constant accompaniment to the development
of the unified and centralized French state,283 something she also
examined in several essays on contemporary regionalism in France.284
When she received her doctorate, she had already produced the first
twelve of an eventual eighteen chapters of her above-mentioned book,
which she later presented for her habilitation; for her doctoral the-
sis, she formally submitted a chapter on The municipal legislation
of the Constituante (die Municipalgesetzgebung der Constituante).
281
Friedrich Meinecke, Strasbourg/Freiburg/Berlin 19011919, in: Meinecke Werke,
vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, p. 232f.
282
See Rothfels account in his letter to Gerhard Oestreich of 10 July 1965, in:
Hintze, Verzage nicht, pp. 247249.
283
284
Hedwig Hintze, Der moderne franzsische Regionalismus und seine Wurzeln,
in: Preuische Jahrbcher 181 (1920), pp. 347376; Hintze, Der franzsische
Regionalismus, in: Deutsche Nation 3 (1921), pp. 287292; Hintze, Der franzsi-
sche Regionalismus, in: Volk unter Vlkern. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Schutzbundes
1925, pp. 349367; Hintze, Staatseinheit und Regionalismus in Frankreich, in:
Sozialistische Monatshefte 64 (1927), pp. 364371.
According to Meineckes expert reference, this study was in fact a

(wide-ranging) constitutional history of France from the middle
ages on from the perspective of federalist and provincialist thought.
Despite criticisms of certain formal deficiencies, the study and the viva
received summa cum laude, the highest possible mark.285
It was not her research work but her political studies, which were
consciously intended as tools of popular education, that incurred the
disapproval of some of the examiners of her 1928 habilitation the-
sis, though they did not go so far as to reject it. Particular offence
was taken at her introduction to the German translation, which she
supervised, of Alphonse Aulards work on The political history of the
French Revolution, arranged by Meinecke, and her introduction to a
posthumous, uncompleted historical study of Constitutional develop-
ments in Germany and Western Europe by Hugo Preu, left-wing
liberal creator of the Weimar imperial constitution.
For her, attitudes to the French Revolution were a measure of the
minds in both France and Germany. The Revolution, according to
her interpretation of Aulard, was an ideal whose light radiates out
from the past, with whose realization those living now and future gen-
erations are entrusted. Located on the left wing of the non-socialist
parties in terms of domestic politics, Aulard, Hintze tells us, did not
spurn alliances with the socialists. The Internationale, the symbol of
the republican soul of the young France and of the future, ought to be
considered just as important as the Marseillaisethe song of glorious
historical memories. For Hintze, political thought in Germany could
also be stimulated by studying this book, in which Aulard wanted to
bring out the origins of the French democracy and republic and espe-
cially the emergence of human rights, particularly given that, in the true
spirit of the Revolution, Aulard sought a path away from the nation
state, jealously sovereign and bristling with arms, towards the free
and peaceful unification of the democratic states.286 Hintzes enthu-
siastic introduction, in which only the lack of attention paid to issues
in economic and social history was criticized,287 triggered sharp and
polemical public exchanges with Austrian historian Heinrich Ritter
285
vol. 627.
286
A. Aulard, Politische Geschichte der Franzsischen Revolution. Entstehung und
Entwicklung der Demokratie und der Republik 17891804, introduction by Hedwig
Hintze, Munich/Leipzig, 1924, pp. IXXV.
287
Ibid., p. X.
von Srbik; however much he might recognize the positively valuable

aspects of the French Revolution, he refused to regard it as a rational
political and social ideal.288 In her response, she stated that each indi-
vidual is at liberty to view the Metternich system and its underlying
ideas as preferable to the system of human rights and the ideas of
1789.289
Her view of German history is particularly apparent in her introduc-
tion to the book by Preu and an essay entitled The unified German
state and history.290 Like Preu, she sees in German history a battle
between the princely-feudal and bourgeois-corporative principle,
and the formers victory over the latter.291 She sees positive forces at
play in notions of a radical political restructuring from below inher-
ent in the popular movement of the Reformation, which lost its leader
when Luther turned against the peasants and was ruthlessly crushed.
She also took a positive view of the ideas of 1789, in her view the
pivot of modern history, and of Freiherr vom Stein and the Revolution
of 1848, which attempted to establish German unity on the basis of
popular sovereignty.292 With respect to the present, she rejected the
notion that the Weimar constitution was un-German,293 called for
the non-socialist democrats and socialists to work together closely
and, with Preu, underlined the elementary fellowship of the demo-
cratic, social and national idea and the fusion of democratic politics
and class politics in the higher unity of social democracy.294 In
the spirit of Preus original plans for the constitution, also shared by
Meinecke,295 her ideas on Germanys constitutional future envisaged
a unified, decentralized state and the dissolution of Prussia, a reor-
ganization of the Lnder disregarding historical boundaries and their
288
Heinrich Ritter von Srbik, Rezension des Werkes von Aulard, in: Deutsche
Literaturzeitung 46 (1925), col. 23022306, esp. col. 2304.
289
Hedwig Hintze, Geist von Locarno und historische Kritik, in: Frankfurter
Zeitung, 14 February 1926 (morning edition). On the prolonged controversy, see
Srbik, Geist von Locarno und historische Kritik, in: Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte 19 (1926), pp. 439444 and H. Hintzes reply, Die Kampfesweise
des Ritters von Srbik, in: Frankfurter Zeitung, 10 January 1927 (evening edition).
290
Hugo Preu, Verfassungspolitische Entwicklungen in Deutschland und West-
europa. Historische Grundlegung zu einem Staatsrecht der Deutschen Republik, ed. by
Hedwig Hintze, Berlin 1927, introduction, pp. VXX; Hedwig Hintze, Der deutsche
Einheitsstaat und die Geschichte, in: Die Justiz 3 (1927/28), pp. 431447.
291
Introduction to Preu, p. IX.
292
Hintze, Einheitsstaat, p. 442.
293
Hintze, introduction to Preu, p. VII.
294
Ibid., p. XVf.
295
See above, p. 10.
reduction to the status of mere autonomous units.296 She did not

explore specific problems of the constitution, such as the dualism
between imperial president and parliamentary government or the dys-
functional nature of the German party system, with which Meinecke
was so preoccupied.
In the discussion of her habilitation thesis, whose academic merit
was generally recognized, some of the examinersFritz Hartung,
Albert Brackmann and Erich Marckstook offence at her political
views, expressed above all in the two introductions mentioned above.
Friedrich Meineckes generally highly positive assessment criticized
her propensity to produce fiery judgements and engage in literary con-
troversies. In the expert opinion of historian of Russia Karl Sthlin,
she was assailed for her apologia for the Mountain and justification
of the execution of King Louis XVI. Historian of Eastern Europe and
Reichstag deputy Otto Hoetzsch, a member of Otto Hintzes school
of constitutional history, spoke with particular force in favour of her
habilitation and the acceptance of her truly significant work.297
Hedwig Hintzes habilitation thesis, published in a new edition
in 1989, is now considered a standard work on the history of the
French Revolution,298 while she herself is regarded as a historian of
European standing.299 There is a certain lack of clarity about the cen-
tral concept of federalism, which cannot be understood in the German
sense of the organization of a state into Lnder and which was used
during the French Revolution by the supporters of the Montagnards as
a term of abuse and means of casting their opponents as particularists
or separatists and thus as traitors of the Nation.300 In fact, her book
is concerned with the historical development of the conflict, which
ended with the centralists victory, between centrifugal and centripetal
forces in France.301 In her book, Hedwig Hintze also examined in depth
the social and economic bases of party formation in the Revolution.
A review published in 1930 shows that she shared the criticisms of
296
See Kaudelka, esp. p. 288ff.
297
In addition to the habilitation records of the Faculty of Philosophy, vol. 1243,
see also Schleier, Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 287289.
298
Hedwig Hintze, Staatseinheit und Fderalismus im alten Frankreich und in der
Revolution, unaltered reprint with a new introduction by Rolf Reichhardt, Frankfurt
a. M. 1989, p. VI. The term foreword rather than introduction is used in the book
itself.
299
Kaudelka, Rezeption, p. 41.
300
Foreword by Reichhardt, p. VII.
301
Kaudelka, Rezeption, p. 369.
Meineckes history of ideas already set out by Kehr and Rosenberg.

A history of ideas that operates almost exclusively within a vacuum
was no longer very palatable. According to Hintze, from now on
the history of ideas must instead be based on the firm foundation of
research in social and economic history.302
Hedwig Hintzes work was not only the most important contribu-
tion by a German researcher to the history of the French Revolution.
It also opened up new possibilities for French researchers, who had
largely ignored those forces running counter to tendencies towards
a centralized, unified state. However, the originality of her book was
not understood by French historians.303 Even before her habilitation in
1926, Hedwig Hintze had been tasked by Meinecke with reporting on
research dealing with the French Revolution in the HZ. She thus made
a key contribution to the reception of the work of French historians
in Germany.
As she progressed with her research following her habilitation, she
engaged ever more intensively with historical materialism. Rather
than Aulard, her new guiding stars were the French economic and
social historian Albert Mathiez, with his economic interpretation of
the Revolution,304 and above all historian and socialist leader Jean
Jaurs, who was murdered by a fanatical French nationalist on 31 July
1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. With his
tremendous determination to achieve a synthesis, he is capable, for
a moment, of reconciling old-school French socialism with Marxism
and syndicalism as he forces together historical idealism and material-
ism, collectivism and individualism, reform and revolution, interna-
tionalism and patriotism into one great unity, one which, however,
302
Hedwig Hintze, Zur politischen Ideengeschichte Frankreichs im 18. Jahrhundert,
in: Zeitschrift fr Politik 19 (1930), pp. 212217, esp. p. 217. In concrete terms, her
critique relates not to Meinecke but to the dissertation by Eva Hoffmann-Linke,
Zwischen Nationalismus und Demokratie. Gestaltung der franzsischen Vorrevolution,
Munich 1927.
303
The critique of her book as a blunder by scholar of the French Revolution Albert
Mathiez, a man greatly esteemed by Hintze, is a typical example of this. See the discus-
sion of her book in Annales historiques de la Rvolution Francaise 5 (1928), pp. 577586.
H. Hintze did not, however, share Mathiez equation of Robespierre and Lenin and his
view of the Russian October Revolution as a revival of the French Revolution.
304
See Kaudelka, pp. 333362f. In addition to her reviews, for an overview of her
assessment of developments in research on the French Revolution, see also her article:
Brgerliche und sozialistische Geschichtsschreibung der Franzsischen Revolution
(Taine-Aulard-Jaurs-Mathiez), in: Die Gesellschaft 6, vol. 2, issue 7 (1929), pp. 73
95. This article is based on her inaugural lecture, which, however, bore the main title
Epochen der franzsischen Revolutionsgeschichtsschreibung.
rooted in his ingenious character, remains tied to it.305 In Jaurs, by

whom she was fascinated and whose biography she wanted to write,
she found the synthesis of a humanitarian-idealistic and materialist
socialism, whichdespite her criticism of misunderstandings and
contradictions in Jaurs interpretation of Marxism306clearly came
close to her own ideas, especially in its emphasis on the importance of
the Enlightenment. Hedwig Hintze came near to adopting a materi-
alist interpretation of history, and the ethical-humanitarian elements
in her understanding of socialism became less important, though she
never abandoned them entirely. Nonetheless, particularly in light of
her complete rejection of the Communists, she must be considered a
social democrat towards the end of the Weimar Republic.
As mentioned above, Hintzes work at the HZ was terminated by
editors Meinecke und Brackmann. This was probably less an act of
precipitate obedience307 than a consequence of external pressure and a
surely questionable attempt to assert the scholarly character of the HZ.
It took aim at Hintze not as a Jew, but as a particularly tainted figure
politically.308 The ministerial revocation of her authority to teach on
2 September 1933, as a result of the law passed on 7 April 1933 on the
restoration of the civil service,309 on the other hand, targeted her as a
Jew. Both acts resulted in a profound rupture in Hedwig Hintzes life
and academic work. Without entirely abandoning Berlin, she tried in
vain to find a permanent position, partly with the aid of grants for
a research trip to France, where she found temporary employment
until 1935 as Matre de Recherches at the Centre de Documentation
Internationale Contemporaine in Vincennes near Paris.310 The situa-
tion in Germany became increasingly difficult for her, partly because
she was refused access to libraries, and she finally emigrated to the
Netherlands on 22 August 1939, probably with the support of a
Protestant action committee.311
305
See Hintze, review of Gaetan Pirou, Les doctrines conomiques en France depuis
1870, Paris 1925, in: HZ 134 (1926), pp. 142145, esp. 143.
306
H. Hintze, Jean Jaurs und die materialistische Geschichtstheorie, in: Archiv
fr Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 68 (1933), pp. 194218, esp. p. 207, 211ff; see
also Peregrina (pseudonym of H. Hintze), Jean Jaurs und Karl Marx, in: Tijdschrift
voor Geschiedenis 51 (1936), pp. 113137, esp. p. 114, 123f.
307
See Kaudelka, Rezeption, p. 334.
308
Meinecke and Brackmann to H. Hintze, 20 May 1933, see below, p. 465.
309
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, personal files, vol. 331.
310
Oestreich, Hedwig und Otto Hintze, p. 408.
311
Ibid., p. 411. For more on her time in the Netherlands, see: Walther,
Werkstattbericht, pp. 415434.
She received cards and letters from her husband on a near-daily

basis over the following months which show the close bond between
the two, but which also reveal that Otto Hintze had obviously aban-
doned his independent academic research. Unfortunately, her own
letters to Otto Hintze, as well as her diaries, were destroyed.312 Under
the unfavourable conditions that pertained after 1933, she still tried
to continue with her research, and published a number of articles.313
Alongside Jaurs, her main focus appears to have been a compara-
tive study of the emergence of compulsory military service.314 After
her husband died on 25 April 1940 and the Germans had established
themselves as occupying power in the Netherlands following their
offensive of 10 May 1940, her situation became increasingly intoler-
able. Hopes of a position in the Netherlands or in Bergen, Norway,
and of emigration to Cuba or Switzerland came to nothing. Finally,
in the autumn of 1940 she was offered an associate professorship in
history, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, at the New School for
Social Research in New York. Among American historians, Walter L.
Dorn, later advisor to General Clay in Germany, went out of his way
to help her, comparing her position in Germany prior to 1933 with
that of the historian Mary Beard in the United States.315 It was still pos-
sible to enter the United States at the time, but she was unable to do
so for want of a single documentprobably the Heimatschein proving
residencenecessary for the renewal of her passport.316
Following the death of her husband, Hedwig Hintze attempted to
hold on to his unpublished works, particularly because she wished
to publish his writingsabove all the manuscript of his General
comparative constitutional history of the modern age (Allgemeine
Vergleichende Verfassungsgeschichte der Neuzeit)in the United
States. Hintzes siblings refused to hand over his papers. They were
312
See the introduction by B. Oestreich on Otto and Hedwig Hintze, Verzage nicht,
p. 19.
313
See the bibliography in Kaudelka, Rezeption, pp. 500507, which renders largely
redundant the at times erroneous and patchy bibliography produced by the Hedwig-
Hintze-Institut: Barbara Deppe/Elisabeth Dickmann (eds.), Hedwig Hintze (1884
1942). Bibliographie, Bremen 1997.
314
See the postcards and letters from Otto Hintze to Hedwig Hintze from
23 November, 10 December, 12 December and 26 December 1939, in: O. and H.
Hintze, Verzage nicht, p. 155f., 163f., 165f., 170172.
315
Walther, From Meinecke to Beard?, p. 360f. However, as Walther correctly notes,
this high evaluation of her social and academic recognition did not in fact tally with
her true status in Germany prior to 1933.
316
Introduction by B. Oestreich to O. and H. Hintze, Verzage nicht, p. 38.
able to refer to the fact that Hintze had made arrangements for the
destruction of his personal manuscripts, had allegedly refused to
allow his wife to take them with her when she emigrated and, moreo-
ver, according to his brother Dr. Konrad Hintze, had stated that his
work was no longer in keeping with the times.317 But there was clearly
also major personal tension between Hedwig Hintze and Otto Hintzes
siblings,318 who were obviously unable to accept the fact that she had
deserted her husband, who was being well looked after by a house-
keeper, in order to continue with her research abroad, and ultimately
also for reasons of self-preservation. However, within the Nazi state,
it is quite likely that, had his wife been officially designated as heir to
his unpublished works, Hintzes papers would have been confiscated
as intellectual property. On the recommendation of Meinecke and Har-
tung,319 the manuscript of the constitutional history was not destroyed
but deposited either in full or in part in the Prussian Secret State
Archive, first moved to Merseburg and, after reunification, brought
back to Berlin and partially published.320
On 21 April 1942, Hedwig Hintze asked Swiss historian Edgar
Bonjour, should they never see each other again, to hold in honour
the memory of my beloved husband and of myself. If it is not granted
to me to bring my life and work to a meaningful close, I still very
much want my name to live on alongside that of my husband.321
A few weeks later, shortly before the beginning of the systematic
deportation of the Jews to the death camps, which was now beginning
in the Netherlands, she wrote to Bonjour with reference to a verse by
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer on the last days of Hus and Hutten: The
time for celebration draws nearthe great peace draws near. . . and
added one must force oneself to practice such wise and dignified
317
Dr. Hintze to Meinecke, 8 May 1942, see below, p. 469.
318
B. Oestreich, Hedwig und Otto Hintze, p. 416f.
319
See below, p. 467.
320
Otto Hintze, Allgemeine Verfassungsgeschichte der neueren Staaten. Fragmente.
vol. 1. ed. by Giuseppe Di Costanzo, Michael Erbe, Wolfgang Neugebauer, Calvizzano
1998. See also below, p. 467f.
321
O. and H. Hintze, Verzage nicht, p. 226. Aware of the intense symbiosis between
Hedwig and Otto Hintze as a result of statements by B. Oestreich, at the conference of
historians held in Frankfurt a. M. in 1998 the present author unsuccessfully proposed
naming the Hedwig Hintze Prize for Outstanding Dissertations, newly established
by the Association of German Historians (Verband der Historiker Deutschlands), the
Hedwig and Otto Hintze Prize.
resignation when all hope of survival has gone.322 On 15 July, the

first train carrying Dutch Jews departed for the death camps. Probably
on the same day, Hedwig Hintze attempted to commit suicide and
was admitted to the university hospital in Utrecht, where she died on
19 July.323
Hedwig Hintze was an important historian in her own right, who
made significant contributions to research on the French Revolution
and the reception of French historical research in Germany. Together
with her husband, she is also worthy of our attention as an example
of a modern academic marriage anddespite differing political and
to some extent academic opinionsof a remarkable emotional and
intellectual partnership.
10. Eckart Kehr

The extreme left-winger among Meineckes students was Eckart
Kehr (19021933).324 Son of the director of the Ritterakademie in
Brandenburg, a grammar school for rural Junkers, Kehr rebelled
against its strict discipline. As well as from Friedrich Meinecke, over
the course of his brief academic career he received support above all
from his uncle, the medievalist Paul Fridolin Kehr. As director for
322
Hedwig Hintze to Edgar Bonjour, 6 July 1942, in: Hintze, Verzage nicht, p. 227.
The verse by C. F. Meyer is from his poem Hussens Kerker, in: Meyer, Huttens letzte
Tage. Eine Dichtung, Leipzig 1872.
323
However, in his Werkstattbericht, Peter Th. Walther states that one of the nurses
told Otto Blumenthal that H. Hintze had died of a stroke. I nonetheless concur with
the view of B. Oestreich (copy of a letter to Walther from 20 February 2005), that this
information does not rule out suicide. We believe that Hedwig Hintze died of heart
failure as a result of her suicide attempt. The nurse would not in fact have been able
to provide unauthorized persons with more detailed information. Otto Blumenthal, a
professor of mathematics of Jewish descent at the TH Aachen, whose diary, of such
great importance to understanding Hedwig Hintzes last years, Walther consulted,
was dismissed as a result of political untrustworthiness in 1933. He emigrated to the
Netherlands in 1939 and died in November 1944 in the Theresienstadt concentration
camp.
324
On Kehr, see: Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Eckart Kehr, in: Wehler (ed.), Deutsche
Historiker, vol. 1, Gttingen 1971, pp. 100113; Wehler, introduction to: Eckart
Kehr, Der Primat der Innenpolitik. Gesammelte Aufstze zur preuisch-deutschen
Sozialgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, ed. and with an introduction by Hans-
Ulrich Wehler, Berlin 1965, pp. 129; Gordon A. Craig, editors introduction to the
English translation of Primat, entitled Economic Interests, Militarism and Foreign
Policy, Berkeley 1977, pp. VIIXXI; Schleier, Brgerliche Geschichtsschreibung,
pp. 482530; Pauline R. Anderson and Eugene N. Anderson, translators introduction
to Eckart Kehr, Battleship Building and Party Politics in Germany 18941901, Chicago
1973, pp. XIXXVII.
many years of the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome, director gen-

eral of the Prussian State Archive in Berlin and head of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute for German History, which started its work on 1
October 1917, he was probably the most influential scholar-politician
among the historians of the Weimar Republic. Eckart Kehrs political
evolution, as well as his work as a historian, was moulded by his shock
at the collapse of Germany in 1918/19, and a desire to understand the
taproots of the disaster in the First World War.
Eckart Kehr
His dissertation, entitled The battle over the first naval law (Der
Kampf um das erste Flottengesetz), originally suggested by Rothfels
and supervised by Meinecke after the former had left for Knigsberg,
was accepted by Berlin University in 1927. In his expert reference on
the dissertation, Meinecke explained that Kehr had chosen the topic
himself and, using the extensive collection of newspaper cuttings in the
Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt), provided a detailed account
of the political struggle over the construction of the fleet. He had, he
stated, read the entire manuscriptnot just those sections submitted
as dissertationand [had] learned a great deal, but also [had] some
reservations about the often overly audacious constructions and inter-

pretations of the political framework. Kehrs judgements were how-
ever, not tied to a particular political party. The text had brought
out Tirpitzs tenacious genius in winning over public opinion to his
work and the tactics of Centre Party leader Ernst Lieber, whose poli-
cies in relation to the naval question had ensured the Centre Partys
future political hegemony. Because of weaknesses in the manner of
presentation, which sometimes made the text seem like political jour-
nalism, his first instinct would be to suggest the predicate laudabile
(cum laude), but on account of the works scholarly merits, he would
consent to the higher valde laudabile (magna cum laude), as consid-
ered appropriate by Fritz Hartung, the second examiner. Kehr passed
the viva summa cum laude.325
After completing his doctoral studies, Kehr worked as an editor in
the dictionary department of Ullstein publishers.326 His main focus,
however, was on continuing with his scholarly work and printing the
substantially expanded version of his dissertation, published in 1930
under the title Construction of the battle fleet and party politics, 1894
1901 (Schlachtflottenbau und Parteipolitik 18941901),327 with the
help of a contribution to the printing costs, arranged by Meinecke,
from the Emergency Committee on Academic Research in Germany.
It constituted a profound challenge to the research of the day. With
the use of an exceptionally broad and scattered range of source mate-
rials, Kehr analyzed the class alliance between the Prussian Junkers,
who were keen on high corn taxes, and the industrial magnates of
German heavy industry, who wished to profit from construction of the
fleet, and their representation by powerful associations and the parties
allied with them. For Kehr, the material interests of certain industries
and social groups had thus moulded German imperialism and were
the decisive reason for Germanys international isolation as a result of
concurrent opposition from Russia, eager to protect the exports of its
cereals-based agricultural economy, and Great Britain, which believed
its security was at risk. This highly original, if one-sided work, which
325
vol. 691.
326
Ibid., CV by Kehr.
327
Berlin 1930. The study was subtitled: Versuch eines Querschnitts durch
die innenpolitischen, sozialen und ideologischen Voraussetzungen des deutschen
Imperialismus.
appeared to reduce the leading actors in the construction of the fleet

to mere marionettes,328 consciously took aim at the dogma of the pri-
macy of international politics expounded by the historical fraternity
since Ranke.
Kehrs extremely critical essays and lectures, among them the essays
On the genesis of the royal Prussian reserve officer (Zur Genesis des
Kniglich Preuischen Reserveoffiziers) and on The social system of
reaction in Prussia under the Puttkamer ministry (Das soziale System
der Reaktion in Preuen unter dem Ministerium Puttkamer)329 from
the 19271933 period, which had a major influence on later academic
debates, were published in 1965 by Hans-Ulrich Wehler under the title
The primacy of domestic politics (Der Primat der Innenpolitik). Kehr
turned down Meineckes offer, later accepted by Holborn, to write a
history of the origin of the Weimar constitution. From 1928, supported
by a grant from the Emergency Committee on Academic Research in
Germany, his next major focus was on Prussian fiscal policies between
1806 and 1815. In addition, from late 1929, he taught at the German
College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule fr Politik) in
Berlin. As a more far-reaching goal, he had in mind an overall account
of the problem of war and money in the age of the machine revolu-
tion.330 Of the younger generation of Meineckes students, his closest
associate was Rosenberg. Both, moreover, were friends with American
historian Eugene N. Anderson, a student in Berlin in 1930/31, and
had contact with the sociologist Albert Salomon, who taught at the
German College for the Study of Politics, and edited the theoretical
journal of the SPD, Die Gesellschaft (Society), from 19281931, in
which they, like Hedwig Hintze, published some of their essays.
In 1931, under the title War losses, reparations and re-ascend-
ance in the politics of Freiherr vom Stein (Kriegsverluste, Kriegs-
entschdigung und Wiederaufstieg in der Politik des Freiherrn vom
Stein), Kehr submitted a 485-page typed manuscript for one of the
three state prizes for studies of Freiherr vom Stein announced by the
Prussian ministry for science, art and education. This was clearly
the first volume of a planned major work on Economics and poli-
tics in Prussia during the reformist era (Wirtschaft und Politik in
328
See Wehler, Kehr, p. 102.
329
First published in: Die Gesellschaft 5, 1928/II, pp. 492502 and Die Gesellschaft
6, 1929/II, pp. 253274; reprinted in: Kehr, Primat, pp. 5363, 6486.
330
See Wehler, Kehr, p. 103.
Preuen whrend der Reformzeit). The manuscript, which met with

a positive response from constitutional law expert Richard Thoma
after he had read some of the chapters and carried out spot checks,
though he underlined his own lack of expertise, was rejected out of
hand by Freiburg-based historian Gerhard Ritter. Apart from the fact
that Stein played only a minor partand indeed an utterly pitiful
onewithin Kehrs study, it had failed to achieve its aim, despite the
authors knowledge, unusual for a historian, in the fields of sociology
and theoretical political economy, particularly the science of finance,
and its justified references to serious gaps in the existing research.
There was absolutely no sign of understanding, the historians pri-
mary task, in the book but merely of a know-it-all attitude. . . . He sees
nothing but out-and-out dilettantism at play everywhere, in fact it is
worse than that: nothing but the lowest form of egotism, the ava-
rice of a corrupt bureaucracy and a ruling class shamelessly lining its
pockets. Modern capitalism arrives in Prussia in the repulsive form of
the Junkers agricultural capitalism on the one hand, and the pariah
capitalism of the royal Mnzjuden [Jews in the employ of princes who
provided financial services] on the other. The bureaucracy, incompe-
tent and utterly corrupt, rather than directing this development into
tolerable channels, thinks of nothing but extending its control over
the state (which appears in Kehrs work as a mere power structure for
the maintenance of the ruling classes). The driving forces of events
are exclusively the meanest of material motives, and everything else,
especially all forms of patriotism, is nothing but a more or less absurd
ideology, by which the bourgeois discipline of history has of course
regularly been taken in hitherto, thanks to its lack of socio-economic
instincts.331
Meinecke too, for whom the Prussian reformist era had always
been one of the best moments of Prussian-German history, concurred
in the main with Ritters assessment. He thought this unfortunate
because we are dealing here with a very gifted author, who was one
of my students, and from whom I expected a great deal, and this is
a far-reaching achievement based on extensive study of the sources
that breaks some new ground, a piece of work which researchers need
to grapple with further. In all probability, while acknowledging some
persuasive individual results, they will reject the authors methods
and criteria of evaluation and accuse him of having overstepped the
331
boundaries of historical research and judgement. He has, to put it

bluntly, lapsed into the fanatical shrewdness of a detective. . . . What
we are seeing here is unrestrained iconoclasm.332 It was decided not
to award the prize to Kehr because of the unbalanced nature of his
study, but he was awarded a grant of 1000 Reichmarks to enable him
to develop his study into a usable habilitation thesis.333 His attempt to
habilitate under Rothfels in Knigsberg, however, came to nothing.334
In autumn of 1931, Kehr received an offer from the Secret State
Archive to edit a four-volume collection of records on Prussian finan-
cial policies from 1806 to 1815.335 The first two volumes were completed,
and in part already set, when Kehr travelled to America in January
1933, with a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation, to deepen
and add to his study by examining the economic relations between the
United States and Europe from 1789 to 1815. The historians Hermann
Oncken, Fritz Hartung and political economist Hermann Schumacher
were against the granting of the scholarship, while Meinecke and
the Wrzburg-based lawyer and historian Albrecht Mendelssohn-
Bartholdy were in favour. The scales were tipped in Kehrs favour by
the president of the Emergency Committee on Academic Research in
Germany, retired secretary of state Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, and Kehrs
uncle Paul F. Kehr.336
In view of the looming threats to his existence there,337 Kehr prob-
ably accepted the burning of his bridges to Nazi Germany quite
consciously. In the United States, in the seminar of American historian
332
See below, p. 479f.
333
See Schleier, Brgerliche Geschichtsschreibung, p. 515.
334
The habilitation thesis, along with his probably partially identical manuscript
submitted for the state prize, is unfortunately lost. Indications of the content in light
of Kehrs letters and the draft of his introduction to the collection of official records
mentioned in the following footnote can be found in Wehler, Kehr, pp. 104106.
335
Kehr was removed as editor of the collection of official records in May 1933.
The documents collected by Kehr were initially passed to Alfred Vagts and were trans-
ferred in 1968, along with other of Kehrs papers, to the Federal Archive in Koblenz,
small acquisitions, no. 508. The extant parts of the collection of records were pub-
lished in: Preuische Finanzpolitik 18061810. Quellen zur Verwaltung der Ministerien
Stein und Altenstein. Compiled and prepared by Eckart Kehr, ed. by Hanna Schissler
and Hans-Ulrich Wehler. With an introduction by Hanna Schissler, Gttingen 1984.
336
See Wehlers introduction to Kehr, Primat, p. 18f.
337
On 10 February 1933 Kehr wrote to D. Gerhard: You are in a better posi-
tion than me. You wont be hanged as I would be if I was to return to the new
Swastika Reich. Quoted in: Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Eckart Kehr, in: Historische
Sozialwissenschaft und Geschichtsschreibung. Studien zu Aufgaben und Traditionen
deutscher Geschichtswissenschaft, Gttingen 1980, pp. 227248, esp. p. 241.
Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Kehr gave a talk on Recent German histori-

ography in which he distanced himself from the discipline of history
in Germany and particularly from Meineckes history of ideas. The
study of history in Germany, which, Kehr stated, was closely linked
socially with the bourgeoisie, ignored the problems of the capitalist
economy. With his history of ideas, a typically German phenomenon,
Meinecke in particular, the only German historian associated with a
significant school, had temporarily shown the intellectually leaderless
German bourgeoisie a way forward, though in the long run this was
merely a dead end. With its notion of ideas as driving forces of the
historical process, the history of ideas was partly responsible for the
total exclusion of social and economic history from the German uni-
versities and thus for the international isolation of the discipline of
history in Germany.338
A few months later, on 29 May 1933, Kehr, not quite 31 years old,
died in Washington of a hereditary heart defect. His writings were
influenced chiefly by Max Weber, Karl Marx and American historian
Charles A. Beard. Because they exploited new source materials and
deployed original methods, but also because of their radical, if often
exaggerated, theses and the moral impulses underlying them, from the
mid-1960s especially they forced the discipline of history in Germany,
especially modern social history, to engage in intensive debate and
self-examination. It is a telling comment on Meinecke that, if we dis-
regard the fact that he backed the decision not to award Kehr the Stein
Prize, he tolerated and supported this irksome but brilliant student
to the very last.
11. Hanns Gnther Reissner

The last of Meineckes migr students considered here, at least briefly,
is Hanns Gnther Reissner (19021977).339 He came from a middle
class Jewish home andin contrast to all the other Jewish students
of Meinecke dealt with here, with the possible exception of Baron
still adhered to the Jewish religion. Under Meineckes supervision,
he obtained his doctorate in 1926 with a dissertation on Mirabeau
and his Monarchie Prussienne (Mirabeau und seine Monarchie
338
The talk, translated from the English, was first published in: Kehr, Primat,
pp. 254268.
339
On Reissner, see Biographisches Handbuch, vol. 2, part 2, p. 959; Epstein, A Past
Renewed, pp. 258264, featuring a bibliography of Reissners books and articles.
Prussienne).340 He then worked in banks and various businesses

before emigrating to India via Great Britain in 1939 and finally on to
the United States in 1948.
His business career came to an end in 1965 when he took up a post
as fellow at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and began teaching
at various colleges and the New York Institute of Technology, which
ultimately appointed him professor of history. He published regularly,
mostly in newspapers catering to Jewish migrs, and wrote a biog-
raphy of the jurist and legal philosopher Eduard Gans (17981839),
who had also made important contributions to the study of Judaism.341
Finally, he contributed to the International Biographical Dictionary of
Central European migrs, 19331945.
Reissner, in Bombay, got in touch with Meinecke on 18 July 1947,
informed him of his fate and circumstances, thanked him for his
education at university and mentioned that he owed his personal
education primarily to characters such as Meinecke and political econ-
omist Max Sering, and ultimately to the influence of teachers such
as Graecist Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Troeltsch and the writings of
Max Weber and others. The memory of men such as you helped me
overcome my shock at the Hitler nightmare and to detach my image
of Germany from the impressions left by the experiences of the 1930s.
He would not, however, contemplate returning to Germany. Where
there is a rupture, there can be no return. I cannot and do not wish
to encounter people who may have been the murderers of my parents
and relatives.342
12. Gustav Mayer

Finally, we must turn to Gustav Mayer (18711948)343 and his rela-
tionship to Meinecke. Mayer, the biographer of Friedrich Engels and
the leading historian of the German labour movement in the first half
of the 20th century, came from an old-established Jewish family from
Prenzlau in der Uckermark. He was not one of Meineckes students.
After studying political economychiefly with the lecture-theatre
340
Published in Berlin/Leipzig 1926.
341
Hanns Gnther Reissner, Eduard Gans. Ein Leben im Vormrz, Tbingen
1965.
342
See below, p. 491.
343
On G. Mayer, see esp. Mayer, Erinnerungen. Historiker der deutschen Arbeiter-
bewegung; Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Gustav Mayer, in: Wehler (ed.), Deutsche Historiker,
vol. 2, Gttingen 1971, pp. 120132.
socialists (Kathedersozialisten) Gustav Schmoller, Adolf Wagner and

later Max Seringhe obtained his doctorate in 1893 under the supervi-
sion of political economist and political scientist (Staatswissenschaftler)
Georg Adler, who had just switched from Freiburg to Basle, with a dis-
sertation on Lassalle as a social economist.344 In 1896 he joined the
editorial staff at the Frankfurter Zeitung, for which he worked as cor-
respondent in Amsterdam, The Hague and especially Brussels, from
1897 to 1904. In 1906 he left the editorial team and became a freelance
journalist and private scholar. His basic ambition was to obtain an aca-
demic post that would allow him to make a career of his pronounced
historical inclinations, apparent since his youth.
Gustav Mayer
In the following years he wrote a biography of Johann Baptist von

Schweitzer,345 Lassalles controversial successor as leader of the
General German Workers Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher
Arbeiterverein), and the first volume of his biography of Engels,346
344
Gustav Mayer, Lassalle als Sozialkonom, Berlin 1894.
345
Gustav Mayer, Johann Baptist von Schweitzer und die Sozialdemokratie, Jena
1909. See Mayer to Meinecke, 28 December 1910, below, p. 492f.
346
Gustav Mayer, Friedrich Engels. Eine Biographie, vol. 1: Friedrich Engels in seiner
Frhzeit, Berlin 1920.
to this day one of the key works of history dealing with the foun-
dations of the Marxist socialism of Marx and Engels. In studies that
have attained classic status, he examined The beginnings of political
radicalism in Vormrz Prussia and the probably inevitable process of
the Separation of proletarian from bourgeois democracy,347 which,
over the long term, weakened the forces of liberalism and isolated the
emerging labour movement politically.
In the First World War, because of his excellent relations with
Belgian and Dutch socialists, Gustav Mayer worked for a time for the
press division of the German military administration in Belgium and
later, in 1917, carried out an unofficial mission for the foreign ministry
in connection with the plan to convene an International Conference
of Socialists to agree on socialist war aims and smooth the way for
peace negotiations in Stockholm.348 In 1914/15 Meinecke developed
closer relations with Gustav Mayer, whom he described in his mem-
oirs as an absolutely honest, open character who craved love and
affection,349 visited him in Brussels and engaged him in intensive dis-
cussions of political issues. He became Mayers mentor in his efforts
to gain a toehold as a historian at the University of Berlin. In 1916/17,
at Meineckes suggestion, Mayer attempted to obtain the status of pri-
vate lecturer (Privatdozent) at that institution. The faculty were asked
whether they [considered] it permissible in principle to apply for
habilitation in the subjects state studies (Staatenkunde) and party
history and general party studies.350 They rejected this proposal, evi-
dently because of the narrowness of the subject area. On 22 January
1917, Mayer then filed an application for a venia legendi for history,
with reference to his publications and the attached unpublished manu-
script on Friedrich Engels in his early period (Friedrich Engels in
seiner Frhzeit).351
347
Gustav Mayer, Die Anfnge des politischen Radikalismus im vormrzlichen
Preuen, in: Zeitschrift fr Politik 6 (1913), pp. 1113; Mayer, Die Trennung der
proletarischen von der brgerlichen Demokratie in Deutschland (18631870), Leipzig
1911. Both studies were reprinted in: Mayer, Radikalismus, Sozialismus, brgerliche
Demokratie, ed. by Hans-Ulrich Wehler, 2nd edn., Frankfurt a. M. 1969.
348
Mayer, Erinnerungen, pp. 220281.
349
350
Letter from Mayer to the Faculty of Philosophy, 21 November 1916, Archive of
Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilitation records, vol. 1235.
351
Meineckes expert evaluation for the faculty, ibid.
In his expert evaluation, Meinecke mentioned that Mayer had come

to the study of modern history by a rather unusual route and that
he lacked previous training in medieval history, but that one would
simply have to cope with his unique development. After positive
acknowledgement of Mayers publications so far, distinguished by
thorough study of the sources and a desire to bring to light unknown
materials and unearth hidden personal and material connections, he
praised the study of Engels: It captivates from beginning to end with
its clear and comprehensible portrayal and sensitive, often profound
characterization of the contemporary historical currents that affected
his heros development. Mayer strove to do justice to the socialist
movement as a whole, not only . . . in an objective historical sense, but
also with a certain appealing empathy and in the conviction that here
major historical forces are making themselves felt, forces which, despite
all the errors and all the risks which they have posed the existing state,
have a positive mission. In terms of his own political convictions,
Meinecke continued, Mayer was on the bourgeois left, but took his
criterion of judgement not solely from its party line, but also from
the world of Bismarckian realism and Prussian and German ideas of
the state. One might perhaps reproach him for bringing into view the
onslaught of the radical movements on the traditional powers that be
in an overly one-sided manner at times, while paying too little atten-
tion to these powers themselves. But most bourgeois historians make
the opposite mistake, paying insufficient attention to the radical move-
ments in light of their own premises. These one-sided approaches will
gradually balance each other out. According to Meinecke, Mayer was
mediating between bourgeois and socialist historiography; his view
of the passionate battles between proletariat and bourgeois society
and state was also based on the conviction that history will eventu-
ally tend to overcome these conflicts in the life of the German state
and people. Meinecke, whose own fundamental convictions about
the need to bridge the gap between the state and the socialist labour
movement are clearly discernible in this evaluation, spoke in favour
of accepting Mayers habilitation thesis and suggestedas did second
examiner Heinrich Herknerthat Mayer be exempted from the trial
lecture and the subsequent colloquium that normally forms part of the
habilitation process.352 This was rejected by the faculty. The resentment
352
Ibid.
felt by the nationalistic professors towards the Jew and socialist

Mayer erupted in a meticulous examination of his historical knowl-
edge, which Mayer failed. In an indignant letter to the faculty, Mayer
underlined that he would never have agreed to the procedure had he
known that so little account would be taken of his special situation (as
an older, established researcher).353
How seriously Mayer was hurt by the rejection of the Berlin phi-
losophy faculty and the nature of his future research plans are appar-
ent in a letter of 6 June 1918 to Erich Marcks, professor of history at
Munich University. The year before, Mayer had already been asked
by Meinecke to edit the papers of Johann Jacoby, a famous radical
politician from East Prussia during the revolution of 1848 and mem-
ber of the left-liberal opposition to Bismarck in the early 1860s with
strong leanings towards the labour movement. Mayer agreed to do so
in principle if the conditions were acceptable. He saw this as prelimi-
nary work for his planned history of German liberalism. At the same
time, he hesitated to apply for habilitation in Munich as suggested by
Marcks: On the basis of a mental depression caused by present reali-
ties, the disappointment I suffered here in Berlin gave rise to a sense
of uncertainty and doubt about my abilities which I have as yet by no
means fully overcome. [. . .] I saw the colloquium as so unworthy of a
mature man, especially given that I was burdened by thoughts of what
had gone before, that I do not want to expose myself to such a pro-
cedure again for reasons of aesthetics and morality as well as health.
On the other hand, since I went abroad in 1895, I have had more than
enough opportunity to experience what it means and how it stifles
ones productivity to live in a state of constant intellectual isolation
first for years outside of Germany and then as a private scholar after
I had returned home. I would have to make one last attempt to break
out of this isolation, were your kind efforts on my behalf to lay the
ground for me. But of course I shall soon be forty-seven and cannot
waste much more time if I want to set about preparing lectures.354
353
See below, pp. 494496. See also Mayer, Erinnerungen, pp. 282286 and Mayers
letter to his sister Gertrud Jaspers and her husband Karl Jaspers from 6 January 1918,
ibid., pp. 390393.
354
Mayer to E. Marcks, 6 June 1918. Archive of the Historical Commission, vol.
32. The edition of Jacobys papers and Mayers planned history of German liberalism
were never realized. However, Mayer published six volumes of Ferdinand Lassalles
Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Munich 19211925, available on the Commissions
homepage since 2007.
Mayers speculations as to whether Marcks might be able to bring

about his habilitation in Munich and how a colloquium might
be avoided were brought to an end by the collapse of the German
Empire.
Following the Revolution, on 30 November 1918, at Meineckes
request, a faculty commission in Berlin discussed issuing Mayer with
authority to teach (venia legendi) in the special fields of the history of
democracy and socialism in light of his academic works. Meineckes
proposal was rejected, with everyone but himself voting against, but
the minister was informed that there were no academic reservations
regarding the ministers intention of appointing him authorized lec-
turer in these special fields. At the same time, however, the commission
expressed fundamental reservations about the growth in the category
of authorized lecturers (beauftragte Dozenten).355 Finally, in 1922,
Mayer took up an appointment as associate professor in the history
of democracy, socialism and the political parties, newly established
for him by the Prussian ministry of education and cultural affairs, at
the University of Berlin.356
Mayer became the only Jewish357 member of the Historical Commission
for the Imperial Archive and later the Imperial Historical Commission,
in which he was in charge of the planned volume of official records on
the Anti-Socialist Law.358 The main academic result of Mayers work
in the Weimar Republic was the six-volume edition of Lassalles post-
humous letters and writings, and his documentation of the memorable
encounter between Bismarck and Lassalle, which caused a consider-
able stir.359 He also managed to complete the second volume of his
Engels biography, which deals chiefly with Engels intensive relations
355
Minutes of the meeting in the habilitation records, vol. 1235.
356
Copy of the letter from the Prussian minister for science, art and education to
Mayer from 4 February 1922, in: Archive of the Humboldt University, Berlin, Mayers
personal files, vol. 109.
357
Mayer had an ambivalent relationship to his Judaism. He had ceased to observe
the rules of the Jewish religion, but retained a kernel of Jewish religiosity. However,
his aversion to religious rationalism prevented any embrace of Reform Judaism and
his strongly German instincts ruled out a rapprochement with national Judaism
(Erinnerungen, p. 364).
358
The volume was never published as a result of the seizure of power by the Nazis.
A large array of materials collected by the editor, Dr. Alfred Schulz, can be found in
Schulzs papers in the Hamburg Library for Social History and the Labour Movement
(Hamburger Bibliothek fr Sozialgeschichte und Arbeiterbewegung).
359
Bismarck und Lassalle. Ihr Briefwechsel und ihre Gesprche, ed. by Gustav Mayer,
Berlin 1928.
with the early socialist parties of Europe, and was published in The
Hague in 1934.360
Mayer and Meinecke enjoyed an increasingly close personal relation-
ship, and in their political views and assessment of the labour move-
ment and socialism as major historical forces they were also very close.
There were, however, differences in their historical views. Mayer, who
sought to achieve a synthesis of Ranke and Marx, saw more clearly
than Meinecke how greatly the state was shaped by the political group-
ings active within society, and underlined that the strength and success
of the great powers, whose differences Meinecke, like Ranke, saw as
the ultimate determinative forces of history, were partly dependent on
domestic political preconditions.361
Retired on 4 September 1933 because he was a Jew,362 with just
under twelve years of service behind him, a wife of delicate health
and two dependent sons, one of whom was emotionally disturbed and
constantly unable to work, Mayer had a quite inadequate pension. On
the initiative of Meinecke, in late 1933, with reference to Mayers serv-
ices to the Empire in the World War and revolutionary period, his
scholarly achievements and warmly national persuasion, ten mem-
bers of the Imperial Historical Commission eventually asked the Nazi
minister for science, art and education in Prussia, Bernhard Rust, to
take into account the particular hardship of his case in calculating his
pension. The request was unsuccessful, as was a similar petition, also
initiated by Meinecke, by some of the most prominent members of the
philosophy faculty of Berlin University.363
Finally, in 1934, Mayer emigrated with his family via the Netherlands
to England and found a number of job opportunities, chiefly at the
360
Gustav Mayer, Friedrich Engels, vol. 2: Engels und der Aufstieg der Arbeiterbewe-
gung in Europa, The Hague 1934. A second, revised edition of the first volume appeared
at the same time. Both volumes reprinted Cologne 1972.
361
See Gottfried Niedhart, Deutsch-Jdische Neuhistoriker in der Weimarer
Republik, in: Jahrbuch des Instituts fr Deutsche Geschichte, Supplement 10: Juden
in der deutschen Wissenschaft, Tel Aviv 1986, pp. 147176, esp. pp. 161163. The
difference in views was evident in a conversation between Meinecke and Mayer during
the first half of October 1918 on the primacy of foreign policy.
362
See the copy of the letter from the Prussian minister for science, art and educa-
tion of 4 September 1933 to Mayer, in: Mayers personal files, vol. 109. Mayers sus-
pension had already been ordered by the minister in a letter of 13 May 1933.
363
See below, p. 500f. On the rejection of the application, see the letter from Rust
to Hartung of 20 February 1934, in: Mayers personal files, vol. 109.
London School of Economics.364 In England, Mayer prepared an edi-

tion on the history of the English labour movement between 1857 and
1872, which was published posthumously 1995.365 He corresponded
intensively with Meinecke during the 1930s. In a letter of 25 February
1938, Meinecke complained that with the academic course [I have]
taken, [I have become] isolated and [am] no longer understood by the
younger generation. It requires the greatest of inner, even religious
and ideological counterweights in order to keep a sense of inner stabil-
ity and not allow the many little daily earthquakes to knock you down.
No doubt your suffering is even greater than mine, I know and under-
stand thatbut now you know that I too am among the sufferers.366
Partly because of his lack of familiarity with the English language,
Mayer ended up in a state of complete isolation. Towards the end of
the war, deeply hurt, he wrote his memoirsthough they extended
only as far as 1933. As he wrote to Meinecke on 3 January 1946, during
the writing process he had often held dialogues [with him] as virtually
the only intellectual German I still feel close to. He originally wanted
to publish his autobiography, which appeared a year after his death as
A Memoir. From journalist to historian of the German labour move-
ment (Erinnerungen. Vom Journalisten zum Historiker der deutschen
Arbeiterbewegung, Zurich/Vienna 1949), under the title The draw-
bridge (Die Zugbrcke). What he wished to express here was that
the drawbridge always shot up at the last moment [whenever] the
German Jew regards himself as fully German.367 He had broken with
the Jewish tradition, but was not accepted as a German, though he
had a sense of belonging to the German spirit and loved the German
language. He could put down no real roots in England. He was a wan-
dering outcast between worlds.
From early 1946 on, he corresponded intensively with Meinecke
about his personal and family situation, his relationship to Germany
and historical issues. He thanked Meinecke for the first volume of
364
On Mayers time in England, see Gottfried Niedhart, Gustav Mayers englische
Jahre: Zum Exil eines deutschen Juden und Historikers, in: Exilforschung 6 (1988),
pp. 98107.
365
Gustav Mayer, The Era of the Reform League: English Labour and Radical Politics
18571872. Documents selected by Gustav Mayer. Ed. by John Breuilly, Gottfried
Niedhart and Antony Taylor, Manheim 1995.
366
367
See below, p. 502. On Mayers intensive efforts to come to terms with his German-
Jewish identity, see also the chapter Deutscher und Jude, in Mayers Erinnerungen,
pp. 364374.
his memoirs (Erinnerungen), in which Meinecke also mentions the

great impression made on him by Friedrich Naumann.368 As a stu-
dent, Mayer himself had pledged his allegiance to Naumann and
published a number of articles in Hilfe and Zeit. Before Naumann,
however, Lassalle had tried to call into being a social and at the same
time national movement in Germany and he thus not only preceded
Naumann temporally but also did more to break up the soil with
his plough. It had been profoundly unfortunate for Germany that
when it became a mass party, social democracy had its feel for the
national dimension drummed out of it by the anti-socialists law.369 In
a letter to Mayer of 22 March 1946, Meinecke reflected on the causes
of the disaster: I now see it as lying chiefly in a secular degeneration
of the German bourgeoisie and the German national idea stretching
far into the past. I first sought a path from cosmopolitanism to the
nation state, without losing the cosmopolitanism in the processthe
path Im now in search of runs in the opposite directionthe only
problem is that the nation state itself is broken and all that is left to us
is the possibility of a cultural nation (Kulturnation) that keeps its spirit
pureand we dont know whether this possibility can ever become a
reality.370
Returning to Germany was out of the question for Mayer: Now
there is a wide river of blood there, which I can no more cross over
again than visitors to Hades could cross the Styx, which banished them
irretrievably from their world.371 Frau Mayers reply to Meineckes let-
ter of condolence is also harrowing. They had thought about Meinecke
a great deal and her husband had missed his conversations with him.
The exchange of ideas had been a feature almost entirely lacking in his
life over the previous few years. After bidding farewell to his family in
his sickbed just a few days before his death, he had the urgent need
to get up and go to you, Herr Geheimrat. I could do nothing to talk
him out of it and was quite at a loss. My husband said that he still had
so many things to discuss with you. At last I took a number of your
books from the shelf and laid them on his bed. We had pasted in the
wonderful pictures of your 70th birthday at the front. My husband
looked at them for a long time and was visibly happy. Then he said:
368
369
Mayer to Meinecke, 9 November 1946, see below, p. 518.
370
Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 247f.
371
Mayer to Meinecke, 3 January 1946, see below, p. 502.
This is a truly great scholar, very different from me. He passed away
on 21 February peacefully and without pain.372
IV. Meinecke, his migr students and relations between the discipline
of history in Germany and the United States
Determining precisely how Meineckes students influenced the devel-

opment of history in America is no easy task. With their publications
and through their students, Holborn in particular, but also Gilbert
and Rosenbergalongside other migrshelped make continental
European history, and especially German history, formerly of mar-
ginal interest, an established subject at American universities. They
were decisively aided in this by the increased interest in European and
German history as a result of the rise of Nazism, the Second World War,
the Cold War and the United States renunciation of isolationism.
Research on the Renaissance and humanism in the United States,
which had been largely underdeveloped, received a powerful boost
from migr German scholars. As well as Paul Oskar Kristeller,
Meineckes students Hans Baron and Felix Gilbert played a significant
role in this. In medieval history, the generally one-sided orientation
towards constitutional and administrative history and the emphasis
on England were supplemented by the inclusion of intellectual and
church history and the Central and Southern European countries.
As well as Theodor E. Mommsen, Ernst Kantorowicz and Stephan
Kuttnerand Kuttner made the US the leading centre for the study
of medieval canon law373Meineckes student Helene Wieruszowski
also played a substantial role here.
High-level intellectual history had existed in the United States before
the arrival of the migrs. It initially emerged in association with social
history at the beginning of the 20th century. This occurred within the
framework of a New History in close contact with the social sciences,
which were relatively strong in the United States, and political sci-
ence, in opposition to the one-sided dominance of political history. It
featured a heavy emphasis on social criticism.374 The role of social and
372
Frau Flora Mayer to Meinecke, 21 March 1948, see below, p. 527f.
373
See Petersohn, Deutschsprachige Medivistik, pp. 3237.
374
See Gilbert, Intellectual History, p. 141, 150f. The term intellectual history
was used as early as 1904 by James Harvey Robinson, one of the founding fathers
economic interests, public opinion and the ideas prevailing among the
lower classes received much attentionin contrast to Meineckes his-
tory of ideas, which analyzed the thought of eminent individuals.
From the 1930s on, alongside and to some extent in opposition to
this school, with its strong tendency towards ideological critique, there
arose a second school that placed emphasis on the intrinsic value of
ideas and their effects on the social life and actions of specific indi-
viduals, groups or even whole societies. An outstanding example of
this history of ideas was the book The Great Chain of Being (1936)
by American philosopher and literary historian Arthur Oncken
Lovejoy,375 who elaborated the notion of a God-given, hierarchical
world and social order, chiefly with reference to the English literature
of the 16th and early 17th century. Of similar importance was the pen-
etrating analysis of the theological and philosophical ideas of the early
Puritans in Perry Millers classic work on The New England Mind, the
first volume of which appeared in 1939.376 In 1940, this school estab-
lished its own journal, which saw itself as a forum of interdisciplinary
debate for all humanities disciplines, in the shape of the Journal of the
History of Ideas,377 founded by Lovejoy.
Hajo Holborn and Felix Gilbert, who emphasized the filtering of
historical processes by the human mind,378 can be considered members
of this school. Historians did not, however, develop Meineckes spe-
cific variant of the history of ideas, with its one-sided focus on elites.
The migrs themselves, influenced by new experiences and faced
with new tasks, and to some extent by developing older approaches,
of the New History. See also the essay Some Reflections on Intellectual History in:
Robinson, The New History, New York 1912, pp. 101131. For typical examples of
this intellectual history with its critique of ideology, see Vernon Louis Parrington,
Main Currents in American Thought. An Interpretation of American Literature from
the Beginnings to 1920, New York 19271930; Charles A. Beard with the assistance of
G. H. E. Smith, The Idea of National Interest. An Analytical Study in American Foreign
Policy, New York 1934.
375
Arthur Oncken Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being. A Study of the History of an
Idea, 6th reprint of the 1st edn., Cambridge/Mass. 1957 (first published 1936).
376
Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century, Cambridge/
Mass. 1939; From Colony to Province, Cambridge/Mass. 1953.
377
On the journals profile, see Arthur O. Lovejoy, Reflections on the History of
Ideas, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 1 (1940), pp. 323; on intellectual history
and the history of ideas, see also: Ernst Schulin, Friedrich Meinecke und seine
Stellung in der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft, in: Erbe (ed.), Friedrich Meinecke
Heute, pp. 2549, esp. pp. 3942.
378
Gilbert, Intellectual History, p. 155.
expanded their horizons, adopted a more comparative perspective and

went much further in elaborating the connections between ideas on the
one hand and economic and social forces and interests on the other.
In both the United States and Germany, Meineckes migr students,
and their own students, played a significant role in critically revis-
ing the view of German history among historians in Germany. From
the 1950s on, Hans Rothfels made a key contribution to establish-
ing contemporary history as an academic discipline; Hans Rosenberg
gave much impetus to the development of modern social history and
the history of societies, one of the leading schools of German history
since the 1960s. Dietrich Gerhard breathed new life into the study of
the estates in Germany and did much to establish American studies
there.
Meineckes relationship to his migr students remained very close
in human terms. With the exception of Baron, who was in contact
with Meineckes friend Walter Goetz, they resumed contact with
Meinecke after the war, often provided him with support and gen-
erally stood by him. They also maintained close contact with one
another. On 5 January 1947, for example, Hans Rosenberg informed
Meinecke that Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert, Dietrich Gerhard, Helene
Wieruszowski, Hans Baron and he had met at the annual conference
of the American Historical Association in December 1946. Rothfels, he
explained, who had been expected from Chicago, had to cancel at the
last moment. They had talked a great deal about Meinecke and thought
about him with grateful loyalty. It must, he stated, give Meinecke
great satisfaction to know that all the Meineckians have gradually
established themselves within American academic life. . . . Each of us,
and each in his own way, has followed his own path, without forget-
ting how greatly indebted we all are to you and how much you have
given us.379 As mentioned above, Meinecke did not establish a school
in any narrow sense. It was probably as an academic teacher that he
served most effectively as a role model. His students valued his toler-
ance, his engagement with their personal as well as academic prob-
lems, and ultimately also the methods of precise critical interpretation
of source materials which they had learned in his seminar.380 Most
379
See below, p. 380f.
380
The impressive account of Felix Gilberts teaching by Barbara Miller Lane, Felix
Gilbert at Bryn Mawr College (in: Felix Gilbert as Scholar and Teacher, pp. 1116)
demonstrates how much he borrowed from Meinecke as a teacher.
of his studentsespecially Holborn and Gilbertshared Meineckes

interest in political problems. It was typical of the history produced by
Meineckes students in the United States that, much like their teacher,
their interest in history was not antiquarian. Instead, they sought in
history the driving ideas and forces of historical processes, though
they tended to locate these differently than Meinecke. Of course, their
interest in problems of universal history was roused in Berlin not only
by Meinecke, but also by Troeltsch and Hintze, who fascinated some
of Meineckes students with his method of historical comparison.
Meineckes efforts to fetch his students back to Germany succeeded
only in the case of Rothfels and, following Meineckes death, Dietrich
Gerhard, who returned annually for about six months. Others such
as Rosenberg, Masur, Baron and Wieruszowski seriously considered
returning, at least for a time. In the case of Baron and Wieruszowski,
their plans were clearly thwarted by the lack of a suitable job offer,
while in the case of Rosenberg and Masur it was specific circumstances
that stopped theminitially the uncertain, catastrophic situation in
Germany immediately after the war, and later the fact that they had
put down deeper roots, both academically and in family terms, in
the United States. Gilbert, Masur, and especially Holborn had also
begun to experience a strong emotional identification with their new
country. Almost all of them worked as visiting professors and built
bridges between West Germany and the United States.381 Meinecke
was already emphasizing this in a letter to the proposed new editor
of the HZ, Ludwig Dehio, of 21 July 1947, in which he commended
his students Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert, Hans Rosenberg and Helene
Wieruszowski: In the main, with regard to these migr Jewish his-
torians, I have the impression that they do not view our fate with the
migrants resentment, that they know and understand us better than
the Americans and that they could bring us many benefits in their
381
For a general account of remigration and visiting professors efforts to inten-
sify cultural exchange and the internationalization of science, see Horst Mller,
Die Remigration von Wissenschaftlern nach 1945, in: Mller, Aufklrung und
Demokratie. Historische Studien zur politischen Vernunft, ed. by Andreas Wirsching,
Munich 2003, pp. 265278. See also the articles on remigration by Marita Kraus,
Meron Mendel, Tobias Winstel, Arnd Bauerkmper, Lars Rensmann, Nicolas Berg
and the comment by Gabriel Motzkin, in: Year Book 2004 of the Leo Baeck Institute
49, pp. 107224.
role as intermediaries within our discipline.382 Meinecke was deeply

touched by the loyalty of his American students and was particularly
proud of them.383
Meineckes close connections with the United States, which were
mediated primarily through his students, also found expression in a
series of unusual honours. The most significant was an honorary doc-
torate awarded on the occasion of the 300th anniversary celebrations
of Harvard University in 1936, whose president James Conant was
later American high commissioner and the first ambassador to West
Germany. Meinecke was one of many scholars to receive this honour.
Harvards conferment of an honorary doctorate on Meinecke was not
only a means of highlighting his scholarly achievements. After he was
forced out as editor of the HZ, an event which caught the attention of
many foreign observers, this honour was also an act of political demon-
stration against the Nazi regime, as was the simultaneous conferment
of the same title upon three Jewish scholars. Meineckes wish to accept
this great honour384 was jeopardized by the strong tensions between
the university and the Nazi regime. Harvard had curtly rejected an
offer from the Nazi international press chief, Hanfstaengl, to establish
scholarships at Harvard, emphasizing that it was incapable of accept-
ing a contribution from a man so close to the leadership of a politi-
cal party that has damaged the German universities through measures
that contradict the principles which Harvard University regards as
fundamental to the university system the world over.385 Like the other
honoured German scholars, Meinecke was finally allowed to take part
382
Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 281. Nicolas Bergs thesis
that Meineckelike German historians in generalfelt resentment towards emigrants
(Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker, p. 159) and that helike other German
historiansaccepted Rothfels return as the sole exception to this (Berg, Hidden
Memory and Unspoken History: Hans Rothfels and the Postwar Restauration of
Contemporary German History, in: Year Book 2004 of the Leo Baeck Institute, 49,
pp. 195220, esp. p. 210), is contradicted by Meineckes clear statement here as well
as his actual conduct, particularly his intensive efforts to have his migr students
return to Germany.
383
See Frau Meinecke to Frau Rosenberg, 17 April 1954, Rosenberg papers, vol. 33.
384
See Meineckes draft reply of 20 March 1935 to Conants invitation of 5 February
1935, in Meinecke papers, no. 177.
385
Decree by Rust, the imperial and Prussian minister for science and education,
to the vice-chancellors of the German universities and colleges of advanced technol-
ogy (Technische Hochschulen) and the educational authorities of those Lnder with
universities and colleges of advanced technology (excluding Prussia) of 27 April 1936,
in the celebrations as an individual, but it was made clear that any

participation, however, [bears] no official character.386
The trip to the United States was a major experience for Meinecke
and his wife. Meinecke extolled the incomparably delightful and natu-
ral hospitality he experienced there and was greatly impressed387 by
American president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who unambiguously pro-
fessed his faith in freedom and implicitly condemned the Nazi regime
in his speech at Harvard. In this day of modern witchburning, when
freedom of thought has been exiled from many lands, it is the part of
Harvard and America to stand for the freedom of the human mind,
and to carry on the torch of truth.388
As early as 1933, Meinecke had become a foreign honorary member
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and honorary member
of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1935. In December 1947, he
was made honorary member of the American Historical Association.
In his letter of thanks, Meinecke wrote: During the years when aca-
demic freedom came under terrible pressure here in Germany, it was
particularly gratifying that my scholarly endeavours were recognized,
particularly in North America, by a number of similar honours. Truth,
freedom and humanity were the guiding stars of our historical disci-
pline. During this turning point in world history, it was granted to the
North American historians to maintain an unobstructed view of these
stars at all times. Here in Germany the clouds that obscured them are
only now beginning to clear, but new storm clouds are gathering from
a different direction. We are united in the belief that they can never
permanently darken the lustre of our guiding stars. And it is our duty
to keep this belief alive among our people through the nature of our
work.389 Deeply moved, Rosenberg commented: It would scarcely be
possible to express more beautifully and profoundly in a few words
386
Express letter from Rust to Meinecke, 27 April 1936, Meinecke papers,
no. 177.
387
Meinecke to his son-in-law Carl Rabl, 10 November 1936, in: Meinecke Werke:
vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 170.
388
Text of the speech from a newspaper cutting of 24 September 1936, Meinecke
papers, no. 177. Meinecke quotes these words in his Deutsche Katastrophe, see
Meinecke Werke: vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, p. 412.
389
Meinecke to Guy Stanton Ford on 18 January 1948, reprinted in: AHR 53
(1948), p. 696.
what needs to be said about the position and mission of history in

our time.390
After returning to his Berlin home in the summer of 1946, at the
age of 83, Meinecke resumed teaching at the university on Unter den
Linden, albeit on a reduced scale. He held seminars with a small, select
group of students who, as he wrote to Holborn on 1 December 1946,
combined the historical knowledge of a fifth-year Gymnasium stu-
dent with the manner of speech of a philosophy lecturer and were
ravenous for our discipline to tell them something that might save
them from a nihilistic worldview.391
When the Free University was founded in the autumn of 1948, in
significant part through the initiative of the students, the 86-year-old
Meinecke offered his services as vice-chancellor. In numerous letters
to Meinecke and in his foreword to the Festschrift marking Meineckes
90th birthday, the famous mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter repeatedly
invoked the scene that unfolded when he and Professor Redslob,
who as pro-vicechancellor was to relieve Meinecke of the burden of
managerial duties, called on Meinecke one Sunday morning at Am
Hirschsprung 13 and he persuaded him to take on the vice-chancellor-
ship.392 As Reuter related in an extremely impressive speech (delivered
at the ceremony held to mark the renaming of the history department
as the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut on 1 October 1951), as a young stu-
dent of history he had been captivated by Meineckes Cosmopolitanism
and the National State, so for him this was also a very personal affair.
Meineckes great prestige in Germany, abroad and especially in the
United States stood the Free University in good steadan institution
which many of his colleagues initially rejected as a political move on
the part of the Americans and as stillborn.
Meinecke was a distinguished historian. Yet precisely because of the
quality of his scholarship and his impressive personality, he brought
the discipline of history in Germany to an impasse in international
terms. The culprit here was the particular form of the history of ideas
390
Rosenberg to Meinecke, 2 May 1948, see below, p. 398.
391
392
Letters from Reuter to Meinecke of 21 July 1949 and 23 August 1949. See also
Hanna Reuter to Frau Meinecke, 3 November 1953. Meinecke papers, no. 221, 266.
Ernst Reuter, Zum Geleit, in: Das Hauptstadtproblem in der Geschichte, special pub-
lication marking the 90th birthday of Friedrich Meinecke, dedicated by the Friedrich-
Meinecke-Institut at the Free University, Tbingen 1952, pp. VVII.
that he initiated, which was geared towards great individualsthough

he himself always saw it as just one of the many branches of history.
He was an incorruptible, politically engaged observer of his era
who tried to correct the weaknesses of the German Empire through
reforms. Later, however much he might criticize the functioning of
the parliamentary and party systems, he was one of the most resolute
defenders of the Weimar Republic and an unambiguous opponent of
the Nazi regime. After the war, with his book The German Catastrophe,
he made the most powerful attempt by a German historian to analyze
the deeper historical roots of Germanys failed development and to
produce a new vision of German history.
But it was probably as by far the most significant academic teacher
among the historians of the time in Germany that Meinecke exercised
the greatest and most lasting influence. His migr Jewish students in
particular played a key role as intermediaries between history in the
United States and Germany and in re-integrating German historians
into the international scientific community.
DOCUMENTS
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
I. Hans Rothfels
1. Summer 1914 Speech by Hans Rothfels at the farewell

ceremony for Friedrich Meinecke in
Freiburg
2. 6 November 1914 Hans Rothfels (Soissons) to Friedrich
Meinecke
3. 24 February 1917 Hans Rothfels (Heidelberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
4. 29 October 1927 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
5. 13 December 1927 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
6. 3 March 1930 Hans Rothfels to Siegfried A. Kaehler
7. 3 June 1930 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A.
Kaehler
8. 21 December 1930 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A.
Kaehler
9. 2 March 1932 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Theodor
Lewald
10. 23 April 1933 Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A.
Kaehler
11. 5 August [1934] Hans Rothfels (Neuhuser) to Albert
Brackmann
12. 12 October 1946 Hans Rothfels to Friedrich Meinecke
13. 30 April 1947 Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rothfels
14. 14 November 1947 Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich
Meinecke
15. 4 June 1948 Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich
Meinecke
16. 24 September 1948 Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich
Meinecke
17. 4 January 1949 Hans Rothfels to Friedrich Meinecke
118 documents
II. Dietrich Gerhard
1. 9 August 1914 Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich

Meinecke
2. 31 December 1914 Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
3. 16 June 1915 Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
4. 8 September 1923 Dietrich Gerhard to Friedrich Meinecke
5. 29 October 1923 Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
6. 29 May 1925 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich
Gerhard
7. 19 November 1935 Dietrich Gerhard (Cambridge, Mass.) to
Gerhard Masur
8. 27 August 1936 Dietrich Gerhard (Norwich, Vt.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
9. 5 March 1947 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich
Gerhard
10. 11 January 1948 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich
Gerhard
11. 5 August 1948 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich
Gerhard
12. 30 August 1948 Dietrich Gerhard (Lindenbrook Farms) to
Friedrich Meinecke
13. 31 May 1950 Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to
Gerhard Masur
14. 9 September 1953 Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to
Antonie Meinecke
15. 21 March 1954 Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to
Gerhard Masur
16. 18 September 1954 Dietrich Gerhard (S. S. Caronia) to Antonie
Meinecke
17. 24 March 1955 Dietrich Gerhard (Princeton, N.J.) to
Antonie Meinecke
list of documents 119
III. Gerhard Masur
1. 24 January 1927 Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich

Meinecke
2. 20 April 1927 Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
3. 26 April 1927 Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
4. 12 February 1934 Gerhard Masur to August Wilhelm Fehling
5. 4 February 1936 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard
Masur
6. 3 January 1947 Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
7. 7 February 1947 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard
Masur
8. 22 July 1948 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard
Masur
9. 18 August 1948 Gerhard Masur (Peekskill, N.Y.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
10. 11 October 1948 Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
11. 15 August 1950 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard
Masur
12. 3 September 1950 Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
13. 5 March 1952 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard
Masur
14. 5 April 1954 Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) an Gerhard
Masur
15. 30 July 1956 Decision on Restitution for Gerhard Masur
16. 29 March 1957 Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to
Antonie Meinecke
17. 25 January 1961 Hans Rothfels (Tbingen) to Gerhard
Masur
18. 12 February 1961 Gerhard Masur (Lynchburg, Va.) to Hans
Rothfels
19. 27 August 1961 Gerhard Masur (Raymond, N.H.) to
Antonie Meinecke
20. 14 October 1961 Gerhard Masur (Lynchburg, Va.) to
Antonie Meinecke
120 documents
IV. Hajo Holborn
1. 14 October 1924 Hajo Holborn (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

2. 9 June 1925 Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
3. 1 March 1926 Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
4. 28 April 1926 Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
5. 7 January 1929 Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich
Meinecke
6. 26 August 1929 Hajo Holborn (Sils-Baselgia, Engadine
Valley) to Friedrich Meinecke
7. 2 February 1930 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hajo
Holborn
8. [1932] CV of Hajo Holborn, submitted for his
Umhabilitation [transfer of teaching
authority to a different institution] in
Berlin
9. 14 April 1933 Hajo Holborn (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard
10. 11 September 1933 Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Dietrich
Gerhard
11. 28 May 1934 Hajo Holborn (on board RMS Majestic,
White Star Line) to Dietrich Gerhard
12. 7 February 1935 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
13. 22 February 1935 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
14. 27 September 1945 Hajo Holborn (Hamden, Ct.) to Friedrich
Meinecke
15. 28 June 1946 Hajo Holborn (Hancock, N.H.) to Gerhard
Masur
16. 23 September 1946 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
17. 30 October 1948 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
18. 9 April 1949 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Friedrich Meinecke
19. 23 October 1951 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to

Friedrich Meinecke
20. 3 April 1954 Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to
Dietrich Gerhard
21. 23 July 1969 Annemarie Holborn (Hamden, Ct.) to
Gerhard Masur
V. Felix Gilbert
1. 29 March 1929 Felix Gilbert (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

2. 17 May 1930 Felix Gilbert (Fiesole da Firenze) to
Friedrich Meinecke
3. 25 July 1930 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Felix Gilbert
4. 28 April 1932 Felix Gilbert (Florence) to Friedrich
Meinecke
5. 14 June 1947 Felix Gilbert to Friedrich Meinecke
6. 25 November 1948 Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Friedrich
Meinecke
7. 25 May 1951 Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Friedrich
Meinecke
8. 25 October 1958 Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Hans
Rosenberg
VI. Hans Baron
1. 5 October 1924 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

2. 16 October 1924 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke
3. 18 January 1925 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz
4. 2 July 1925 Hans Baron (Rome) to Walter Goetz
5. 27 June 1927 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz
6. 5 June 1928 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz
7. 23 March 1933 Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz
8. 9 November 1937 Hans Baron (London) to Walter Goetz
9. 17 May 1938 Hans Baron (London) to Walter Goetz
10. 4 April 1954 Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz
11. 15 October 1954 Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz
12. 15 August 1956 Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz
122 documents
VII. Helene Wieruszowski
1. 3 November [1926] Helene Wieruszowski (Berlin) to Friedrich

Meinecke
2. 22 October [1933] Helene Wieruszowski (Bonn) to Albert
Brackmann
3. 25 October 1933 Albert Brackmann to Helene Wieruszowski
4. 4 November 1933 Helene Wieruszowski (Bonn) to Albert
Brackmann
5. 11 August [1946] Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to
Friedrich Meinecke
6. 16 February [1947] Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to
Friedrich Meinecke
7. 9 October 1948 Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to
Friedrich Meinecke
VIII. Hans Rosenberg
1. 23 April 1924 Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Friedrich

Meinecke
2. 2 September 1925 Hans Rosenberg (Kempten, Bavaria) to
Friedrich Meinecke
3. 15 April 1927 Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
4. 13 February 1929 Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to his mother and
siblings
5. 8 December 1931 Hans and Leni Rosenberg (Berlin) to Eugene
N. Anderson
6. 23 July 1932 Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Leni
Rosenberg
7. 2 September 1932 Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Eugene N.
Anderson
8. 21 April 1933 Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Eugene N.
Anderson
9. 2 May 1933 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
10. 22 May 1933 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to
Oldenbourg-Verlag
11. 9 June 1933 Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Eugene N.

Anderson
12. 5 September 1933 Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Leni
Rosenberg
13. [18 November 1933] CV and educational background of Hans
Rosenberg, for submission to the secretary
of the International Institute of Education
14. 20 November 1933 Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches,
Surrey, England) to Oldenbourg-Verlag
15. 5 December 1933 Friedrich Meineckes (Berlin) testimonial
on Hans Rosenberg, for submission to the
Academic Assistance Council in London
16. 29 January 1934 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
17. 17 April 1934 Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches,
Surrey, England) to Friedrich Meinecke
18. 30 June 1934 Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches,
Surrey, England) to Friedrich Meinecke
19. [August 1934] Hans Rosenberg to Friedrich Meinecke
20. 21 August 1934 Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches,
21. 9 September 1934 Testimonial from Friedrich Meinecke
(Berlin) on Hans Rosenberg
22. 19 November 1934 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
23. 27 August 1935 William L. Langer (Annisquam, Mass.) to
Hans Rosenberg
24. [1943] Hans Rosenbergs outline for a work on
the Junker
25. 24 July 1944 Hans Rosenberg to Leni Rosenberg
26. 6 May 1946 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
27. 12 June 1946 Friedrich Meinecke (Gttingen) to Hans
Rosenberg
28. 28 November 1946 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
29. 5 January 1947 Hans Rosenberg (New York) to Friedrich
Meinecke
124 documents
30. 31 January 1947 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Harry D.

Gideonse
31. 12 February 1947 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
32. 11 June 1947 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
33. 29 June 1947 Hans Rosenberg (New York) to Friedrich
Meinecke
34. 27 November 1947 Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Leni
Rosenberg
35. 4 December 1947 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
36. 12 January 1948 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
37. 2 May 1948 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
38. 10 September 1948 Hans Rosenberg to Leni Rosenberg
39. 11 September 1948 Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans
Rosenberg
40. 6 October 1948 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
41. 17 November 1948 Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans and
Leni Rosenberg
42. 15 January 1949 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
43. 9 April 1949 Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich
Meinecke
44. 11 November 1950 Hans Rosenberg to the Department of
State, Division of Exchange of Persons
(Washington, D.C.)
45. [After 1948] Hans Rosenbergs notes on Friedrich
Meinecke
46. [1953/1954] Hans Rosenbergs outline of a project on
the history of the German bureaucracy since
1815
47. [1957] Hans Rosenbergs statement concerning his
claim for restitution
48. 12 August 1964 Hans Rosenbergs outline of a project on
Inequality in German Society, 13481525
49. 25 April 1965 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Leni

Rosenberg
50. 21 December 1967 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A.
Ritter
51. 8 March 1969 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A.
Ritter
52. 30 September 1969 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A.
Ritter
53. 6 July 1970 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf
Braun
54. 10 November 1970 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf
Braun
55. 8 May 1974 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Leni
Rosenberg
56. 12 December 1975 Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf
Braun
57. 9 November 1977 Hans Rosenberg (Freiburg) to Rudolf
Braun
IX. Hedwig Hintze
1. 7 February 1920 Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Antonie

Meinecke
2. 30 August 1921 Hedwig Hintze (Schnau bei
Berchtesgaden) to Antonie Meinecke
3. 10 December 1923 Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to the dean of the
philosophy faculty, Berlin University
a. 10 December Hedwig Hintzes CV/appendix to doctoral
1923 application
b. 11 April 1928 Hedwig Hintzes CV (excerpt)/appendix to
application for habilitation
4. 6 July 1924 Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Albert
Brackmann
5. 9 October 1924 Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich
Meinecke
6. 7 April 1927 Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Albert
Brackmann
7. 20 May 1933 Friedrich Meinecke and Albert Brackmann
to Hedwig Hintze
126 documents
8. 21 May 1933 Otto Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

9. 18 November 1933 Otto Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke
10. 8 May 1942 Konrad Hintze (Pyritz) to Friedrich
Meinecke
X. Eckart Kehr
1. 28 February 1929 Eckart Kehr (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

2. Expert opinions on the manuscript by Eckart
Kehr: War losses, reparations and re-ascen-
dance in the politics of Freiherr vom Stein
(Kriegsverluste, Kriegsentschdigung und Wie-
deraufstieg in der Politik des Frhrn. vom Stein)
a. 13 August 1931 Expert opinion by Richard Thoma (Bonn)
b. 24 September Expert opinion by Gerhard Ritter (Freiburg
1931 im Breisgau)
c. 15 October 1931 Expert opinion by Friedrich Meinecke
d. 11 November Expert opinion by Heinrich Herkner
1931
3. 18 January 1932 Adolf Grimme, Prussian minister for
science, art and education (Berlin), to
Friedrich Meinecke
4. 13 November 1932 Eckart Kehr (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg
5. 11 August 1933 Hanna Kehr (Brandenburg) to Hans
Rosenberg
XI. Hanns Gnther Reissner
1. 18 July 1947 Hanns Gnther Reissner (Bombay) to

Friedrich Meinecke
XII. Gustav Mayer
1. 28 December 1910 Gustav Mayer (Berne) to Friedrich

Meinecke
2. 10 January 1918 Gustav Mayer (Berlin) to the philosophy
faculty of the University of Berlin
3. Dismissal and retirement of Gustav Mayer
a. 21 May 1933 Note by Gustav Mayer on his situation

according to the law on the restoration of
the civil service of 7 April 1933
b. 7 June 1933 Circular from Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin)
to members of the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission)
c. 23 June 1933 Submission from members of the Imperial
Historical Commission (Historische Reichs-
kommission) to Bernhard Rust, Prussian minis-
ter for science, art and national education
d. 25 January 1934 Submission from members of Berlin Uni-
versity to Bernhard Rust, Prussian minister
for science, art and national education
4. 3 January 1946 Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich
Meinecke
5. 30 March 1946 Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich
Meinecke
6. 12 May 1946 Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich
Meinecke
7. 13 July 1946 Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich
Meinecke
8. 3 October 1946 Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich
Meinecke
9. 9 November 1946 Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich
Meinecke
10. 23 January 1947 Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich
Meinecke
11. 17 July 1947 Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich
Meinecke
12. 21 March 1948 Flora Mayer (London) to Friedrich and
Antonie Meinecke
128 documents
I. Hans Rothfels
1. Summer 1914: Speech by Hans Rothfels at the farewell ceremony

for Friedrich Meinecke in Freiburg
NL Rothfels 167
My dear Professor,
If I have the temerity to speak this evening on behalf of the mem-

bers of your seminar, there is one thing alone that gives me the cour-
age to do so, namely that I can feel absolutely sure of being the mere
exponent of a generally held sentiment, one that demands articulation
regardless of who does the speaking.
The sentiment I would like to express is, first of all, the most heart-
felt thanks to you and your wife for delighting us with your presence
one last time today.
In doing so, you also give us the opportunity, indeed the right, to
express in words what we are thinking and feeling at this timea right,
admittedly, of which I cannot simply make use without hesitation. On
several occasions over the last few years, more eloquent speakers than
I have expressed their feelings about the meaning of their relationship
with you, their revered teacher.
I would not presume to add anything new to these statements, and
the finest and best necessarily eludes all attempts at verbal expression.
The special nature of the present moment nonetheless justifies another
attempt, which might perhaps allow me to convey at least a hint of
the web of relations that extend imperceptibly between teacher and
student until external circumstances bring them more fully into our
awareness.
For many years, your name has been something of a banner for all
those who have had the opportunity to work under your supervision,
a banner around which your students, near and far, have gathered, a
battle-cry allowing us to recognize one another even when far from
home. This may seem surprising at first, for our contemporary cul-
tural life is not dominated by any preponderant ideal centred on the
state, nation or religion to such an extentas has happened so often
in the history of our disciplinethat it might serve as the focal point
for a closed-off community. And you of all people, my dear professor,
i. hans rothfels 129
would surely be the last to wish to inspire the establishment of an

intellectual school in this sense.
What makes your students into a unified group is not a common
aim with respect to content. As well as being united in the gratitude
and veneration we feel for our master, it is rather a shared form char-
acteristic of the way in which you have taught us to think scientifically,
a form that typifies how you have taught us to understand history.
I do not dare to analyze more closely your species of historical cri-
tique and historical portrayal, which is an immediate, living presence
in all our minds,I have neither the energy nor time to do so. But
as important, for each one of us, as the scientific principles that you
implanted, as epoch-making as your exhortation not to remain on the
surface of things but to penetrate to their interior connectedness, have
beenabove and beyond these things you did us an even greater ser-
vice. The reason why the Wednesday class from eleven to one seems to
us the apex of the week in the truest sense of the term is not just the
sense of actual material enrichment, not just the intellectual pleasure
of observing how the atoms of individual historical facts merge, fit
into chains of causality and are related to living values in your hands,
it is not just the aesthetic pleasure of seeing the process of histori-
cal understanding unfold in the most sublime mannerbeyond all of
this, there is a further boon, something which resists straightforward
definition, an immediate effect on the moral powers, on the powers of
the soul.
Along with the richest of intellectual stimulation, you give us some-
thing even greater: the most profound and productive influence on
our own most unique existence, again not so much in the sense of
any content-related or formal certaintyrather, the way you taught us
to approach historical life also becomes the ideal for practical-politi-
cal and personal conduct in the midst of the thunderous, bewildering
torrent of the present.
I must forego further elaboration of this idea. We feel particularly
compelled to articulate it at the present moment, when there is a pos-
sibility that the nation will have to make a direct claim on the most
personal, active powers of each individual. In this respect we feel dou-
bly grateful for the realistic way in which you taught us to interpret
history.
130 documents
The catchword science for sciences sake no more entails an ulti-

mate truth than the slogan lart pour lart. There is always a living
human being behind the intellectual and artistic process. Precisely by
allowing us to practise history without an immediate, practical second-
ary aim, it became a vitae magistra for us, not in the sense intended
by a not so distant past, which wished to glean from a non-recur-
ring historical process rules and prescriptions for the future, but in a
deeper and more comprehensive sense, perhaps best expressed in the
words of Jacob Burckhardt. At once modest and ambitious, he defines
the task of history as follows: it should not make us clever for next
time, but wise for ever.1
In this way, beyond the equality between the field of research and
scientific principles, you have forged your students into a community:
this is what we wish to avow this evening with grateful admiration.
We feel connected to one another because there lives within each of
us a spark of one and the same spiritual power, because all of us bear
traces of the scientific, intellectual and moral training which you pro-
vide us with.
Because of this, to their great delight your current students see
their ranks reinforced by an impressive number of former Freiburg
Meineckians; we might invoke Adam Mllers reference to a con-
nection across the generations.2 The inner unity of historical events,
the continuity of all social relations, which you so often made us
aware ofwe may, as it were, return the favour by demonstrating this
continuity to you this evening through a small portion of your lifes
1
Jacob Burckhardt (18181897), important Swiss historian. The precise quotation:
We want experience to make us not so much clever (for next time) as wise (for
ever). The quotation is from Burckhardts lecture On the study of history (ber
das Studium der Geschichte), delivered several times between 1868 and 1873, which
was published in 1905 in slightly revised form as Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen, a
carefully edited version of manuscripts found among his unpublished works. The quo-
tation appears in the Einleitung. Abdruck von Teilen der Vorlesung, in: Wolfgang
Hardtwig (ed.), ber das Studium der Geschichte, Munich 1990, pp. 118181, quota-
tion p. 126.
2
Adam Mller (17791829), political and philosophical writer and diplomat, rep-
resentative of political romanticism. Meineckes Weltbrgertum und Nationalstaat
includes a chapter on Adam Mller in den Jahren 18081813, in: Meinecke Werke,
vol. 5, pp. 113141. Meinecke also quotes (p. 124) Mllers definition of the people in
his book Die Elemente der Staatskunst (1811) as the magnificent community of a long
series of past, currently living and future lineages, all of whom are linked in death as
in life within one great intimate formation.
work, through the tribe that has passed through your school here in
Freiburg.
Here in Freiburg! This brings me to a distressing point, but one that
cannot be evaded.
If I may turn again, in accordance with my task this evening, to the
feelings of your students: for those of us based here, your departure
from Freiburg, my dear Herr Professor, means a painful separation
from you, while for the others it means a break with the old, cherished
Alberto-L.3
And we must also forego another value, a sentimental value: your
name and that of the University of Freiburg had almost become one
and the same for us. It seemed to us, if I may be allowed to say so,
that the very personal style of your life found a palpably appropriate
external setting here; indeed, between the specific nature of your scien-
tific point of view and the warmly intimate atmosphere of the city on
the Dreisam,4 as expressed in incomparably delightful fashion in the
rooms and thick-walled corridors of the old university, there seems to
us no lack of interconnection. This harmonious unity is now a thing
of the past, and this thought may well make us melancholy. But I do
not wish to conclude on this note: I have merely [been] casting an eye
on the distance covered, before it is obscured by a backdrop of moun-
tains and the path takes a new and promising turn upwards. For this is
something that all of us instinctively feel. Though a delightful form is
being broken up here, this is occurring only so that a new and greater
one can take shape.
And if, to build on this thought, I may deploy here the same objec-
tifying method with which you described to us the beginnings of your
historical life on that unforgettable evening which we had the pleasure
of spending at your home ten days ago, then a thought arises that is
capable of silencing, once and for all, all our individual feelings of pain
and melancholy.
If you are now going to Berlin, then, so it seems to us, this is not
only a necessity in an external sense, an event that had to happen
3
The university, founded in 1457 by archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, bears the
name Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt in honour of Grand Duke Ludwig I.
4
The River Dreisam runs through Freiburg.
132 documents
sooner or later; it is not only H. v. Trs lectern5 that calls you there.
Rather, so it seems to us, there is also something fateful in this change,
an inner logic of development, a deeper meaning; one, however, which
I shall now dare to hint at.
By taking you from Berlin to two Southern German universities
that are home to students from the whole of Germany, then back
again to Berlin, your academic path recapitulates the same rhythm
and is inspired by the same triad that dominates the domestic history
of Germany in the 19th century, particularly one of your most char-
acteristic fields of interest, the development of the Prussian-German
problem.6
We thus believe we can divine the outline of that ultimate life-equa-
tion, that highest identity, in which Hegel7 found the meaning of the
world, the identity between the spirit that dwells in things and the
spirit that dwells in us.
I shall conclude here. If I understand correctly, my dear Herr
Professor, there are three things that we wish to express to you this
evening.
We wish to thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts for
everything that you meant to us during your Freiburg years, both as a
teacher and role model. We wish to profess our faith in those general
principles of science and, moreover, of life, that you implanted in us.
Finally, we would like to offer you our most sincere and best wishes
for the approaching new era.
For you as well, may this third stage be the synthesis of all your
powers and capacities, the crowning achievement of your scholarly
and personal life. In this spirit, I would like to ask you, my dear fellow
students, to rise from your seats and to hail with me our. . . . . .
5
Heinrich von Treitschke (18341896), professor of modern history, heavily
involved in politics, who consciously sought a wide audience. Succeeded Ranke in
Berlin in 1874. Reichstag deputy from 1871 to 1884.
6
The following text was crossed through by Rothfels: Drawing once again on
your remarks on the personal roots of historical understanding, perhaps I may dare to
speculate that what prompted you to penetrate so deeply into the nuances of Prussian-
German friction, and enabled you to do so, was the very fact that you yourself had
experienced something of this thesis and antithesis within yourself .
7
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (17701831), renowned philosopher. Professor
in Berlin from 1818.
2. 6 November 1914: Hans Rothfels (Soissons) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Rothfels 167
Dear Herr Professor,
I have long felt the need to send you and your dear wife my greetings
from the field, partly in order to make, as it were, an external recon-
nection with what has been, with the tenor of the last years of peace,
which concluded with my unforgettable last few days in Freiburg. The
last few days have now provided me with a specific reason for doing
so: I read your short article in the September issue of the Sddeutsche
Monatshefte8 and would like to thank you for what you have given me
and some of my chums. Please forgive the rather flapper-like tone of
this introduction, but this really is the case. People out here are thirst-
ing for a completely new tone, for the clarification and interpretation
of the irrational things they see happening on a daily basis. I think
people back home imagine our life to be more strenuous than it really
is but also have an overly idealistic and heroic view of it. In fact there
are few real men of action, and all are afflicted to a greater or lesser
degree by the curse of reflection. Even here, one is easily caught up
in the minor worries of daily life and feels more inclined towards criti-
cism than one would like. Perhaps I have been particularly unlucky
in this regard: certain things do in fact happen in my reserve corps
that might make one pessimistic. The ideas which you elaborate in
your latest essay, which are of course not entirely unfamiliar to your
students, and contact with the culture to which one feels drawn, are
the best and most pleasing remedy for such sceptical tendencies. I
believe that the people back home will have more morale and ability
to truly appreciate the greatness of this era than we do out here, where
one has no chance to gain ones composure. I am of course nonethe-
less happy and cheerful to have the chance to be active, and above all
have cause to be grateful that so far my body has borne up extremely
wellmy regiment was part of Klucks army,9 so we took part in the
8
Friedrich Meinecke, Politik und Kultur, in: Sddeutsche Monatshefte 9 (1914),
p. 796ff., also reprinted in: Meinecke, Die deutsche Erhebung von 1914, 25 edns.,
Stuttgart/Berlin 1914, pp. 3946.
9
Colonel general Alexander Kluck (18461934), commander of the First Army,
whose advance on Paris was halted in the Battle of the Marne and which, along
134 documents
triumphal procession through Belgium and Northern France, and then

in the Steinmetziade10 against Paris, which culminated in five days of
terribly heavy fighting in the Meaux area. Through a retreat (or bring-
ing back as the officers called it), which succeeded both tactically and
strategically, we only just avoided being surrounded. Those days were
probably the greatest thing which our army has achievedand will
achievein this campaign. Now, since 11 September, we have been
positioned behind the Aisne, engaged in battle as if defending a for-
tress. It may be no bad thing that victory is proving so terribly difficult
to achieve. Hopefully, this will spare us the limpness and reaction that
followed the uplift of 70.11 That might make it worthwhile to experi-
ence victory. My closest friends and companions have so far largely
been sparedI hope that your household too has been untouched by
grief. I heard from Khler of the painful gaps left among the ranks of
your students [. . .]12
I must close here, as there is work to do outside. With best wishes

to your dear wife,
Gratefully yours,
H. Rothfels
with the Second Army, had to retreat on the orders of the German chief of staff von
Moltke.
10
Critical comment on the failed advance on Paris, alluding to the Prussian general
Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz (17961877). Steinmetz took part in the first battles
of the Franco-German war of 1870/71 as corps commander of the First Army. In
response to his numerous unauthorized actions and failure to conform to the strategy
of the central command, he lost his command post and was made governor general
of Silesia and Posen on 15 September 1870. He was retired as field marshal follow-
ing the peace treaty of 1871. Steinmetz was a conservative member of the constituent
Reichstag of the North German Confederation and of the Reichstag of the North
German Confederation from 1867 to 1870 and member of the Prussian upper house
from 1872 to 1877.
11
Reference to the war of 1870/71.
12
Siegfried August Kaehler (18851963), modern historian. Student of Meinecke
from the Freiburg period and friend of Rothfels. Habilitated in 1921. Professor in
Magdeburg, Breslau and Jena and in Gttingen from 1936 until his retirement in
1953.
Hans Rothfels
3. 24 February 1917: Hans Rothfels (Heidelberg) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
As the Secret State Archive wants a detailed reference attesting to my

comprehensive academic training, I must turn to you once again with
a troublesome request. I thought I would come to Berlin towards the
end of the first week of March, as soon as Ive seen to a leg operation,
so that over the course of these holidays I might finish collecting, as
far as possible, unpublished material of relevance to my next, limited
objective. I would very much like to ask your advice once again on my
136 documents
specific angle on the topic. I am keenly aware of the risk of lapsing into
a biography13 of the years up to 1815 and of spending far too much
time repeating points which have already been expressed better on
many occasions.
All my plans are uncertain, however, because the Heldengreif-
mission14 has recently extended its activities to include the category of
invalids. Thus, in the few months since I was discharged, the system
has begun to change completely in this respect as well, and since yes-
terday I have been proudly back on the muster role. Over the course
of March further medical examinations will be held and a certain per-
centage will then be signed up again. I think I shall be among them,
and I would be happy if I managed to get another little job, the more
military in nature the better. As enthralled as I am by my study of
Clausewitz, over the next few extremely difficult weeks it is more sat-
isfying to be able to be [word illegible] in some way, however modest
in nature and scope ones contribution may be.
Even if the decision about me is made very quickly, I am thinking of
coming to Berlin anyway, in order to hoard away as much [additional
material] as possible. It is still possible that I will be turned down again
or given a rather unfulfilling job. I would therefore be very grateful if
you would recommend me to the Secret State Archive just in case.
With the very best regards to your wife,
Gratefully yours,
H. Rothfels
13
Reference to a biography of Carl von Clausewitz.
14
Attempt to recruit men previously exempted from military service for various
reasons.
4. 29 October 1927: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
I have just received your book from Oldenbourg15 and hastened to

thank you wholeheartedly for such a delightful gift. I am pleased to
receive it not only on account of the insights it will offer, the extent of
which I have for the time being merely tried to get a feel for through
a quick leaf through, but also in a very personal sense. Now that you
have set out your heresy, I will no longer be at risk of being repri-
manded for my own,16 and I for my part certainly have no intention
of digging out the old battle axe, which, by the way, seems to me in
any case to have become rather small and blunt.
I shall see how things turn out for me now with respect to the new
sources and shall try to learn wherever I can. However, I shall not
have the opportunity to give you my proper, heartfelt thanks between
the hurdles of the first weeks of the semester. At any rate, I wanted to
waste no time in expressing my provisional thanks.
Particularly in light of the fact that, as your package fortunately
reminded me, tomorrow is a special day. I would thus like to send you
my best wishes, along with those of my wife, for your 65th birthday.
That is, it is of course not a special birthday at all but, to quote freely
from Schlieffen,17 merely ordinaire. The lustrums dont yet count
in the seventh decade and no doubt all your students thoughtand
saw it as a deep need that would break with rigid adherence to a set
routinethat we would be able to salute you on your 70th birthday as
we did on your 60th, still in the same full possession of your academic
offices and a teaching post at the university. But with your decision
to follow the letter of the law on conferment of emeritus status, you
15
Friedrich Meinecke, Geschichte des deutsch-englischen Bndnisproblems 1890
1901, Munich/Berlin 1927.
16
Allusion to Hans Rothfels habilitation thesis: Bismarcks englische Bndnispolitik,
Stuttgart/Leipzig/Berlin 1924.
17
Alfred Graf von Schlieffen (18331913). Chief of staff of the Prussian army from
1891 to 1905 and author of the so-called Schlieffen Plan, a violation of Belgian neutral-
ity that became the strategic basis for Germanys western offensive in 1914.
138 documents
yourself have made the 65th a mark of significance that we perceive

as a more general turning point than it may seem to you yourself.18 In
any event, my conception of our historical-academic life is too closely
connected with your leading place within it, I know only too well what
your teaching meansnot only from my own recollections but also
from the impressions of the current generation of students, which acts
as a controlfor me not to experience your decision as a very painful
rupture. How good it is that for now we go on with one of those half-
measures that are otherwise not exactly congenial but which do in fact
serve a genuine need for continuity in this case. May you find this sac-
rifice of ongoing obligation relatively easy to cope with19 and achieve
the freer movement and production without distractions that you
hope for. Alongside the health, happiness and prosperity of your fam-
ily, that is the best thing one can wish you on your 65th birthday.
[. . . . .]
You will hopefully have received the borrowed books I sent you
from Heidelberg. Ex. Schiffer had probably told you about what went
on there, or at least the first part of the story.20 Among your other
close friends, Khlmann21 also appeared towards the end. I myself
18
Meinecke retired after turning 65 towards the end of the winter semester of
1927/28.
19
Meinecke continued to lecture on a reduced scale after his retirement. See above, p. 20.
20
This probably refers to the petition initiated by the Heidelberg professor of peda-
gogy Ernst Hoffmann, together with a group of prominent local supporters, for a
proclamation to the People and Reichstag in opposition to the bill for an impe-
rial schools law put forward by the minister Keudell (DNVP). Deviating from the
pre-eminence of the interdenominational school as the standard school form set out
in art. 146 of the constitution, the bill declared all forms of school equal applicants
for government money. The proclamation was ultimately signed by 1,539 German
university teachers chiefly on anticlerical grounds and was the largest-scale political
proclamation produced by academics during the Weimar Republic. It was submit-
ted to the Reichstag and imperial government on 27 September 1927. The bill failed.
Eugen Schiffer (18601954) was a judge and politician and member of the National
Assembly and Reichstag for the DDP, 19191924. From 1904 to 1918 and 1921 to
1924 Schiffer was also a deputy in the Prussian Landtag. In a number of cabinets
(19191921), Schiffer was vice-chancellor and/or Imperial finance or Imperial jus-
tice minister. Subjected to numerous repressive measures and impediments during
the Nazi period on account of his Jewish origins, he survived as a protected Jew
with his daughter in a Jewish hospital. From 1946 to 1948, he directed the central
justice authority in the Soviet occupation zone. Meinecke gave one of the speeches at
the celebratory banquet marking Schiffers 70th birthday in 1930. Speech appears in:
21
Richard von Khlmann (18731948), diplomat. Entered the diplomatic serv-
ice after studying law. As counsellor in London from 1908, he advocated Anglo-
German understanding. Became envoy in The Hague in 1915 and ambassador in
was gratified by the fact that the artificially de-electrified atmosphere

explodednot in my case but in that of the Austrian of all people.
Despite the salon-like nature of the whole undertaking, which emerged
very clearly, there was no lack of rich and powerful impressions. But
I do not wish to bother you with that now, but shall close here, once
again with warmest wishes.
Ever gratefully yours,

H. Rothfels
5. 13 December 1927: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
With your lines from the day before yesterday, in as much as they
referred to me, you have made me greatly and just as unexpectedly
happy. I had in no way suspected anything of that kind, but am of
course very willing to play a part in the subcommittee.22 You know as
well as Oldenbourg, who talked to me about it on several occasions at
historical conferences, that I have a genuine interest in the journal. If
I can ever contribute anything within a specialist field or through per-
sonal relations with the younger generation, I am at your disposal.
I am, conversely, very despondent about the closing passage of your
letter. I know the Humboldt study23 through numerous individual
parts and revisions of the manuscripts, but not yet as a whole, and
Constantinople in 1916. Appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1917, he

was forced to resign after giving a speech on the need for a peace of understanding
in the Reichstag in July 1918. In his autobiography on the period from 1901 to 1918,
Meinecke relates his encounters with Khlmann between 1915 and 1918. Meinecke
Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp. 266271, 274f., 280f., 296f. See also
Meineckes article in the Vossische Zeitung, no. 204, of 1 May 1931 on the book by
Khlmann, which appeared the same year, Gedanken ber Deutschland. In: Meinecke,
Werke, vol. 8, pp. 481486.
22
This refers to Rothfels admission into the group of scholars who were men-
tioned on the title page of the HZ as supporting editors of the journal. It was in fact
an honorary appointment as members of the subcommittee had no real influence on
the editing of the journal.
23
Siegfried A. Kaehler, Wilhelm v. Humboldt und der Staat. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte deutscher Lebensgestaltung um 1800. 2nd edn., Gttingen 1963. (first
140 documents
will have no chance to read it before Christmas. I have always had

some reservations but nonetheless regard it in an extremely positive
light as an accomplishment which, through a critical analysis of tre-
mendous acuity, is highly edifying and superior to all other works of
my generation. I certainly suspected that you would have far greater
reservations than me,24 but clearly without grasping their full extent.
You will understand that I too am greatly saddened in every respect
by the impression that you convey.
Incidentally, K.[aehler] and I have arranged to meet in B.[reslau] on
Friday. As you know, Im coming over for 36 hours on account of the
Roloff lecture: more out of a sense of duty than in the belief that I can
say anything significant on the topic in light of my now very different
preoccupation.
With best regards,
Yours ever faithfully,

H. Rothfels
6. 3 March 1930: Hans Rothfels to Siegfried A. Kaehler

NL Kaehler 1, 144b, Brief 147
My dear friend,
[. . . . .]
That brings me to another subject, one I find very awkward. In sharp
contrast to his usual painfully polite and conscientious manner, after
five weeks I had had no reply from the master to my letter, of which
you are aware, of 2 January. I then made enquiries. I enclose the card
he sent me in reply. The first part is distinguished by an unusually cool,
partly resigned, partly threatening tone, the second by a foolish yet
crafty naivety or shyness that I find appalling. How can a man like M.25
published 1927). The book is dedicated to the Freiburg Circle, 19071911, both the
living and the dead.
24
For Meineckes fundamental critique of his student Kaehlers book on Humboldt
and his defence of his views, see Meineckes letter to Kaehler of 11 December 1927 and
his reply of 15 December 1927, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel,
pp. 338340.
25
Reference to Friedrich Meinecke.
believe that social policy and the Anti-Socialist Law can be considered
separately?26 And how can he smooth the way for those (G. Mayer
and Herkner)27 whose background and party political intentions are
abundantly clear? I initially decided to ask for a vote of academic con-
fidence or to probe into the underlying politics. But I pursued the mat-
ter no further and enclose the reply I sent instead so you can check it.
In terms of substance, I think it is clear enough while at the same time
essentially harmless. I would like to have believed that in response they
were abandoning the plan for the time being, which I have character-
ized as good dissertation material, if not for the fact that they already
have a man ready to do the whole thing instead of me. In any case,
even if I end up with a reprieve and a period of probation, I am quite
certain that there will be further difficulties. Meineckes dissatisfaction
with me is, in my view, far more political than scholarly in nature.28
If I serve as my own judge and jury, there are all kinds of reasons
to criticize my scholarship, but others have no grounds for criticism,
for I have written more, in detail, than many typically do in the first
semesters of their professorship. And I have also provided samples in
the socio-political field.29 Yet the warped attitude that is now erupt-
ing is no doubt due to the sense of political discomfort generated by
these very samples [. . .]. At the same time, M. evades all my ques-
tions as to what material conditions and above all what non-material
safeguards I am to be offered. I have already told him clearly that it is
one thing to publish a [documentary] publication under the auspices
of a Commission and quite another a literary work of ones own (the
old Imperial Archive problem in intensified form!). There is no ques-
tion of me recognizing any board of censors presumably consisting
26
27
Heinrich Herkner (18631932), political economists and social policy specialist.
Professor at the University of Berlin from 1912.
28
Marginal note by Kaehler: correct.
29
Rothfels published on social policy until early 1930: Die erste diplomatische
Aktion zugunsten des Arbeiterschutzes, in: VSWG 16 (1922), pp. 7087; Bismarcks
sozialpolitische Anschauungen, in: Deutsche Akademische Rundschau 6, no. 16 (1925),
pp. 14; Zur Geschichte des Bismarckschen Innenpolitik [letters and notes of
Theodor Lohmann], in: Archiv fr Politik und Geschichte 7 (1926), pp. 284310;
Theodor Lohmann und die Kampfjahre der staatlichen Sozialpolitik (18711905),
Berlin 1927; Zur Geschichte des Krankenversicherungsgesetzes, in: rztliche Mittei-
lungen 29 (1928), pp. 220223; Bismarcks Sozialpolitische Anschauungen, in:
rztliche Mitteilungen 29 (1928), pp. 988991; Prinzipienfragen der Bismarckschen
Sozialpolitik. Speech given at the ceremony marking the foundation of the Empire on
18 January 1929. Knigsberger Universittsreden 3, Knigsberg 1929.
142 documents
of Meinecke, Mayer and Herkner or of [. . .] a vote being taken as to

the correctness of my opinions. I must have unambiguous assurances
on that front and if I am not given them I will write independently. I
have merely a certain moral commitment to M. but absolutely no legal
obligations, as most of the funds come from the Imperial Archive,
which has released me from all obligations,30 and is in fact sensitive
about M.s aspirations to take great credit [for supporting Rothfels
study]. It goes without saying, my dear friend, that I tell you all of this
in the strictest of confidence and not even the merest hint of it may
be repeated to M.I simply needed to get it all of my chest. There
is, by the way, no need to worry. The aggravation has actually been
good for me. Quite apart from that, affected by the shameful nature
of current events, I am quite keen to get stuck into historia militans.
As a consequence, I have been enjoying the lectures again more (most
recently and for the first time Fridericiana)31 and Im dying to get to
social policy and break through the fog. Until 1 September, all other
minor matters are to be stacked away, and then I wont move from my
chair until the first volume is finished.32
In any case, I hope we can soon speak about this and other matters
face-to-face
Your
H. R.
7. 3 June 1930: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A. Kaehler

My dear friend,
The relative peace of the first day of Whitsun at last gives me an

opportunity to respond to your letter and tell you of certain things that
may be of interest to you. But first Id like to send you my very best,
30
Rothfels worked for the Imperial Archive on Special Historical Projects until
he took up his appointment in Knigsberg in 1926.
31
Matters relating to Friedrich II, King of Prussia (17401786).
32
In fact, Rothfels never completed or published his planned book on State social
policy in the Bismarck era.
belated wishes for your birthday. I did not forget about it, but the
last week was rather hectic and I had to pay dearly ex post for the trip
to Berlin, which, by the way, provided a lot of interesting insights. My
relationship with Mcke [Meinecke] and Hireiko [Imperial Historical
Commission] in particular became a good deal clearer.
I must begin my account by disappointing you. While you were
not as badly misled by the newspaper item concerning my appoint-
ment as a great number of people unfortunately were, you too are
very much mistaken. It was referring not to the Hireiko but to the
Hiko of the R. A. [Historische Kommission des Reichsarchivsthe
Historical Commission of the Imperial Archive]33 (which is something
quite different, despite a degree of overlap in their membership). All
your kind and optimistic remarks are thus inapplicable. Still, in this
body too I am pretty much the only one under 60 and will be able to
provide support to the R. A. As for the rest, the proceedings surround-
ing my election were rather delicate. Rupp34 blabbed to me about it,
and I feel the need to tell you about it in confidence. Apart from me,
Roloff 35 was also put forward. After Mertz36 had spoken vigorously
33
The Potsdam Imperial Archive was founded through a cabinet decision of 5
September 1919. Alongside the collection and preservation of imperial records dating
from the foundation of the Empire, and the activities of the information division, its
task was to research and relate the history of the Empire, which reached its peak and
came to an end in the World War with reference to the records. Through a decree
issued by Imperial President Ebert on 17 July 1920, a Historical Commission for
the Imperial Archive (Historische Kommission fr das Reichsarchiv) was founded,
which was to advise the Imperial Archive in its scientific work, propose topics for
research and decide on their publication. The members, whose number was limited to
fourteen, included the chairman of the Prussian State Archive Paul Kehr and the his-
torians Meinecke, Hans Delbrck, Walter Goetz, Erich Marcks, Hermann Oncken and
prelate Georg Schreiber, a politician with a focus on science policy (Wissenschaftspolitik,
which included the humanities as well as the natural sciences).
34
Karl Ruppert (18861953), initially an officer, then Prussian army archivist. At
the Imperial Archive from 1919. Made Archivrat in 1920. Promoted in 1927. Head of
the administrative and central division of the Imperial Archive. Had general responsi-
bility for the official work on the First World War. Played a leading role in the Army
Archive, founded in 1937. Head of the Army Archive from 1942 to 1945. Briefly head
of the newly established Central Archive of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany
in 1946.
35
Gustav Roloff (18661952), historian, professor in Gieen, 19091939.
36
Retired colonel Hermann Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim (18661947) was the last
Oberquartiermeister of the military history division of the Prussian general staff. From
1919 until his retirement in 1931 he was president of the Imperial Archive, which was
accommodated in the former military academy in Potsdam. Father of Albrecht Ritter
Mertz von Quirnheim, executed with Stauffenberg as a member of the resistance fol-
lowing the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944.
144 documents
in my favour, Mcke [Meinecke] rose to express his reservations. As

Ru. put it, he kept on talking rubbish, about my being too young,
though no-one could actually understand what he had against me. By
this point, Aloys Schulte37 had come up to Ru. and asked him how he
could put forward an idiot like Roloff. Finally, someone called out to
Mein. [Meinecke], but hes your student! The one who then saved the
day was the prelate, Schreiber.38 He gave a thundering speech on my
behalf before emphasizing in particular that something must be done
for East Prussia. In hoc signo vincis.39 I was then elected unanimously.
A fine state of affairs, isnt it? It very much brought back to mind
Schuhmachers [actually Schumachers]40 explanations to Marcks,41 deliv-
37
Aloys Schulte (18571941), historian. From 1986 to 1903 holder of a chair at the
University of Breslau earmarked for a Catholic historian and from 1902 to 1903 also
director of the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome. Professor in Bonn from 1903
until his retirement in 1925. His work focussed on the economic history of the Middle
Ages, social and constitutional history of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period
and the history of the Rhineland. Politically close to the Centre Party. Member of the
Historical Commission for the Imperial Archive.
38
Prof. Dr. Georg Schreiber (18821963), Catholic theologian, Reichstag deputy
for the Centre Party from 1920 to 1933 and one of the most influential politicians
concerned with culture and science in the Weimar Republic.
39
By this sign you will conquer. Allusion to the famous promise made to Emperor
Constantine. This was a celestial phenomenon about which Eusebius von Caesarea has
the following to say in his Vita Constantini (I, 28): before the battle of the Milvian
Bridge (312) against his adversary Maxentius, Emperor Constantine prayed urgently
to God that He might stretch forth His right hand to help him in the looming battle.
But while the Emperor was praying . . ., a quite incredible sign from God appeared to
him. For in the sky above the sun [was] the victorious sign of the Cross, formed of
light, and near it were written the words: By this conquer! Medieval authors who
wrote about Constantines vision of the Cross described the proceedings as follows:
In the night, while he lay in a deep sleep, he saw in the sky the sign of the Cross
light up with fiery brilliance. When he asked what this meant, the angels told him:
Constantine, in hoc signo vinces!
40
Hermann Schumacher (18681952), political economist. After studying law and
state sciences (Staatswissenschaften) and a study trip through the USA, worked in the
Prussian Ministry for Public Works from 1896. Became professor extraordinarius of
state sciences at the University of Kiel in 1899 and was the first director of studies at
the Cologne Commercial College (Stdtische Handelshochschule Kln) from 1901 to
1904. Professor ordinarius of state sciences at the University of Bonn from 1904 to
1917 and professor ordinarius of state sciences at the University of Berlin from 1917
to 1935.
41
Reference to the appointment of the historian Erich Marcks (18611938) to
the University of Berlin in 1922. Habilitated in 1889, he was professor ordinarius in
Freiburg from 1892. Subsequently held chairs in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Hamburg and
Munich, before being appointed professor ordinarius in Berlin and at the same time
Historiographer of the Prussian State in 1922. His work focussed especially on the
time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and the biography of Bismarck.
Politically Marcks was a conservative and an opponent of the Weimar Republic.
ered in my presence, on Mein[eckes] attitude to Marcks appoint-

ment. There is obviously a very primitive complex that presses one to
keep away the competition.
I knew nothing of this episode, which I found very unpleasant,
when I decided off my own bat to make some concessions to Mcke
[Meinecke] with respect to the socialists question. From the minutes
of the Hireiko (sent me discretely by Ru.), I had seen that there had
been a special reason, namely a request from the Bolshevists to send
them the material on the Anti-Socialist Law in order that they might
make a copy of it. There is an archival treaty of exchange (we have an
interest in the question of war guilt) that entitles them to make such
requests. They decided on the special project as a preventative mea-
sure.42 Once I knew that there was a (partial) reason, I took a more
lenient view of the whole thing. I therefore wrote to M. [Meinecke]
that I would attach great importance to communicating with him per-
sonally while in B. [Berlin]. I then received an invitation to appear
before the subcommittee. However, I then received a telegram stating
that I might call him straight away upon my arrival in B., and when
I did so we agreed to meet in person beforehand after all. This meet-
ing went very satisfactorily in human terms. M. was in a very delicate
stateone of his sisters43 had died the day before. He admitted that I
had a right to feel hurt and that no-one could expect me to go there
in a cheerful state, but there was a higher necessity at stake and room
to come to some sort of arrangement about the question at issue. We
then argued somewhat about Gustav Mayer. In the face of my vigor-
ous protests, he stated that what I say about G. M., he might also say
about me. When confronted with the evidence he then conceded that
he knew what divided him from G. M. and Herkner, though objec-
tively he had more in common with them than with us. When I
then asserted that we were the better Meineckians, he positively lit
up, and his feelings of loneliness came so shockingly to light that I
literally felt sorry for him. We then spoke about Westphal44 etc. and
42
The planned edition on the Anti-Socialist Law supervised by Gustav Mayer, which
Rothfels saw as a rival to the project with which he had been entrusted, State social
policy in the Bismarck era (Die staatliche Sozialpolitik in der Epoche Bismarcks).
43
Martha Meinecke (18591930). She was Meineckes youngest sister. His middle
sister Margarete Drollinger, ne Meinecke, born in 1857, had died in 1904.
44
Otto Westphal (18911950), historian. Habilitated in Hamburg in 1922, became
professor in Hamburg in 1933 and Knigsberg in 1936. Gave up his chair in 1937
because of illness and a court case. Strongly influenced by the ideas of the conservative
revolution of the 1920s and early 1930s and National Socialism.
146 documents
parted in a state of reasonable agreement. The official meeting was

rather more spirited. I pretty much spoke my mind, and among other
things I said that if the Bolshevists request had truly been the motive,
then my work would also have served as a barrier, and pointed out the
risk of political misinterpretation and the compromising, not of me
as an individual, but of the Hireiko [Historische Reichskommission
Imperial Historical Commission]. The reactions were very interesting.
Brackmann,45 who has obviously become quite the administrator and
Braunian,46 defended the decision, which he said had been a diplomatic
necessity and could not be undone. That the decision had been a good
one was shown by the successful outcome: the Bolshevists had gone
very quiet!! (o sancta simplicitas!) He also assured me that while my
name had not been mentioned positively, it had not been mentioned
negatively either; he himself was obviously unfamiliar with my work
in any detail. Herkner claimed with great naivety that social policy
came under social security legislation and that while there were tacti-
cal relations with the Anti-Socialist Law, it was quite unnecessary to
deal with both developments together. Little Gustav [Gustav Mayer]
also acted as if he had always assumed that I would not be dealing
with the Anti-Socialist Law at all. However, I pretty much brought his
parade grinding to a halt by referring to previous conversations and
an exchange of letters two years ago, and at the same time I set out
the unity of my topic very forcefully with reference to Onckens book
on Lassalle.47 As I had suspected, Oncken proved the most dangerous
opponent. He spoke at length about the desired two-sidedness [. . .]
as complete a work as possible with numbered volumes, etc. At that
point I interrupted pretty firmly, stating that I had no time for com-
pensatory procedures and coalition cabinets in the world of scholar-
ship. I demanded the right to compose a complete work myself, and if
45
Albert Brackmann (18711952), medieval historian. Professor in Berlin from
1922. Appointed director of the Prussian State Archive in Berlin in 1929 and pro-
visional head of the Imperial Archive in 1935. Retired in 1936. Co-editor of the HZ
from 1928 to 1935.
46
Allusion to the Prussian prime minister Otto Braun.
47
Hermann Oncken (18691945), historian. Obtained doctorate in 1891, habilitated
in 1895. After ordinarius professorships in Gieen, Heidelberg and Munich, took up a
chair in modern history in Berlin in 1928. Dismissed in 1934 following sharp attacks
on him by the Nazi historian Walter Frank. Published a biography in 1904, reprinted
many times since, on the philosopher and politician Ferdinand Lassalle, who founded
the German General Workers Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein or
ADAV), one of the predecessors of the SPD, in Leipzig in 1863.
I could not do so within the Commission, then I would do so outside

of it. This proved amazingly successful. O. [Oncken] stated that he
had of course not meant it in such a mechanical sense and that I must
keep going, otherwise, if it was only Gustav M., then people would
say . . . Things then developed in such a way that I could have won a
total victory. Meinecke: I should first complete my project and then
one could see what form the other one might take! Brackmann pro-
tested, and I too stated that I was against such a psychological burden
and being tied to a deadline. On the other hand, Hartung48 backed
me up (too) strongly: neither study was right for a Commission, and
both should be entirely independent projects. Finally, Gustav declared
that having got to know my work plan, he could see that there was
nothing left that might provide him with sufficient stimulation, so he
would withdraw. Dismay all round. At that moment, I had the feel-
ing that it would be better if I were not too victorious, partly out of
human consideration for Mein. [Meinecke] and also because it is obvi-
ously better to have Gustav involved rather than someone else. He
still has a year to go with his study of Engels49 andone is afraid to
be alone with him. So we ended up with the following compromise.
I have complete freedom with respect to my work plan; I am to sub-
mit a more precise draft in six months time and have no obligations
in the meantime. M. [Mayer] also has a free hand. After I have sub-
mitted my plan, he is to decide whether he feels there is still enough
scope for him to contribute, especially if his study goes beyond 1890.
In the meantime, under his direction, the assistant is to collect mate-
rial, namely that produced by the federal states which I have not yet
consulted, first in Hamburg, where he studies, then unpublished social
democratic works, etc.50 We plan to exchange catalogues of records. I
think I can be satisfied with this. It will no doubt be possible to make
48
Fritz Hartung (18831967), constitutional historian. Obtained doctorate under
Otto Hintze in Berlin in 1905, habilitated in Halle in 1910. Became professor extra-
ordinarius in Halle in 1915, professor ordinarius in Kiel 1922 and, as successor to
Hintze, holder of the chair in constitutional, administrative and economic history in
Berlin from 1923 until his retirement in 1949.
49
See above, p. 103f.
50
Dr. Alfred Schulz, who was employed by the Commission, gathered an exten-
sive collection of material on the Anti-Socialist Law that shows his positive attitude
towards the socialist labour movement. The planned edition failed to materialize as a
consequence of the Nazi seizure of power. The material can be found in the Hamburg
Library for Social History and the Labour Movement (Bibliothek fr Sozialgeschichte
und Arbeiterbewegung).
148 documents
many amendments, and I now have the confidence to complete my

work freely and at an earlier date. Especially given that I have been
promised that if there is agreement in six months time then I will also
be given an assistant and backing with regard to holidays.
So after three hours of palaver I felt quite at peace as I joined
Meinecke for dinner at his place. However, with artful tenacity, he
wanted to wheedle a few more things out of me, but I avoided any
further commitments.
[. . . . .]
But I must bring this mammoth letter to a close.
Very best regards,
Your
H. R. [. . . . .]
8. 21 December 1930: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A.

Kaehler
My dear friend,
[. . . . .] But actually I wanted to tell you about Meinecke. Our meeting

[. . .] was extremely cool. First, I conducted myself badly with respect to
the ceremonial address by Walter Goetz, who had obviously looked in
the wrong place (Ullstein-Weltgeschichte), and second, M. was very
officious and kept company only with the excellencies, though quite
a few big shots deigned to pay me a good deal of attention. I again
found the situation with my unrequited love highly paradoxical, and
in passing I heard from Brackmann that the archival treaty,51 which
was the ostensible reason for the Gustav Mayer edition, has long since
been annulled, but I forced myself to get in touch by telephone the
next day. The result was that we arranged to meet in the afternoon
after the meeting of the Commission for the Imperial Archive. [. . . . .]
He was suddenly extremely warm. To save me trouble, he proposed
51
Reference to a treaty on the exchange of archival materials with the Soviet Union,
see above p. 145.
that it would be better to go to a caf, to Josti on Postsdamer Platz!

Try to imagine it, Friedrich catechizing to me for two hours amidst
the hustle and bustle! After fairly sharp disagreements about social
democracy and the state, the amazing happened: he let me speak for
at least half an hour about the 14 September52 as the first happy event
since the November,53 etc., and not only let me talk but also acknowl-
edged the relative legitimacy of seeing things differently. With a relapse
into the old impartiality, which, however, had a shocking aspect as it
seemed like resignation. He wanted to explain the turnover with refer-
ence to the necessary contrast between a rationalist and irrationalist
generation, but I wouldnt let that pass either, and I did manage to put
forward a number of points in light of my own experience showing
that we are not romantics. The resignation, by the way, extended to
the personal realm. He said that he no longer had any influence on the
students and did not understand young people; it was time for him to
retire completely and devote his remaining energies to Montesquieu.54
What I found worst of all was that I could not contradict him. In any
case I wanted to tell you about this talk in case you make your usual
New Years Eve trip to Berlin.
[. . . . .]
With all best wishes from the whole family,
Yours always,
H. R.
52
The Reichstag election of 14 September 1930, in which the NSDAP, which
received only 2.6% of the votes in 1928, took 18.3% of the votes and 107 of a total of
577 seats.
53
The revolution of November 1918.
54
At the time, Meinecke was working on his book on Die Entstehung des Historismus
(2 vols., Munich 1936; English edition: Historism, the Rise of a New Historical Outlook,
London 1972), which included a detailed chapter (Meinecke Werke, vol. 3: Entstehung
des Historismus, pp. 116179) on Montesquieu, famous French theorist of the state
(16891755). He published his initial findings in a 1932 essay: HZ 145, pp. 5368:
Montesquieu, Boulainvilliers, Dubois. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte des
Historismus.
150 documents
9. 2 March 1932: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Theodor Lewald55

Federal Archive Berlin, holdings of the Historical Commission for the
Imperial Archive, R 1506/349, copy
To the Chairman of the Historical Commission for the Imperial

Archive.
To my great regret I am forced to withdraw my commitment to attend

the meeting on the 8th of this month. I have been asked to give a series
of lectures from the 9th in Reval [modern-day Tallinn] and Dorpat
[Tartu] and in accordance with my position here I must give priority
to these duties. I shall take the liberty of sending my vote on point III
on the agenda in written form over the next few days.
I shall also allow myself to make a few remarks on point II. I have
certain reservations with respect to the academic qualifications of
Oberarchivrat Valentin,56 both in themselves and with regard to the
specific task at issue. I presume that other members of the Commission
have similar thoughts. Apart from that, I also have a further objection.
Everywhere you look at present extremely urgent scholarly tasks are
having to take a back seat. Even in threatened border regions a highly
alarming withdrawal from culture is occurring, and it is almost impos-
55
Theodor Lewald (18601947), administrator and sports policy specialist. After
studying law and completing his military service, he entered the Prussian civil serv-
ice in 1885. In 1904 he was made imperial commissioner for the World Exhibition
in St. Louis. Undersecretary of state (1917) and permanent secretary (1919) in the
Imperial ministry of the interior. Left the civil service in 1921. Became chairman of the
German Imperial Commission for Physical Education in 1919 and championed sport
and physical education. Campaigned from 1927with eventual successfor the 1936
Olympic Games to be held in Berlin. Though he was a half-Jew, he became president
of the Organizational Committee for the Summer Olympic Games held in Berlin in
1936, founded in 1933. Forced by Hitler to resign from the International Olympic
Committee in 1937, which he had been a member of since 1924.
56
Veit Valentin (18881947), archivist and historian. Habilitated in Freiburg in
1910, he was appointed professor extraordinarius there in 1916, but had to return his
venia legendi as a result of pressure from the faculty and the ministry of education
and cultural affairs following a press scandal. Archivrat at the Imperial Archive from
1920. Taught in Berlin at the Commercial College (Handelshochschule) and German
College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule fr Politik). Convinced sup-
porter of the Weimar Republic, active supporter of the DDP. Lost his job in 1933 and
emigrated first to England and then the United States in 1939. His major work was the
Geschichte der deutschen Revolution von 1848/49, 2 vols., Berlin 1930/31. Reprinted
Cologne 1970.
sible to get to grips with those problems (German populations in other

countries, the recent history of colonization in the East, etc.) that are of
current foreign policy importance in the sense of intellectual defence
and which play or ought to play a role in uniting the nation. I believe
that large numbers of people will be quite unable to understand why,
at a time like this, imperial funds should be spent on an exercise that
will at best result in a new round of bitter, partisan squabbling.
I do not fail to recognize that these reservations are connected with
reservations with regard to staffing policy that I must express even
more forcefully with regard to Oberarchivrat Hobohm.57 In more than
twelve years, neither gentleman has managed to carve out a role for
himself within either the administrative or research functions of the
Imperial Archive; things have been found for them to do with a greater
or lesser degree of difficulty. I can understand these efforts in human
and administrative terms, but again, the clash with current realities
is increasingly glaring. While the best educated young students are
obstructed at every turn, while hundreds of able-bodied men are hav-
ing to be laid off, sometimes under circumstances far more difficult
than would be the case here, the issue which I have touched on in the
above cannot, so it seems to me, simply be passed by. I myself do not
wish to raise it, as I am unable to attend the meeting. I would there-
fore request that this letter be regarded as confidential and intended
only for Your Excellency and the president of the Imperial Archive.58
57
Martin Hobohm (18831942), archivist and historian. Student of Hans Delbrck.
Habilitated in Berlin in 1913. Entered the foreign service in 1915. Archivist at the
Imperial Archive from December 1920. Appointed to teach on the history of war-
fare at the University of Berlin in 1920, where he was made untenured professor
extraordinarius on 1 February 1923. Expert contributor to the 4th subcommittee of
the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Question of Responsibilities for the
World War, whose task was to investigate the causes of the military collapse of
1918. His expert testimony on Soziale Heeresmistnde als Teilursache des deut-
schen Zusammenbruchs von 1918 (Social grievances in the army as a partial cause
of the military collapse of 1918) led to sharp exchanges with his colleagues at the
Imperial Archive, most of whom had been officers. As a pacifist and fierce opponent
of the stab-in-the-back legend, he was dismissed on 30 June 1933 on the basis of the
law on the restoration of the civil service of 7 April 1933. His authority to teach at the
University of Berlin was withdrawn on 16 September 1933.
58
Hans von Haeften (18701933), officer and later Prussian army archivist. Member
of the general staff. Towards the end of the First World War he was the chief of
staffs liaison officer responsible for dealings with the Imperial Chancellor. Head of the
152 documents
Should the matter be addressed during the meeting by others, how-

ever, then I would ask you to convey my opinion.
I remain with my best respect
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rothfels
10. 23 April 1933: Hans Rothfels (Knigsberg) to Siegfried A.

Kaehler
My dear friend,
I was delighted to receive your telegram for my birthday. However, the

letter that you mentioned in it has not yet arrived. I imagine you will
have plenty of other things on your plate, and I probably have a pretty
accurate idea of your current mood. The discussion in H. [Halle] pre-
figured it in a whole number of ways. We often think back with much
gratitude to the lovely time we spent with you. It was very stirring yet,
despite the clarity of your insight, in essence still highly theoretical.
All kinds of things have happened in the meantime that have con-
sequences. P. J. and similar things have become quite insignificant in
the face of a crisisIm thinking above all of 1 April59that reaches
into the foundations of ones private and professional life and thus the
foundations of ones inner life and inclinations as well. But I do not
wish to write about things in general, but assume that you wish to be
informed above all about the situation in concreto, which gives rise to
general perspectives.
First of all, the law60 and the form that must be filled in are the fun-
damental thing. On this basis, almost all of my current fellow suffer-
ers would require protection, while some of the Aryans stink. And of
armys military history division from 1919 to 1931. President of the Imperial Archive
in Potsdam from 1931 to November 1933.
59
Presumably a reference to the organized boycott of Jewish businesses of 1 April
1933.
60
Reference to the so-called law on the restoration of the civil service of 7 April
1933 on the basis of which non-Aryans, unless they had been front-line soldiers or
members of the volunteer corps, were dismissed from their civil service posts.
course I also accept the law for the time being. But that doesnt settle
the matter either for me or the others. As for me, in principle I share
the view of the Gttingen Nobel Prize winner Frank61 [Franck]: par-
ticipation in a world war is an accident of world history. One cannot
demand that such an event be staged in every generation simply for the
purpose of personal vindication. To go on teaching as an exception
whileapart from other restrictions [. . .]my children are kicked out
of school or are refused admission to university or can attend only as
aliens, can only lead to new impossibilities, which one must perhaps
put up with for a while, but which no more constitute a basis for life
than possible qualifications out of consideration for the stock market.
In light of this state of affairs, neither materially nor ideally am I capa-
ble of coming to Francks conclusion. I say ideally because I am a his-
torian rather than a physicist, and because I feel particularly obligated
to uphold the principle that there is such a type as the German of the
will (though not of the blood) who is ready to serve and that this state
in particular has need of the warning voices of our meagre generation
at the university, amidst the failures both old and young. Politically,
this would end up not in a negative but positive form of toleration,
a kind of legal form of reception, but, unless a Prussian principle of
state reasserts itself, involves a rapid and inglorious end.
This is confirmed by the stance of those on the other side. I certainly
hear lots of words of encouragement, and not just from people who
have suddenly discovered incriminating grandmothers. My students
in particular have conducted themselves irreproachably. During the
holidays at least 40 men got together and sent to me personally and to
the D. St. [Deutsche Studentenschaft, the federation of student unions]
a presentation of a very creditable standard in both cases. Every single
member of the managing committee of the D. St. acknowledges the
legitimacy of this document and its contentbut precisely because
of this, precisely because I refute the principle (the Jew who writes
German is lying) I have to leave. Or as one of my people quite rightly
put it: the fact that you have done successful work in the East is an
61
James Franck (18821964), physicist, from an upper middle class Jewish family
in Hamburg. Publically expressed his opposition to the dismissal of Jewish colleagues
in 1933 and resigned from his post as professor of experimental physics and as one of
the two directors of the Institute of Theoretical Physicsthe other was Max Bornin
Gttingen, though as a veteran he was not himself dismissed. Emigrated in 1933.
Awarded the Nobel Prize for physics together with Gustav Hertz in 1925.
154 documents
aggravating circumstance rather than a mitigating one. This is in other

words a dialectical situation, whose positive demand I shall fight for
(that is, that I must be tolerated not just anywhere, but here, at one
of the national universities), but which is going badly for me at the
moment and looks very likely to end badly as well. On Easter Monday,
our A.u.Srat,62 consisting of an Obersekretr and a professor extraor-
dinarius of jurisprudence, who was still a committed S.P.D. man a few
weeks ago, called for the vice-chancellor to suspend me and threat-
ened to send in the S.A. if this was not done in both my case and that
of Hensel.63 Technically, the vice-chancellor conducted himself quite
correctly in comparison, but advised me in a roundabout way (!) and
then directly when I had exposed this method, to apply for leave of
my own bat. The private lecture which I then gave this former regular
officer on the concept of moral courage and the nature of the univer-
sity is, I believe, one of my best, but perhaps my last at the Albertina.
I see three possible outcomes: the vice-chancellor himself now
demands my suspension to maintain law and order. I suspect that
this has already happened. Or the matter is settled from above in
accordance with the law: they are trying to prohibit local action
(our Gauleiter here is locked in the most intense of battles with the
Oberprsident). Or no action of this kind is taken from above. The first
option is by far the most likely. Objectively, I would find it shameful
and would feel particularly sorry for my children. Subjectively, it prob-
ably wouldnt be too bad. It would spare my nerves, would obviously
entitle me to claim a pension and trigger all kinds of measuresper-
haps resulting in the third outcome. My approach to this is to officially
refuse to assume that this is the case for the time being, and advise
against every action intended to oppose it. I am focussing provision-
ally on II and III. I have resigned from all my honorary posts, in some
cases with quite blunt letters, but at the core, in my teaching post, I
will make it a question of either/or, that is, only brute force will stop
me from holding my lectures, which will probably lead to conflict in
the lecture hall. But if I get to speak, I intend to state quite clearly in
both personal terms and in terms of historical philosophy why I regard
62
Presumably a reference to the workers and soldiers councils established dur-
ing the revolution of 1918/19.
63
Albert Hensel (18951933), jurist. Made lecturer in Bonn in 1922 and professor
extraordinarius in Bonn in 1923. Professor ordinarius in Knigsberg from 1929. Died
in Pavia in 1933.
it as my right to go on lecturing as normal and why this is in the best

interests of the state. I will not, of course, ever do this in a provocative
way, but with a clear [demand crossed through and replaced with:]
reference to positive toleration and free room for manoeuvre within
the generally given line, which cannot, however, be re-affirmed every
hour.
I think this is the only approach worthy of me, and it is also what
my students expect of me. If the universities are to mean anything at
all, the crucial thing will be to separate clearly between character and
lack of character and set oneself clearly apart from the mere frenzy.
Fate has decreed that, if I should make it to the lectern, I shall be ask-
ing myself this question sooner than others, including you, though
in my opinion you can wait to ask it. Doctrinaire anti-Semitism (I
continue to share the real variety) is simply the most extreme aspect
of all those things mixed in like a murky residue with what is oth-
erwise undoubtedly an idealistic awakening. The role played by the
officers epaulettes in 191864 is being played by the Jew as the enemy
in 1933the only opportunity for a total victory. This as if in the
Wilhelmine and Weimarian style plays a decisive role in every sphere
(journeys and festivals, foreign policy and reform of the Empire) and,
even more than in March 1918, consumes the psychological reserves
of this last-ditch stand. We are, I suppose, of one mind on this. This is
precisely why those who can should not give up their academic duties.
Except that my situation is more paradoxical in this regard. I prob-
ably have a more positive relationship to certain features than you,
or I could take part in the attempt to rebuild things here in the East
(should the Masurians for example become Polonizedjust as they
want to Hebraize the Jews), but first I have to fight for the precondi-
tions. As seriously as I am willing to take the Volkstum movement, for
me the state is not the exponent of the blood and other facts of nature,
but a historical ordering principle and objective spirit.
I must close, though there is much more to say. Make sure that you
write back to me soon so that I can scrutinize my actions in light of
your opinion before the crucial week is past. My wife and children are
very brave. I myself worked very well in March, but am now becoming
64
Many officers were stripped of their epaulettes by revolutionary soldiers in the
revolution of 1918.
156 documents
quite lame. It is easier to learn to walk again on one leg at 24 in a

physical sense65 than it is to do so mentally at 42.
With old loyalty,
Your
H. R.
11. 5 August [1934]: Hans Rothfels (Neuhuser)66 to Albert Brackmann

NL Brackmann 29
Dear Herr Brackmann,
I am most grateful for your lines and the friendly sentiment which
they convey. As you yourself refer to an untenable state of affairs, I
feel entitled to tell you that I have certainly experienced the numerous
setbacksand now the fact that it was clearly impossible to obtain an
invitation to Kahlberg67as materially injurious and personally insult-
ing, but that I was prepared to stick it out as long as I could still be of
use up here within the narrower boundaries of my post. Over the last
three semesters, this was, I believe, still very much the case, and was
confirmed by the fact that the history students have unanimously stuck
by me. Their ranks were even swelled by new first-year students. Three
weeks ago, the history department unanimously rejected a request by
the leadership of the national students association to distance them-
selves from me. Just a few days later I was informed of my transfer to
another university.
Your diagnosis has thus been confirmed, though in a manner which,
at this point in time and in this form, has surprised me and which is
very hard to bear. I am thus all the more eager to make use of your
offer of a verbal discussion whenever the opportunity should arise. But
as it will probably be some time before that can happen, I would like
to emphasize on principle that I would still feel obligated to contribute
65
Allusion to the loss of a leg in the First World War.
66
Estate in the Prussian administrative division of Knigsberg, Fischhausen dis-
trict, seaside resort.
67
Reference to the first conference of the Northeast German Research Association,
held from 610 August 1934 in the East Prussian seaside resort of Kahlberg. See Haar,
Historiker, p. 203.
to research and teaching in your organizations field of activity in the

northeast, should there be a loyal intention of this kind and should a
way be found that is compatible with honour. I would not, however,
cling to this speciality but, as I have tried to do already, pursue it
within the framework of general history.
I hope that the Kahlberg conference is a great success.
As ever yours faithfully,

Rothfels
12. 12 October 1946: Hans Rothfels to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Rothfels 167
Future address:
6007 Woodlawn Ave
Chicago 37, III. U.S.A.
My dear Herr Meinecke,
I ought long since to have replied to your letter of 3 June,68 by which

I was very touched and moved. But I wanted to wait until I knew that
you were safely in Dahlem. We have finally been reassured on that
front, first indirectly through a letter from Lina Mayer69 to my sister,
then through your wifes letter to Edith,70 and finally last week, when
we saw your card while visiting Frau Holborn at Yale. You can see
how eagerly we suck up any news, and we share your pleasure that
this at least has worked out. As difficult as the circumstances remain,
the fact that you are together again and in the old neighbourhood
makes everything much easier to bear, as so clearly apparent in your
wifes stoical letter to Edith. Is Professor Pinson, who arranged this
68
Reprinted in Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 250f.
69
Lina Mayer (18861971), ne Kulenkampff, student of Meinecke from the Frei-
burg period. Obtained her doctorate in Freiburg in 1911. Town councillor (DDP) in
Heidelberg from 1919 to 1922. Teacher from 1922 until her enforced retirement in
1934. Worked in the field of social education for the Protestant Church after 1945.
70
Edith Lenel, b. 1909, historian, emigrated to the USA in 1936, where she worked
as professor of German. Ultimately became chairperson of the German department
at Montclair State College. Retired in 1972. Meinecke and his wife were close friends
of her parents from the time of Meineckes teaching post in Strasbourg from 1901 to
1906.
158 documents
for you, the student of Hayes who worked on pietism and national-
ism in Germany?71 I would like to shake his hand should I ever meet
him here.
I was of course particularly interestedactually that doesnt begin
to cover it, I was deeply movedby what your wife wrote about your
return to teaching, despite all the physical obstacles and problems, and
what you yourself told me about the circumstances and thrust of your
work. I think I am fairly energetic and flexible myself, and I have expe-
rienced something of Muenchhausens remedy of pulling yourself out
of the bog by your own hair, but I am filled with amazed admiration
at such determination and intellectual tenacity. Whether I can fully
endorse the content of your ideas is of minor importance compared
with that. I suspect that I would come to more radical conclusions in
some areas and less radical ones in others than you currently do. When
I read the advance copy of your chapter, I was reminded of a conver-
sation I had with you once in which you said that Ad. Wahl72 was not
so very far from the truth with his theory that the French Revolution
would not have happened if colonel such and such had acted differ-
ently at a particular moment. There have been many opportunities to
contemplate this conundrum over the last twelve years, and I am not
suggesting that I am done with it yet. So I shall give careful consid-
eration to what you say in your book.73 I received it just a few days
agothank you very muchbut have been able to do no more than
leaf through it as yet. As I myself have now got to know more about
the West, I would probably go further in some respects than you do,
yet for that very reason I would take a less harsh view of Germanys
wrong turns than you do. If I am able to find the time, I would very
much like to write something about crisis and historical consciousness
or the like further to your book or in order to inform people about it.
71
Koppel S. Pinson (19041961), American historian, a student of the historian
Carlton J. H. Hayes, to whom he dedicated his book Modern Germany. Its History and
Civilization, New York/London 1954: To Carlton J. H. Hayes, distinguished histo-
rian, inspiring teacher, devoted friend. Pinson published the book Pietism as a Factor
in the Rise of German Nationalism in New York in 1934. In 1946, he helped Meinecke
and his wife to move from Gttingen to Berlin.
72
Adalbert Wahl (18711957), historian, taught at the University of Tbingen
from 1910 to 1938. Wrote several books on the prehistory, history and after-effects of
the French Revolution.
73
Meinecke, German Catastrophe.
At the moment, however, I am in a state of transition that leaves me

little time or opportunity for reflection. As the letterhead shows, we
are in the process of moving to Chicago. Implicitly, this means that my
guest role over the summer was pleasing to both parties. We found the
atmosphere far more open, in both human and academic terms. The
resumption of intellectual links with Germany is a conscious item on
the agenda here. The first picture that I saw hanging in the corridor of
the history department was that of Hermann Oncken.74 The German
element is strong and respected at the university. Among others we
have Arn. Bergstraesser from Heidelberg, Bachhofer, the Chinese art
scholar from Munich, Pauck, a student of Holl, the best historian of
the Reformation in the country, Middeldorf 75 from Florence is chair-
man of the art department, etc. The size of the place and the more
elevated niveau are having a highly stimulating effect after the many
years of more or less school-like teaching. In my course on German
foreign policy from 18711945, for example, I had about 80 gradu-
ates and in one on historic thought about 40. It may amuse you to
know that in the latter, which, following a lengthy introduction on
the turn of the 19th century, did in fact lead from Ranke and Michelet
74
Hermann Oncken had to give up his chair in Berlin in 1935. Meineckes inter-
vention on Onckens behalf provided the final impetus for his ousting from the post
of editor of the Historische Zeitschrift; see above, p. 15.
75
Arnold Bergstrsser (18961964), political scientist and sociologist, habilitated
in 1928. First a lecturer at the German College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche
Hochschule fr Politik) in Berlin, he was professor extraordinarius of state sciences in
Heidelberg from 1932. Dismissed in 1935, he emigrated to the United States where
he initially taught in California and at the University of Chicago from 1944. After
numerous sojourns as visiting professor he returned to Germany for good in 1954
and became professor of political science and sociology at the University of Freiburg.
President of the German branch of UNESCO from 1960 to 1964. Wilhelm Pauck
(19011981) was a theologian and leading church historian. Born in Germany, he
emigrated to the United States in 1925. Professor of church history and history at the
University of Chicago from 1939 to 1953. Professor of church history at the Union
Theological Seminary in New York from 1953 to 1967. Visiting professor at the uni-
versities of Frankfurt a. M. and Marburg in 1948/49. Ludwig Bachhofer (18941976)
became a lecturer in Munich in 1927. Professor of art history, especially the art of
Japan, China and India, at the University of Chicago from 1935. Ulrich Middeldorf
(born in Strassfurt in Saxony in 1901, died in Florence in 1983) obtained his doctor-
ate in Berlin. Worked at the Institute of Art History in Florence from 1924 to 1926.
Was considered an opponent of National Socialism. Emigrated to the United States in
1935, where he worked in Chicago until 1953, initially as assistant professor, and later
professor in, and head of, the department of art history, and concurrently, from 1941
to 1953, as honorary curator of the sculpture collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.
From 1953 to 1968 he was director of the Institute of Art History in Florence.
160 documents
to Spengler and Toynbee,76 you of course played a role as wellwith

Causalities and values (Kausalitaeten und Werte), History and
personality (Geschichte und Persoenlichkeit) and the introduction
and conclusion of Machiavellism (Staatsraison). One of my students got
seriously hooked on you and thinks that Anderson and Beard-Vagts,77
the only ones who have written about you here, failed to do you jus-
tice. He wants to write a masters thesis on you78 and because he per-
sisted after I had made the difficulties sufficiently clear to him I have
given him the green light. I am quite curious to see what comes of it.
The students as such, mostly veterans who know at least something
about European complexities and are decidedly keen to get away from
slogans, have made a very good impression on me, and the feeling
appears to be mutual. The result was that I was offered the profes-
sorship made available by the retirement of Bernadotte E. Schmitt.79
This not only brings to an end a period of great personal uncertainty
but also provides material possibilities of a kind I have not enjoyed so
far and would be unlikely to improve upon anywhere in this country,
as there will be plenty of PhD students (probably too many) and as
I am expected to teach history of ideas, foreign policy, and Central
European history, particularly nationality problems. I hope that this
field of study will provide objectively justifiable opportunities for vis-
its, but apart from that, as I did not choose it for myself, I take it as
76
Leopold Ranke (von Ranke from 1865; 17951886), the leading German histo-
rian of the 19th century; Jules Michelet (17981874), one of the great French his-
torians; Oswald Spengler (18801936), author of the contemporary bestseller Der
Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Weltgeschichte (2 vols.),
Munich 19181922 (English title: The Decline of the West, London 1922), Spengler was
a philosopher and political journalist; Arnold Joseph Toynbee (18891975), classical
philologist and ancient historian from England, attracted a great deal of international
attention with his book The Study of History (12 vols., London 19341961), a study
of the rise and fall of world civilizations, of which he initially referred to 23, though
this was later reduced to 13.
77
Eugene N. Anderson, Meineckes Ideengeschichte and the Crisis in Historical
Thinking, in: Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall
Thompson, Chicago 1938, pp. 361396; Charles A. Beard/Alfred Vagts, Currents of
Thought in Historiography, in: AHR 42 (1936/37), pp. 460483.
78
Philipp J. Wolfson, Friedrich Meinecke and the German Nation, unpublished
masters thesis, University of Chicago. See also, Wolfson, Friedrich Meinecke 1862
1954, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 17 (1956), pp. 511526.
79
Bernadotte E. Schmitt (18861969), famous American historian, professor in
Chicago from 1925 to 1946. Chief American editor of the Documents on German
Foreign Policy 19181945 from 1949 to 1952. Editor of the Journal of Modern History
from 1929 to 1946.
given that in this way and in this place, as far as possible, I shall live
up to the things I had in mind twenty-five years ago.
Incidentally, I also met Gerhard in Chicago, and we had a good talk.
I had a lengthy reply to my letter from Kaehler, and I hope that the
old feeling of closeness will gradually take hold again. One never forms
new friendships of the same kind at our age and in a foreign country.
Letters from my students give me much pleasure. I would be grateful
if you would pass on my regards to Hartung, who I was pleased to
hear had made it through, and of course to Lina Mayer, who I wrote
to recently, and above all to your family.
With all best wishes
Your
Hans Rothfels
13. 30 April 1947: Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rothfels

NL Rothfels 186
Your letter of 5 February reached us only a fortnight ago and my hus-

band and I were very pleased indeed to receive it. It really is very nice
of you to take the time to write to me when you are so overburdened
with work and setting up a new home in Chicago. It is a gift of fate
that old threads can be woven together once again, that before one
departs this earthly realm one has another chance to correspond with
those who have shown one kindness in past years of abundance. Our
contact stretches so far back in time and Freiburg and Jena come to
mind, and then the Berlin years. For my husband, it is also so heart-
warming and gladdening that the loyalty of his students helps him
cope with his old age and this time of great hardship and bolsters his
physical strength. Once again, you have spoiled usI thanked your
dear wife in the letter and my husband, like the rest of us, is enjoying
this very real support from America. The German people are going
through a very difficult time at the momentit is hard to get hold of
potatoes, there are no vegetables at all, weve only had meat, in the
form of sausage, once since Easterso those who are getting nothing
extra are in a dreadful predicament. People are becoming sullen and
162 documents
unfriendlyand steal whenever they get the chance. One is often so

sad about it and must sadly agree with the victors harsh appraisal
of our youth. We find explanations for these lapses and when the
people have enough to eat they will get back in line. There are also
decent boys and girls who quite understand their lonely mothers
plight. They never complain and are always ready to help out. Frau
Thimme (Rehbrcke)80 popped round yesterday with a manuscript by
her husband, who was buried under the rubble of the archive when
it was bombedso that my husband could appraise it, and she spoke
with such enthusiasm of her two children, who are always so willing
to lend a hand. She herself is facing great financial hardship, looked
truly wretched and said that her children were in a similar bad way,
but her eyes lit up with gratitude for the happiness that she had found
through her relationship with her husband. The widows lot is a very
hard one everywhere and the financial adjustment is extremely dif-
ficult for many. The widows pension is currently being decided upon
hereI believe it is 90M a month, which is not much for a professors
wife. Some get by, others dont. But Vice-chancellor Stroux81 really
is very kind and helpful and has managed to ease some anxieties for
the time being. Frau Marcks82 lives with her elderly sister on Lake
Constance, receives CARE packages from America and a pension and
makes ends meet by knittingbut shes managing. Andreas83 fate is
still not clear. Our local circle of colleagues is very small. [. . .] I have
neither the time nor energy to cultivate more of a social life. I am
often exhausted in the evenings, and am profoundly grateful that I still
have duties that have meaning and provide fulfilment, and am grateful
above all that my dear husband is still with us. That is a tremendous
gift of fate. He says a special hello to you and warmly expresses his
gratitude to you, as your review of his Catastrophe did him a great
80
Hans Thimme (18891945), Prussian state archivist.
81
Johannes Stroux (18861954), classical philologist, professor in Berlin 19351954,
vice-chancellor of Humboldt University from 1946 to 1947, president of the German
Academy of Sciences from 1946 to 1951.
82
Wife of the historian Erich Marcks (18611938), who was a close colleague of
Meinecke from 1922 until his retirement from Berlin University.
83
Willy Andreas (18841967), professor in Heidelberg from 1923. Considered a
liberal democrat in the 1920s, but came to an accommodation with the Nazi regime
and lost his post in 1946. He was reappointed in 1948. Retired in 1949, and subse-
quently taught in Tbingen and Freiburg until 1959.
deal of good.84 All of us were also deeply moved by the address by

your [female] student during the Christmas period. It was marvellous
stylistically and showed great inner strengthhow edifying such dis-
tinguished individuals are. It was lovely of you to give us this pleasure.
How, I wonder, will your new life turn out? Incredible demands are
being made of you with respect to language and style, those things for
which you have such tremendous talent. It must be truly gratifying
to have reached the heady heights of a place like Chicago after all the
upheavals you have been through! Our summer (!) has begun again
and my husband concluded his 1st session85 with satisfaction and was
very satisfied with its make-up. His increasingly poor hearing is a hin-
drance and very sad. I am hoping that a hearing aid will make things
a little easier for him, but my husband is so completely untechnical
that it is hard for him to make such an adjustment. The days of the
stagecoach were the best! But he let himself be talked into flying and
then condemned the express trainso with any luck modern tech-
nology will win him over again! Otherwise, he is amazingly sharp of
mind. A departing foreigner recently said to me sounds tired and
hears poorlybut his mind is so sharp and so old. He is having so
many positive experiences and is evoking much interest. People visit
him and his eyesight still allows him to read a great deal. In the morn-
ing, before breakfast in bed, boosted by your generous gifts, he enjoys
the luxury of looking at art portfoliosall the art books in the house
are passing through his hands once again and a thousand wonderful
impressions of the times we have enjoyed together appear before him,
or are passed on to me in fragments as I skip through the house as
stoker and housekeeper. I often long to make use of the few years left
to me with a mind that still works very well to go through my books
and art materials, but theres so much to do, and one is consumed
by everyday tasks. The life of the German housewife is strenuous these
days, and she gets only the meagre ration provided by Card V, though
she does get Card III for two months.86 We had a very lively afternoon
84
Review published in: Mitteilungen der Literarischen Gesellschaft von Chicago,
Illinois, vol. 3, no. 4, 10 January 1947, pp. 810.
85
Reference to Meineckes seminar.
86
Karte V was the ration card for the non-working, who received the least rations.
Karte III was for white-collar workers, while workers and labourers received Karte II
or I.
164 documents
at the house of the sociologist Oswald Schneider87 and got on well with
an invited couple through our common friendship with Krauske88 and
Knigsberg. You would have enjoyed taking part in our discussion.
Unter den Linden [street in the Soviet sector of Berlin] was decorated
with red flags today and the university hoisted the flag too! But here
in the American sector we had a quiet time of it, merely sighing at the
fact that the special day89 brought such cold weather and rain despite
the blossoming of the fruit trees. People are desperate to see some
sunshine and there is still very little sign of the natural world coming
to life. But where can one go? Even a trip to Potsdam is impossible,
so we are left with our little garden and its vegetable beds. Theres not
a flower left in it, weve become materialists, a professorial household
of Mangold-scoffers! Frau Lina90 is in a very delicate condition, but is
never far from our thoughts. [. . .]
Best wishes to you and your wife and once again thank you so much
for your friendship, gift and letter. Did your wife receive my letter?
Your
Antonie Meinecke91
87
Oswald Schneider (18851965), political economist and professor in Berlin, who
had a close relationship with Meinecke.
88
Otto Karl Krauske (18591939), historian. Professor in Knigsberg. Close friend
of Meinecke since his time working at the Prussian Secret State Archive in Berlin. See
89
Reference to 1 May, a public holiday. Evidently her letter was not finished on
30 April.
90
Lina Mayer, ne Kulenkampff.
91
Addition by Frau Meinecke at the bottom of the first page of the letter: Lina
received letter and medicine. Reference is to Frau Lina Mayer, ne Kulenkampff.
Additions on the final page: My husband is always deeply touched by the smokers
greetings. He is still a great lover of tobacco! Niemller will soon be bringing me your
greetings. He wants to become our minister again. Martin Niemller (18921984),
Protestant theologian. Minister in Dahlem from 1931 until his arrest in 1937 as one of
the most high profile champions of the church opposition to the Nazi regime. In vari-
ous concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. Made acting chairman of the Council of
the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland or EKD) and
head of its foreign department in 1945. Resigned from these offices in 1956. Regional
church leader of the newly constituted Protestant Church of Hesse and Nassau from
1947 to 1964.
Antonie Meinecke
14. 14 November 1947: Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
Dear Herr Meinecke,
Thank you very much for your detailed letter of 17 August,92 which
arrived yesterday. I find it deeply moving that you have devoted so
much time and effort to me. And it means a lot to me that you did
so. If the lines slant upwards more than they used to, the characteris-
tic shape of both your thoughts and handwriting is nonetheless of an
admirable firmness that many a younger man might envy.
92
Printed in Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, pp. 283285.
166 documents
I am of course particularly grateful for the kind words which you

included for Wolfson.93 I read them out to him and he was thrilled,
as they say here. Both of us know how much still requires improve-
ment, and I will see to it that not only the partial blindness but other
misunderstandings as well are weeded out as far as possible. But I am
pleased that I sent you the incomplete draft. It seems to have served
its purpose of giving you pleasure.
I am also very grateful for your kind and understanding words with
regard to Bismarck.94 How good it would be to talk about all these
things. If only that could happen and in good time. Just a few weeks
ago I turned down an appointment in Heidelberg. It is impossible to
simply give it all up from one day to the next, as friends and colleagues
seem to think one can do. But I would be happy to come for a visit
(perhaps even a trial run) at some point.
A few days ago I received a letter from Dehio,95 who informed
me about the planned revival of the H.Z. and asked for help making
contact with publishers. I think that will be quite possible, and again
Im especially pleased for you, as you can look forward to seeing the
product of so much effort rise again. In a general sense, this symbol
of unbroken will can only have a positive impact, and it is moving for
all of us here to see the energy with which the work of reconstruction
is being tackled in a field in which there is at least some freedom. I
was also very impressed by the brochure for the Studium Generale
[general studies courses].
But I dont want to write a long letter today. To save you the trou-
ble of reading, I have asked Epstein to convey a special request. My
wife and I thank Frau Meinecke very much for her lovely letter.96
We thought of you on your 85th birthday, though unfortunately I
neglected to write in time.
Yours affectionately,
H. Rothfels
93
See above, p. 160.
94
Hans Rothfels, Problems of a Bismarck Biography, in: The Review of Politics 9
(1947), pp. 362380.
95
Ludwig Dehio (18881963), historian and archivist, worked as a non-Aryan in
the household archive of the Hohenzollerns during the Nazi period. Director of the
State Archive in Marburg from 1945 to 1954. Also honorary professor in Marburg
from 1946 and editor of the HZ from 1949 to 1956.
96
See the letter of 30 April 1947, above, pp. 161164.
15. 4 June 1948: Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Rothfels 167
Dear Herr Meinecke,
It has been a long time since I have written because one feels so empty-
handed in every respect. I have now finished your essay on 48 for the
Review of Politics, where it will appear in the October issue.97 It was
not an entirely straightforward task, and I had to take a relatively free
approach to the translationhopefully not too free. I think I managed
to correctly bring out the essence of your opinion, which impressed
me greatly in its cohesiveness and balance, though inevitably I had to
simplify certain expressions and break up some sentences, etc. One
learns a great deal oneself about both languages in the process. I would
have liked to have asked you about the term hybrid98 formation
(applied to militarism). I know that you have always liked to use it
and that it was never entirely clear to me what you meant. In English,
the word has the unambiguous meaning of hybrid (Zwitterbildung)
and if you stretch the interpretation sufficiently then that does in fact
make sense when applied to modern militarism. But I am not entirely
sure whether this is what you meant. Against my will, I myself was
more caught up in 48 than I wanted to be. The American Historical
Association (belated congratulations on your honorary membership,
through which the Ass. has honoured itself )99 wished to devote the
major part of its winter conference to the year 48 and I have agreed
to give a lecture on revising our historical assessment with respect to
the European revolution. And in addition I am to write an article on
1848. 100 years after for the Journal of Modern History. Amid the
pressures of the semester I have not managed to write a single line,
though I am holding a seminar on the nationality problems associated
with 48. From a European standpoint and with respect to the ques-
tionable nature of progress in the 19th century (Burckhardt), I am
inclined to evaluate the issue of failure in a very different way than is
common here, where revolution is quite unquestioningly good, so
97
Friedrich Meinecke, The Year 1848 in German History, in: The Review of
Politics 10 (1948), pp. 475492, translated by H. Rothfels.
98
By hybrid, Meinecke meant something that in a sense goes beyond the happy
medium and thus becomes harmful. Letter from Meinecke to Rothfels of 22 August
1948, reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 293f.
99
See above, p. 112.
168 documents
long as it does not occur in South America, and where the Germans
are berated for never having had a proper one. I do not deny that there
is something to this view, but it is only a half-truth. And it needs to be
shaken up in a country which has itself never had one, but only a war
of liberation, and which is basically ultra-conservative, with a constitu-
tion that is fundamentally unchanged over nearly two centuries, and
social practices that allow for almost no deviation, a country that now
finds itself compelled to play a role in the greatest of global affairs.
My little book on The German Opposition to Hitler, An appraisal100
is at last ready to be dispatched. I will try to get it to you through my
sister. Unfortunately the print is rather small and you shouldnt put
yourself to the trouble of reading it. I just want you to have it and hope
that through you it might be accessible to interested parties. I have no
doubt overlooked certain things, and am in no way aiming for com-
pleteness, but on the other hand I was able to make use of a great deal
of material that is quite unknown in Germany and highlight aspects
which can be discussed more clearly here and which do in fact look
very different now than in 1945. Essentially, my aim was to produce
an interpretation anchored in universal history of what is only appar-
ently a minor subject.
With best regards, from my family to yours,
As always faithfully yours,

Hans Rothfels
16. 24 September 1948: Hans Rothfels (Chicago) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 221
Dear Herr Meinecke,
We have often thought about you with concern over this critical sum-
mer and only hope that, alongside the inevitably heavy psychological
burden, the new material hardships have not hit you and your family
too hard. I heard through a third party about your daughter Brigittes
100
Hinsdale/Ill. 1948.
journey to England and you can evidently be very proud of her. We

are now curious to see when and if Ilse Mayer-Kul.101 will turn up here.
These new connections between people are the best possible thing that
can happen.
I am happy to know that my short study reached you, as my sister
wrote me. You should of course have a copy as a symbol of devotion
and attachment, whatever you think of this rather risky but for me
very necessary effort. I would only ask that you do not torment your-
self too much with the very small English print. A German transla-
tion102 is being negotiated. I have sent around 100 copies, but there are
still a lot of demands, and I hope that the difficulties that may stand in
the way of the translation will be surmountable.
Your article on 48 will at last appear in the October issue of the
Review of Politics and I will send it to you as soon as I have the oppor-
tunity. It was not easy to translate it into English, and I learned a
great deal about the laws of both languages and how they rub off on
historical and political thought. I hope I have managed to remain very
faithful to the content while also producing a convincing translation
into English, and I have no doubt that your article will receive a great
deal of attention. It is head and shoulders above all the other examples
of German literature marking the anniversary of which I am aware. I
may not have seen everything, but apart from the pleasant little book
by Heuss,103 I found everything painfully distorted. It is of course a
difficult anniversary to celebrate. I feel that you have brought out
marvellously the intricate nature of this tragic event and I admire your
sure hand. It will not surprise you that I see things differently to some
extent. In a long essay of my own, which will be appearing in the
December issue of the Journal of Modern History,104 while referring
appreciatively to your specifically German and essentially social inter-
pretation, I strongly emphasize two other aspects: the universal char-
acter of a tragic decision made in the middle of the century (in reality,
all revolutions have failed, not only the German one; and a turning
101
Ilse Mayer-Kulenkampff (b. 1917), historian. Daughter of Lina Mayer-
Kulenkampff. Published the essay Rankes Lutherverhltnis dargestellt nach dem
Lutherfragment von 1817 in HZ 172 (1951), pp. 6599, which presented some of the
findings of her Gttingen dissertation of 1943 supervised by Kaehler.
102
A German translation entitled Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler. Eine Wr-
digung appeared in Krefeld, 1949.
103
Theodor Heuss, 1848. Werk und Erbe, Stuttgart 1948.
104
See above, p. 167.
170 documents
point occurred in relations between West and East more broadly) and,
in connection with this, the dubious nature of the national principle
as such. I also wished to rebel against a theory that traditionally sees
revolutions in other countries (other than in South America) as a good
thing and their failure as reflecting a flaw in national charactervery
peculiar in a country that has never had a revolution but merely a war
of liberation and civil war and which in many ways is the most conser-
vative of all countries (though the term conservative is considered a
rebuke) and which now finds itself in a Metternich situation.105
I hope that, as I shall propose, the Review sends you a CARE pack-
age as a goodwill gesture. None of the American journals pay fees.
We have had a good summer. I had my first proper holiday, which
we spent in a deserted corner of northern Michigan far from the noise,
filth and heat of Chicago. It was good to see nothing but water and
trees again, and a lake as large and magnificent as the Baltic. There is
also good news about our children. After nine years apart, we hope
that our youngest will be coming over early next year.
It will interest you to know that I have been invited by Gttingen
to give guest lectures in the summer of 49. I would of course have to
overcome a whole number of difficulties, but I hope it will work out.
With the very best wishes to you and your wife, and all our best for
the new year,
Yours as always,
Hans Rothfels
17. 4 January 1949: Hans Rothfels to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Rothfels 167
My dear Herr Meinecke,
From your wifes card I was pleased to see that both packages arrived
successfully. I hope they helped you in a small way to get through
these dismal winter months. Ive indirectly sent you copies of your
105
Clemens Frst von Metternich-Winneburg (17731859), conservative Austrian
statesman, who championed a restorative, anti-liberal policy in the struggle against
revolutionary tendencies in Europe. He was dismissed during the revolution of 1848
and fled into exile in England, returning to Vienna in 1851.
essay, as well as the issue of the Review in which it appears. I have just
returned from the gathering of historians in Washington, one third of
which was dedicated to 48. You will be interested to know that your
essay received frequent mention, from Walter Dorn106 among others,
who spoke about problems of German unity; he was interesting but
very much open to attack. My own paper, Is There a Revisionism in
the Historiography of 48?, was very well received. Indeed it seems to
me that all the new conceptions revolve around or are directed against
Marxs thesis. Even you take it far more seriously now than you used
to. In other words, we have again learnt to think in terms of a univer-
sal crisis. And in that regard, with its confrontation between East and
West, 48 is closer to us than any other event. I shall get a major essay
on 48 to you through my sister.
Above all though, I would like to say how moved I am by your
departure from the Linden University.107 I heard about it from Lina,108
and about the scene in your house. It must be difficult for you, espe-
cially with respect to the Academy109 (or is that not included?), but it
had to happen eventually, and we all feel a sense of satisfaction that
you still play a representative role. I hope that the honorary duties of
the vice-chancellorship do not give you too much stress!
Your wife touched on the possibility of a reunion next year. As yet I
hardly dare write about it, as so much is still unclear or might prevent
it from happening. But there are plans to go to Heidelberg from April
to June and Gttingen in July. If the army gives its placet, I would
106
Walter Louis Dorn (18941961). Grew up in a German-American family, the son
of a minister. Studied theology and worked as a minister before becoming a historian.
Professor at Ohio State University in Columbus from 1931 and Columbia University
in New York from 1957. Came into contact with Meinecke in Berlin in 1932/33, when
he took part in his Sunday walks. Special advisor to American military governor in
Germany Lucius D. Clay on issues of de-Nazification in 1946/47.
107
See above, p. 113.
108
Lina Mayer, ne Kulenkampff.
109
Meinecke resigned from the German Academy of Sciences only in 1950. This
was a response to the publication of a flattering birthday telegram from the presi-
dent of the Academy, Johannes Stroux, to Stalin on the occasion of his 70th birthday
on 21 December 1949, which appeared in the Berlin Tagesspiegel on 28 June 1950.
Because of the telegram, Meinecke, along with four other members of the Academy
who taught at the FU Berlin, had already refused to take part in the ceremony mark-
ing the Academys foundation, which dated back to an endowment in 1700, and was
merely formally a member. See Meineckes letter to W. Goetz of 31 March 1950 and
to Spranger of 5 July 1950, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel,
p. 303f. and p. 624.
172 documents
probably have reasonable freedom of movement during the time in

Heidelberg and would of course attempt to come to Berlin. Would it
perhaps be possible under these circumstances to provide me with a
reason, through a lecture invitation that would place a financial bur-
den neither on myself nor the Free University? This is of course a
very hypothetical question. I will let you know if Heidelberg becomes
a certainty, but it would perhaps be a good idea to consider the pos-
sibility in advance.
With all best wishes for your good health,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rothfels
ii. dietrich gerhard 173
II. Dietrich Gerhard
1. 9 August 1914: Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
Dear Herr Geheimrat,1
In these momentous times, which show each one of us with particular

force just what the nation means in the life of the individual, that he
cannot exist at all without it, I feel compelled to thank you, as her-
ald of the most profound and truest patriotism, for all that you have
given me through your books. I would not dare thank you in this
rather unusual manner if I did not feel the urgent need to, indeed,
if it did not seem to me an obligation of gratitude. For, in my case,
reading your books has not only been the source of the most profound
stimulation, but far more than that: an experience. You have taught
me to look at history with quite new eyes and at the same timeand
I want to thank you for this in particular, especially nowin doing so
you have enabled me to discern the fundamental forces of the present
clearly and distinctly. This is precisely what we are hoping for, you
state in last years address, that in making an intellectual connection
between past and present, we become more positive and more coura-
geous in both our work and observations.2 You have fulfilled this pri-
mary mission of history, its most difficult and greatest, for us, the new
generation. Not in the sense that we can twiddle our thumbs and need
not continue to work towards this goaleach one of us must achieve
it for himself anewbut rather in the sense that you are our leader,
you have shown us the way. And how much that means at a moment
like the present one! How much strength flows from such knowledge!
We cannotfor better or for worseclaim as our own the simple
force possessed by the peasant and workman, that strength which
flows from not thinking and not reflecting. We need different, more
complicated, more refined values and yet ones which supply us with
1
Geheimrat was a title of honour bestowed, among others, on many leading
professors until 1918.
2
Friedrich Meinecke, Deutsche Jahrhundertfeier und Kaiserfeier, in: Logos, 4.2.
The lecture, held in Freiburg on 14 June 1913 is reprinted in: Meinecke, Preuen und
Deutschland im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, historische und politische Aufstze, Munich
1918, pp. 2140.
174 documents
courage and strength. This you have given me: you have taught me to
recognize the intellectual forces of the time of awakening [in the early
19th century]. You have shown me the development of the German
national idea, and under your direction I have got to know all the ideas
and opinions that have come to light within it. And so I would like to
say to you that I also view the great battle that has now begun from
this point of view. Time and again, I feel consciously or unconsciously
that this is the first war that we have waged over the existence of the
German nation state, over that which has grown through that lengthy
process of development that you have portrayed. Unfortunately, as I
am still too young and undeveloped, it is not granted to me to join the
masses in supporting the state myself, and so I must content myself
with helping the combatants; but during this whole difficult period I
draw strength from thoughts that have come alive within me through
your stimulation.
Since it is probably the one thing in my letter that might interest
you in these times, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank
you for all the stimulation you have given me through your books in
a purely historical senseif it possible in the first place to separate out
these things in your case. For that, I believe, is the characteristic fea-
ture of your books: they are written solely for the sake of understand-
ing, without secondary aims, and yet, through the uniquely elevated
nature of the vantage point, through the clarity of their outlook, they
impart not only knowledge of the past, but therebylike no other
book that I knowalso strength for the present. Every one of your
books ensures that we become more positive and more courageous
in both our work and observations. It does not, therefore, seem out
of turn to speak to you at this moment about purely historical stimu-
lation as well. There is also the personal circumstance that I have just
completed my Abiturium and, when not occupied by my job with the
volunteer nursing, can therefore devote my thoughts entirely to his-
tory; indeed, should the war be over by then, I hope to be able to
attend your lectures in the next semester.
It is you, dear Herr Geheimrat, who first convinced me to study his-
tory. This does not mean that I only enjoy books like your ownthat
would merely be to savour the pick of the bunch. Rather, through
the nature of your approach, the whole broad field of history, which
formerly captivated me only to a certain extent, has come alive for
me. The history of ideas perspective that prevails in all of your books
and whose special appeal is based on the fact that one is always con-
fronted with the living personality as bearer of the idea, has provided
me with quite new perspectives on history. That which was once a dis-
orderly chaos for mepolitical history, cultural history, etc.that con-
sisted of disconnected fragments, has now become a cosmos, indeed,
only in this way has the significance of political history become clearer
to me.
It goes hand in hand with this that your booksespecially Cosmo-
politanism and the National Stateput the forces, which always lead an
intellectual life, in their rightful place for the first time, indeed elevate
them to a position of dominance. What a boon this is for those who,
with Wilhelm von Humboldt,3 believe that the results in themselves
are nothing, all that matters is the forces which they generate and
which originate in them! Then there is nothing that is dead; instead
there is life everywhere. Then you see the course of developments. You
will understand that Cosmopolitanism and the National State is there-
fore my favourite of your books. May I add something else? It also
seems to me the most personal of your books. Your own view of the
life of states and nations is also present within it, is itself anchored in
history and thus itself provides new nourishment to other views. But
all your books have made me familiar with the intellectual content of
a particular era, while at the same timelike Boyen and Radowitz4
above allthey pulse with life because of the strong emphasis you
place on personalities.
I have you to thank for all of this, for endless stimulation. Forgive
meas a young personif I have done so in such a candid manner.
I hope that you do not mind my doing so, and draw comfort from
the fact that it is perhaps interesting for you to see how strongly your
books impact on a young person, particularly at times such as these.
With the greatest respect,
Gratefully yours,
Dietrich Gerhard
3
Wilhelm von Humboldt (17671835), scholar and statesman. Meinecke deals in
depth with the development of his ideas, particularly on the relationship between state
and nation, in Cosmopolitanism and the National State.
4
Friedrich Meinecke, Das Lebens des Generalfeldmarschalls Hermann von Boyen,
2 vols., Stuttgart 18961899; Meinecke, Radowitz und die deutsche Revolution, Berlin
1913.
176 documents
2. 31 December 1914: Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 12
Dear Herr Geheimrat,
Please allow me to send you my best wishes for the New Year. It is
not only my personal gratitude for the extremely kind interest which
you have shown in me that prompts me to write to you today. Above
all, on behalf of many others as well, I would like to express my hope
that you might work with undiminished strength and vigour in the
new Germany that this year should bring us. I want you to know how
deeply each of the words you have spoken over the last few months
has penetrated my soul. I knowand I have heard the same thing
from many individuals, both young and oldhow your ideas have
caught on. You yourself will no doubt have been thanked profusely
from many quarters. Still, I hope that these few lines are in no way
troublesome to you.
I cannot thank you enough for holding aloft the flag of true patrio-
tism at this time, which is both productive and dangerous with respect
to the development of national feeling, for descending tirelessly into
the deepest of shafts in order to uncover hidden sources and connec-
tions. How marvellously you have clarified the connection between
state and culture, power and spirit in your essays, thus satisfying our
most urgent need. Through your books you have shown us the con-
nection between Schillers human nation [Menschheitsnation] and
Bismarcks national state in such a way that their development as a
whole has become palpable to us. Hence, for us you have been both the
disciple of classical idealism and the promulgator of Prussian-German
Realpolitik, a symbol of that wonderful alloy that will hopefully always
be characteristic of our Germany. Please allow me therefore, at the
beginning of the new year and in the midst of a still unsettled situa-
tion, to write you to express my hopes that you might continue to be
active in this way for a long time to come and impress the spirit of
Humboldt and Bismarck upon the German people.
Please allow me to add another, more personal note of thanks. You
know how eager all we young men are to be out there. When the war
broke out, and a fair number of us had to stay at home for physical
reasons, at first we simply couldnt believe it. But now I know that
there are good things for me to do here as well. If, as your student,
I can now absorb all your ideas, I hope to be able to pay you back
later, again as your student, by faithfully administering your legacy, by
propagating your ideas in a different form in the distant future.
By taking me so kindly under your wing, you have also made the
kind of impression upon me that is anchored in personal contact with
you. For this too I would like to express my warmest thanks to you.
For the New Year I wish you and your wife, to whom I would ask you
to give my best regards, the fulfilment of all that we are hoping for.
With great respect,
Gratefully yours,
Dietrich Gerhard
3. 16 June 1915: Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
I was very sorry to hear about your illness. I can only hope that it is
not too serious and that you are restored to health before long. As I do
not know the nature of your illness, I would ask for your forgiveness
should I be disturbing you with the short paper enclosed.
It is intended as a small symbol of gratitude for the stimulation that
you have so often provided me with hitherto, and for the very kind
reception that I was so privileged to receive. For a certain period is
coming to a close. That which I mentioned to your wife at the begin-
ning of the semester as a possibility has nowsince Whitsuncome
to pass: following my enrolment, I have now been successfully assigned
to a telegraph battalion and shall join up over the course of July. The
only remaining uncertainty is exactly when, but that too will become
clear in the next few days.
You will understand why, under these circumstances, I am sending
you the work now. It may also be that you have more time to look at
it now than otherwise. Should I be wrong about this, I would ask you
not to take it amiss that I have sent it you. I would not be bothering
you with these pages in the first place if I did not wish to show you
178 documents
that, thanks to your guidance and stimulation, in the short time that
I have been studying I have in fact already made some headway in
history. This is the main reason I wanted to send you my work: in
order to show you that I have truly got to know the vast field of his-
tory properly only through your guidance, that the ideas expressed
in your books and lectures have been decisive for me, that your way
of looking at things has also set me on the right path with respect to
medieval history.
The essay is a seminar paper from the earliest stages, something, in
other words, which you probably never set eyes on otherwise. I am
quite aware how skewed and immature much of it is, that much of
it came out wrong because I had to finish it off so quickly. [. . .] You
know how beholden I feel to you. Not just for the great personal kind-
ness you showed me, but above all for the rich academic stimulation.
That it is not merely academic, but is for the whole person, is some-
thing I learned in particular from Cosmopolitanism and the National
State. Allow me to conclude by thanking you once again for reissuing,
before the war has even ended, the book which we need so urgently
at this of all times.5
I hope you feel well again soon and can resume your work afresh.
Unfortunately I will be able to attend your lectures only very rarely, as
I am now giving up my studies entirely apart from absolutely neces-
sary seminars, in order, as you will understand, to do further physical
training.
I apologize once again for sending you these pages. With best
regards to you and your wife, who, I am afraid, I have still not man-
aged to thank for her kind letter.
Respectfully yours,
Dietrich Gerhard
5
The third edition of Meineckes Weltbrgertum und Nationalstaat appeared in
1915.
4. 8 September 1923: Dietrich Gerhard to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
Forgive me for not writing this in my own hand; I am bedridden fol-

lowing an operation on a fracture suffered during the war.
The Copenhagen project appears to be taking off.6 Herr Professor
Friis7 will soon present my memorandum, a copy of which I recently
gave you, to the board of trustees of the relevant fund. He has asked
me to send a statement from you that he wishes to include, regard-
ing the publication and my qualifications as editor, as soon as pos-
sible. Would you be so kind as to send the information requested to
Professor Friis in the enclosed envelope?
I would very much like to discuss the matter further with you, as I
will have to strike a balance between the Literature Archive Societys
(Literatur-Archiv-Gesellschaft) plan to publish the first volume next
year and the contradictory wishes of Professor Friis and the Danish
co-editor,8 and I would greatly appreciate your advice. Would you be
so kind as to let me know how long you will be in Berlin? If necessary,
should I be bedridden for some time to come, I would ask you to do
me the special favour, if it wouldnt be too much trouble, of visiting
me at some point when you are in the city anyway, for I must quickly
make my final suggestions to Copenhagen regarding the works form
and date of publication. I feel very awkward about making this request,
but in my current predicament, should you be leaving soon, I see no
other option.
As ever with respect and gratitude,
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
6
Reference to the publication of Niebuhrs letters, see above, p. 32.
7
Aage Friis (18701949), leading Danish historian and professor in Copenhagen.
Corresponded actively with Meinecke.
8
William Norvin, professor of classical philology in Copenhagen.
180 documents
5. 29 October 1923: Dietrich Gerhard (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
Unfortunately, we did not manage to implement our plan to send

birthday greetings from Rothfels inaugural lecture9 from all those who
attended the celebration last yearlargely because we were so caught
up in the events that we even forgot that we had planned to do so.
So I for my part am taking this opportunity to tell you what a good
number of others will no doubt say for themselves: that for us the 30
October 2210 is a vivid and ever-present memory. So many difficult
things have befallen us since then that your statement, which I did
not truly want to accept in my heart at the time, that we were far from
being past the worst of our ordeal, has become the sad reality and the
year that has since passed by is ending with a prospect that could be
no more grave and bitter. Forgive me if I commemorate your birthday
under such auspices, something which you probably wish to be largely
ignored. Indeed I can only state explicitly once again that which this
morning showed you implicitly with particular clarity: that there exists
a vital community made up of those who call themselves your stu-
dents, a community in which grateful respect for the human aspect of
history has become so deeply rooted that we are unable to say whether
we have become this way as your students or whether we have become
your students because of it. The restrained warmth which we felt ema-
nating from Rothfels speech today and which captivated us so utterly
is the spirit of your spirit, and it is in this very [word illegible] which,
I think, all your students feel connected, as different as the generations
may be and as much as mine may differ even from that of Rothfels in
some respects. [. . .] I truly hope that the awareness of what you have
lastingly given us all may mean something to you, particularly in these
9
Inaugural lecture by Rothfels on 29 October 1923 following his habilitation in
Berlin.
10
Meineckes 60th birthday.
difficult, tension-filled days, and keeps alive the remaining confidence

of victory within you, a confidence with which we look to the future,
however much we might acknowledge our cruel fate.
With grateful respect,
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
6. 29 May 1925: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

NL Gerhard, series 2, box 2
Dear Herr Doktor,
[. . .] I have asked Brackmann to take the place of Vigener11 as co-edi-

tor of the Hist. Zeitschr. He is prepared to do so but wants to take on
the full range of responsibilities only in around nine months12 and
even then he wants an editorial assistant to relieve him of some of
the regular duties. In the course of our search we thought of you, so
I would like to ask you the favour of taking on this burden, which
does after all entail certain attractions and benefits. Thus, during the
first few months, until Brackmann has fully taken over as co-editor,
you would be responsible for most of the tasks formerly handled by
Vigener, while later on you would share these tasks with Brackmann.
The fee is set at 100 Mk per issue (600 Mk per annum) for later; dur-
ing the first months, after discussing this with Brackmann, you would
receive more. I estimate that you will have about one hour on average
to do per day later onas far as possible, the best approach is to do
all the work on specific days of the week and, as Br[ackmann] has
suggested, one could get the bulk of the work done in the rooms of
the history department. Its best if I explain the details in person. For
now I am merely asking for your acceptance in principle and would
be sincerely pleased to receive it.
11
Fritz Vigener (18791925), medievalist, professor in Gieen. Co-editor of the
HZ, 19141925.
12
Brackmann was in fact designated co-editor of the HZ only from 1928 on (vol.
137). See below, p. 239.
182 documents
I shall finish editing the forthcoming issue (131.2) with the help
of my daughter Sabine. So you would have to start work only at the
beginning of July.
With best regards,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
7. 19 November 1935: Dietrich Gerhard (Cambridge, Mass.) to

Gerhard Masur
NL Masur 58
Dear Masur,
Your sister will have told you about my telephone call. I really was par-
ticularly sorry that you had had to leave by then and that I have now
gone overseas without us being able to say goodbye properly or dis-
cuss possible future plans. In light of what your sister implied, I hope
that everything has gone fairly well and that I shall soon receive news
from you with all the details. I believe that every new start immediately
gives us an opportunity to gather new strength. And productive action
then generates greater enthusiasm for work overall and strengthens
our power to cope with all the pressures we face.
I myself of course still have some time to go before the real work
begins here. But I am very pleased with how I have been received in this
country and especially here in Harvard. The close links with German
scholarship, evident at every turn, are of much benefit. Anything but
narrow in this regard, people are highly attentive to the full range of
issues in the overall intellectual life of the European peoples. They are
clearly better informed and more receptive that I was accustomed to in
Europe intra et extra muros [within and outside of the walls]. Though
this may be a feature particular to Harvard.
I hope with all my heart that if you leave you will make a similarly
good start. I hope to hear more about your latest decisions soon. You
know that I am thinking of you with the most earnest hopes for a dear
friend.
With best wishes from my wife and I,
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
8. 27 August 1936: Dietrich Gerhard (Norwich, Vt.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 177
My dear Herr Professor,
Im delighted to welcome you to New York and wish you all the best
for your first week in America. I also want to inform you that we
have decided to postpone our departure for the Middle West. We want
to stay in this mountain country (where I can also use the library of
Dartmouth College) until around the 7th and then make a short trip
to Cambridge so that we can be there at least during the first few days
of your stay in Harvard.13 I can thus attend your lecture on the 9th and
we shall leave shortly afterwards.
We are sorry that we will be armed with neither apartment nor car
in Cambridge in order to make it comfortable for you (we ourselves
are as yet unsure where we will stay). But we hope to be able to give
you at least one or two practical tips or assist you in some small way.
And in any event we are absolutely delighted to be able to greet you
in a place dear and familiar to us.
[. . .] My very best wishes once again, until our joyful reunion in
Harvard Yard.
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
13
Meineckes sojourn in Harvard in order to accept an honorary doctorate from
the university. See above, p. 111f.
184 documents
Dietrich Gerhard
9. 5 March 1947: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

My dear colleague and friend,
What wonderful gifts you have sent us! We are deeply moved and send
you our most heartfelt thanks. In fact, my old students in the USA, all
of whom are now teaching there, have shown me so much loyalty and
kindness that I am deeply touched.
You will no doubt have heard how we are doing from the Kuhns.14
Enormously privileged in comparison with the fate of millions of
Germans, we too continue to suffer dreadfully, in my case particularly
on account of the aches and pains of old age, which make work very
difficult. A bit of teaching with a few students in my own home
for I can no longer go into the city unaccompaniedmakes me very
happy.
I would be very pleased to hear in due course about your own work
and how you are doing in general these days. Your great early work15
actually predestines you for the particular historical tasks with which
we are currently faced: to view, understand and portray the world his-
torical conflict between East and West within the context of a new
drama. But someone will eventually have to continue the work on
your Niebuhr edition.16 The Academy has received ample funds for
such work. Could you perhaps give me some idea of what would be
required? Of course there is a severe lack of younger workersour
junior staff is a field of rubble.
Still! Our will to live is unshaken!
With warmest wishes,
Your grateful
Fr. Meinecke
14
Helmut Kuhn (18991991), philosopher, and his wife Kthe Kuhn. Helmut Kuhn
habilitated in 1930 in Berlin and worked as a lecturer there until 1937. Denounced
as an opponent of National Socialism during a lecturing trip to the Netherlands, he
emigrated to the United States in 1937. He taught at the University of Chapel Hill in
North Carolina from 1938 to 1947. Returned to Germany in 1948 and was appointed
to a chair in philosophy at the University of Erlangen. Professor of philosophy at
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt in Munich from 1953 to 1967. Also vice-chancellor
of the College for the Study of Politics (Hochschule fr Politik) in Munich from 1960
to 1970. Kuhn did what he could to ensure the translation of Meineckes book Die
Deutsche Katastrophe in the USA in 1946/47. See Meineckes letter to G. Mayer of 29
December 1946, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 266.
15
Reference to Gerhards book England und der Aufstieg Russland, see above, p. 34.
16
See above, p. 32 and Gerhards letter to Meinecke of 30 August 1948, below, p. 194f.
186 documents
10. 11 January 1948: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich

Gerhard
My dear friend,
Once again you have delighted and strengthened us with an exception-

ally generous and well-chosen charitable packagefor our diet can
now be described as good, as a rare exception to the general state of
want, thanks to the gifts of old friends and my migr students. Who
would have thought that our intellectual bond would ever have such
material implications for us. In a way, however, that turns the mate-
rialist philosophy of history on its head: the material as the super-
structure of the ideal! Thank you so much! From the lovely letter that
I received from your mother,17 I hear that you yourself are facing a
difficult strugglewhich makes your gift all the more touching.
I also hear that you are already working on a letter for me! Please
dont go to so much trouble. I myself can only write a poor and short
letter, because my eye trouble is gradually getting worse and I must
focus the rest of my capacity to work on a modest seminar with around
ten students held in my own study, though it is now very cramped.
We are currently going through W. v. Humboldt, and it is astonish-
ing and heartening to see how they engage with it. We have a lot of
young people with a real intellectual hunger here at presentwhich
gives us hope for the future! If only one of these young characters
could continue your Niebuhr edition! Or perhaps you yourself might
even do so? The Academy would easily find the funds (granted by
the Russians). But of course the technical difficultieslibraries and
archives in ruins, every journey a challengeare enormous and hard
to overcome. I am not in the picture about where the sources for the
edition currently are. Can you tell me anything about this or give me
any kind of advice?18
I suffered another bout of bronchopneumonia in the autumn, and
was cured by penicillin, though it aged and weakened me further over-
all. Whether I will live to see the resolution of the great global conflicts
17
There are three letters from 1948 (4 October, 16 October, 3 December) from
Adele Gerhard, mother of Dietrich Gerhard, in Meineckes papers, but none from
1947.
18
See below, p. 194f.
I do not know. Things look very gloomy, though not entirely hope-
less. There is one thing I would wish for both you and us! That you
are invited to give guest lectures at the university here at some point.
Hartung, the only professor ordinarius in modern history here, would
be very much in favour!
With warm greetings,
Gratefully your
Fr. Meinecke
11. 5 August 1948: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

Dear Herr Gerhard,
Once again you have delighted us and brought us welcome relief from
the privations of everyday life with a charitable package containing the
choicest of itemsthank you so much! I am so deeply moved by every
such parcel from my old migr students and friends because they are
a symbol of something far greater yet, of a loyalty and inner solidarity
in matters of ultimate import, and this at a time of global destiny and
change, whose extent and outcome we are as yet far from grasping.
Again and again one is compelled to consider the causes of this global
change in the recent and distant past and it is hard to shake off the
sense of shock.
For all the wretchedness of everyday life, in human terms we are
doing fairly well in these chaotic times. Despite the blockade of Berlin,
the food situation has remained the same here in the Western sec-
torthanks to the planes of the Western powers that roar above our
heads. I am still more or less managing to do the seminar at home with
a dozen gifted and keen students. But I am suffering greatly from the
continual decline of my sight and hearing. I no longer have the time
or energy to produce work of my own, but with any luck you will
soon receive my lecture on Ranke and Burckhardt,19 delivered in the
academy one year ago.
19
Meinecke, Ranke und Burckhardt, see above, p. 17.
188 documents
My warmest regards to you and your wife, and please send your
mother my best wishes as well.
Yours most faithfully,

Fr. Meinecke
12. 30 August 1948: Dietrich Gerhard (Lindenbrook Farms) to

Friedrich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 12
I have just sent off a letter to your wife at last, in response to goodness
knows how many letters from her! I was delighted to receive every one
of them, though I failed to respond to any of them. Only this short
stretch of holiday in the East (following two months of teaching in
the old place, Harvard, at the summer school ) has given me the peace
and quiet to write a detailed letterand how much there is to say,
if one wishes to bridge the gap created by time and space over the
twelve years since the last time we saw each other in Cambridge.20 In
the other letter21 I went into detail about the external form of our lives,
about the family, our children growing up, general issues of profes-
sional life and especially the American education system. This gives
me the courage to send you at last my long delayed report on what I
might call my scholarly evolution, which I have long owed you. Your
first letter, already almost eighteen months old,22 was itself so under-
standing, always accurately envisaging my current preoccupations, as
only an old teacher, an understanding observer of his erstwhile stu-
dents development, can do.
Yes, you are right: for several years I have been making a start on
a study which can at least in part be viewed from the angle of the
East-West relationship. It is, however, very different in its structure
and objectives than my book on England and Russia. There is some
common ground with Hintzes studies in comparative constitutional
20
Dietrich Gerhard met Meinecke in the USA when Meinecke was awarded
an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in Cambridge/Mass. in 1936. See
above, p. 108f.
21
Unfortunately, this letter is not among Meineckes papers.
22
See above, p. 184f.
history,23 but its point of departure is very different and it does not
focus exclusively on constitutional history. I am not yet sure when
and in what form I will be in a position to present at least provisional
conclusions. I would need the time and leisure to focus. The nature of
university life here makes this almost impossible to come by. Much of
the time, I have as yet been able to work on this project only in the
late evening and at night. Furthermore, in St. Louis I am generally
dependent on borrowing books from other universities in the country.
Nonetheless, I am making progress. My most fervent wish is that I
might at some point manage to finish this study, which I see as a kind
of lifes work.
The best thing is for me to tell you about the motives which gave
rise to it. Personal experiences, the upheavals of the age, the tasks fac-
ing the teacher of European history in Americayou will find all of
these different factors in my report. The best thing is for me to begin
with the latter, as this will also give you an insight into my academic
field and teaching methods and because a fair bit of personal experi-
ence is of course fused with the teaching.
In professional terms I have had a particularly hard time here in
some ways, while on the other hand things have gone particularly well.
Hard in the sense that I have been and still am extremely overstretched,
to what seems to me an excessive degree. For years, in addition to
the seminar and the various weekly lectures of three hours each, for
financial reasons I have also been giving an evening lecture as well as
regular lectures over the summer (though these last two are usually in
my regular field). Things have gone well in the sense that I have had
an almost entirely free hand in the choice of my lectures and I was
not forcednot even during the war, when I mainly taught soldiers
assigned to us by the army through a special programmeto tackle
materials that would not have been my thing in terms of research
and teaching. Thats rare in this country. The big universities such as
Harvard and Yale are excessively specialized, while the small colleges
often limit themselves to courses providing a cursory overview.
I only give one of my lecture courses every year: a kind of intro-
duction to European history since 1815 (though this is not open to
23
Otto Hintze, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. 1: Staat und Verfassung. Gesammelte
Abhandlungen zur Allgemeinen Verfassungsgeschichte. Ed. by Gerhard Oestreich with
an introduction by Fritz Hartung, 2nd, expanded edn., Gttingen 1962. 1st edn.
Leipzig 1941.
190 documents
first-year students); this is the only course not intended for graduates.
All the others are intended both for later semesters in the college and
for graduate students (as you will know, only the latter take history as
their actual subject, the college students are often future jurists, busi-
nessmen, young men who want to go into the foreign service, etc.).
In these other lectures I have developed a rota of 3-year periods. The
first corresponds roughly to how it was usually done in Germany in
the field of modern history: from the Reformation to the present. The
other is an alternation between national histories: German history,
Russian history, the history of the British Empire. For several years,
however, I have done little to develop the latter in terms of research
first because it was too much for me and second because in this coun-
try it seems far more important to me to introduce the students to the
nature of the old European society than to the history of the colonial
countries, so similar to the development of their own country. Even
Russian history, which seems to me important in itself, but even more
so in comparison withand in contrast toits European counterpart,
offers certain parallels with America despite the very different back-
ground: in the penetration of vast regions, the significance of a border
advancing ever further into unsettled territory, and generally in terms
of the institutional fluidity of a society not yet fully formed. This is
easier to teach here than any part of old European historyby which
I mean pre-industrial Europe. Europe before the final breakthrough to
modernity in the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution.
It is highly instructive for the European historian to teach European
history in America, especially in the Middle West, where the link with
Europe in social forms and architecture is a fair bit weaker than in the
Eastwhere, in fact, it has never existed. When teaching, one therefore
has to start right at the beginning. And one feels all the more bound
and compelled to do so the more one has to convey not merely a small
part of European history, but a subject area in which the fundamentals
of intellectual trends, institutions and society make themselves felt to
the observer of their own accord. But if there is no parallel to the vil-
lage and village community or to a peasantry living in closely adjacent
dwellings, then the artisanry has never been truly at home here either
and was suppressed early on and rapidly destroyed, while the civil ser-
vice appeared only at a very late stage, and was created by democracy
rather than preceding it. All of these points are in fact truisms, and yet
one fully grasps the consequences of these differences in the countrys
subsequent historical development and in the consciousness of the

people only if one has to think them through.
Of course, the tasks facing me here professionally coincided with
my own experience of life in a country so very un-European in so
many ways and with the awareness of having witnessed first-hand the
menaces to the old European order and its comprehensive destruc-
tion since my youth. I think I have already written to your wife about
the un-European dimension in connection with the question of
upbringing and the mental growth of children. Much of this is a sign
of the timesnot in the sense of something temporary, but as a con-
sequence of modern mass society and modern technology: the pres-
sure to conform, the volatility and lack of independence in matters
of taste, the fast pace of life, the danger of being consumed by ones
work for organizations and institutions (which is in fact expected).
This is all part of the 20th century, only the countervailing forces were,
understandably enough, stronger in Europe. This process as such was
of course already discerned by wise observers such as Burckhardt and
Tocqueville, and in his unrivalled account Tocqueville described it
as already commencing in the 18th century.24 And one can certainly
resist this process, attempting to foster the development of the per-
sonality within the family and professional realms (my main success
as a teacher is founded just as much on the method as on the content
imparted to the students), and you can be quite sure that day after
day over all these years I have been gratefully aware that no politi-
cal pressure of any kind has disrupted or inhibited my life. Without
question, as a result of generations of living in individual freedom and
the democratic construction of society, there is in this country a very
lively tradition of resistance to all forms of violent political suppres-
sion. But the forces of modern collectivism are at work here in another
unpolitical form. Toqueville also analyzed much of thiseven with
respect to the languagein astonishing fashion more than one hun-
dred years ago, in the third volume of his book on America. In Europe,
the standardization of customs and thought was hampered by the old
diversity of regional and corporative ties, a diversity whose effects, it
seems to me, were still being felt well into the 19th century; these ties
24
Alexis de Tocqueville, Ouvres, Papiers et Correspondance, vol. I: De la Dmocratie
en Amrique, Paris 1951. First published 18351840.
192 documents
were the substratum of modern individualism, forming a natural as yet

undestroyed part of it, even when this individualism rebelled against
them.
You will understand that what preoccupies me most in your recent
workin your essay on 1848 and even more so your book on The
German Catastrophe, which Schneider25 got to me perhaps as long
as eighteen months agois above all the attempt to place events in
Germany within a world historical context. Again and again one is
compelled to consider the causes of this global change in the recent
and distant past and it is hard to shake off the sense of shock, as you
have just written in your latest letter of 5 August,26 which has arrived
as I write this. I admire the elasticity and openness of your thinking
and only wish that some of it might also remain alive within me.
You will also understand that for all my deep interest in the old
fatherland, I have not looked into events in Germany under Hitler
with the same intensity as Rothfels. I am glad that his book27 has
appeared, and wish that it would have a greater impact, particularly in
this country, than it is probably destined to have. I saw the Rothfelses
in Chicago during the winter, and they came to visit us for a couple of
days in spring. We got on very well on the whole and actually forged
a closer relationship than we ever had in Germany. I am at one with
his semi-political goal of demonstrating to the Americans the strength
and intensity of the opposition (here, this has often been made out to
be purely practical-utilitarian and arising solely from the awareness
of looming defeat) and its early and profound ideological taproots.
But I myself have no such directly political objective. And I have been
even less attracted over the last few years by the prospect of exercis-
ing a direct political influence in the manner of Hajo [Holborn] and
so many native and non-native American historians and social sci-
entists. And I would have little to offer in that regard. My mainif
you like, politicalpreoccupation has been the attempt, after the war,
to lead the country into the work of international reconstruction in
the same way that it largely sacrificed normal private life to the task
of ensuring victory during the war. I wanted to contribute to this in
my own way when I attempted, in St. Louis in 1945/46, beyond the
25
Presumably a reference to political economist Oswald Schneider.
26
See above, p. 187f.
27
Reference to Rothfels book The German Opposition to Hitler, 1948.
specific nationalities and church groups, to set in motion a general

movement to underpin active government policies for the reconstruc-
tion of Europe.
But this proved beyond my strength and ability, and it was mainly
interesting negative experiences that I gleaned from this work, in pur-
suit of which I gave up my scholarly work and to which I devoted
all my free time for almost a yearapart from the sole positive that
I aroused no suspicions as an immigrant. That really is something
unique, and could only happen here in America. I returned to my own
work following this failed attempt.
And I shall conclude by telling you about this work in more depth.
What I have in mind is a kind of comparative constitutional and social
history of Europe from the high Middle Ages to the 19th century.
However, the term history is a little misleading, because what mat-
ters to me is not so much the change as the constant factors. I would
certainly bring out the national differences, but my main interest lies
in the common characteristics. In contrast to you and Gerhard Ritter28
for example, in such an account or analysis, even when examining
the relationship between Germany and Western Europe, I would place
less emphasis on the differences in political development in the mod-
ern period and more on the similarities between the estates, judiciary,
regional nobility, in universities, etc., which stem from the Middle
Ages. These are the conservative, retarding elementsthe social forces
and institutions that stood in the way of the drive to power and cen-
tralization, in the way of expansion and rapid change, the forces of
stability, often leading to paralysis and ossification, often tending to
exploit their position to their own advantage. And yet forces whose
existencerooted in feudalismintroduced into the European com-
munity principles of order that were absent from developments in
Russia: forces which, institutionally and as social strata, facilitated the
passing on of cultural tradition, autonomy and the safeguarding of law
to later generations. You may feel that such an endeavour runs the risk
of making me too much of a laudator temporis acti. But I take comfort
from the fact that the material entails its own corrective.
I am also very far from expecting such research to have any political
impact. Yet I am aware that ones ultimate personal convictions and
28
Gerhard Ritter (18881967), one of Germanys leading modern historians.
Taught in Freiburg from 1925 until his retirement in 1956.
194 documents
experiences are the underlying inspiration for such work. In my own

way I am attempting to find out which forces have endowed Europe
with continuity and individuality for a millennium despite all the cri-
ses and wars. It is these forms of human life, for the individual and for
the collectivity, which are at serious risk in our time. In this sense, as is
in fact self-evident, such an endeavour is also underpinned by a con-
temporary objective, namely, as a minimum, to foster and heighten
the feeling for continuity and individuality through historical analysis.
In what form we can preserve or regain it under the very different liv-
ing conditions of the 20th century, I cannot say. As you can see, I too
am haunted by the experience of the present age in all my work, and
it has determined my research.
Neither should you have any fear that I will neglect the analysis
of the real-life factors such as population and economy, producing a
false picture of the past. I am well aware of the connection between
such studies and economic, church and intellectual history. Despite
the work of several years (though it was work for which I had to save
a bit of time here and there whenever I could), I am still in the initial
stages and am telling you about this only to show you that I have not
become sterile and, in my own way, am passing on your legacy.
I found out more about you and your family from the Epsteins,29
who I spoke to briefly in Cambridge. That you are still able to influ-
ence a small group of select students in your seminar, despite all the
impediments, is for me not only an object of constant admiration, but
also a sign that the intellectual life in which my roots lie continues to
exercise an influence in the old country despite all the disasters and
devastation. I look forward to your lecture on Ranke and Burckhardt
with great anticipation. I wish I could thank you by reciprocating with
something truly well-formed rather than the outlines which are all I
have been able to offer you.
You asked me in your last letter about the options for continu-
ing the Niebuhr edition.30 I brought over bits and pieces of material
myself (copies of letters made for the third volume before I emigrated)
but it amounts to very little. I have copies from various unpublished
collections, above all from the Niebuhr papers themselves. Whether
a third volume would be possible would depend chiefly on whether
29
Fritz T. Epstein (18981979), specialist in Eastern European history and librar-
ian, who also studied under Meinecke in Berlin in the early 1920s.
30
See above, p. 186.
the Niebuhr papers that were in the literature archive (housed in the
rooms of the Berlin Academy at the time) have been saved.31 If there
really is a political dtente that would make it possible to carry out
such a task in practical terms, then in my view it would not be unfeasi-
bleprovided that these core materials have been preserved. In those
cases in which I myself have not yet copied those letters not among the
Niebuhr papers and located elsewhere at the time, I have at least made
a note of the locations (that is, the places where the relevant papers
were to be found). Unfortunately, my colleague Norvin,32 as you will
know, died a number of years ago. Frau Norvin wrote to me about a
manuscript more or less ready for pressNiebuhrs first work on the
agricultural history of Rome, which I had found and reconstructed
and which Norvin wanted to publish. I could perhaps publish this
now, if only I could find the time.
It goes without saying that I would like to come over myself to get
the work on editing the third volume up and running, perhaps to train
someone there who could then go ahead with the work himself.33 As
difficult and emotionally draining as a trip to Germany would be, I
would very much like to make one. I would also be very happy to go
there as guest lecturerfor a summer or even longer! I would prob-
ably be granted leave, and Ive been told, though I havent yet been
able to verify conclusively, that there would be funds available here
in America to support the family: because they wouldnt be able to
survive on my wifes meagre salary, and weve been living for years
exclusively from income, with absolutely no assets in the background.
My dear Herr Professor, whether Berlin would really be a possibil-
ity for such a trip is something that you will be able to judge better
than I can from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I dont so much
mean the increasing gravity of the political situationIm very much
hoping for an at least temporary dtente. But in this country Ive had
the one great advantage that no political pressure or consideration of
31
The papers survived. Formerly part of the literature archive of the Prussian
Academy of Sciences (Preuische Akademie der Wissenschaften), it was now
incorporated into the Central Archive of the Sciences of the GDR (Zentrales Archiv
der Wissenschaften der DDR) in Berlin.
32
William Norvin, co-editor, alongside Dietrich Gerhard, of the first two volumes
of Niebuhrs letters.
33
Another four volumes of Niebuhrs letters were published under the title: Barthold
Georg Niebuhr, Briefe. Neue Folge 18161830, edited by Eduard Vischer, Berne/Munich
19811984. Dietrich Gerhard made available the unpublished correspondence on the
second half of Niebuhrs life that he had collected to the new editor.
196 documents
external factors has impeded my teaching. I would certainly mention

tact, patience and human understanding as the qualities which have
everywhere paved the way to the hearts of my students. And it would
be a task with its own unique appeal, both rousing and rewarding
in human terms, to find out how one finds common ground after
experiencing the most recent stage of world history under such dif-
ferent circumstances, and how one might construct a common basis
for understanding. But of course, as you know, I am no Marxist, and
however much understanding I may have for modern society and its
problems and especially for the economic upheavals (in Harvard this
summer I read among other things about Central and Eastern Europe
from 1848 to 1890, with the main emphasis on the shift in social struc-
ture, on the impact of the freeing of the peasants in the East, indus-
trialization and the construction of the railways in every region), I am
basically a conservative whose heart very much lies in the preindustrial
world. That may be enough to give you an indication of the doubts
that assail me when I consider the possibility of teaching in Berlin.34
You and above all Hartung will of course be able to judge that bet-
ter than me. In human terms, any trip to Europe, and especially to
Germany, would have the great appeal of allowing me to engage in a
genuine exchange of ideas, something I can scarcely do in St. Louis
at allnot to mention my desire to see you and old colleagues and
friends again: how good it is even now to have the chance to exchange
ideas in our letters (though, admittedly, I have gone a bit overboard
with this in this letter and in my letter to your wife).
I would be of no use as some kind of official intermediary: sent by
the American government, I would always feel responsible to it, and
I would then feel the personal weaknesses of the occupation yet more
keenlywhile at the same time I have never distanced myself from
the old fatherland to the point that I would not perceive the dangers,
anxieties and shortcomings along with my old friends. In this sense,
as my wife puts it, one always stands between the two countries, in
search of a human ideal from which one is oneself still far distant and
whose realization is blocked in various ways by the deficiencies of both
countries.
Neither would I be keen to take on a long-term position that would
pull me away entirely from my own research, which I see as a kind of
34
The letter was written a few weeks before the foundation of the FU Berlin.
Gerhard was therefore discussing the possibility of teaching at Humboldt University.
lifes work, unless that position would directly or indirectly benefit it.
For these two reasons, with a heavy heart, early last spring I replied in
the negative to a provisional enquiry as to whether I might be inclined
to come to Berlin to replace Epstein.35
For the time being, we shall be returning to St. Louis in a weeks
time (our address: 6108 McPherson Avenue, St. Louis 12, Mo.this
is already our third home since the address your wife used: I wrote to
her about all of this in an equally long letter now on its way to her),
having had our first real holiday for yearsmy wife and children for
the whole summer, while I at least had almost three weeks off. The
American friends who are sharing this holiday house with us are sur-
prised at the long letters I write and fear that they are making it impos-
sible for me to relax. And yet it is not only hugely important to me, but
also does me a huge amount of good to be able to express my thoughts
to you at last after such a long break. It is a part of my relaxation and
contemplationand as soothing and liberating as the silence, vastness
and solitude of the New England landscape that surrounds us.
If, after such a long silence, I have now placed excessive demands
on your strength and patience with this interminable letter, I hope
that your wife will act as go-between and identify the most important
points within it.
With best wishes and thoughts to all of you.
Yours always,
Dietrich Gerhard
13. 31 May 1950: Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to Gerhard

Masur
NL Masur 58
My dear friend,
Unfortunately Im managing to write to you just one day before my

departure for Germany. The last few weeks were fairly unpleasant here
35
Fritz T. Epstein was involved in the project of publishing the German diplomatic
records (19191945) from 1946 to 1948. See Astrid M. Eckert, Kampf um die Akten.
Die Westalliierten und die Rckgabe von deutschem Archivgut nach dem Zweiten
Weltkrieg, Stuttgart 2004.
198 documents
in St. Louis as I had to wind up the semester early while at the same
time helping reorganize the department and preparing for my trip to
Europe. I have now completed all the formalities in Washington and
am on my way to the airport (Springfield, Mass.), from which I am to
fly to France tomorrow.
I shall think about you over there. That will happen naturally, not
so much because of the past, but in the present: the key task will
be to achieve contact with the students in lectures, seminars and
conversations in light of my own expanded horizons and altered views.
Understandably, everyoneincluding Rothfelswas embarrassed by
Meineckes book.36 However, partly in light of Rothfels experiences,
partly because of an encounter in St. Louis with German students
and teachers, I have great hopes that my work at the university
will help advance genuine mutual understanding. It will certainly be
exciting. [. . .]
I plan to travel to Berlin in August and also to see Meinecke briefly.
Understandably, he has clearly become a good deal frailer over the
last year.
Please forgive the brevity of this letter. I havent got any work done
over the last three months. I can at least reckon with a free study year,
or rather working year, in 1951/52 (Guggenheim).37
I hope that the summer lectures in Virginia38 will be enjoyable and
useful and that the students will be as responsive as they were last year.
36
It is not clear from the documents which of Meineckes books Gerhard is refer-
ring to and why he and Rothfels were embarrassed by it. As Meinecke published
only the second volume of his memoirs (1949) on the period 19011919 after 1945,
apart from collections of earlier essays, the only candidate is probably his book Die
Deutsche Katastrophe. Given their generally conservative views, they may have taken
exception to the radicalism of Meineckes critique of German history. This is suggested
by a passage in Rothfels letter to Meinecke of 12 October 1946 (see above, p. 158):
As I myself have now got to know more about the West, I would probably go further
in some respects than you do, yet for that very reason I would take a less harsh view
of Germanys wrong turns than you do. In his later, generally very positive review of
the book (see above, p. 162f.), he concludes with what is perhaps a mild attempt to
distance himself from Meinecke: Meinecke does not accept mere fatality but sees in
history a struggle of higher and lower forces to be controlled by the individual human
mind. These views may be debatable and may ring pathetic. But they also give to the
book a venerable touch and the stamp of an idealistic philosophical attitude, not a
theoretical but a practical one. However, Rothfels also took exception to Meineckes
notion of Goethe communities as the saviour of Germany (Eckel, Rothfels, p. 286).
37
Dietrich Gerhard had received a Guggenheim fellowship for 1951/52 to further
his research.
38
Masur taught summer courses on Latin American and modern European history
at the University of Virginia in 1949, 1950 and 1951.
It is a good sign that they asked you again. Lets talk about all things
professional again in peace in August.
For now I wish you all the best for the coming months, and I look
forward to seeing you again towards the end of the summer. [. . .]
With warmest wishes,
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
14. 9 September 1953: Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 212
How long it has been since Ive written to you, dear Frau Meinecke,
and yet how often our thoughts have been with you and your husband.
Herzfeld,39 who paid us a welcome visit in St. Louis in spring, has no
doubt told you that we are in good health and I am happy at work,
though under a great deal of pressure. We have not been out of the city
this summer. Our finances were too depleted by our year in Europe, so
despite the sweltering heat (it was un unbearably hot summer, and on
top of that the second driest ever recorded herea serious drought)
I had to give lectures here in the summer school. Furthermore, we
had to sell our house, which caused us no end of trouble, and buy a
smaller, nicer one instead, which we eventually managed to do. We
hope to move in a few weeks. For the time being its best to contact me
through the university (Washington University). At least we were able
to live outside the city, in the pretty cottage of a colleague who was
spending the holidays in Europe, amidst all the expanse and liveliness
(tree frogs, cicadas, etc.) of an almost tropical environment, though
by degrees even this natural world was almost paralyzed by the heat.
But it finally began to cool down a few days ago, and an exhausted
nature is beginning to recover a little. Its astonishing how quickly
that occurs, at least in the case of lawns and meadowsa brief, light
rain shower and the enveloping brown is transformed back into a lush
green. People take a bit longer to recover, but I too am gradually begin-
ning to make progress with my work again, to which I could devote
39
Hans Herzfeld (18921982), modern historian, professor at the Free University
of Berlin from 1950.
200 documents
little time during the academic year (I am now saddled with heading
our history department) or during these very busy holidays. Its always
the people that make up for it, especially in the summer schools and
evening lectures: receptive, willing to work, and genuinely growing in
understanding and intellectual grasp despite the short time available
and across the age range. Over the last few months, in my lectures on
Russian history, I have had ministers and rabbis, [several words illeg-
ible], teachers, a [word illegible], who now wants to study law, a jurist
and his wife, a [woman] sculptor, and a diverse group of students,
including pre-foreign service ones, and there was no lack of intelligent
discussions and sincere attempts to understand the state of the world
and its background. Lots of interest in Germany as well. This will be
reinforced by the outcome of the elections,40 which are of course being
welcomed on all sides. Despite success and greaterthough not always
particularly welcomeinvolvement in the administration of the uni-
versity, amazingly I am sometimes keenly aware of the distance from
Europe. Perhaps I will have the chance to spend another sabbatical or
fellowship year in Europe in the foreseeable future, or at least another
summer giving guest lectures. Does your husband still take in enough
to fully appreciate the election victory? How nicely balanced his life
was just two years agogathering himself for the timeless and eternal
while at the same time being involved in the most lively fashion in the
most important decisions of the day. It must have got more difficult
caring for him by the day. I often wonder how you still manage and
whether you are getting enough help and relief. Particular during this
exciting summer in which my thoughts have often turned to Berlin and
East Germany since the events of June.41 Perhaps young von Laue,42
who will no doubt have seen you (I think very highly of him), will be
able to tell me more at some point. I have had the occasional short
40
Reference to the Bundestag elections of 6 September 1953, won by the CDU/
CSU.
41
Allusion to the uprising of June 1953 in the GDR.
42
Theodor von Laue (19162000), German-American historian. Son of the famous
physicist Max von Laue. After studying for a year in Freiburg, was sent by his father
to continue his studies in the United States, as he did not want him to grow up in a
country governed by gangsters. Studied in Princeton. Later taught at Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania, at the University of California, Riverside, and at Washington
University in St. Louis, until being appointed to the Frances and Jacob Hiatt chair in
European history at Clark University in Massachusetts, where he taught from 1970
until his retirement in 1982. Expert on Russian and Soviet history with a strong inter-
est in universal history. A convinced Quaker, he was involved in the civil rights and
peace movements. Colleague and close friend of Dietrich Gerhard in St. Louis.
letter from Herzfeld, but he doesnt manage to write in any depth. Its
good that you have the understanding and support of your daughters.
No doubt everything will have become more exhausting physically and
psychologically day by day. We also have the feeling that Maria has
grown to become a real young adult. Im pleased to think that she
herself has told you about her positive experiences over the summer.
We ourselves, thank God, are Americanized enough that we let her
organize and set off on her 24-hour bus journey herself without giving
it a second thought. And I almost think that it is only in this country
that young people become so independent at such an early stage that
one can let them get on with it without worry. Of course as a person
Maria has a good foundation, and with any luck she will make it safely
through the present phase of her life, a phase when young Americans
are too self-centred for the most part. I cant tell you how happy I
am that this personal bond has taken hold between the two of you.
In other ways too, the ties binding her to Europe have never been
broken. She corresponds with a large number of people, now ranging
from the Indian girls to her friend in Erlangen. Meanwhile, Barbara
too is growing up, for the time being unswervingly convinced that
she will be either a natural scientist or vet. Admittedly, such forecasts
are reinforced by her life out here with a dog, three cats, five kittens
and a collection of creatures ranging from spiders and beetles of the
most exotic kind to toads (for a time the toad was regularly taken for
a morning walk and swim in the little pond). In the new house we will
at least have a garden of some lengthits a bit like yours in terms of
layoutso hopefully even this nature lover will be able to cope in
the city. My wife is happy that at least the house issues, a constant
source of depression, appear to be resolved. Unfortunately she had no
teaching job over the last year, which is a financial worry, but she still
manages to maintainlike me fairly consciouslya brave and posi-
tive attitude in this life between (or is it really across?) the continents.
My work also moves back and forth between Europe and America;
this winters yield was an essay on American educational history.43 My
mother was better this year. She even went to see my sister again in
43
Presumably a reference to Dietrich Gerhard, The Emergence of the Credit
System in American Education as a Problem of Social and Intellectual History, in:
Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors 41 (1955), pp. 647668,
reprinted in Gerhard, Alte und Neue Welt, pp. 232249.
202 documents
the East this summer, in a place you know (near Cambridge). My very
best wishes to you and your husband.
Yours always,
Dietrich Gerhard
15. 21 March 1954: Dietrich Gerhard (St. Louis, Mo.) to Gerhard

Masur
NL Masur 58
Dear Masur,
[. . .] The news of Meineckes death44 will not have come as a surprise

to you. What little I heard since last autumn suggested that he had
already declined physically some time before. So one must accept his
demise and be grateful that he survived into old age, still interacting
with his fellows both mentally and emotionally, as a symbol of the
world in which we ourselves are rooted. I myself still had the mean-
ingful get-togethers during my summer visits of 1950 and 1951 quite
fresh in my mind. But his powers had declined greatly since then, and
it is probably for the best that you have your unspoilt memories of him
in his former state [. . .].
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
16. 18 September 1954: Dietrich Gerhard (S. S. Caronia) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 212
Dear Frau Meinecke,
Once again, I have waited till I am on the high seas to write to you.
It is scant consolation that you are used to this kind of thing from
me. True to form, as they say over there. Admittedly, I can say in
my defence that I am having my first holiday here on this ship. First
of all the semester in Cologne simply didnt want to end, as it were,
44
Meinecke died on 6 February 1954.
and there were still all kinds of things to wind up or even to set in
motion in the first place for the America Institute into the August.
And then, in Marburg, I had to use the short time remaining to pre-
pare for the year of research in Princeton, which Im heading back
to begin, chiefly in the West German library, in the old volumes
familiar from Berlin.45 It will soon be three months since I saw you in
Berlin. You could sense how happy I was to see you and how I felt as
if your husband was still with us in the old place. Thank you not only
for your very kind welcome but also for allowing me to relive so many
stages of your life together in conversation with you, including quite a
few things prior to the days when I came to see your husband at Am
Hirschsprung for the first time. My own relationship with Berlin has
of course always been a rather ambivalent one. I never felt entirely at
home there and it drove me out into the countryside time and again.
And the places where I myself grew up and later lived, Wilhelmstrae
and the old West, no longer exist or are unrecognizable. So for me,
every time I visit, everything is always concentrated on my fathers
grave and now the grave in Dahlem46 and your house, where that
which has meant most to me in Berlin lives on. How nice of you to
find time and space for me at a time when everything was being rear-
ranged in the house. I hope things have worked out well with the new
tenants. Of course, the past summer will not have brought you the sun
you were longing for at the time. I thought about you often in July and
wondered whether the holidays were tolerably pleasant. We did have
some sunny days in Cologne amidst a great deal of rain. Admittedly,
I couldnt pay too much attention to such things, for I needed all my
time and energy to work my way into the institutes areas of interest.
But I am very pleased with the results. A lot of important new con-
tacts were made, not so much with respect to myself or my scholarly
work (though I draw comfort from the fact that it too will benefit
from this indirectly), but with a view to making the institute, which
means so much to me, into a bridge between Germany and America
that fosters mutual understanding, and also a place which can give the
exchange between the two countries a more personal slant. If I man-
age to have an influence on the selection and distribution of students
45
Many of the volumes of the state library (Staatsbibliothek), located in the Soviet
sector of Berlin, had been evacuated to Marburg during the war.
46
The grave of Friedrich Meinecke in the Annenkirche cemetery in Berlin-
Dahlem.
204 documents
going to both countries, even to a modest degree, I will be quite satis-

fied. I can still remember the fundamental importance to my entire
life of my first long visit abroad on my own, to Denmark, arranged by
your husband and Aage Friis. The ministry in Dsseldorf continued
to be very obliging in every respect, such that I have reason to hope
that, should my university in America consent, I will be able to carry
out my plan to do two jobs, with a regular rota from November to
January in Cologne, February to May in St. Louis and May to July in
Cologne. How and where the family would get together during the
late summer and autumn terms will remain a tricky issue in terms of
both money and work. But I am tempted by the dual role, with the
prospect of being interpreter for both sides, and I think I was fairly
successful in Cologne within the given limits. I very much enjoyed
young Mommsens47 work and involvement and expressed my appre-
ciation to his father48 during a brief visit to Marburg. You should have
seen me during the last month in Marburg: how I enjoyed immersing
myself in this old world, under Dehios expert direction, and how these
congenial surroundings also benefitted my workup to and including
the gray barrack bread sold to me by my baker in the Marburg suburb
of Weidenhausen, a place with a character all its own, a bread that
inspired such outpourings of praise that all the way across the ocean
my wife warned me that the S. S. Caronia would mistake me for a bar-
rel and roll me down into the hold. Seeing the old volumes from the
Berlin library was a quite melancholy experience, some of them having
reached Marburg in a damaged state. For one as obsessed with conti-
nuity as I am, even the pleasure of reconnecting in this personal way is
a happy event after all the destruction. They made major concessions
to me and gave me first an overturned crate, then before long even a
proper table, to work on in the stacks. So Im heading for Princeton
well prepared. My wife, who has already arrived there, writes with
great satisfaction about the job and accommodation prospects there.
Down in the ships hold is the big suitcase with the excerpts for the
work I plan to further in Princeton. As these things go, they filled only
a small suitcase after my first European tour four years ago. Now there
is so much that the porter can hardly carry it. And all of this now trav-
47
Wolfgang J. Mommsen (19302004), German historian.
48
Wilhelm Mommsen (18921966), German historian. Student of Meinecke
in Freiburg, habilitated in Gttingen in 1923. Made professor extraordinarius in
Gttingen in 1928 and professor ordinarius in Marburg from 1929.
els back and forth across the ocean with the funny author-producer
(I have no idea what I should call him). Will I manage to be more eco-
nomical in future, leaving part here and part over there? The problem
with this is that, at least with respect to teaching, I tackle American
subjects in Europe and European ones in America and cannot even
find the materials solely in the relevant countries: the Swedish materi-
als I was unable to get hold of in Copenhagen I discovered later on
in Harvard in the Widener Library,49 and the West German Library
has just spared me a second journey to Copenhagen. A complicated
world that makes one a kind of scholarly hawker, carrying his bundle
from continent to continentan image that your husband, for all his
tolerance, would surely have shaken his head at. The family news is
more straightforward, if fairly unremarkable. From her earnings as
countergirl (in German: Kellnerin hinter der Theke [waitress behind
the counter]) Maria seems to have put by around 500 dollars and has
come up with an audacious plan to use it to finance a trip to Germany
next summerthough this presupposes that her fathers wallet will
be full enough to help her through college alongside the scholarship
and, periodically, a small income of her own. It would be nice if she
could come over; for if everything goes according to plan (and that
will only become clear over the course of the next few months), my
wife and Barbara are to come with me to Cologne towards the end of
April, where we would like to set up a small second home. If possible,
Barbara is then to attend a German school for eighteen months, from
Easter 1955 to autumn 1956. How the relationship between the pro-
spective new headmistress, a strict East Prussian, and my unrestrained
cowgirl, will turn out, remains to be seen. One placatory aspect is that
the aforementioned school for Barbara is on Georgsplatz, where her
grandmother spent her entire youth. It would be nice if it were granted
to me to bring mother over again as well at some point. But I shall wait
and see how things develop on that front. For the time being she seems
to have arrived back in Ohio from the East quite invigorated. My wife
and the children, at Cape Cod in New England, got through one of
this years hurricanes unscathed. We hope to have some productive
and trouble-free months ahead of us in Princeton. [. . .] My very best
wishes once again to you and your daughters and thank you for the
49
Important academic library at the University of Harvard.
206 documents
lovely time in Berlin. Perhaps you will find the time to send me a short
letter at some point?
Yours always,
Dietrich Gerhard
17. 24 March 1955: Dietrich Gerhard (Princeton, N. J.) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 212
Dear Frau Meinecke,
Your letter is already a month old and only now I am managing to

thank you for your kind words and for sending me the separatum
from the Goethe Yearbook,50 which arrived a few days ago. So far Ive
lacked the peace and composure to read it. But Wachsmuths intro-
duction51 (we both started out under your husbands tutelage, in the
little seminar between the semesters held in your house in the spring
of 1919) reconfirmed for me in a particular way what you yourself
told me about these last few years, about his gradual withdrawal from
existence.
I am already rushing around winding things up and making prepa-
rations over here. The contract with my signature should go off to the
ministry in Dsseldorf later today.52 Hopefully I will manage to do the
two jobs, which both sides have made it possible for me to do, on a
long-term basis without too much stress. In the meantime, I shall be
turning up in Cologne during the first half of May (Im not yet entirely
sure when). Maria,53 as you know, is following on later in early June
50
Friedrich Meinecke, Lebenstrster. Betrachtungen ber zwei Goethesche
Gedichte, in: Goethe. Neue Folge des Jahrbuches der Goethe Gesellschaft 16 (1954),
pp. 198212. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften,
pp. 492508. These comments were written in 1945 and 1946.
51
Andreas Bruno Wachsmuth (18901981), Germanist. (Established graduate
secondary school) teacher and later headmaster of the Arndt-Gymnasium in Berlin-
Dahlem, chairman of the Goethe Society, 19511971, then its honorary president until
his death. Wrote a foreword as obituary to Meineckes text. Wachsmuth was a close
friend of Meinecke.
52
Reference to the contract for his professorship in Cologne.
53
Gerhards daughter.
for the summer, while Grete and Barbara54 will arrive towards the end
of July for about a year. I shall have to look around for a place to live
as well.
For now though Id like to ask Ursula and Brigitte another favour.55
The various addresses mentioned by you and others for Marias work
camp have unfortunately come to nothing. For everything organized
by the Quakers in Europe from here is closed to her because of a
strictly observed age limit. She can of course go to such a camp here
and did in fact have a wonderful time working in an Indian reserva-
tion two years ago. But at just under eighteen she is still three years
below the age limit applied to Europe. Is there some way of finding
another group, and can Ursula or Brigitte come up with any solutions?
Maria really is a capable, kind and adaptable chap, willing and able to
help, who can put up with all kinds of things and is always cheerful
and well-balanced. And of course she also speaks perfect German. We
would be grateful for any tips you might be able to give us. But unfor-
tunately the Quaker camps are still closed to her.
Hajo Holborn left a few days ago, initially for Italy. I hope to learn
more from Masur about his plans next week in Washington. I have to
go there on behalf of the Cologne institute and would like to take the
family along. This will also mean a reunion after many years: with
the Epsteins and Masur.
I was very pleased to hear all about your eightieth.56 You know
that you were very much in our thoughts. I was delighted to hear
how pleased you were to receive our greetings from America, which
showed you how much we all still hold to you as much as everand
not only on such special occasions. I hope to see you again in summer
or autumn. For now I send you best wishes for your health from all of
us and we hope that your plans for the summer holidays work out.
Your
Dietrich Gerhard
54
Grete was Gerhards wife and Barbara his second daughter.
55
The Meineckes daughters.
56
Frau Meineckes 80th birthday on 31 January 1955.
208 documents
III. Gerhard Masur
1. 24 January 1927: Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
Dear Herr Geheimrat.
It was with sincere sadness that I heard today at the university that you
are not yet fully restored to health. So I must express my thanks for
your efforts with these lines, which I hope reach you in an advanced
state of recovery. The letter from Breslau came at a good time; for
however much I might acknowledge the reasons that have led to the
decision reached by the gentlemen in Frankfurt,1 the decision itself
hurt me very deeply, and I felt very much inclined to surrender to all
kinds of depression and melancholy. But now I see things rather more
positively again.
I shall write to Professor Ziekursch2 as soon as Ive had the chance
to talk to you again. Everything else I hope to resolve through a face-
to-face discussion in Breslau.
On Saturday I attended a lecture by Scheler3 on morality and poli-
tics. The philosophers still believe in the old superstition that if they
classify and categorize everything and place all the elements neatly
side-by-side they can get to the root of such a problem. They fail to
see or have no wish to see the tragically intricate dimension, and they
can no more explain how one is supposed to make a decision in case
of conflict than anyone else. But this is the core of the entire problem.
Perhaps I may tell you about it at some point.
With best wishes for your health and my best regards to your wife,
Gratefully yours,
Gerhard Masur
1
See the following letter from Masur to Meinecke of 20 April 1927, below, pp.
209211.
2
Johannes Ziekursch (18761945), left-wing liberal historian. Professor extraordi-
narius in Breslau from 1912, personal professor from 1917. Went to Cologne in 1927
as holder of a chair, where among other things he supported the habilitation of Hans
Rosenberg in 1932/33.
3
Max Scheler (18741928), philosopher. Was one of the directors of the Institute
of Social Sciences at the University of Cologne.
iii. gerhard masur 209
2. 20 April 1927: Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
I assume that you are back in Berlin, hopefully well-rested, so I shall

waste no time in sending you my [word illegible] essay on Stahl.4
It is the first one I have published on Stahl and deals with just one
of the elements of his character (the origin and form of his extreme
Lutheranism), but one which it seemed worthwhile examining in its
own right. A study such as this allows one to examine the circle in
which, and through which, an individual has developed in a little more
depth than would be permissible in a monograph. I have accepted the
looser form made necessary by publication of the letters. I had already
completed the essay last summer and now see certain things rather dif-
ferently after a year of intensive study. But this is surely inevitable.
I cannot close this letter without speaking to you once again, my
dear Herr Professor, of that which has preoccupied me, more than
ever before, throughout the winter. I am referring to my relationship
to Germanness and Judaism. Since the events of this winter,5 I have
felt the need to talk to you about this quite openly at some point, and
if this letter takes on a little of the character of a confession, please
do not hold it against me! It is of course a very personal matter, but I
think I can address it more easily in this way than in conversation.
As I held your letter with the decision from Frankfurt in my hands,
my astonishment at the reason for my rejection was greater than my
pain. It wasnt the fact that such opposition was possible in the first
place that astonished me, I was of course aware of that, but I would
never have expected to face it myself. I had thought that all kinds of
anti-Semitism, other than purely racial anti-Semitism that solely con-
siders provenance and ignores personality, I thought that for all other
kinds of anti-Semitism the decisive thing would be the historical rela-
tionship and intellectual responsibility which an individual feels with
respect to the values and content of German history. And I believe I
can say, in terms of disposition, education and my own free will, that
I have an immediate relationship and a genuine sense of responsibility
4
Gerhard Masur, Aus Friedrich Julius Stahls Briefen an Rudolf Wagner, in:
Archiv fr Politik und Geschichte 5 (1927), pp. 261301.
5
Reference to the rejection of his application to habilitate at the university in
Frankfurt a. M.. See above, p. 36f.
210 documents
with respect to the values and course of German history. Furthermore,

I have never seen myself primarily as a Jew. I was born a Protestant
Christian, as my parents had already converted in light of their inner
convictions (as I know for certain). I was raised in the ways and tra-
ditions of the middle class (Brgertum), which naturally felt itself to
be at one with its state, nation and national culture. All of this was as
natural, almost conventional, to me as the very air one breathes. And
I regained this immediate, taken-for-granted relationship, which could
of course no longer be taken for granted in the same way after the
Revolution and the collapse of the Empire, through literature and art,
but above all political history. You, my dear Herr Geheimrat, know
the path I have followed. You know that coming into contact with you
and your work helped me develop a new and positive and reasonably
secure relationship to state and nation, and also to the West. I am
grateful for your constant references to Ranke, to whose work and
view of history I feel so deeply bound.
And all of this really was a determined process of crossing over, or
rather, as such an act of decision was no longer required, a process
of growing into and empathizing ever more deeply with the values of
German culture. I thus truly believe that I have the right to call myself
a German and to see myself as German, though I will never deny my
origins in any way. I am of course aware that I possess talentsabove
all intellectual onesthat one generally tends to identify as Jewish.
But as to the effect of such intellectualism, whether it is constructive
or destructivethat depends on how one uses it.
It is this whole relationship that is the deeper reason for my preoccu-
pation with and love for Stahl.6 For it seems to me that Stahl represents
this relationship on a historical level. But he and his impact are at the
same time the guarantors that there are, and must be, ways of resolving
this problem. And so I too am deeply convinced that while this rela-
tionship is extremely tense and painful, it does not have to be tragic.
Love that withers as a result of disappointments is not real love. So
I cannot say to this Germany that I seek to win over, If I love you,
then why does this matter to you?, but I can say: I wont leave you.
Then you would bless me. Even after this, my first conflict, I cannot
see things differently and I refuse to entertain any bitterness.
You know me well enough, my dear Herr Professor, to know that I
do not find it easy to speak of such things, which it is best to lock up
6
See above, p. 37.
inside or demonstrate through ones life, because they are all too easily
profaned by programmatic statements.
But I felt I owed you, and myself, this confession out of the sense of
genuine reverence that I feel for you.
Your
Gerhard Masur
Gerhard Masur
3. 26 April 1927: Gerhard Masur (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for the warm words
of your letter. As you wish me to speak candidly, I would like to ask
you not to contact Frankfurt again for the time being. I wrote to Prof.
212 documents
Ziekursch recently and may perhaps go to Breslau to discuss things

with him at some point in the near future. As long as this possibility
exists, I feel bound not to pursue any others.
I would on the other hand be very pleased if the off-putting mis-
understanding could be explained to the gentlemen in Frankfurt and
Marburg. If you see any opportunity to rectify this at some point, dear
Herr Geheimrat, should you be writing to them in any case, I would
be sincerely grateful. As soon as I return from Breslau I shall let you
know how things went and I hope that I may ask your advice once
again at that juncture.
With sincere respect,
Your
Gerhard Masur
4. 12 February 1934: Gerhard Masur to August Wilhelm Fehling

NL Masur 58, copy
Dear Herr Dr. Fehling,7
After carefully reading the guidelines of the Rockefeller Foundation,

which you kindly gave me, and thoroughly recapitulating the course of
our conversation, I consider it appropriate to describe my situation to
you once again. The thrust of the Foundations conditions is that for
the period after ones return one definitely intends to continue with
academic work and has reasonable prospects of taking up an appropri-
ate position. Given your many years of work for the Foundation, in
no way do I believe myself better able to interpret its guidelines than
you. But it seems to me as though these conditions can undoubtedly
be met in my case.
I have so far been able not only to carry on my teaching unhindered,
but to increase it both in scale and intensity, as is clearly borne out by
7
August Wilhelm Fehling (18961964), representative of the Rockefeller Foundation
and managing director of the Cecil Rhodes Foundation in Germany. Curator of the
University of Kiel from 1945.
the increased number of attendees and the number of my doctoral stu-

dents. In the event that I should be awarded a scholarship, there could
be no problem with resuming this post as I would interrupt it only
through a sabbatical expressly approved by the Ministry of Education
and Cultural Affairs.
Neither are there any constraints on my potential to publish. I have
in fact recently received requests to contribute from newspapers and
journals, so this also guarantees the continuation of my academic
work. As I mentioned on Saturday, my income remains the same. I
therefore believe I can state unambiguously that I would certainly be
able to take up an appropriate position again.
An alternative evaluation of this situation is possible only if, as you
have indicated, one believes that the legal situation might continue
to change. But it seems to me that just as one is justified in consider-
ing it likely that things will get worse in light of certain realities, in
Hamburg for example, there are other symptoms which point in pre-
cisely the opposite direction. Just the other day I heard observations
to that effect from someone who works in a key position in the central
academic administrative authority [Wissenschaftsverwaltung].
In no way do I wish to attempt to weigh up the pros and cons in
this case, as I believe that this is currently impossible. But I would
like to believe that the situation is not such that it conflicts with the
conditions of the Foundation. Even assuming that there was no chance
for me to progress in my academic career, I would still continue with
my scholarly activities, and I can see no factors that might prompt
me to give them up. The fact that the material returns on such activi-
ties lie on or below subsistence level may be compensated for through
personal resignation on the one hand and the willingness to help of
those close to one on the other. Moreover, the scholarly achievement
that the Foundation promotes cannot be equated with a career. Like
me, you are familiar with enough cases in which there is a large gap
between intellectual achievement and actual position, yet the scholar
cannot let this put him off.
I would ask you to reconsider these arguments, because for the sake
of the task that I have set myself it would mean a great deal to me to
receive a scholarship and because it is still so long until September 1935.
If the list for this year is already complete, perhaps there would be
a possibility of an interim solution? In any event I would be grateful
214 documents
if you would give me another opportunity to discuss all of this with

you in the near future.
With best regards,
Yours faithfully,
5. 4 February 1936: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 61
Dear colleague,
I was very touched by your warm words from Lausanne. I have already
heard about your fate, and as strange and unreal as it would seem at
other times, it was comfortingthat is, only relatively comfortingto
learn that you have found a stable place to live and work. There is
something healing and liberating about positive, clearly defined tasks
in times of confusion. I find your idea regarding Simn Bolivar an
excellent one. The Antipodean world into which you will enter is also
part of our world and may, in as much as it currently is not, be won
for our world in intellectual terms. Who knows what kind of webs you
and the others might begin to weave over there to create new intel-
lectual and academic connections.
Things have been pretty good with me since we walked together in
the parks of Dahlem. I have mild catarrh, but there has been no major
disruption to my work, so I was able to deliver the requested com-
memorative address marking the fiftieth anniversary of Rankes death
on the Academys Friedrichstag on the twenty-third of last month.8 I
shall send you the printed version, which wont be available for some
time yet, either to your current or new address. In preparing for the
speech, I also re-read your book on Ranke,9 and was greatly impressed
by the precocious sureness of your judgement. I am now in the process
8
Friedrich Meinecke, Leopold von Ranke. Gedchtnisrede, in: Sitzungsberichte
der Preuischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, pp.
XXXIIIXLV, Berlin 1936. The Friedrichstag was celebrated in honour of Frederick the
Great, who in 1744 undertook the thorough reorganization of the Scientific Society of
Electoral Brandenburg (Churbrandenburgische Societt der Scienzien), proposed
and conceived by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and founded by Elector Frederick III,
which only then received the designation Academy.
9
Gerhard Masur, Rankes Begriff der Weltgeschichte, Munich 1926.
of preparing my book on historism for publication, which has made

me aware that there is still much that it lacks and that certain things
written years ago are no longer satisfactory. The number of those will-
ing to read it will be small. But that no longer concerns me. One must
try, here as everywhere, to live in a timeless manner, or at least to
maintain a timeless sphere alongside the simply [word illegible] from
a surging torrent of time. You will no doubt be doing the same thing
in your new life over there. My best wishes go with you!
Yours always,
Fr. Meinecke
6. 3 January 1947: Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 26
My dear Herr Geheimrath.
I recently heard at the congress of American historians that you are

back in your house, so I now know where to send this letter, which
is merely intended to let you know how happy I am that you have
emerged from the catastrophe unharmed, at least physically. I read
your appeal shortly after the end of the war10 and heard about your
new book.11 How I admire your strength and constancy amidst the
general confusion and breakdown.
But I do not wish to touch on that painful subject today in this
first epistle. I merely intend it as a sign of gratitude and friendship.
Spiritual ties such as those that link me with you, your work and your
family are unbreakable.
I was in Bogot until the spring of last year, where I had a peaceful,
productive life with my wife and mother. My mother died in the autumn
of 1945. I have of course described my activities in Columbia to you
on numerous occasions. They were somewhat distant from history,
10
Probably a reference to Meineckes essay Zur Selbstbesinnung in the Mnchner
Zeitung, 16 June 1945. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und
Reden, pp. 484486.
11
Meinecke, Deutsche Katastrophe.
216 documents
but they were interesting and allowed me to do, learn and comprehend
many unfamiliar things.
In 1941, in the middle of the darkest years of the war, I began to
write a biography of Simn Bolivar,12 which I completed in the spring
of 1946 with the help of a Rockefeller scholarship.
I am now here in the United States to see to the translation (I wrote
the book in German) and publication.
Concurrently, I have taken up a visiting professorship at Sweet
Briar.
So much for my life. I have no end of questions to ask you. What I
would give to be able to talk with you once again about fathoming the
German and European tragedy. But it is at least something that one
can write letters again.
I am very anxious to know the fate of two friends of mine: Professor
Erich Kaufmann13 of Berlin Nicolassee and Professor Ernst Robert
Curtius14 of Bonn. I have no news of either.
I hope that these lines find you, your wife and daughters in good
health. It would make me very happy if you could find the time to
write to me at some point.
Your
Gerhard Masur
12
Simn Bolivar (17831830), liberator of South America from Spanish colonial
rule. Founder of the states of Columbia and Bolivia.
13
Erich Kaufmann (18801972), jurist and legal philosopher. Professor in Kiel,
Knigsberg, Berlin and Bonn. Legal adviser to the foreign ministry. Dismissed because
of his Jewish ancestry in 1934, emigrated to the Netherlands in 1939. Taught at the
University of Munich from 1946 until his retirement in 1950. Subsequently legal
adviser on international law issues at the Federal Chancellery until 1958.
14
Ernst Robert Curtius (18861956), scholar of Romance literature.
7. 7 February 1947: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 61
Dear Herr Masur,
I was very happy and reassured to receive your letter of the third of last
month. I was afraid you had gone under amid the torrents of history!
That you have emigrated to the U.S.A. and found a teaching position
gives me hope that in human, intellectual and academic terms you will
now be able to develop more freely again and allow the talents with
which you have been endowed to take full effect. The very best of luck
for the future!
How much we would have to tell each other if we could see each
other now! Those of us left face global changes in the context of terrible
disasters! One must summon up all ones remaining mental reserves
in order to keep on going, and still one would like to cry out loud on
occasion. Yet fate has been infinitely kind to us in comparison with
millions of others. In spring of 1945 we found sanctuary, first in a cas-
tle in Mainfranken, then, when this was burned down in the fighting,
in a farmers house, before being taken to Gttingen by our friends
Kaehler and Oncken in the summer of 45, where we were terribly
cramped for space but received a lot of support and stimulationand
then in July of last year we were able to return to Berlin to our daugh-
ters, who had remained there, and to our undestroyed house. I have
been able to hold a little colloquium at home with a few older students.
I enjoy it a great deal and it is also in keeping with my own desire to
revise the view of history with which we have worked hitherto. An
extremely serious and difficult task, as salvation and disaster are often
so inseparably entwined in Prussian-German history. I would like to
have my book on the German catastrophe,15 which I managed to write
in Mainfranken and Gttingen, sent to you, but there is as yet no way
of doing so, and there may be an English translation for the U.S.A.,
which various offices are endeavouring to achieve.
My wife and daughters are under a great deal of stress but in a
good state of health. I myself am suffering from cataracts, which make
15
218 documents
letter-writing difficult, and hardness of hearing. But I can still manage

fairly well in one-to-one conversations.
Do you remember our last walk in the parks on Thielplatz? I often
think of it when I go therethe only bit of nature, as it happens, that I
can still enjoy, as the complaints of old age and the division into zones
hinder any more extensive excursions, let alone longer journeys.
With warmest regards,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
8. 22 July 1948: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 61
Dear Herr Masur,
What a delightful surprise you have given us once again! In the midst
of the blockade now imposed on Berlin, such a parcel is like a ray of
sunshine through dark clouds. My heartfelt thanks!
I would very much like to tell you in rather more detail about our
situation and the thoughts going through our heads, but my declin-
ing eyesight makes reading and writing ever more difficult, and I have
to concentrate my remaining capacity for work on preparing for the
seminars with students which I still hold every few weeks at home.
Topics such as Gervinus, Droysen, the younger Bismarck before 1848,
and now even Friedr. Engels and 184816 will give you an overview
16
Johann Gustav Droysen (18081884), historian. As an influential deputy in the
German National Assembly in 1848/49, he supported a little German solution to
the German Questionthat is, the unification of Germany to the exclusion of
German-speaking Austria. After the failure of the Revolution, he advocated the estab-
lishment of a German nation state under Prussian leadership. His history of Prussian
politics asserted that Prussia had had a German mission since the 15th century.
Georg Gottfried Gervinus (18051871), historian and literary historian. Member of
the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848/49. Sharp critic of Bismarcks power politics
after 1866. Friedrich Engels (18201895), socialist theorist and politician, who founded
Marxism together with his friend Karl Marx. Involved in revolutionary movements
in 1848/49, in such places as the Rhineland and Baden. Having already worked as
of the kind of problems we are grappling with as we seek new ways

of reflecting on history. Our goal is to keep our own minds free and
receptive at a turning point in world history. The students give me a
great deal of pleasurea small but fairly homogenous group is tak-
ing shape there, a little glimmer of hope for the future. But how ter-
ribly dark the future looks overall. A young American, a student of
Holborn, is also taking part in my seminar, a particularly alert and
receptive student. I hope you will experience the same thing with your
students, that intellectual links are beginning to form between good
German and American minds.
Once again with warmest regards,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
9. 18 August 1948: Gerhard Masur (Peekskill, N.Y.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 26
My dear Herr Geheimrat.
I have just received your lovely letter of 27 July17 and really am very
pleased to hear that my little gift just made it through the blockade.
How pleased I am that you are still able to guide and lead the young.
I am spending the summer holidays here at the home of my relatives
the Strassmanns, who you may know from Berlin. I have just finished
a paper on Dilthey,18 who is still quite unknown here, and hope to be
able to publish it soon. My biography of Simn Bolivar19 will appear
towards the end of this year in German and English, and I shall see
to it that you receive a copy of the German version. It is very much
the fruit of my many years in South America. I am very happy with
a businessman in Manchester for several years after 1842, he lived permanently in

England from 1849 until his death.
17
Meineckes letter is in fact dated 22 July.
18
Gerhard Masur, Wilhelm Dilthey and the History of Ideas, in: Journal of the
History of Ideas 13 (1952), pp. 94107.
19
Gerhard Masur, Simn Bolivar, Albuquerque 1948, 2nd edn. 1969; in German:
Simn Bolivar und die Befreiung Sdamerikas, Constance 1949.
220 documents
my [female] students, though of course it is not quite as it once was

in Berlin. Over the last year I found myself in a paradoxical situation,
as I had to fight against an excess of intellectual history and history
of ideas in the first few semesters. I would never have thought that I
of all people would be called upon to do so. In June, via Rothfels, I
received an enquiry from the University of Heidelberg as to whether
I would accept an offer of the chair in modern history. One cannot of
course simply answer yes or no to such a question; Ive heard nothing
more about it since.
It is an excruciating time for every individual who tries to account
for world affairs, though it is easier to bear from over here than for you
over there. My best regards to your dear wife, and to your daughters,
all of whom are hopefully well.
As ever, respectfully yours,

Gerhard Masur
ps. Do you have any contact with Erich Kaufmann or Brigitte Eltze,
ne Stieve? Both are good friends of mine, with whom I have, unfor-
tunately, so far failed to re-establish contact. I recently received a very
friendly letter from Ulrich Noack.20
G. M.
10. 11 October 1948: Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 26
My dear Herr Geheimrat.
I have just received your essay on Ranke and Burckhardt,21 which I

immediately read with great pleasure and from which I learned a great
deal. It displays your old mastery in bringing out contrasts and rela-
tionships. I myself, though a great admirer of Ranke, have long con-
20
Ulrich Noack (18991974), historian, habilitated at the University of Frankfurt
a. M. in 1929. Professor of medieval and modern history in Wrzburg from 1946 to
1964.
21
Meinecke, Ranke und Burckhardt.
sidered myself a student of and successor (toute proportion garde)

to Burckhardt. I read his Reflections on History22 for the first time at
the age of seventeen, and it made an unforgettable impression on me,
as did his book on the Renaissance,23 and his lectures and letters. Of
course, his ideal of cultural history represents a step beyond Ranke, or
at least a broadening of the purely political religious horizon. So I am
very pleased to find both masters reunited by a third.
I am giving a new course of lectures this year, which I introduced
here: Central and Eastern European history from 1500 to the present.
A lot of work but very rewarding. My book on Bolivar is finished and
will appear in December. I hope that you and your nearest and dearest
are well, to the extent permitted by the world situation.
As ever, respectfully yours,

Gerhard Masur
11. 15 August 1950: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard

Masur
NL Masur 61
Dear colleague,
How long I have been meaning to thank you for your wonderful book
on Bolivar!24 But the aches and pains of old age grow steadily worse
and are a hindrance to every physical activity, even the dictating of
letters, though my mental engagement with your book did not suffer
as a result. I find you so perfectly matched to your hero in terms of
the tremendous energy with which you champion a great idea and
rapidly get back on your feet after every failure. What a tremendous
amount of genuine critical study your (critical ) book containsand
now I am also full of admiration for the artistry of your simple and
22
Jacob Burckhardt, Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen. First edition 1905, new
critical edition 1982. See also above, p. 130. English version: Reflections on History,
London 1943.
23
Reference to Jacob Burckhardts book Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, first
published 1860. English version: The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, London
1890.
24
Masur, Bolivar, see above, p. 38.
222 documents
captivating narration, which I would never have expected from you,

the subtle analyst.
My colleagues here and I would like you to join us as visiting pro-
fessor in the summer of 51. Then we could discuss all the enormous
problems of the day as we used to! Here in Berlin we constantly live
as if in the shadow of Vesuvius.
You will hopefully have received the copy of my memoirs.25 My
wife also sends you her best regards. May I also add our greetings to
your sister?
As ever yours,
Fr. Meinecke
12. 3 September 1950: Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to

Friedrich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 26
My dear Herr Geheimrat,
Thank you very much for your nice letter of 15 August. It gave me a
great sense of gratification and satisfaction to know that you liked my
book.26 I read your lovely memoirs27 with great interest and emotion.
Thank you very much for getting them to me. I have a very hard-
working summer behind me, which I spent as visiting professor at the
University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson.28
I would love to come to Berlin next summer and thank you very
much for the invitation, which I regard as a great honour and respon-
sibility. When do the lectures begin and what would I teach? It would
be good to know the details as soon as possible so that I can begin tak-
ing the necessary steps. Here in America one makes commitments for
25
Friedrich Meinecke, Straburg-Freiburg-Berlin 19011919. Erinnerungen,
Stuttgart 1949. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften,
Stuttgart 1969, pp. 137320.
26
Reference to Masurs book on Simn Bolivar.
27
Meinecke, Straburg-Freiburg-Berlin, 19011919.
28
Thomas Jefferson (17431826), one of the founding fathers of the United States.
Author of the Declaration of Independence of 1776, president of the USA, 1801
1809.
the following summer in the autumn. Everything of course depends

on peace being maintained; but I am still optimistic.
With best wishes for your health and wellbeing and my regards to
your dear wife,
I remain yours respectfully,

Gerhard Masur
13. 5 March 1952: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 61
Dear colleague!29
Once again your charity package came as a great and delightful sur-
prise to us! Please accept out heartfelt thanks, above all for the senti-
mental value of your parcel as an expression of an old, loyal spirit of
like minds. The times of material lack have in fact been over for quite
some time now. It is such a shame that we have had no opportunity
so far for intellectual dialogue! Though I can no longer see, hear and
write properly, Im still thinking about various problems, the question
of the secular after-effects of the era of monarchical absolutism on
the political thought of the continental peoples, for example. And the
fundamental metaphysical and religious questions also come up again
and again in recent times. Questions without end. But the very act of
grappling with them helps keep ones spirits up in old age.
In the old loyal spirit of like minds,

Fr. Meinecke
29
Letter dictated by Meinecke to his wife in his wifes handwriting but signed by
Meinecke. Among other things, her postscript states: You can see from his dictated
lines how he is ageing but at pains to endure everything stoically. I read out to him
a great deal and the assistants at the history department are always willing to read to
him as well, so he always has his connections with the field of history.
224 documents
14. 5 April 1954: Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 61
Dearest Herr Masur,
I must express my heartfelt thanks to you for your kind letter. All
of you who identify yourselves as my husbands students give me
strength with your devoted remembrance and the respect with which
you mourn him. He always felt a special bond with all of you and was
proud of his American school. It was a disappointment to him that
you were unable to come last summer. His life was so filled with, and
borne up by, tasks, responsibilities and ties with the young historians
until his powers gradually faded. We then had a happy existence, just
the two of us, and I read out to him a great deal. Many a valuable book
in his library now looks back at me laden with memories. Speaking was
such a strain on him in the last few weeks. His vocal cords failed him
and he often said if only I could get it out, I have so many thoughts,
and in the end these always revolved around things eternalGod and
the ultimate. He constantly spoke of the highest and that is how he
ascended, as his eyes ceased to see within this earthly realm and he
looked all the way up, his hands folded. His dying radiated a sacred
gravity, and he lives on unshakeably inside me and, I think, inside of
many of those who revered him. He is borne up by respect and the
two ceremonies30 gave us a great deal. How many reflections and fond
memories the speakers brought with them. You will of course receive
a copy of the speeches later. He now lies in the Annen cemetery, and
I can commune with him in peace every day at his grave. The bells of
the little church can also be heard at his resting place. Eight historians
bore him to his grave. That was a profound symbol that he would
surely have acknowledged with great emotion. The house has lost its
soul, 8 weeks have brought many profound blows and changes and
once the library has gone I shall feel very lonely. I have sent your book
on Bolivar, which I read out to him, to Kaehler. I think you will be
pleased at this idea. It was decided today that the library will remain
here at the Free University. Thats a wonderful solution and very much
in the spirit of my husband. We had lots of offersfour from America.
30
For the keynote address at the official funeral service at the university for
Friedrich Meinecke, see Hans Rothfels, Friedrich Meinecke. Ein Rckblick auf sein
wissenschaftliches Lebenswerk. Trauerrede, gehalten in Berlin am 27. Februar 1954,
Berlin 1954.
Herr Professor Herzfeld tells me that you are coming to Dahlem in

the summer of 55. How nice to know that you will be working here
and I trust you will visit me and we shall go to the grave together.
To see my husbands former students activities is a great joy to me
and invigorates my soul. Gerhard and the Epsteins will be coming
soon. I hope they are restored to health.
I thank you for your words, I found them exceptionally touching.
For now I shall say: see you in Dahlem.
Your
Antonie Meinecke
15. 30 July 1956: Decision on Restitution for Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 71
The Federal Minister of the Interior.
Decision on Restitution.31
With respect to the application
of Prof. Dr. Gerhard M a s u r,
b. 17 September 1901 in Berlin,
resident at 2024 Rivermont Avenue, Lynchburg, Virginia US,
for restitution
in accordance with the law on the regulation of restitution for wrongs
committed by the National Socialists for members of the civil service
31
Masur was alerted to the third law on restitution for members of the civil serv-
ice of 23 December 1955, which provided for compensation for lecturers whose aca-
demic career was interrupted by the Nazi seizure of power, in a letter from Dietrich
Gerhard of 15th June 1956 (Masur papers, vol. 58). Alongside the payments for
emeriti, Masur also received compensation of DM 10,488 on account of damage to
professional advancement, of which DM 960 was deducted for costs and expenses,
as set out in a letter from the United Restitution Organization dated 16 January
1962, on the basis of a decision by the compensation office (Entschdigungsamt) in
Berlin of 9 January 1962. The period of damages was identified as extending from 1
November 1935 to 31 October 1947, as Masur obtained an appointment, appropriate
to his educational background, as university teacher at Sweet Briar College after the
1 November 1947, which offered him a satisfactory livelihood. His emeritus pension
payments began from 1 April 1950. For the 144 months from 1 November 1935 to
31 October 1947, remuneration of 69915,43 Reichsmark was calculated, of which ,
that is, 52436,57 Reichsmark was allocated. This sum was converted at a rate of 10:2
to DM 10 487,32.
226 documents
living abroad of 18 March 1952 (BGBl. I p. 137), the amending law

of 19 August 1953 (BGBl. I p. 994) and the law of 23 December 1955
(BGBl. I S. 820), the Federal Minister of the Interior has decided as
follows:
1.) With effect from 1 January 1954 the applicant will receive a pen-
sion (remuneration for emeriti)32 appropriate to an office in the
salary grade H 1 b (6th seniority grade) as set out in the regula-
tions governing salaries (Reichsbesoldungsordnung)RBOplus a
pensionable accommodation allowance in accordance with a pen-
sionable period of service ending on 31 March 1951.
2.) For the period from 1 April 1950 to 31 March 1951, the applicant
shall receive compensation to the amount of one years payment
of the pension awarded to him in 1) as at 1 April 1951.
3.) [. . . . .]
4.) The applicant is authorized to use the title professor [ordentli-
cher Professor] with the addition em..
Statement of Facts:
The applicant obtained his Dr. phil. summa cum laude on 23 February
1925 at the University of Berlin. On 23 July 1930 he received the venia
legendi [granting authority to teach] from the philosophy faculty of
this university as lecturer. According to a statement confirmed by
Prof. Kaufmann,33 his authority to teach was withdrawn on grounds
of race in October 1935. He then emigrated, initially to Columbia,
where he worked for the ministry of education, as advisor from 1936
to 1938 and division head from 1938 to 1946. On 1 November 1947
he became professor of history at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, where
he is still employed today.
In his application for restitution of February 1956 the applicant
asserts that the withdrawal of his authority to teach occurred solely as
a result of National Socialist policies of persecution and repression on
grounds of race. In the absence of this measure he would have become
professor of history at a German university.
32
Upon attaining emeritus status, professors holding a chair in Germany at the
time received their full salary, with the exception of the fees for teaching.
33
On Professor Erich Kaufmann, see above, p. 216.
He claims:
continued retirement on the basis of 4 of the law of 18 March 1952.
Granting of the pension (remuneration for emeriti) appropriate to this
office and compensation for the period from 1 April 1950 to 31 March
1951.
As evidence he refers to the reference from Prof. Dr. Friedrich
Meinecke of 13 August 1935 and confirmation provided by professors
Dr. Kaufmann, Dr. Rothfels and Dr. Herzfeld.
As the applicant was resident in the USA on 23 May 1949 and the
government of that country has diplomatic relations with the Federal
Republic of Germany, reparation to the applicant is made on the basis
of the law of 18 March 1952 on the regulation of restitution for wrongs
committed by the National Socialists covering those members of the
civil service living abroad.
He was not a member of the NSDAP or any of its organizations.
No reasons have been established that might result in disqualification
from or forfeiture of restitution.
Reasons for the Decision:

According to 22 par. 2 BWGD the Federal Government is respon-
sible for restitution for losses suffered at the University of Berlin. In
line with the regulation of 25 May 1951 on the enforcement of 25
par. 2 BWGD, the Federal Minister of the Interior is responsible for
the decision.
The application for restitution, including supporting materials, was
made and substantiated within the time limit. The applicant was a lec-
turer at the University of Berlin from 1930. His authority to teach
was withdrawn in 1935. In accordance with the confirmation provided
by the above-mentioned professors, it may be assumed that he would
have become a full-time university teacher. Hence, in line with 5
no. 4 BWGD (inland) as amended by the 3rd amending law of 23
December 1955 (BGBl. I p. 820) he has suffered injury and belongs
to the group of individuals identified in 2 par. 1 clause 2 BWGD
(inland) as amended by the 3rd amending law and is entitled to resti-
tution in accordance with 21b BWGD. In accordance with this legal
stipulation, the regulations set out in 9, 10, 11, 18 and 19 apply to
his claim for restitution given that he would in all probability have
become a professor in the course of his academic career. This conclu-
sion is based primarily on the detailed assessment of the applicants
228 documents
academic importance and teaching qualifications by major historian

Prof. Friedrich Meinecke, who describes him as one of his best and
most gifted students and conveys his firm conviction that the applicant
would do credit to any chair in modern history abroad. According
to Meineckes statements, his constant, indefatigable struggle for ever
deeper understanding of historical problems, deploying every tool of
research, including painstaking and detailed work in the critique of
sources and establishing of facts, is also characteristic of the applicants
academic production hitherto. As early as his study of Rankes con-
cept of world history from 1926 and even more so in his later work
on Friedrich Stahl, Masur showed the ability not only to analyze, but
also to grasp historical objects synthetically, producing highly realistic
accounts that are both clear and emphatic. According to Meineckes
statements, this book is among the best biographies of German states-
men and political thinkers of the 19th century. Meinecke also points
out that after his habilitation in 1930, the applicant was soon highly
popular among students, and he has heard nothing but good things
about his teaching. He also states that his lectures and seminars went
down particularly well. Professors Rothfels, Herzfeld and Hartwig,34
and especially Prof. Kaufmann, expressed similar sentiments acknowl-
edging the applicants academic achievements and teaching qualifi-
cations. They unanimously conclude that the applicant would have
received a chair in Germany had he not been forced to emigrate as a
result of the Nazi regimes violent measures.
He must therefore be granted the legal status and remuneration that
would have applied had he occupied an office in the salary grade H 1
b RBO. He would in all likelihood have attained such an office on 1
March 1940. As the applicant has applied to continue in retirement in
line with 4 of the law of 18 March 1952, he is entitled to the remu-
neration for emeriti. In accordance with art. VII of the 3rd amend-
ing law, he will receive regular payments with effect from 1 January
1954.
[. . . . .]
p.p. Dr. Pfister
34
Unfortunately it was impossible to ascertain from the papers who Prof. Hartwig
was. It may be a reference to Hans Hartwig (18941960), jurist and professor of civil
and commercial law, who taught at the University of Halle after 1945.
16. 29 March 1957: Gerhard Masur (Sweet Briar, Va.) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 217
My dear Frau Geheimrat,
Last Tuesday I spoke about The German Catastrophe35 here in our his-
tory seminar. I was able to incorporate everything you told me last
summer about the genesis of this unique book. The students were
greatly impressed. This is how influence is passed on from one gen-
eration to the next.
I think so often, with tremendous gratitude, of the delightful hours
I was able to spend with you last summer.36 I hope youve made it
through the winter in good health. Ive been tolerably well. But there
have been too many odds and ends to deal with and I havent had
enough time to write. But I hope to do something [two words illegible]
in the summer.
Best wishes to everyone in Dahlem.
With respect and affection,
Yours as always,
Gerhard Masur
17. 25 January 1961: Hans Rothfels (Tbingen) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 62
Dear Herr Masur,
It was very painful, I have to confess, for me to read your letter, which I
received todayand not only because of the now vanished prospect of
having you here as my successor, but also because of the circumstances
surrounding your refusal. I dont know whether you misunderstood
35
Meinecke, The German Catastrophe.
36
Masur was visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin in the summer of
1956.
230 documents
my and Stuttgarts insistence.37 It was solely intended to ensure clarity

by the end of January as to whether you were in principle minded to
accept or not, about which you had so far remained silent. I realized
of course that the issue of citizenship would be a major difficulty, and
I did point out possible solutions to you on several occasions, as I am
to a certain extent an expert in this field. I did after all keep my citizen-
ship for eight years, and could have kept it for longer if I hadnt grown
weary of commuting. Stuttgart promised to fulfil the one precondition,
that you wouldnt automatically have to become a German citizen, and
37
After Rothfels had already written to Masur several times, on 30 July, 13 August
und 30 August 1960 in connection with the impending appointment of his successor
in Tbingen, Masur was finally offered the chair in a letter from the minister of educa-
tion and cultural affairs of Baden-Wrttemberg, Dr. Storz, on 29 October 1960. In his
reply of 12 November 1960 to the relevant official in the higher education division,
Frau Dr. Hoffmann, Masur accepted the appointment in principle, but alongside the
questions of salary and teaching obligations, underlined that he was unwilling to give
up his American citizenship and that, because of commitments at his college, he could
begin teaching in Tbingen in the autumn of 1961 at the earliest. At the same time
he informed her that he had received a request to take up a chair in history from the
Free University of Berlin. In his letter to Masur of 13 August, Rothfels had already
stated that should he accept the appointment Masur would not automatically have to
become a German citizen. To avoid losing his American citizenship as a result of a
lengthy period in the country of his birth, Rothfels explained that he could travel to
live as a resident in the United States every 23 years. It would be enough for him
to take unpaid leave in Germany for a semester every two-and-a-half years or so; he
himself had had a similar arrangement for eight years before finally becoming a
German citizen once again. Further, in a letter of 12 November, he urged Masur to
decide quickly, clearly fearing that he would opt for the appointment in Berlin. He
strongly advised him against carrying out twin-track negotiations with Berlin and
Stuttgart: You dont need the lever of Tbingen. In Berlin theyll give you everything
you could possibly expect. The faculty in Tbingen, he explained, was keen to have
the chair occupied by April 1961, partly because an extraordinary professorship in
contemporary history had been applied for that would definitely be available from
1 April 1961. But the faculty was unable to put anyone forward for it as long as his
successor as chair of modern history was unknown and had had no opportunity to
express his views on possible candidates or participate in the discussions. A hot
candidate for the extraordinary professorship in contemporary history, he stated, was
his student Waldemar Besson, a lecturer in Tbingen, but he had now been offered an
appointment as professor ordinarius in political sciences in Erlangen and was expect-
ing to be offered an extraordinary professorship in Freiburg. Besson would have to
make a decision in January or February. He asked Masur to decline promptly should
you already know in your heart that you would prefer Berlin. On 1 December 1960,
Frau Dr. Hoffmann wrote to Masur that his American citizenship was no obstacle to
the appointment, but that he should resolve the issue of how he might retain American
citizenship in the event of a return to the country of his birth in America itself. She
also informed him about the salary he could expect, moving expenses and the staff of
the department of modern history and the other chairs in history at the University
of Tbingen. She did not go into the question of when he should begin teaching. The
appointment at the Free University of Berlin also clearly came to grief chiefly over the
issue of retaining American citizenship. All the letters concerning the appointments
offered by Tbingen and Berlin can be found in Masurs papers, vol. 62 (Tbingen)
or vol. 69 (Berlin).
I believe they did their utmost to accommodate you in general. There

was no need for the negotiations to break down over the issue of a
period of paid leave for one semester every three yearsthat would
certainly have been enough to satisfy the State Departmenthad you
taken up these points in earnest. Apart from that, I dont know whether
there would have been a possibility of securing a semester as visiting
professor every three years in Sweet Briar, as I and others have done.
In any event, I have to say that after hearing from Herzfeld how keen
you were to return, I did not imagine that you would turn down the
appointment because of this particular obstacle, which could certainly
have been negotiated, otherwise I wouldnt have gone to such lengths
in supporting you here. I did not conceal from my faculty the fact that
you might opt for Berlin, in which case the blame would have lain with
the facultys rather hesitant approach. But now Ill surely get the blame
for being too optimistic in my assessment of the situation.
Now, the last thing I want to do is pin the blame on you. Im well
aware of the complexities of our lives and can therefore only sincerely
hope that your decision proves to have been in your best interest. The
people here will simply have to get over their disappointment, and
anyway the long break, which has caused certain aspects to fade, has
already given me a certain distance from the affair.
On that note, I close with best wishes to you and your wife,
Your
H. Rothfels
(Prof. Dr. Hans Rothfels)
18. 12 February 1961: Gerhard Masur (Lynchburg, Va.) to Hans

Rothfels
NL Masur 62, letter signed though probably a copy
Dear Herr Rothfels,
I didnt want to leave your last letter38 unanswered, for nothing would
pain me more than if the issue of the appointment to Tbingen were
to lead to any bad feeling between us.
First of all: a number of misunderstandings certainly appear to have
crept in. I took your exhortation and that of Frau Dr. Hoffmann in
38
See above, pp. 229231.
232 documents
Stuttgart to mean that a quick decision was of supreme importance

to you. But as matters stood, this could only be a negative one. I am
still busy finishing off my book; the mechanical aspects of a big, or to
be more accurate, long book simply demand a great deal of time. The
proofs will probably be ready only in the spring. Second, the possibility
of a period of paid leave in order to return periodically to the United
States was never mentioned, either by you or Frau Dr. Hoffmann.
There is no prospect of the kind of solution that worked for you in
Chicago and Gerhard in St. Louis in Sweet Briar. We are too poor,
too small and, moreover, in the throws of major construction work.
I could return to Sweet Briar only if someone, namely Beth Muncy,39
were to go on holiday and I stood in for her. I even took up the issue
with our president, but she was less than impressed.
I undoubtedly view the issue of citizenship itself quite differently
than those individuals who have decided to return to Germany. For
me, it is not merely a technical problem that can be got round with a
bit of luck and dexterity. It has become increasingly fundamental to
me over the last few years. In other words, I would be happy to work
at a German university as long as it didnt call my American citizen-
ship into question. You know very well how Washington views these
things. They are quite happy for you to take up a short-term posi-
tion; but they look with suspicion upon any permanent post, and it is
impossible to predict what the immigration authorities will decide in
an individual case. You yourself write that you eventually grew tired
of commuting back and forth. I observed the same thing in the case of
Gerhard and Herr Frnkel40 and concluded that it is a major physical,
39
Lysbeth Walker Muncy (b. 1910), American historian. Student of Rothfels who
obtained her doctorate with a dissertation on Junker in the Prussian Administration
under Wilhelm II, 18881914 in 1943. Began her academic career at Mount Holyoke
College. Later taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and for 25
years at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. Active in the peace, womens and civil rights
movements.
40
Ernst Fraenkel (18981975), leading political scientist of Jewish descent. As a
lawyer, he defended individuals persecuted on political and racial grounds until his
emigration to the United States in 1938. Military and legal advisor to the US govern-
ment, particularly in Korea, from 1944 to 1951. Returned to Germany and became
department head at the German College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule
fr Politik) in 1952 and professor ordinarius of political science (theory and compara-
tive history of political systems) following its incorporation into the Free University of
Berlin as the Otto-Suhr-Institut from 1953. A few years before his retirement in 1967,
he played a key role in the foundation of the John F. Kennedy Institute for American
financial and nervous strain, which I could cope with only if I received
a binding commitment from Washington. I dont feel strong enough
to commute between Germany and the U. S.
Ultimately, though, it seems to me that the entire problem comes
down to the question of which place you feel the strongest ties with,
and which tasks you view as most important. I am quite aware that
the chair in Tbingen offers educational possibilities not open to me
here in my little college, and I underwent an intense internal struggle.
(Believe me, the choice of Berlin or Tbingen had no bearing on my
decision, for the key problem applies just as much in the former case.)
But I could have carried out the duties of the teaching post only if I
could have made up my mind to subordinate everything else to it,
that is, research and writing, while accepting the possibility of losing
citizenship. My wife and friends could tell you what a hard time I had
making a decision, how it preys on my mind and I continue to ago-
nize over it. But when youve reached the age of fifty-nine and been
tossed around as much as I have, you cant rush such a fundamental
decisionand as I said before, any quick decision could only be a
negative one.
Of course, only time will tell whether I have made the right choice,
and even that will scarcely be conclusive, as I had to choose between
two options, so I cannot know and will never know how the other
would have turned out. I am genuinely sorry that my refusal will cause
you problems in the faculty, but I believe that I emphasized right from
the outset that I saw the issue of citizenship as the crucial problem.
My very best regards,
Your
Gerhard Masur
Studies at the Free University of Berlin, where he took up a chair in American politics
in addition to his professorship at the Otto-Suhr-Institut.
234 documents
19. 27 August 1961: Gerhard Masur (Raymond, N. H.) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 217
Your kind letter from Holland was sent on to me here, where my wife
and I are spending the holidays. Its an idyllic spot, an old farmhouse
on a hill surrounded by ash and fir. But as were living in America,
it has of course been converted and modernized, and we have all the
comforts of home. We were very tired when we arrived here in early
July, but now the holidays are almost over, and in September we shall
be back to work.
Even over here we are aware of the fate of Berlin, and we listen to
the news every day with great concern.41 Of course no-one can pre-
dict how things will turn out, not even Mr. Khrushchev.42 But there is
hardly likely to be a positive outcome. It is in essence an unsolvable
problem, and I am often very anxious about my friends in Berlin and
the Free University. Believe me, it became exceedingly difficult to turn
down the appointment. Tbingen was also hard to decline,43 but ulti-
mately I saw no other way. Perhaps our path shall lead us to Germany
next year. I have been invited to lecture in Tbingen, and if we can
arrange it we shall come to Berlin as well. Then I can talk to you about
my reasons in detail.
Here I have got another lengthy essay ready for press, which will
appear in April.44 The printing of my book45 has been delayed by a few
weeks; I hope it will appear in late September. The German edition is
to be published by S. Fischer.
41
The Berlin Wall was erected on 13 August 1961.
42
Nikita Khrushchev (18941971), First Secretary of the Central Committee of the
Soviet Communist Party from 1953 as well as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of
the USSR from 1958. Dismissed as party leader and head of government in 1964.
43
Masur turned down appointments to the chairs occupied by Hans Herzfeld at
the Free University of Berlin and Hans Rothfels in Tbingen. On the reasons, see
above, p. 39.
44
Probably a reference to the essay Distinctive Traits of Western Civilization, in:
AHR 67 (1962), pp. 591608.
45
Gerhard Masur, Prophets of Yesterday: Studies in European Culture 18901914,
New York 1961. The German edition appeared in 1965 under the title Propheten
von Gestern. Zur europischen Kultur 18901914, published by S. Fischer Verlag in
Frankfurt a. M., 1965.
I noticed that Herr Anthon46 found a good position in Washington;

he is the successor to Ernst Posner,47 who is retiring. The Gerhards
want to visit us in September. How is Rothfels? I was deeply shocked
by his wifes death and I can imagine how difficult it must be for him
to go it alone, as we say here. I hope that you yourself got through
the operation on your cataracts in good order and that your trip to
Holland did you good. I would like to write something about Friedrich
Meinecke in 1962.48 Do you think the letters will be published soon, or
that Herr Herzfeld or whoever is publishing them might send me the
proofs?49 It seems incredible that we shall already be celebrating your
husbands hundredth birthdaybut of course were all getting older.
Our very best wishes to you and yours,
As ever respectfully yours,

Gerhard Masur
46
Carl Gustav Anthon, b. 1911 in Wismar, d. 1996 in Washington. American his-
torian. Arrived in the United States in 1923. Obtained doctorate at Harvard in 1943.
Advisor on Higher Education to the US High Commission in Berlin, 19501953.
Professor at the American University in Beirut, 19551958. Executive Secretary of
the US Education Commission in Germany, 19581960. Professor of history (1961-
1976) as well as chairman (19611967) of the history department of the American
University in Washington, D.C.. Fulbright Professor at the Free University of Berlin,
1967/68. Wrote on German post-war politics among other things. On his time in
Berlin, see: My Work as Higher Education Adviser in Berlin. A brief memoir, in:
Manfred Heinemann (ed.), Hochschuloffiziere und Wiederaufbau des Hochschulwesens
in Westdeutschland 19451952. 3 parts, part 2: Die US-Zone, Hildesheim 1990, pp.
6570. Friend of the Meinecke family.
47
Ernst Posner (18921980), historian and archivist. Emigrated to the United
States via Sweden in 1939, then moved to Switzerland in 1972. Archivist in the
Prussian Secret State Archive (Preuisches Geheimes Staatsarchiv) from 1921 until
his compulsory retirement in 1935, lecturer at the Institute of History and Archival
Science (Institut fr Geschichtswissenschaft und Archivwissenschaft) in Berlin, 1930
1935. Professor of history and archival administration at the American University,
Washington, D.C. from 1945 until his retirement in 1961. Director of the School of
Social Sciences and Public Affairs, 19471955. Made important contributions to the
development of archival science in the USA.
48
Gerhard Masur, Friedrich Meinecke, Historian of a World in Crisis, in: The
Origins of Modern Consciousness, ed. by James J. Ethridge and Barbara Kopala, Detroit
1963, pp. 133147.
49
Meineckes Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel appeared in 1962 and was edited by Ludwig
Dehio and Peter Classen.
236 documents
20. 14 October 1961: Gerhard Masur (Lynchburg, Va.) to Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 217
Thank you so much for your letter. We are now back in Virginia and
the academic year is in full swing. My book50 finally came out on
25 September and looks very respectable. You may be interested in
the enclosed article, which appeared here two weeks ago. The Berlin
crisis is a great worry to all of us. I dont believe, as you write, that
Berlin will be sacrificed for the sake of world peace, but it is uncertain
whether West Berlin and the Free University will survive in their cur-
rent form.
It is nice that you will see Holborn again. I usually meet up with him
after Christmas at the historians conference. Dietrich Gerhard and
his wife visited us in early September and we spent a day of enjoyable
conversation together.
I have written to Herr Classen and I believe that he may send me
the proofs of the collected letters.51 Then I could get started with the
reading, and insert the page numbers later. Overall, I am trying to
work to a rather more modest schedule this year, for the final stages
of the work on the book last spring were very hard and Im still feeling
the after-effects.
[. . . . .]
My wife sends her warmest regards. There is a possibility that we shall

come to Germany in the summer of 1962. Ive been invited to speak
about South America in Tbingen, and if we can get a few more invi-
tations, we would be happy to come over. In which case we would of
course stop over in Berlin.
I hope that your stay in the Harz Mountains did you good. I was last
there in 1933 with my dear mother.
Yours with respect,

Gerhard Masur
50
Prophets of Yesterday, see above, p. 40.
51
See above, p. 235.
iv. hajo holborn 237
IV. Hajo Holborn
1. 14 October 1924: Hajo Holborn (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

Dear Gerhard,
My heartfelt thanks for your letter. A number of things have become

clear to me over the last few days, while at the same time I have got over
a severe cold and am gradually beginning to get my strength back.
The events in Heidelberg had such an effect on me because they
seemed to show the futility of my urge to escape from personal soli-
tude. The fate of individual isolation is of course a particularly menac-
ing one for our generation, one I feel especially exposed to. But I am
very keen to avoid letting this menace hold sway over me. After some
depressing experiences, it is hard to regain the courage to continue on
this path.
Your remarks on the political historian are correct and worth
heeding. Despite all the occasional doubts and anxieties and the fact
that there is of course much work still to be done and obstacles to be
removed, I too believe in my calling to history and will never give it
up. But at the same time I am tempted to involve myself directly in
public life, a desire that at times deprives me of all peace of mind. But
you are no doubt right that both tendencies are fundamentally quite
compatible, and may even be fused into a single impulse. At all events,
for the time being I shall press on with my studies, which is in any
case the only option open to me. Im afraid that for the time being all
of this amounts to a rather bitter-tasting sense of resignation, while
the fire continues to smoulder, but I hope to get over it and, indeed,
to achieve a highly positive outlook.
You have truly glorious weather for your trip and I deeply regret
not being able to see you again. Which makes me look forward all the
more to seeing you again in the not-too-distant future. I am particu-
larly keen to hear a detailed report on Roth. and Schramm.1
Your devoted friend,

Hajo Holborn
1
Reference to the medievalist Percy Ernst Schramm (18941970), who habilitated
in Heidelberg in 1922, and probably to the philosopher Erich Rothacker (18881965),
who taught in Heidelberg at the time.
238 documents
2. 9 June 1925: Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 16
Having begun to feel somewhat at home here in Heidelberg, I would

like to express my sincere thanks to you once again for your good-
will and kind efforts in support of my future habilitation.2 Everywhere
here I have had the friendliest of welcomes and everyone has been so
kind and obliging. Should my habilitation thesis go down well, every-
thing seems likely to proceed smoothly. I have not, however, yet man-
aged to pass on your best wishes to Anschtz, Thoma and Lenel3 as
you requested; Prof. Andreas wants to present me to the faculty only
towards the end of the semester and is keen to avoid my or his inten-
tions becoming generally known before then. I shall therefore keep
quiet and give nothing away.
You were so kind as to raise the prospect of the printing of my
lecture on Bismarck and the German question from 1866 to 1870. But
Prof. Andreas has now advised me not to present myself to a general
public here. Because my view of the topic has shifted significantly as I
have elaborated on the lecture, and I have been faced with new issues
that cannot be properly set out within the framework of a brief essay,
I am happy to forego publication for the moment. I would like to
develop the subject matter further, which requires me to carry out
further studies that will keep me occupied for some time. What I want
to do is sift out the constant aspects of Bismarcks policies more clearly
and forcefully than has been done so far, and to show that their roots
lay not solely in considerations of Realpolitik but to a large extent in
a political ideal in which Bismarck himself believed. How he differs
from both the Gerlach-Radowitz generation and that of Prince Blow.
This distinction is based not only on the external dimensions of his
political thought but also its innermost essence. I hope that, alongside
2
Meinecke arranged Holborns habilitation in Heidelberg in 1926.
3
Gerhard Anschtz (18671948) and Richard Thoma (18741957) were well-known
experts in constitutional law who held professorships in Heidelberg. Thoma became
professor in Bonn in 1928. Walter Lenel (18681937), a historian from a Mannheim-
based family of Jewish manufacturers, was a close friend of Meineckes from his time
in Strasbourg, where Lenel worked as a wealthy private scholar. Christened in 1906
and married to the daughter of the admiral Borckenhagen, a family friendship devel-
oped between the Meineckes and Lenels.
the studies of humanism on which I have now embarked, I shall also

manage, little by little, to complete this work on Bismarck.4
I would be happy to take on the reviews you suggested I might
write for the Historische Zeitschrift (A. Hajek, Bulgaria under Turkish
Rule [Bulgarien unter der Trkenherrschaft], and Jagemann, Memoirs
[Erinnerungen]), and I would ask you to be so kind as to send me the
books. I would also be happy to review Schlzers letters from America
soon to be published by the Deutsche-Verlags-Anstalt for the HZ,5 if
you have no objection. I hope you will have managed to find a solution
to the HZ editorial problems,6 in such a way that you may be freed
from the burden of sole responsibility, which is surely a heavy one in
the long run.
I used the first weeks of my stay here to travel a great deal through
Southern Germany and have seen unexpectedly beautiful sights. This
has brought me closer to medieval Germany in particular than one
could probably ever come in Ostelbien [the German territories east
of the Elbe]. The old historical buildings are fused in such a vital way
with the landscape of Swabia and the Upper Rhine region that it takes
very little reflection and imagination to gain a vivid idea of medieval
life.
As a Prussian, it is more difficult to get used to the political life of
Southwest Germany: a great deal of sterile agitation and a great lack
of energy in all the goings on was my first impression, though one
gradually comes to less harsh conclusions the more one begins to get
4
Holborn eventually held a public lecture on Bismarck at the University of
Heidelberg in early December 1926, an abridged version of which was published
under the title ber die Staatskunst Bismarcks, in: Zeitwende 3, April 1927, pp.
321334.
5
See Holborns review: Eugen von Jagemann, 75 Jahre des Erlebens und Erfahrens
(18491924), in: HZ 133 (1926), p. 175. There is no evidence of reviews of the books
by Hajek and the letters of Schlzer by Holborn in the HZ.
6
For vols. 7275 (1894/1895), Meinecke was co-editor of the HZ alongside
Heinrich von Sybel, 18171895; vol. 76 (1896) was edited by Heinrich von Treitschke
and Meinecke. From vol. 77 (1896) to vol. 112 (1914), Meinecke appears as sole editor.
From vol. 113 (1914) to vol. 131 (1925), he was assisted by Fritz Vigener, a profes-
sor of medieval history in Gieen, as co-editor. Meinecke was mainly responsible
for essays and miscellany, Vigener for the reviews of historical literature and notes
and news (Notizen und Nachrichten). After Vigeners death, Meinecke edited vols.
132 to 136 (1925 to 1927) alone. Dietrich Gerhard was employed as assistant editor
in 1925 and from then on the editorial work was carried out in the rooms of the
history department of Berlin University (see above, p. 181). The medievalist Albert
Brackmann appeared as co-editor for the first time in vol. 137 (1928).
240 documents
a sense of the circumstances and becomes aware of initially unappreci-

ated positive aspects. I now have one eye on Berlin, particularly on the
occasion of your speech7 at the conference of the Liberal Association,
which found in me a silent but grateful listener. Im afraid it is uncer-
tain to what degree it will be possible to disseminate the political views
which you promote in the reactionary period that has now set in. It
will be hard work simply to maintain the present precarious position.
Much of the future of our state depends on this, and if you were per-
haps able to do something for me in this connection on occasion, I
would be extremely grateful.
Herr Prof. Andreas sends his best wishes. I hope this finds you
enjoying the holidays in Berlin with a spring in your step. Please pass
on my best regards to your wife.
Faithfully yours,
Hajo Holborn
3. 1 March 1926: Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 16
I am also sending you my newly published dissertation.8 I would like

to take this opportunity to thank you once again for all the encour-
agement and support you have given me. Upon publication of my
book, my greatest wish was that you might consider it not entirely
unworthy of the instruction and historical guidance that you bestowed
upon me.
From your daughter, whom I recently visited with my fiance, I
heard that you wish to come here shortly after Easter. I am very much
looking forward to that; for if there is one thing that sometimes makes
7
Meineckes talk on Die Kulturfragen und die Parteien at the Liberal Association
(Liberale Vereinigung) on 16 May 1925, printed in: Die neue Rundschau, vol. 36, July
1925, pp. 673680. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und
Reden, pp. 385392.
8
Hajo Holborn, Deutschland und die Trkei 18781890, Berlin 1926.
me perceive my being here as a kind of banishment, it is above all the

impossibility of being able to ask your advice as I used to in Berlin.
We were both astonished by your daughters lovely flat in Schlierbach.
Despite the small rooms, which now seem to be unavoidable, it is
extremely homely and comfortable, not to mention the splendid sur-
roundings, which one may admire from the large terrace. I have once
again seriously discussed with my fiance whether we ought to open
up the shop that has been demanded in the house, in order to acquire
a similar flat.
I am sitting here writing the first part of my study of Hutten, which
is to cover the period until he joined forces with Luther. I hope to
finish it by early May. For part two I shall probably need to do more
extensive preparatory work on the history of the Diet of Worms,
unless the dissertation by the student of Marcks in Berlin prepares
the ground somewhat on that front. The work on Hutten is interest-
ing and rewarding, though the manifold intellectual and political rela-
tions and conditions make it hard to write about him. There is still an
endless amount of work to be done in the field as a whole: first of all,
Mestwerdts studies of Erasmus9 would have to be continued, but the
other forms of German humanism would have to be brought out more
clearly as well. At present, one can move only very carefully within this
field, as it is impossible to gain a reliable overview of the entire literary
production of German humanism. I am glad that I shall be able to tell
you more about this in a few weeks and in the meantime I wish you
and your dear wife a good rest from the strains of the winter semester
in Berlin.
With best wishes,
Gratefully yours,
Hajo Holborn
9
Paul Mestwerdt, Die Anfnge des Erasmus. Humanismus und Devotio Moderna,
ed. by Hans von Schubert, Leipzig 1917.
242 documents
4. 28 April 1926: Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 16
You asked me in person about a successor to Herr Dr. Christern10 and

were kind enough to take me into consideration. At the time I told
you that I hoped that things would go smoothly here. In the mean-
time, since your departure, things have become less rosy for me, not
only because Baethgens departure (for Cologne)11 has become very
uncertain, but above all because to my surprise Andreas is not content
with an account of Hutten extending to the Diet of Worms, but wants
a complete biography. As long as I could hope to put my habilitation
behind me over the summer, it made no difference to me whether
Baethgen stayed or went, for I had the confidence that I could bring in
with my ownby then freehands, through writing work, whatever I
lacked to establish a household.
It seems doubtful that I shall be able to complete the full biography,
as I am nonetheless trying to do, in such good time that I shall at least
manage to do the faculty colloquium this summer. The faculty can do
nothing for me prior to my habilitation. Given the current political
and financial situation of the Baden state, it is even uncertain whether
it will be able to do anything for me later on. I am unable to take deci-
sive action to help myself as long as my hands are tied. Under the
present conditions here I am thus facing a highly uncertain future.
I would therefore like to have discussed with you whether you think
it might perhaps be possible for me to be given the Berlin assistant-
ship. For the time being, my dear Herr Geheimrat, I would merely like
to request that you leave open the question of who to appoint, should
you have no other preferred applicant, until I have told you about my
situation in person in more detail towards the end of next week. Until
10
Hermann Christern (18921941), historian. Sometime assistant at the history
department of Berlin University.
11
Fritz Baethgen (18901972), medievalist, habilitated in Heidelberg in 1920 and
became professor extraordinarius there in 1924. Worked at the Prussian Historical
Institute in Rome from 1927 to 1929 and concurrently as honorary professor in Berlin.
Went to Knigsberg in 1929 to take up an appointment as professor ordinarius.
Holder of a chair in Berlin from 1939 to 1947, he was president of the Monumenta
Germaniae Historica from 1947 to 1958 and president of the Bavarian Academy of
Sciences from 1956 to 1964.
then, I would also ask that you treat what I have told you today as
confidential. I am travelling to Berlin on Wednesday evening to visit
my parents for eight days.
I was delighted to hear from Herr Prof. Thoma that the Weimar
conference12 went well. I hope it wasnt too stressful an end to your
holidays.
Please pass on my cordial greetings to your dear wife.
Best wishes,
Gratefully yours,
Hajo Holborn
5. 7 January 1929: Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
As well as wishing you a Happy New Year I would like to congratulate

you on the birth of your second grandchild. We were delighted to hear
about this happy event, albeit out of partly selfish motives, for we hope
that any reason for a trip to Saarbrcken13 might provide the pretext
and opportunity for a detour to Heidelberg.
Professor Schreiber was in Heidelberg yesterday to throw a party
celebrating his honorary doctorate. He kindly invited me along,
and afterwards he discussed the issue of the Weimar constitution
with me.14
That is, he seemed to take it as read that I had already been given
the task and merely discussed with me how I could obtain the material
12
At the Weimar conference of German university teachers on 23 and 24 April
1926, Friedrich Meinecke gave a lecture on Die deutschen Universitten und der
heutige Staat, reprinted in: Referate erstattet auf der Weimarer Tagung deutscher
Hochschullehrer am 23. und 24. April 1926 von Wilhelm Kahl, Friedrich Meinecke,
Gustav Radbruch, Tbingen 1926, pp. 1731. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2:
Politische Schriften und Reden, pp. 402413.
13
The only one of Meineckes four daughters who was married, Sabine Rabl, lived
in Saarbrcken from 1926, where her husband Carl Rabl was a medical specialist.
14
See above, p. 42.
244 documents
and offered to introduce me to the relevant gentlemen in the Centre

Party and Bavarian Peoples Party. Further, though I had in no way
alluded to this aspect, he also promised to see to the funding of my
work. Our discussion was pleasant andprobably helped along by the
atmosphere of the doctoral celebrationparticularly benevolent and
accommodating. Incidentally, he recommended that I get on with it,
which does in fact seem imperative in light of the interviews, etc.
If, partly because I am standing in for Andreas and have to finish off
the work for the Commission on the History of the Reformation,15 I am
not in fact able to start work for the Imperial Historical Commission
(Historische Reichskommission) before 1 October (because I shall be
working on it for much of the summer, I would like to have my cur-
rent grant from the Reformation Commission extended for six more
months), then I would request to be allowed to go to Berlin as early as
September. That is, while I would request that I be permitted to receive
the regular grant from the Imperial Historical Commission only in
October, I would ask to be given the funds to cover the travel costs in
September. Otherwise I would have too little time to study the records
in depth; I would need two months in Berlin to gain an overview of
the material. Alongside the issue of the start date of my study, I have
also had another think about the question of its material basis. Would
it perhaps be possible to formulate the contract with the Imperial
Commission in such a way that the sum of 600M is specified as fee per
printed folio? And would it be possible for the Imperial Commission
to pay me the same sum monthly in advance (on which, in contrast to
the grants from the Emergency Committee, I would probably have to
pay tax) over the course of the next two years? This would entail draw-
ing up the contract in line with exactly the same schema as forms the
basis for the contracts relating to the source publications. I suggest a
fixed period of two years because the fee per printed sheet can hardly
be calculated as more than twice as much as that for the source edi-
tions. After adding travel expenses, etc., it would be used up after about
two years. I believe, however, that I need more than two years for the
work, but hope that I shall no longer require material support, as I
believe that after two years I shall, at the very least, be at a point where
15
Reference to the following work: Hajo Holborn with Annemarie Holborn
(eds.), Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Ausgewhlte Werke. Verffentlichungen der
Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Reformation und Gegenreformation,
Munich 1933, reprinted Munich 1964.
I have the plan for the work and its structure under control and could
entrust it to a publisher, whom I could probably persuade to finance
it. I think its fair to assume that a study such as that of the history of
the Weimar constitution would also be worthwhile from a publishers
point of view. In this case, though, one could notand neither is there
any plan to this endput it together with source publications in a
series; it would have to be treated as a book in its own right.
I would ask you, dear Herr Geheimrat, to regard my thoughts as
merely private and non-binding suggestions, as they have developed
in the course of our conversations. Perhaps you can see other possi-
bilities that would be more agreeable to the Imperial Commission or
to me. And the Commission has as yet not even decided whether to
approve my candidacy! But it is almost beginning to look as if it will,
so I have already begun, beyond my work on HuttenI am now writ-
ing the last chapterto look around a bit for materials on the Weimar
constitution.
I did not give Herr Andreas your regards as you requested because
of the irritated questions I encountered on my return from Berlin.
But I did have the opportunity to state very clearly how any impartial
observer must view his concerns and to explain that there is no ques-
tion of deliberate insult to his person. I may have somewhat underesti-
mated him, for he took it all very well and I was able to convince him
or at least calm him down, a sign that he has in all likelihood simply
been too long and one-sidedly under the influence of characters who
have an overinflated view of him and who, in their fervour for him,
begin to see phantoms. And perhaps I still take too seriously what
is merely the product of Palatine hotheadedness. I thus believe that
he will learn to assess things calmly and, above all, that in future he
will resist being put off by such questions when forming an objective
opinionor even in his academic teaching. In terms of paving the way
for such a calmer state of mind, it is very fortunate that the people in
Gttingen put him at the top of their list, and since then he has once
again made a happy and unaggressive impression. I think I may even
be able to pass on his regards next time.
With best wishes to you and your wife,

Hajo Holborn
246 documents
Hajo Holborn
6. 26 August 1929: Hajo Holborn (Sils-Baselgia, Engadine Valley)

to Friedrich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
Thank you very much for seeing to my requests so swiftly. Even if I

have to wait a while to receive broad permission to use the archival
documents, for the time being I shall be able to get hold of enough
material in Berlin to familiarize myself with the subject. During the
imperial chancellors stay in Heidelberg16 I extended my feelers into

the group around him. Radbruch17 put me in touch with secretary of
state Jol,18 so now I shall easily be able to obtain at least a provisional
permit to work in the Imperial Chancellery, Ministry of Justice and
Ministry of the Interior. I shall also call at the Imperial Archive at
some point; but of all the authorities I hope that the Imperial Archive
will be the one most willing to send me records in Heidelberg. I shall
contact Rohden19 at once.
We are truly sorry that you wont manage to come to Heidelberg on
this occasion; but we hope that your visit is merely delayed and that
your next journey to the South will bring you here. Im afraid I am
unable to present you with my book on Hutten myself, but shall have
it sent to you in Dahlem as soon as it is published. Making use of the
permission you gave me some time ago, I have dedicated it to you.20
Years ago, by alerting me to Hutten, you gave my studies a more spe-
cific goal and more definite focus than I originally had in mind with
my vague plans to examine the relationship between the Reformation
and humanism, and furthermore I sought to harness the principles
of your research approach to study the 16th century. I believe I am
aware of the books flaws and imperfections. It was written rather too
quickly three years ago for the sake of my habilitation, and I have been
unable to eradicate entirely the traces of its hasty emergence without
going beyond its biographical scope as originally planned. However,
my hopes of accommodating some of the more wide-ranging reflec-
tions and investigations in intellectual history in my book on Erasmus
prompted me to publish the book on Hutten in its present form. Above
all, after Kalkhoff s foggy antiquarian essays,21 it seemed necessary to
16
Hermann Mller (18761931), Social Democrat politician, foreign minister in
1919/1920, imperial chancellor in 1920 and 19281930.
17
Gustav Radbruch (18781949), leading jurist, legal and cultural philosopher and
Social Democrat politician. Reichstag deputy from 1920 to 1924, imperial justice min-
ister in 1921/22 and 1923. Professor in Heidelberg from 1926 until forced out by the
National Socialists in 1933 and again from 1945.
18
Curt Jol (18651945), jurist and politician, secretary of state at the imperial
justice ministry from 1920, one of the most important politicians concerned with legal
affairs in the Weimar Republic.
19
Presumably a reference to Peter Richard Rohden (18911942), historian and stu-
dent of Meinecke.
20
Hajo Holborns book, Ulrich von Hutten, Leipzig 1929, is dedicated to Friedrich
Meinecke with gratitude and admiration.
21
Reference to the books and essays by Paul Kalkhoff, which Holborn subjected to
critical examination in his book on Hutten and his essay Eine Schrift Luthers gegen
248 documents
provide an accurate outline of the individual and the extent of his

inner vitality. But what I wish above all as I publish this book is that,
for all its shortcomings, you can recognize it, so to speak, as your
natural intellectual progeny.
Im afraid the weather in the Engadine was changeable in August,
and only now does a consistently pleasant late summer seem to have
set in. I hope you shall still encounter this weather before your trip is
over, as Swabia in September can be wonderful under such conditions.
My best wishes to you and your dear wife,

Holborn
7. 2 February 1930: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hajo Holborn

Holborn papers in Yale University Library, ms. 579, box 1, folder 6
Dear colleague,
I have transferred your request for reimbursement of expenses arising

from your stay in Berlin to von Mertz.22 As far as Payer23 is concerned,
I can tell you that Heuss24 recently committed an interview with him to
Ulrich von Hutten? Bemerkungen zu Kalkhoffs Forschungen, in: Zeitschrift fr die

Geschichte des Oberrheins 81 (1929), pp. 617623.
22
Mertz von Quirnheim.
23
Friedrich von Payer (18471931), jurist and politician. Member of the Reichstag
and parliamentary party leader from 1877 to 1887 and 1910 to 1917, first for
the German Peoples Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) and from 1910 for the left-
liberal Progressive Peoples Party (Fortschrittliche Volkspartei). Chair of the inter-party
committee (Interfraktioneller Ausschu), consisting of members of the SPD, Centre
Party and Progressive Peoples Party and sometimes the National Liberal Party, 1917
18. Vice-chancellor in the governments of imperial chancellors Georg von Hertling
and Max von Baden, 191718. Leader of the parliamentary DDP in the Weimar
National Assembly from 1919 until his withdrawal from active politics in 1920.
24
Theodor Heuss (18841963), journalist and politician. Studied political economy;
member of left-wing liberal parties from 1903. Colleague of Friedrich Naumann at
his weekly Die Hilfe from 1905. Co-founder of the DDP in 1918; represented it or its
successor, the German State Party (Deutsche Staatspartei), founded in 1930, in the
Reichstag (192428, 193032 and 193233). Taught at the German College for the
Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule fr Politik) in Berlin. Driven out of politics
following the Nazi seizure of power; non-political journalist and freelance writer until
1945. Co-founder of the Democratic Party/Free Democratic party (Demokratische
Partei/Freie Demokratische Partei) after 1945. Deputy in the Landtag of Wrttemberg-
paper for us, which is limited to the period up to and including 1917.
Heuss had the impression that Payers memory of the revolutionary
and Weimar period is failing. But perhaps you will manage to set his
latent knowledge in motion by asking him certain key questions.
I had heard about the prospects in Prague only from you and alluded
to them at New Year. Im afraid the job opportunity in Marburg, which
I would very much like to have worked out for you, has now faded
away entirely for time being. Mommsen25 tells me that the post is not
to be filled for now for in order to make savings. Furthermore, there
were other candidates for the post. So you will have to stick it out a
while longerand thats something you tend to get a good grounding
in as a German lecturer outside of the faculties of law.
Now to my relations with Solf 26 in Nov. 1918. If I am correct, I put
the date of 19 November on the draft of the lecture by Solf that I gave
to you. I must have done this shortly afterwards, mixing up two differ-
ent days. My diary, which took the form of brief summaries back then,
includes the following entry for 18 November 1918: Discussion with
Solf and Riezler27 on the future constitution. My backing for the fun-
damentals of the constitution in North America made sense to them.
Riezler thought that the Christian-Catholic trade unions would form
the core of their own party alongside the big democratic party, because
the latter would seem overly capitalistic to them and also because they
would champion a more robust view of the state than the other non-
socialist parties that would come together within the new democratic
party. In both cases, their general sentiments with respect to possible
Bolshevist developments were, like mine, very pessimistic.
I had just one conversation with Solf a few days before 18 Nov.,
namely the one in which he asked me to assess the usability of the
Baden from 194649 and influential member of the parliamentary council when
it drew up the constitution in 194849. First president of the Federal Republic of
Germany, 19491959.
25
Wilhelm Mommsen.
26
Wilhelm Heinrich Solf (18621936), diplomat and orientalist. Took up a post
in the foreign ministry from 1888, worked in its colonial division from 1896. Made
governor of Samoa in 1900. Secretary of state heading the Imperial Colonial Office
(Reichskolonialamt), 19111918 and also foreign minister from October to December
1918. Member of the DDP from 1919. German ambassador in Tokyo, 19201928.
Resisted the Nazi regime as founder of the Solf Circle after 1933.
27
Kurt Riezler (18821955), political journalist, close confidant of Bethmann Hollweg.
250 documents
Frankfurt constitution of 49.28 I certainly had the impression that my

idea of drawing on the American model was new to him but that he
immediately embraced it, stating, for instance: This would be a good
move for us politically now and Wilson29 would feel flattered.
Now yesterday I spoke to Solf himself at a breakfast and asked him
what he remembered. He could certainly remember that evening (that
is, of the 18 Nov. at Riezlers); he stated that afterwards Riezler drew
up the first draft of his memorandum on the question of the consti-
tution, which he had sent to Ebert,30 and that the dates of the official
memoranda cannot be taken too literally and often differ by whole
days from the true date. He asked me to tell you that you cant rely too
much on the minutes of meetings of the time as they were not usually
checked and instead notes were scribbled down rather chaotically at
Erzbergers31 behest.
Very best wishes,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
28
The constitution of the German Empire, adopted by the National Assembly in
Frankfurt on 28 March 1849.
29
Woodrow Wilson (18561924), president of the United States, 19131921.
30
Friedrich Ebert (18711925), leading Social Democratic politician. Paid official
in the Bremen labour movement and chairman of the Social Democrat group in the
Bremen city parliament from 1900 until his election to the SPD party executive in
1905. One of the chairs of the Social Democratic Party from September 1913 until
February 1919 and co-chair of the Social Democrat group in the Reichstag from 1916
to 1918. Member of the Reichstag from 1912 to 1918. Chair of the Council of the
Peoples Deputies (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) from November 1918 until February
1919. Imperial president from February 1919 until his death.
31
Matthias Erzberger (18751921), politician. Started off as an elementary school
teacher. Member of the Reichstag for the Centre Party (Zentrumspartei) from 1903, in
which he soon played a leading role as representative of its left wing. Advocated a peace
of understanding from 1917 and supported the parliamentarization of the empire and
acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. As imperial finance minister, from June
1919 to March 1920, when he was forced to resign because of a smear campaign, he
was responsible for a major financial reform, which expanded the Empires authority
in financial matters and placed a major burden on the very wealthy. Murdered on 26
August 1921 as supposed November criminal, wrongly alleged to be one of those
responsible for the revolution of November 1918.
8. [1932]: CV of Hajo Holborn, submitted for his Umhabilitation

[transfer of teaching authority to a different institution] in Berlin
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilita-
tion records, 1246
CV
I was born on 18 May 1902, the son of Geheimer Regierungsrat [a

senior civil servant] Professor Dr. Ludwig Holborn, director in the
Imperial Physical-Technological Institute [Physikalisch-Technische
Reichsanstalt], in Berlin-Charlottenburg. After 12 years at the Kaiserin-
Augusta grammar school in Charlottenburg, which I left in Easter
1920 having passed my leaving examination, I studied history, church
history, philosophy and state sciences (Staatswissenschaften) at the
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt, Berlin from the summer semester of
1920. [. . . . .] I feel deeply indebted to the training and stimulation I
received in the classes of professors Brackmann, von Harnack,32 Holl33
and Meinecke.
I obtained my Dr. phil. in Berlin in March 1924. My dissertation
topic was: Germany and Turkey, 18781890 (Deutschland und die
Trkei 18781890). I turned down an invitation to join the Emergency
Committee on Academic Research in Germany [Notgemeinschaft der
Deutschen Wissenschaft] as a member of the academic staff in 1926.
I received the venia legendi [granting authority to teach] in medieval
and modern history from the philosophy faculty of the University of
Heidelberg in autumn of 1926. My habilitation thesis was on Ulrich
von Hutten and the German Reformation (Ulrich von Hutten und
die deutsche Reformation). Information on my teaching responsibili-
ties as lecturer (Privatdozent) in Heidelbergwhere I stood in for the
professor ordinarius in the summer of 1928 during his sabbaticalcan
be found in the enclosed outline.
32
Adolf von Harnack (18511930), leading Protestant theologian and histo-
rian. Probably the most influential political figure among university professors in
the German Empire. President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (Kaiser-Wilhelm-
Gesellschaft), 19111930, on whose conceptual foundations and future development
he exercised a significant influence.
33
Karl Holl (18661926), leading Protestant church historian, who had a major
impact chiefly through his interpretation of Luther, whose works he attempted to use
to help theology define its role after the First World War. Professor in Berlin from
1906.
252 documents
In the summer semester of 1931 I took up an appointment to the

chair in international politics and history established by the Carnegie
Foundation at the German College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche
Hochschule fr Politik). I am responsible for the teaching of history
within the framework of the Schools academic courses and doing
my best to inform a broader public about issues in international
politics and foreign area studies through independent teaching and
research. I attach a copy of the last report I compiled for the govern-
ing board of the Carnegie Foundation in order to clarify the nature of
my activities.
When I took on the Carnegie lectureship, initially on a three-year
fixed-term basis, the state of my academic research was of crucial
importance for me. My main fields of activity are Reformation his-
tory and modern political history. In the field of Reformation his-
tory, my studies benefited from the support of the Commission on
the Promotion of Historical Studies of the Reformation and Counter-
Reformation (Kommission zur Frderung geschichtlicher Studien zur
Reformation und Gegenreformation) headed by his Excellency Schmidt-
Ott;34 with its help, in Heidelberg and while based in Heidelberg, I was
able to build substantially on its provisional findings and complete this
research project. Based in Heidelberg, I was less able to further the
work on the history of the origins of the Weimar imperial constitution
with which I was entrusted by the Imperial Historical Commission
(Historische Reichskommission). Completion of this book depends on
a very extensive study of the Berlin archives and libraries, and occa-
sional holiday visits do not provide sufficient time. I was thus happy to
take advantage of the opportunity that the appointment to the newly
established Carnegie chair offered with regard to my current academic
priorities. The philosophy faculty of the University of Heidelberg and
the Baden ministry of education and cultural affairs have enabled me
to take up a position in Berlin by granting me leave, initially extending
until 1 April 1933.
34
Friedrich Schmidt-Ott (18601956). Jurist, administrative official and politi-
cian with a core focus on science and academia. Entered the Prussian civil service
after studying jurisprudence and became a very close colleague of Friedrich Althoff
in the Prussian ministry of education and cultural affairs. Minister of religions and
educational affairs in Prussia, 19171918. President of the Emergency Committee
on Academic Research in Germany (Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft),
19201934.
While my work at the German College for the Study of Politics has
opened up a very intensive field of work to me and has also enabled
me to advance my next research plan, I have found it difficult to give
up teaching at the University. For my teaching there made it possible
to gradually penetrate the field of history as a whole and prevented
any premature specialization. And the same applies to the pedagogi-
cal field: as much as I wish to participate in the efforts to develop
a specific course in political science, involvement in the teaching of
the humanities more generally nonetheless seems more satisfying to
me. In addition, in purely practical terms, I am faced with the prob-
lem that, should my teaching contract from the Carnegie Foundation
be extended beyond 1 April 1933, the University of Heidelberg could
scarcely approve a renewal of my leave, while on the other hand, for
material reasons, there seems virtually no prospect of me return-
ing to my teaching post, which was essentially made possible by the
Commission on the Promotion of Historical Studies of the Reformation
and Counter-Reformation.
Holborn
9. 14 April 1933: Hajo Holborn (Berlin) to Dietrich Gerhard

My dear Diether,
Many thanks for your letters and sympathy. You know how firmly I
feel tied to you by our bond of friendship. And of all those things that
one may experience as consoling and pleasing amid so many perils
and horrors and while undergoing all the shocks and upheavals, it is
the sense of human closeness and togetherness that stands out above
all else.
I dont need to tell you how deeply moved I was by what you wrote
about yourself. From a purely practical and material point of view, I
dont believe that as a front-line soldier you will encounter any diffi-
culties at the university. There is no threat to your teaching position;35
as to your future progressnone of us are currently sure about that.
35
In fact, D. Gerhard did temporarily lose his venia legendi, giving him the author-
ity to teach, in 1933. Because he had been a front-line soldier in the First World War,
however, it was initially returned to him (see above, p. 34).
254 documents
The School may present more difficulties.36 It looks as if it will be fully

nationalized in the autumn and become a purely National Socialist
institution. Whether the likes of Carnegie will go along with that, I
dont know, but I am equally unsure as to whether the new imperial
authorities will keep on any of the current lecturers. This perspective
does not apply to the summer however; the current lecture programme
will be carried out with a few cancellations. A kind of state commis-
sioner was assigned to us a few days ago, with whom we shall come to
a final agreement over the next week. I assume that the decision will be
made on Friday or Saturday of next week. One can say nothing until
then. I think its pointless for you to come to Berlin during Easter. You
wont be able to learn anything about the School, but the university is
even further behind. It would be far better for you to return to Berlin
at the end of the week. I myself will be going there on Thursday.
I understand perfectly how difficult it will be for you to come to a
decision about when to hold your wedding under these circumstances.37
But of course marriage is largely a matter of total mutual consent and
understanding, along with the resolute courage and will to demon-
strate this togetherness before and within the world. On these condi-
tions, which apply to the two of you, one can surely say: where there
are two wills united in purpose, a way will be found. Easter is deadly
serious this time around. But let us not lose either our reverence for
life or our faith in it. With best wishes to you and your fiance,
Yours always,
Hajo
36
Reference to the German College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule
fr Politik) in Berlin, where Holborn taught from 1931 to 1933 as Carnegie Professor
in history and international relations. Alongside his work as lecturer at the University
of Berlin, Dietrich Gerhard also lectured at the German College for the Study of
Politics in 1932/33.
37
Despite the uncertainty of his situation since the Nazi seizure of power in 1933,
Gerhard married the Protestant Grete, ne Fischer, who emigrated with him to the
United States in 1935.
10. 11 September 1933: Hajo Holborn (Heidelberg) to Dietrich

Gerhard
My dear Dieter,
We arrived here yesterday and have to be on our way again the day
after tomorrow. I lost a lot of time because of my angina, then an
extremely bothersome problem with my teeth, which put me at the
mercy of the dentist until the very last day. All of which I could have
done without in my current state, but another day or two no longer
made any difference.
My belated thanks for your friendly and comforting letter. Please
do not be afraid that we are leaving in a bitter moodwe feel just as
strongly attached to all those things you hold in such high regard. But
we do not wish to have to infringe in any way upon what we regard
as our lifes work and as an obligation to where we come from and
our intellectual desires. Especially not because of events and phenom-
ena as changeable and transitory as those at issue here. Nowhere do I
feel refuted in terms of the essential core of my present attitude and
convictions (as much as I have of course learned in individual cases).
Naturally, things may (and probably will ) develop in such a way that
one would have to begin again from scratch. There might then be a
new place for me to work . . . but it is not yet the time to speak of such
things. For now, the situation simply calls for one to remain true to
ones profession and to oneself and, in this spirit, to make the best of
ones fate. So I am trying to think of our journey as a kind of educa-
tional and study trip, that will eventually bring us back home again.
By the way, before I left Berlin I had a conversation with Fehling,38
who believed that I would lose the venia [granting authority to
teach] and was pessimistic about the historians in other ways as well.
I hope he is wrong. Above all, I hope that you manage to hold your
own in line with your plans without having to make any serious con-
cessions!
My dear friend, I am truly sorry that we are unable to meet up
properly and have a good talk again, as I had in fact promised. But we
38
Representative of the Rockefeller Foundation in Germany, see above, p. 212.
256 documents
must continue our journey as quickly as possible if we wish to get to

a point, before too long, where we can step out socially with renewed
energy. After all the trials and tribulations we have just eight days to
lie in the sun and fortify ourselves for the coming events. Much of our
fate will depend on the conversations in Geneva. I dont want to tear
myself away from the children for the three days that we are here. This
is not only my last chance to enjoy them undisturbed for some time,
but the first time Ive had a chance to do so in ages.
We shall probably be able to catch up around Christmas. We want
to fetch the children together, and I would be able to come and see
you either in Berlin or Southern Germany.
I was really delighted to be able to see your mother39 in Berlin,
to whom I feel such a strong sense of inner obligation in so many
ways. She told me about you and the family and the special day in
Augsburg.40 [. . .]
For now my very best wishes to you and your wife,
Your
Hajo H.
11. 28 May 1934: Hajo Holborn (on board RMS Majestic, White
Star Line) to Dietrich Gerhard
My dear Dietrich,
Thank you so much for all the signs of life you have sent me from time
to time. It was a great help to me over these last nine months that all
of those who were close to me have provided me with amiable and
attentive companionship during this time. When I received your sec-
ond-to-last letter from England, I had just come from Harvard, having
already been in Yale and Washington. I already knew that the goal of
my trip to America had been achieved. It was another five weeks or so
before the formalities had been sorted out and I could go to Yale41 and
39
The writer Adele Gerhard, mother of Dietrich Gerhard.
40
The marriage of Dietrich Gerhard to his Augsburg-born wife.
41
Holborn was appointed to a position at Yale University in 1934.
another fourteen days before I was at peace with Carnegie42 (for the
summer). I am now happily back on solid ground and hope that my
immigration can also be sorted out without too much trouble.
For the time being I am established as visiting professor at Yale,
which of course entails a degree of uncertainty. But overall things look
very promising for the future as well.
Two things have helped me decisively: first, the fact that I had the
support of the Rockefeller Foundation as well as that of the committee
run by Murrow and Duggan.43 All of the departments of history are in
fact very helpful, and there is no lack of space, but there is currently a
lack of money. This will probably get better as soon as they have sorted
out their budgets, but is a great hindrance. Harvard probably still has
the money, but has such a large history department that they will feel
the least urgency. I consider Chicago and (of the small universities)
George Washington University in Washington D.C. the best prospects.
I believe it would be very advantageous to you if you could find a
route into these places. And I would recommend that you mention
more than just English history as your field of study. While that is
certainly regarded as useful, the Americans feel that they know enough
about it themselves. They are genuinely keen to develop those areas they
have not worked on so far, in other words German as well as Eastern
European history, medieval Europe, Renaissance and Reformation. I
believe you would do well to mention your knowledge of Slavic lan-
guages. Theres a lot of interest in that field in America, particularly
at the moment.
The future of the Murrow committee is as yet quite uncertain. All
their funds have been used up and theres little prospect of any new
funding. Nothing can be done about it until the autumn, if at all. But
with any luck the universities will step in with their own financing
over the course of the year. This is the situation at present, as far as I
42
Reference to the Carnegie Foundation, which financed Holborns professorship
at the German College for the Study of Politics in Berlin from 1931 to 1933.
43
Stephen Pierce Duggan (18701950), American political scientist and educator.
Founded the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German [later: Foreign]
Scholars in the United States in 1933; Edward R. Murrow (19081965), well-known
American journalist. Joined the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German
Scholars in 1933, and soon began to play a major part in it. Played a significant role
in American radio from 1935 and television from 1951. Left the radio and TV station
CBS in 1961, for which he had worked since 1935, and became director of the US
Information Agency under President Kennedy until 1964.
258 documents
have most recently been able to determine. I expect things to get much
better over the longer term, because they are very keen to develop his-
tory in particular. Further, the discipline of history in Germany has an
undeservedly good reputation in the U.S.A..
After all this uncertainty and commotion I am enjoying the ben-
efits and blessings of the sea journey with greater reverence than in
February. While the three months in America were certainly a strain
because of the many new faces, they were undoubtedly more balanced-
out. Because I was able to be with my siblings,44 and saw my mother
again as well for the last ten days, I even managed to enjoy myself
as if back home. Nevertheless, I need a rest and am looking forward
to being able to work in peace just as I please in London. This time
around I also want to study something of the life outside London.
Write me a few lines while Im in London and let me know how you
are doing and whether theres anything else I can do. I assume that I
will meet with Duggan in London in June. He was a great help to me,
though not as much as Murrow, with whom I quickly forged a good
relationship in New York.
My very best wishes to you and your wife.
Your
Hajo Holborn
12. 7 February 1935: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
We received with deep gratitude and joy all the signs of friendship
and that you were thinking of uswhich you and your dear wife
sent us and the children at Christmas. Yes, we celebrate real German
Christmases here in New England, which, by the way, also has some
lovely old Christmas traditions more akin to our own than the loud
and merry English-style Christmas. And now and then one even finds
44
A brother of Holborn, the physicist Friedrich Holborn, had already emigrated to
the United States after the First World War.
a little bit of the old culture of home here. One afternoon our children
saw an old Silesian Christmas crib that came to Pennsylvania with the
first German immigrants and has been preserved to this day in the
family (descendents of the Zinzendorfs).45 It is hard to express what
a great support it is to us to receive all the words of encouragement
from our German friends and to know that we are in their thoughts.
The faith that you gave us as we set off on our migration enables us to
have faith that we shall manage to go on with our work here. We have
already experienced so much straightforward helpfulness and simple
humanity here, though we will probably never have friends here in the
German sense of the term.
The past six months have been extremely arduous and difficult for
us. Despite everything, it was a chapter one does not regret having
gone through despite being happy to see it closed. We have of course
learned how things work here from scratch, but are hopeful that we
will gradually be able to master the situation. But it is particularly
hard to get a true sense of America at the moment, for the country
is going through a crisis on a scale certainly comparable to that in
which Europe finds itself. However, the mental attitude, and the exter-
nal resources, are significantly different, and the results will probably
be fundamentally different as well. It is astonishing to see what has
become of the self-confident and optimistic Americans over the last
five years. Above all, of course, the young peoples faith in traditions
has been radically shaken.
It is interesting to see that the crisis has made the people here far
more socially-minded and liberal. They have become far more open
and unprejudiced than they used to be. Things European have always
been studied, but what was formerly more a matter of the play of curi-
osity is now becoming the medium of a more serious comparison.
Under these circumstances, the activities of the Germans here may
even prove truly productive. But there is no way of knowing and it will
depend on numerous factors, chief among them our ability to cope
with the practical side of things.
We have by no means completed this stage as yet. You are quite
right to assume that I have had to live entirely from hand to mouth
45
Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf (17001760), German
Protestant theologian and leading representative of Pietism. Founded the Moravian
Brethren (Herrnhuter Brdergemeinde) on his estate in 1722. Offshoots in Pennsylvania
in America among other places.
260 documents
so far. One has at times felt exhausted and embittered, having had
to struggle time and again to deal with the primitive things common
even to the older American student. On the whole, however, I am con-
tent to have settled in relatively quickly and to have attracted interest
relatively quickly. The students are very attentive and my colleagues
are very happy with what Im doing. The department (roughly equiva-
lent to our faculty) wants to give me a permanent position, but the
university has major financial problems. So it is as yet unclear what
will ultimately happen, but for the time being we are well enough pro-
vided for from other sources that there is currently no problem, and
can stick it out for now.
My main work consists of preparing my lectures and familiarizing
myself as much as possible with the English and American literature.
Most of the students read French very well, though very rarely German
(in contrast to the professors, incidentally, most of whom follow the
German literature very conscientiously); so its vital that I have the
English literature completely fresh in my mind. For reasons relating
both to pedagogy and my own understanding, I cannot restrict myself
too narrowly to the specialist literature in teaching the courses here.
There is no doubt that it will be highly beneficial to immerse myself
in Anglo-Saxon culture in this way. There is, however, no really per-
ceptible enjoyment so far. Everything has to be done with too much
haste and my faith in many categories has been shaken, categories into
which I was formerly accustomed to group all incoming knowledge
without further ado. It will be some time yet before I really come to
terms with the theory and practice of history in this country. This is
another reason why I would like to get through this practical appren-
ticeship as rapidly as possible.
I am as yet unsure what exactly my responsibilities here are going
to be. I shall have more lectures next year than I did this year, yet I
believe it will be less work than this year because I will find everything
easier. But Im afraid I may have to devote a fair part of the sum-
mer holidays to extra lectures. (The universities here have holidays
only once a yearfrom mid-June to mid-September. But a number of
people also hold summer courses for teachers during this period). If I
have to participate in this, I shall have scarcely any time for my own
work, and I am pessimistic about completing my study of Weimar.46
46
Hajo Holborn worked on behalf of the Historical Imperial Commission
(Historische Reichskommission) on a history of the origins of the Weimar imperial
Can this issue remain in suspenso for a while? It is a matter of urgent

importance to me to complete this work in its entirety, and I shall try
to do whatever I can to that end. Of course, if worst comes to worst, I
can send in the material as I have collected it so far, but I would only
ask to be allowed to do so if I can discover no other way.
There is nothing but good news about the children; they are cur-
rently suffering from chickenpox, that is, Friedrich has just got over
them and Hanna has just succumbed. But it is no great worry. They
have been so content and full of life the whole time that theyve been
nothing but a joy to us.
Relations among the German colleagues are also very pleasant; they
are all quite different from one another, but all are very willing to help
one another. With the rarest of exceptions, incidentally, the Americans
are entirely approving about their growing numbers. Thats very grati-
fying to all of us. I spend a lot of time with Wolfers47 in particular.
Tillich48 is scheduled to give lectures here in March, and will stay in
New Haven for a few weeks.
I hope to be able to write more often again from now on. How often
our thoughts turn to Dahlem, while my joy at the news that my mother
was with you for Christmas was mixed with envy. With very best wishes
to you and yours and warm regards from my wife, I remain
Yours faithfully,
Hajo Holborn
constitution from 1929 on. The work was never completed. A broad range of material
on the topic can be found among the Holborn papers in Yale University Library.
47
Arnold Oskar Wolfers (18921968), Swiss-born historian. Completed his studies
in jurisprudence with a final exam at the University of Zrich in 1917. Obtained his
doctorate at the University of Gieen in 1924. Lecturer at the University of Berlin
from 1929 to 1933. Lecturer in political science at the German College for the Study
of Politics, 19241930, subsequently director of the School until 1933. Emigrated
to the United States in 1933, where he taught international relations, first as visit-
ing professor (19331935), then as professor and finally as holder of an endowed
chair in international relations at Yale University. Wolfers was founding director of
the Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research, which he headed from 1957 to
1965. He acted as advisor to numerous organizations, among them the National War
College, the Office of Strategic Services and the Institute of Defense Analysis. One of
the leading historians in the field of history of international relations.
48
Paul Tillich (18861965), important Protestant theologian and philosopher. One
of the founders of a religious socialism. He was the first non-Jewish university teacher
to be driven out of Germany in 1933 and taught at the Union Theological Seminary
in New York from 1940 to 1955. Professor at Harvard from 1955 to 1962 and then in
Chicago. Became chair of the Council for a Democratic Germany in 1944.
262 documents
13. 22 February 1935: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
Many thanks for your nice card. I assume that you have by now
received my detailed, unfortunately very belated letter49 and that it
provides a basis for you and the Imperial Commission to make a deci-
sion. I have nothing new to report beyond the contents of that letter,
as it will only become clear around mid-March what I can do over
the summer.
I was delighted to hear that the shell of your book50 is complete and
that your family has been free of illness; we can only hope that you will
be spared theso often treacherousspring flu as well!
I have been deeply moved to observe the blows of fate that have
afflicted the German historical fraternity: Onckens51 departure and
the death of Caspar.52 The former was reported in detail here. Perhaps
they have not realized the consequences that this will have over there.
I would have liked to have written to your friend in Dahlem, but have
deliberately refrained from doing so. Perhaps you will have the oppor-
tunity to thank him.
Our children have recovered well from the chickenpox. It was not
particularly worrying, but my wife was kept even busier than usual.
But we seem to have had more luck with the new, I believe fourth,
domestic help. She is an upright Swabian, a diligent worker who con-
verses with the children in the purest of Swabian dialect.
The spring is still a long way off here, but we can at least hope for a
few warm days. For the most part these are of an unmatched beauty.
A bright blue Italian sky (were on the same latitude as Rome here),
49
Holborns letter of 7 February 1935, see above, pp. 258261.
50
Reference to Meineckes book, Die Entstehung des Historismus, published in
1936.
51
Hermann Oncken, professor in Berlin from 1928, was forced into retirement in
1935 after clashing with chief Nazi historian Walter Frank (see above, p. 15).
52
Erich Caspar (18791935), historian. Caspar took up an appointment as pro-
fessor ordinarius in medieval history at the University of Knigsberg in 1920, and
taught in Berlin from 1930.
though interspersed with Asiatic storms. The so-called spring is harder

for Europeans to cope with climatically than the winter.
My very best wishes to you and your wife! And once againthank
you very much.
Your
Hajo Holborn
14. 27 September 1945: Hajo Holborn (Hamden, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16, typewritten letter in English
Dear Meineckes:
Ever since I received the article in the Munich newspaper of June

16th53 I was anxious to establish direct contacts again. We learned first
from Ted Hartshorne54 about the circumstances of your life in the final
phase of the war. Now we are delighted to get word from you directly
and to hear that you have found a relatively safe refuge and that you
know that all the members of your family have survived the holo-
caust. In all these years we have thought of you and constantly tried
to visualize your reactions to the events and the personal hardships
which you have to bear. I am certain that if we could come together
tomorrow we could take up our conversations just where we left them
in 1936 or 1938. I remember most vividly that both in 1936 und 1938
you raised the question of whether or not the third Empire was to be
judged as an episode or an epoch in history. There is no doubt left
that is was merely an episode, but an episode which has brought on a
fundamentally new period in world history. This is true not only with
regard to Germany, but to practically any country the world over.
I hope that some of our friends will come to see you. There are
many who like ourselves would like to do everything in their power to
53
Friedrich Meinecke, Zur Selbstbesinnung, in: Mnchner Zeitung, 16 June 1945.
Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, pp. 484486.
54
Edward Yarnell Hartshorne (19121946), American sociologist. Son-in-law of
American historian Sidney B. Fay, a friend of Meinecke. Hartshorne, who was in con-
tact with Meinecke while working on his book The German Universities and National
Socialism, Cambridge 1937, was the American education officer in Heidelberg. He
helped Meinecke find a publisher for his book Die deutsche Katastrophe.
264 documents
alleviate the circumstances in which you live. I have asked in particular

Walther Dorn to keep your problems in mind. He is at the American
headquartersFrankfurt.
A short while ago we have returned from Washington to New Haven,
and four weeks from now I shall start my courses at the University
again. Friedrich is now a first year student at Harvard. So far he seems
to tend towards History, though he may still end up in political science
or even politics. Hanna is finishing her last school year in New Haven
and plans to go to college next year. All the family is well.
I hope we shall hear from you often. I know the Wilhelm-Weber-
Strasse in Goettingen very well indeed, as practically all the streets
and environs. As a boy I spent many an Easter or Michaelmas vaca-
tion with my grandmother there. The Holborn family is actually a
Goettingen family. Thus I was glad to hear that Goettingen seems to
have come through the war unharmed.
With kind regards and all good wishes from all the Holborns,
Cordially;
Hajo Holborn
15. 28 June 1946: Hajo Holborn (Hancock, N. H.) to Gerhard Masur

NL Masur 59
Dear Herr Masur!
Many thanks for your letter of 24th, which reached me yesterday

evening here in New Hampshire. I was very glad to hear from you
again after so many years and especially to learn that things have gone
well for you overall. Our life in the United States has been extremely
simple. We have been in New Haven since 1934, with the exception
of the 194345 period, when we were in Washington. I was granted
leave by the university to work for the Office of Strategic Services and
the War Department. I was never in the army. Since last autumn I
have again been fully focussed on my academic work and have been
in Washington only for a few days now and then for conferences in
the State and War Departments.
You were probably already in Washington when I was there last,
about two weeks ago. Since then we have settled in here in New
Hampshire for the summer and we shall not return to New Haven
before the last days of August. Im afraid the chances of seeing you are
thus pretty poor if you are not staying beyond August.
I shall be happy to see what I can do to keep you here. In itself that
probably wouldnt have been terribly difficult, particularly in the field
of South American history. But the college budgets and appointments
for the next academic year have already been decided for the most
part and little tends to happen before September. Nevertheless, this
is a rather unusual year because of the overabundance of colleges and
major gaps in the faculties. If you still need any references, I would be
happy to provide them. Wolfers is in Switzerland this summer. With
very best wishes,
Your
Hajo Holborn
16. 23 September 1946: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16, typewritten letter in English
Dear Mr. Meinecke:
Your postcard of 21 August came into my hands a few days ago

and I was sorry to learn that earlier messages of mine did not reach
you. I assume that this had something to do with your transfer from
Goettingen to Berlin. I was happy to hear, first from Felix Gilbert after
his return from Germany, that the good old place in Berlin-Dahlem,
which in a way you have made me feel to be my second home in
Germany has escaped undamaged from the War and that you and
Mrs. Meinecke are safely back in it. I wished we could get together
there and discuss history and world affairs, but this will not be possible
for at least another year. My present plans are to go to Germany for a
short visit of a month or two in fall 1947.
I do not know whether I wrote you that during the years 194345 I
was on leave from Yale and was in government service in Washington.
Even since my return last November I am still going to Washington
once a month for consultation and this makes my life still a unusu-
ally busy one. The end of the War has resulted in an unbelievable
crowding of colleges and universities and the new academic year,
266 documents
which started last week, will be a considerable strain. However, there

are many rewards. The students were never as good as they are now.
They are deeply interested in philosophical questions and, incidentally,
have come back from Europe with a profound interest in European,
including German, problems. Teaching is under these conditions quite
exciting.
In these circumstances it was not easy for me to get sufficient
time for writing. For obvious reasons I did not try to publish in the
years 193440. Thereafter the War made it pretty well impossible to
go ahead with my plans. Now after my return to academic life my
chief ambition is to do my long-delayed books. One is now in the
press,55 another one I hope to complete during the year. Thereafter,
I want to turn to the writing of a Social and Constitutional History
of Germany since 1806. I do not think that a mere history of the ori-
gins of the Weimar constitution would attract a large audience in the
Anglo-Saxon world, and incidentally there is not even in German an
adequate constitutional history of Germany in the 19th century. Of
course, I want to use the source material I collected before 1933 for the
history of the years 191720 and I have the impression that it is pretty
complete. In certain respects it may even be unique. I hope very much
that this book will be published in German as in English. There may be
some good reason to publish some of the documents, which it would
not be worthwhile publishing in English translation, in a German edi-
tion and if conditions should permit I would be glad to do so.
In general I would love nothing better than to help German histo-
rians to rebuild historical studies in Germany and you may call on me
any time you think I could be of help. (Or anybody you may designate
in your place.) However, I would not consider accepting an appoint-
ment in a German university. Our children are American children.
They have spent all their formative years in this country and if we
would go back to Germany they would be exiles. Knowing what that
means, we certainly would not want them to go through that experi-
ence unnecessarily. Moreover, we have not become American citizens
by name only. We are deeply devoted to the country of our adop-
tion. We have been happy here after getting through the first years of
difficult adjustment. I have been particularly lucky in attracting a
55
Hajo Holborn, American Military Government: Its Organization and Politics,
Washington 1947.
large number of unusually good students. Some of them are already

teaching in various places, others, delayed by the War, will soon start
their academic careers. I do not feel that I could leave them. I believe
it to be my function in life to finish the task of helping to educate and
train a new generation of college teachers of European history in this
country and I feel that by doing this I shall contribute a least indirectly
to maintaining or rebuilding German historical research.
These are some of the major reasons why I would not consider to
return to Germany permanently. But, of course, from now on I would
like to visit Germany at regular intervals and would like to publish or
lecture in Germany as soon as that will become possible.
You will have been shocked as much as we were by the death of
Ted Hartshorne. It is particularly hard on Sidney Fay,56 who inciden-
tally will come to Yale once a week during the present academic year.
Thus the two of us will get together more regularly again as in the
years before I went to Washington. Always German problems form
a good part of our discussions. It may interest you to hear that the
interest of American students in German history has not declined. On
the contrary it has rather become more intense as a result of their war
experiences.
With all good wishes to you and your family,
Yours as always,
Hajo Holborn
17. 30 October 1948: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 213
Dearest Herr Meinecke!
I have let so much time pass by since my return that I wished to avoid
letting the 30 October come and go as well without writing to you. You
56
Sydney B. Fay (18761967), American historian. Worked mainly on the history
of diplomacy and German history. Professor in Harvard from 1929 until his retire-
ment in 1945. President of the American Historical Association in 1946/47. Friend
of Meinecke.
268 documents
have already heard from my wife how lively this last year has been for
us. Following my return from Germany and England, I initially had a
good deal of work still to do on my official and unofficial reports. And
when I resumed teaching in February, so much work had piled up that
it took up all of my time until we went to California in June.57 It was of
course very nice for us, not only to see the attractions of the American
West, but also to have the chance to get to know the American conti-
nent as a whole. One sometimes tends to forget that New England is
just a small peninsula of this enormous country.
Many thanks for sending me your two essays. The essay on 184858
will remain especially dear to me because it was the subject of a fair
number of our conversations last October. I find it outstanding in its
inspired linkage of the social and political with the realm of intellec-
tual history. Further, it is by no means merely a revision of your
earlier views, but also represents a higher-level point of observation.
The same applies to your essay on Ranke and Burckhardt. I must
admit to being a little anxious, when I first heard about the lecture,
that, perhaps influenced by the present disaster, it would too simply
shift the focus of our affections towards Basle. When I read it for the
first time, however, I discovered that my concerns were entirely unjus-
tified. You have in fact succeeded in garnering new elements from
the work of both Ranke and Burckhardt in light of a new historical
perspective.
I have shown your essays to some of my best American students, all
of whom were very enthusiastic.
We are of course constantly worried about the present situation in
Berlin and are all too aware of the hardships it entails for all Berliners.
We are hoping that it might somehow prove possible to achieve a
settlement, but one that ensures the Berliners rights. The one good
thing I can see in the situation is that any settlement of the disputes
over Berlin may bring about a new debate on all-German issues. In
that respect, in its current situation, Berlin itself is still, or is perhaps
especially now, the place where the all-German issue finds its clearest
57
Holborn was visiting professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto in California
in 1948.
58
Meinecke, 1848. Eine Skularbetrachtung, Meinecke, Ranke und Burckhardt,
see above, p. 17.
reflection. The Berliners plucky attitude is arousing much admiration

here in America.
The election is just about to be held here, and there can be very little
doubt about the result.59 But whoever wins, I dont expect there to be
any fundamental changes in American foreign policy. But I hope that,
once the election campaign and elections themselves are over, it will
be possible to pursue a rather more supple foreign policy.
With best wishes from my wife and I to you and the whole family
we hope all of you are doing well.
Yours faithfully,
Hajo Holborn
18. 9 April 1949: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
I must add at least a few brief lines of a more personal nature to my

official reply.60 I am very sad that I cannot come to Berlin during the
summer semester, at a time when all of us ought to be adding our
support to your brave and high-minded resolve and helping the Free
University to victory. Your decision to take on the vice-chancellorship
has excited much admiration among professors here, just as the Free
University itself is the object of much interest in America.
I hope that you more or less approve of Americas stance and poli-
cies. Once the provisional West German state has got off the ground,
it should be possible to establish a modus vivendi with the East and
thereby to make things easier for the Berliners. Admittedly, there are
no grounds for optimism as yet.
59
It was generally expected that Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey
would win the election in 1948. In fact the candidate of the Democratic Party, Vice-
President Harry S. Truman, who succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon his death in
1945, was confirmed in office.
60
Probably a reference to his rejection of an invitation to give a series of lectures
or take up a visiting professorship at the Free University of Berlin.
270 documents
I am still hoping that I can return to Germany again at some point

in the near future and also visit Berlin. Shortly after I returned from
Europe in late 1947 I was able to bow out of all the extra work for the
government and can now focus entirely on my historical work, at least
to the extent that the students, of which there are too many at present,
allow me to do so. But things are moving forward!
With my best wishes to your dear wife, I remain with respect
Yours faithfully,
Hajo Holborn
19. 23 October 1951: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 16
Dearest Herr Meinecke!
The two pretzels birthday is followed by the 89th birthday. When

the second 8 has turned into a 9, children must have bitten off a
piece of the pretzel, and we may perhaps regard this as a parable of the
unceasing impact of your work, whose influence on historical thinking
continues to grow. The students here in Yale read your books with
eagerness and enthusiasm and I know that this is the case in many
places in America.
We all hope that the approaching ninth decade of your life will find
you in the best of health. From the bottom of our hearts, your students
and friends wish you a pleasant and kind old age. Tremendous histori-
cal upheavals have taken place over the course of your life and yet the
ideas that you have handed down to us from the past and developed
further have lost none of their power.
Warmest wishes,
As ever faithfully yours,

Hajo Holborn
20. 3 April 1954: Hajo Holborn (New Haven, Ct.) to Dietrich

Gerhard
Dear Dieter,
A few days holiday, which are unfortunately almost over, give me an

opportunity to write you a letter, if only a short one. [. . .]
I was very moved by Meineckes death.61 I know that he had long
been yearning for death, but for us his demise ended our direct rela-
tionship with a world on which we continue to draw.
With best wishes to Grete and the family,
Yours always,
Hajo
21. 23 July 1969: Annemarie Holborn (Hamden/Conn.) to Gerhard

Masur
NL Masur 59
Dearest Herr Masur,
Many thanks for your friendly letter. You are right: we must take com-
fort from my husbands last words, that his life was a happy one. He
had of course been seriously ill over the last three years and had to
undergo endless complicated operations. Yet he never lost heart, and
he had lots of plans for future work. But I am thankful that he com-
pleted his three-volume Deutsche Geschichte, which is testimony to his
lifes work.
My best wishes to you and your wife,
Your
Annemarie Holborn
61
Meinecke died on 6 February 1954.
272 documents
V. Felix Gilbert
1. 29 March 1929: Felix Gilbert (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 144
Dear Herr Dr. Rosenberg,
It has taken me until today to write to you because I did not, as I had
hoped, meet Kehr in the State Archive over the last few days, but only
today managed to establish that Wednesday of next week is the best
day for both him and me.
There is no exchange of letters between Droysen and Gervinus; I
am very keen to read your essay on Gervinus,1 partly because of a
certain feeling for him, but also because of your comment on him in
your vulgar liberalism essay2 with whichor more accurately with
whose consequencesI cannot entirely agree; I generally take a fairly
dim view of judgements ex eventu in history and, particularly in the
case of intellectual history, the success or coming to pass of what
has been predicted seems to me no criterion: for me, Ranke is still
a greater historian that Droysen, though the latter produced a more
accurate assessment of the future than the former. But thats a wide
field as old Stechlin3 would say, and cannot be sorted out in passing
with a few words in a letter. I find your fears regarding your essay
quite baseless. Personally, what interested me most was the passage on
liberalism and the account of the Lichtfreunde movement, while
your comments on the concept of liberalism clarify very effectively the
difficulties of the situation and indirectly entail a very sharpthough
well-deservedrebuke to the majority of historians. If I may make
a criticism, I find the methodological reflections rather too copious;
for in essence these cannot be resolved in our discipline, and it is
ultimately difficult to see how, in light of all these methodological
1
Hans Rosenberg, Gervinus und die deutsche Republik. Ein Beitrag zur
Geistesgeschichte der deutschen Demokratie, in: Die Gesellschaft 6 (1929/II),
pp. 119136. Reprinted in: Rosenberg, Politische Denkstrmungen im deutschen
Vormrz, pp. 115127.
2
Hans Rosenberg, Theologischer Rationalismus und vormrzlicher Vulgrliber-
alismus, in: HZ 141 (1930), pp. 497541. Reprinted in: Rosenberg, Politische Denk-
strmungen, pp. 1850.
3
The words Thats too wide a field (das ist ein zu weites Feld) conclude Fontanes
novel Effi Briest. As a result it came to be used as a standard expression. Previously
used by Freiherr von Knigge in 1788 in the preamble to Umgang mit Menschen and
in Adalbert Stifters novel Der Nachsommer.
v. felix gilbert 273
considerations, anyone still has the courage to tackle the kind of

account you go on to provide so nicely in the final section in the first
place.
Forgive me for these fragmentary and disorderly remarks, but I
must dash off to meet someone now. I shall see you on Wednesday
(between 8 and 8.30).
Your
Felix Gilbert
2. 17 May 1930: Felix Gilbert (Fiesole da Firenze) to Friedrich

Meinecke4
NL Meinecke 12
I was delighted to discover from your letter that you consider the edi-
tion of Droysens shorter political writings as good as certain. It is
however far from easy for me to answer your question as to the scope
of such a volume, as I have not the slightest practical experience in
making such assessments. It is therefore perhaps best if I give you
a rough idea of what, it seems to me, such a volume of Droysens
shorter political writings5 would have to include, so that you yourself
can judge whether my estimates sound about right.
All of Droysens political essays that had appeared by the time of
the revolution of 48 would likely have to be included [. . .] It seems
to me that Droysens writings from the Paulskirche in 1848/49 would
also have to be included in full. Droysens memoranda and essays
composed during this period would take up about the same amount
of space as those of the preceding period.
After his return from Frankfurt of course Droysen produced a very
extensive body of journalistic writings while based in Kiel over the
next two years: I think one could work with summary registers on this
4
Meinecke had jotted down the key points for his reply on the first page of the let-
ter, which indicate that a fee per printed folio of 16 pages of 50 Marks with monthly or
quarterly advance payments and 3032 folios (480512 pages) was provided for. The
design and structure of the volume was to be in keeping with the Geschichtsquellen
des 19. Jahrhunderts. Meinecke wanted to ask Gilbert whether he agreed to this and
when he might begin the work.
5
Johann Gustav Droysen, Politische Schriften. On behalf of the Prussian Academy
of Sciences, ed. by Felix Gilbert, Munich/Berlin 1933.
274 documents
and that it would be sufficient to publish in extenso those memoranda

of significance to his fundamental political views and the essays that
characterize the nature of his journalism particularly well.
From the 1850s, I believe, the only relevant texts are the three essays
he wrote in the Minerva about the events of the Crimean War, of
which he included only the first in his Abhandlungen. I cannot really
assess the extent of his journalistic activities during the New Era
period, but I dont believe that he wrote a great deal for newspapers at
the time. One would have to investigate in more depth whether there
are any memoranda for Duncker6 or the crown prince.7,8
I estimate that a volume containing the material briefly outlined
above, along with the necessary scholarly apparatus, would run to 450
to 500 pages;9 I am assuming here that it would be structured similarly
to the Nachgelassene Schriften by Radowitz10 edited by Mhring (?). I
hope that these lines give you something of an overview and that this
information helps you to pursue the financing of the volume by the
Academy. For me, the carrying out of this plan would be a highly
[word illegible] assignment, and I truly hope to see it realized.
With best wishes, I remain
Faithfully yours,
Felix Gilbert
6
Maximilian Duncker (18111886), historian, politician and journalist. Head of
the Erbkaiserliche Partei, located on the liberal centre right, in the Frankfurt National
Assembly, 1848/49. Appointed professor ordinarius in political history in Tbingen
in 1857, he returned to Berlin in 1859 where he was head of the press office of the
Prussian cabinet (Staatsministerium). Political advisor to the crown prince from 1861
to 1866. Director of the Prussian Archives from 1867 to 1874.
7
Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (18311888) was Emperor of Germany and
King of Prussia as Friedrich III for 99 days in 1888. Married to the English princess
Victoria (18401901), a daughter of Queen Victoria.
8
As it turned out, Gilbert published a total of thirty-four articles and memoranda
by Droysen in his edition of Droysens Politische Schriften, four for the period prior
to the Revolution, eleven relating to his activities in Frankfurt a. M. in the National
Assembly in 1848/49 and seventeen drawn from his journalism in Kiel from 1849 to
1851. For the subsequent period he published two essays, neither of them from the
time of the New Era from 1858.
9
The printed volume ultimately comprised 393 pages.
10
Josef von Radowitz, Nachgelassene Briefe und Aufzeichnungen zur Geschichte der
Jahre 18481853, ed. by Walter Mring, Stuttgart/Berlin 1922.
3. 25 July 1930: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Felix Gilbert

NL Meinecke 12, copy
Dear Herr Dr.
Only now has the issue of financing from the Academy11 for the politi-
cal writings of J. G. Droysen been more or less resolved. The Academys
finances are generally in a very bad way, and so far it has not been
possible to achieve completely secure funding for the Droysen publi-
cation. But when I made as if to abandon the plan they went out of
their way to persuade me not to do so, stating that they would in fact
manage to find the necessary resources after all. For the rest of this
financial year (up to 1 April 1931), however, a maximum of RM1200
are available, out of which you could be paid an advance fee of RM200
per month from 1 October this year.
I felt that I had to set out this state of affairs to you with the utmost
clarity so that you can make a decision. But it is my wish and hope
that you are not put off by these things. Knowing the situation as a I
do, I feel that you can place your trust in the Academy.
I have just received a copy of the book by W. Fenske: J. G. Droysen und
das deutsche Nationalstaatsproblem (J. G. Droysen and the German
nation state problem) (244 pages). Would you be prepared to review
it for the Historische Zeitschrift when the review copy arrives?12
R. Oldenbourg is willing to include your work on Droysen in the
supplements to the H.Z.,13 but is requesting a contribution to the print-
ing costs of RM80 for the printed folios. Best wishes, Your [Friedrich
Meinecke]
11
The Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In his letter to Meinecke of 29 July
1930, Gilbert declared himself willing to take on the edition: I find the work so tempt-
ing that I wouldnt like to see the plan founder because of the ultimate uncertainty of
the funding (Meinecke papers, no. 12).
12
Gilbert agreed to review the book by Walter Fenske, J. G. Droysen und das
deutsche Nationalstaatsproblem, Erlangen 1930, not least because he had come to
an agreement with Fenske regarding where the dividing line between his disserta-
tion on Droysen and Fenskes dissertation ought to lie and he was interested to see
how Fenskes book had turned out (letter from Gilbert to Meinecke of 29 July 1930,
Meinecke papers, no. 12). The book was however reviewed in the HZ not by Gilbert
but Rudolf Blch (HZ 146, 1932, pp. 567569).
13
Gilbert told Meinecke that he would try to find the contribution to the printing
costs (Gilbert to Meinecke, 29 July 1930, Meinecke papers, no. 12). Gilberts disserta-
tion appeared as a supplement to the HZ in 1931.
276 documents
4. 28 April 1932: Felix Gilbert (Florence) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
It was rather difficult to find suitable accommodation in Florence, and

only now am I in a position to inform you of my address here. [. . .] I
am very keen to hear whether the Academy has now finally decided
on who is to publish Droysens Politische Schriften,14 and I would be
very grateful if you would instruct me as to where I should send the
manuscript once the decision has been made. I am gradually begin-
ning to get back into my work here, and I hope to be able to tell you
about it in more detail at some point in the near future. It was very
peculiar to observe the decisions made in Germany over the last few
weeks15 from Italy, which quite openly sided with Hitler and National
Socialism; in general, however, given the much calmer, pro-German,
but above all anti-French atmosphere that prevails in this country,
there is a tendency to begin to assess the situation in Germany with
greater optimism.
Please give my best regards to your wife.
With sincere best wishes, my dear Herr Geheimrat, I remain

Felix Gilbert
14
The volume was published by R. Oldenbourg, Munich/Berlin 1933.
15
Probably a reference to the election of imperial president (first ballot on 13 March
1932 and second on 10 April 1932) and the elections to the Prussian Landtag of 24
April 1932. In the second round of voting for the presidency, with 53.0% of the votes,
Imperial President Hindenburg prevailed over Hitler (36.8%) and German Communist
Party candidate Thlmann (10.2%). In the elections to the Prussian Landtag, the Nazi
Party received 36.3% and the Communists 12.8% of votes cast. With 219 of 423 seats,
together they had a negative majority in the Landtag. The parties in the governing
coalition of the SPD, Centre Party and German State Party led by prime minister Otto
Braun (SPD) together accounted for 38% of the votes and 163 seats.
5. 14 June 1947: Felix Gilbert to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
I have to thank you for two letters, and for sending me your book,16
which I have of course read with the greatest of interest. It was especially
pleasing as a sign that you are able to continue working. I can well
imagine that your seminar on Ranke and Burckhardt keeps you very
busy, and I would be happy to participate in it. In the present era,
Burckhardt is increasingly emerging as a quite unique and powerful
figure.
Burckhardt is of course a very continental European figure; a trans-
lation of his Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen (Eng. title: Reflections
on History) was published in the United States during the war, but it
met with very little understanding. A friend of mine (the son of the
physicist von Laue)17 is currently preparing a translation of Rankes
Politisches Gesprch (Political dialogue) and die Grossen Mchte18
(The major powers), and I am interested to see how Ranke will be
received in this country. On the whole, the influence of German his-
toriography, which was predominant in America around the turn of
the century, has greatly weakened; the field is largely dominated by
issues in economic and social history, which, by the way, has its good
side, as the connection between history and politics has remained very
lively as a result.
There is much interest in Europe at the moment, and a great deal
is being written on Germany. A whole number of studies have dealt
with the 20 July; Allan Dulles has written a really good book on the
German Underground.19 A friend of mine, Franklin Ford, has pub-
lished a very good study of this topic in the American Historical
16
17
Theodor von Laue wrote an intellectual biography of Ranke. Theodore H. von
Laue, Leopold Ranke: The Formative Years, Princeton, N.J. 1950. Reprinted 1970. The
book is dedicated to Helene Weyl and Felix Gilbert.
18
Leopold von Ranke, Groe Mchte, first published 1833, in: Ranke, Smtliche
Werke, vol. 24, 2nd edn., Leipzig 1977, pp. 140; Ranke, Politisches Gesprch, first
published 1836, in: Ranke, Smtliche Werke, vol. 49/50, Leipzig 1887, pp. 314339.
19
Allan Welsh Dulles, Germanys Underground, New York 1947.
278 documents
Review,20 and a whole series of memoirs have been translated into

English (Schlabrendorff, Gisevius; of all these memoirs, Hassells diary
made the greatest impression on me personally).21
I myself have tried my hand at recent German history over the
last year. At the last conference of American historians I gave a talk
on Mitteleuropathe final stage,22 then I wrote a short paper on
German historical production over the last few years for the American
Historical Review,23 and finallyfor an anthology on Germany after
defeata chapter on The intellectual situation in Germany (Die
geistige Situation in Deutschland).24 What struck me in examining
this last topic was Germans strong tendency to view their own crisis
as a world crisis. I believe thatdespite all the problems and post-war
crisesthings are far more stable in the non-German world than the
Germans appear to assume.
But I regarded these shorter studies merely as by-products or
post-products of the war, and I shall now return to the Renaissance
as quickly as possible; I hope at some point in the near future to be
able to send you my various essays on Machiavelli, all of which were
published during the war.25 But first I want to focus on Guicciardini
20
Franklin L. Ford, The Twentieth of July in the History of the German Resistance,
in: AHR 51 (1946), pp. 609626.
21
Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziere gegen Hitler, first published Zurich 1946;
English edition: Revolt Against Hitler, London 1948; Bernd Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren
Ende, Zurich 1946; English edition: To the Bitter End, London 1948; The von Hassell
Diaries, 19381944, London 1948; new critical edition of Hassells diaries, first pub-
lished in 1946, entitled: Die Hassell-Tagebcher. Ulrich von Hassell. Aufzeichnungen
vom Anderen Deutschland, ed. by Friedrich Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen, Siedler
Verlag 1988.
22
Felix Gilbert, MitteleuropaThe final stage, in: Journal of Central European
Affairs 7 (1947), pp. 5867.
23
Felix Gilbert, German Historiography during the Second World War: A
Bibliographical Survey, in: AHR 53 (1947), pp. 5058.
24
No relevant chapter by Gilbert is mentioned in the bibliography of his publica-
tions up to 1976 (in: Gilbert, History, pp. 457463) and no evidence could be found
of one. Gilbert discusses the intellectual and mental situation of Germany two years
after the end of the war in his grim account of the dire material circumstances, the
political situation in view of general apathy, lack of acceptance of democracy and poor
social cohesion in his essay: Germany Revisited, in: The World Today 3, October
1947, pp. 424431. He does not, however, address Germans tendency to view their
crisis as a global crisis here.
25
Apart from a number of shorter publications, Gilbert is referring to the follow-
ing essays: Felix Gilbert, The Humanist Concept of the Prince of Machiavelli, in:
JMH 11 (1939), pp. 449483; Machiavelli: The Renaissance of the Art of War, in:
again. Have you seen the lengthy historical manuscripta previously

unknown Florentine historywhich was found in the Guicciardini
archive and has just been published?26 It seems to me of crucial impor-
tance to the historical thought of the Renaissance.
I write this letter on my way to Europe. I wish to spend most of my
holidays (we have a good three months) in Italy, but it looks as though
I shall also make it to Germanyincluding Berlinfor a time, so I
hope I may visit you at Am Hirschsprung 13 in the not-too-distant
future.
Until then, with best wishes to your family, I remain

Felix Gilbert My permanent address is: Department of History, Bryn
Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
But you can reach me through my sister over the summer months:
c. o. M. E. Gilbert, 37 Eton Avenue, London NW3.
6. 25 November 1948: Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 12
Ive been meaning to write to you for a long time, but first I put it
off until the summer holidays, then I divided these into two halves,
the first for work and the second for lazing around, and I wanted to
tackle my correspondence in this second half. But the second part then
turned into a car trip to the West, and while it was highly interesting
and enjoyable, I was usually too tired in the evenings to write let-
ters. I was already familiar with California, but I saw New Mexico and
Arizona for the first time, and these desolate plateaus with their old
Edward M. Earle (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli
to Hitler, Princeton 1943, pp. 325.
26
See Francesco Guicciardini, Le Cose Fiorentine DallAnno 1375. Ora per la prima
volta pubblicate da Roberto Ridolfi, Florence 1945; reviewed by Gilbert in: AHR 53
(1948), pp. 318321.
280 documents
Felix Gilbert
Indian settlements were a great experience, particularly because the

landscape is so utterly unlike anything to be found in Europe. I got
back here shortly before my lectures began, and am having a fairly
strenuous semester, as I am teaching in Swarthmoreas well as Bryn
Mawrso these short Thanksgiving holidays in late November are the
first real opportunity to write.
I was particularly keen to thank you for the materials you sent
meyour paper on Ranke and Burckhardt and the work on the Berlin
Revolution of 1848;27 I found both very interesting, and am very grate-
27
See above, p. 17.
ful to you for sending me them. The work on 1848 arrived at a point
in time when it held a very special interest for me. I held a seminar
on 1848, and the main problem I was interested in was the connec-
tion between the various European revolutions. Though this is not, of
course, the subject of your study, we did pay a fair amount of attention
to the differences within the left and attempted to reconstruct exactly
how the revolutions went in the specific capitals, so everyone in the
seminar had to read your study at once. But I also had a special interest
in 1848 because I am on the programme committee for the next con-
ventionin Decemberof the American Historical Association, and
many of the sessions will be dealing with 1848. This seemed advanta-
geous to us because, on account of the influence of refugees from the
1848 revolution in the United States, it will provide an opportunity
to get European and American historians to mix a little; for the
most part they maintain a clear distance, which, in my opinion, is of
no benefit to American history.
In my own work I am rather torn between modern and Renaissance
history. In my seminars here I deal mainly with very modern history;
with Munich, 1938 in the first semester of last year, with German-
Russian relations between the world wars this year; this is very
exciting because of the many new publications, and I devote more
time to it than I really ought to. But I have nonetheless managed
to complete a lengthy essay on some Renaissance problemsrelations
between humanism and Florentine party politics as the background
to Machiavelli and Guicciardini28and I shall send it to you when
it is published, though the printing always takes some considerable
time here.
Over the summer, Europe was very much on everyones minds; at
the moment, people are more interested in China, and it is above all
domestic American politics that stand centre stage. The result of the
presidential election was a huge surprise.29 The only real comparison,
it seems to me, is with the British elections of 1945;30 people simply
failed to grasp just how much the social and economic consequences
28
Felix Gilbert, Bernardo Rucellai and the Orti Oricellari: A Study on the Origin
of Modern Political Thought, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 12
(1949), pp. 101131.
29
See above, p. 269.
30
In the British general election of 1945 it was the Labour Party that won a clear
majority of the seats rather than the Conservative Party under popular wartime prime
minister Churchill.
282 documents
of the war had changed the whole basis of politics, and of course the
extent to which the Roosevelt administration represented a revolu-
tion, which has in fact largely been accepted by the people. It is also
an indication of how the countrys centre of gravity has shifted away
from the East; I myself was quite astonished during the summer to see
how much the Mid-West and West have developedeven in the few
years since I was last there. From an intellectual point of view, there
seems to be no doubt that this is where the future of the major uni-
versities lies; Chicago and California are already leaders in the natu-
ral sciences. That the advance of these universities is linked chiefly
with the rise of the natural sciences is a cause for some concern from
the perspective of the humanities, and there will probably be quite
a struggle to secure their place within a visibly changing education
system.
Please give your wife my very best wishesI thank her for the book
she sent me, which provided a good insight into German thought. I
hope to see all of you next summer, when I plan to come to Europe.
Yours always
Felix Gilbert
7. 25 May 1951: Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 12
I havent been in touch for a long time, but have had some news of you
from Holborn, Epstein and Rosenberg, as well as from Professor Fritz
Ernst31 from Heidelberg, who visited me in Bryn Mawr in December.
I have no particularly good excuse for my silenceand can refer
only to the hectic nature of academic life in the United States. I have a
few days of peace right nowI am in fact writing this letter on board
the Mauretania on the way to England. I shall be in London for five or
six weeks to give a few seminars and lectures at the Warburg Institute,
and then I want to spend the rest of the summer on the continent,
31
Alongside Meineckes students Holborn and Rosenberg, dealt with in the present
work, Gilbert is referring to Fritz T. Epstein and Heidelberg-based historian Fritz
Ernst (19051963), whose work focussed on the late Middle Ages.
mainly in Italy, but I am also planning a short visit to Germany

though to Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Munich rather than Berlin.
I am very curious to find out how the world looks from a European
perspective. In the United States the past year was rather depressing
politically. Unfortunately, the government (in sharp contrast to the
Roosevelt era) is incapable of truly getting across its foreign policy
to the people, and because of this emotional motives (and one must
bear in mind that on an emotional level many Americans are far more
interested in the Far East than in Europe) can easily take the upper
hand. But as unpleasant as the MacArthur affair32 is in many ways, it
did mean that the opposing viewpoints of the key people were finally
presented to the public, and I believe that overall it has cleared the
air. Many elements of the often rather exaggerated American state-
ments can be traced back to the fact thatafter 150 years of relative
isolationthey simply find it hard to adjust to the requirements of
power politics, and to get the broad public used to rearmament.
But while it probably often seems otherwise from outside, the over-
all political approach is to pursue a determined foreign policy while
avoiding adventurism.
The main reason for my journey is of course of a scholarly nature; I
have been working on various things over the last few years. Perhaps
you have heard of the bookHitler Directs His War33that I brought
out; it is of course intended for an American readership to some degree,
and it would be important to publish a complete volume of what are
after all incredibly revealing documents in Germany. Together with my
Princeton friend Gordon A. Craig, I am in the process of publishing
a kind of symposium on diplomacy between the world wars;34 we are
attempting to tackle the subject in a rather novel way: we wish to place
emphasis on the diplomatic bureaucracy (permanent undersecretaries,
etc.) and attempt to characterize the relationship of bureaucratic tradi-
tion to the influence of the parties, interest groups, etc.. Holborn will
32
Douglas MacArthur (18801964), American general. Led operations against
Japan from 1942. Made supreme commander of the UN forces in the Korean War in
1950. He was dismissed by American president Truman in 1951, as he threatened to
extend the war to China.
33
Felix Gilbert (ed.), Hitler Directs His War (the secret records of his daily mili-
tary conferences on the basis of the manuscripts in the University of Pennsylvania
Library), New York 1950.
34
Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert (eds.), The Diplomats 19191939, Princeton
1953.
284 documents
write one of the German chapters.35 I also had to review the two new
volumes of Rankes letters, and that gave rise to an essay on Ranke,36
which I shall send you as soon as it comes out. But fundamentally
I have always continued my work on the Renaissance, and that is
slowly developing into a book. I had a really nice Machiavelli seminar
this winter, and we came across some very novel theories about the
composition and time of writing of the Discorsi;37 I shall now present
this in London and test how others react to it.
I hope that your family is well.
With best wishes, I remain, as always,
Yours faithfully,
Felix Gilbert
8. 25 October 1958: Felix Gilbert (Bryn Mawr) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 44, written in English
Dear Hans,
I want to thank you very much for sending me your book.38 I dont quite
know why I didnt write you earlier because I read it immediately after
I had received it at the beginning of September: During the summer I
have been working on a collaborative volume (with Ford and Krieger)
on European History 1500 to 1800,39 and I was just writing a chapter
35
Hajo Holborn, Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Early Weimar Republic, ibid.,
pp. 123171.
36
No essay on Ranke is mentioned in the bibliography of Gilberts writings, nor
does it appear in Gilberts book: History. Choice and Commitment, Cambridge/Mass.
and London 1977, which reprints Gilberts historiographical essays.
37
Nicolo Machiavelli, Discorsi supra la prima decadi T. Livio (15131517)
appears in all editions of Machiavellis works. On Gilberts views, see: The Composi-
tion and Structure of Machiavellis Discorsi, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 14
(1953), pp. 136156.
38
Hans Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy. The Prussian Experience
16601815, Cambridge, Mass. 1958.
39
There is no evidence of any book with this or any similar title and the mentioned
authors either in Gilberts bibliography or the catalogue of the Library of Congress in
Washington. Leonard Krieger (19181990), American historian. Obtained his doctor-
ate in 1949. Taught at Yale University, the University of Columbia in New York and
the University of Chicago. Published chiefly on problems of modern European and
especially German intellectual history and on the philosophy of history.
on Absolutism when the parcel containing Bureaucracy, Aristocracy

und Autocracy arrived. It was a most appropriate moment, not only
because I could use your book, but because I had just been read-
ing in older and recent literature about Absolutism and had become
very much interested in the problems with which you deal: the new
bureaucratic elite, bureaucratic hierarchy, Merits and Spoil System etc.
I had studied again the various articles by Hintze, and thus I enjoyed
immensely the precization and concretization which you give in your
book to problems, which Hintze had only sketched out. And I believe
that, as a result of my reading, I was able to appreciate particularly
the last chapters on the emergence of bureaucratic Absolutism. The
entire book, of course, is most interesting, but this detailed analysis of
the evolution of bureaucracy into the real ruler of Prussia seemed to
me most original and important for the understanding of Prussianism.
(Shall I also make a critical remark, or, at least, raise a question? Your
criticisms of the Hohenzollern are certainly justified, but were they
worse than other rulers of the time? Peter the Great40 seems to me
always a most detestable figure, but even Louis XIV.41 must have been
rather a pain in the neck. Political effectiveness seems almost depen-
dent on personal unpleasantness, almost abnormality, in the absolutistic
age, or am I still under the influence of the Hohenzollern myth?)
In order to finish this collaborative volume as quickly as possible
since a lot of other and more interesting work has to be done , I spent
the entire summer in Bryn Mawr and hardly ever get to New York.
But I hope things will clear up in a few weeks and I shall be able to
get again more around. Many thanks again for sending me the book;
I truly appreciate it.
Yours,
Felix Gilbert
40
Peter I (the Great) (16721725), Czar of Russia from 1689.
41
Louis XIV (16381715), King of France from 1643, took over the government
after the death of Mazarin in 1661.
286 documents
VI. Hans Baron
1. 5 October 1924: Hans Baron (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 2
After a long wait, I am delighted to be able to tell you that my grant

from the ministry has been approved for another year. My uncertainty
hitherto was due merely to the fact that I received no official notifica-
tion this time, but was informed only when I asked at the university
finance office that the allotted sum had long since been sent directly to
them. Now that my wishes have been so thoroughly fulfilled, I would
once again like to express my tremendous gratitude to you, my dear
Herr Geheimrat, for your kind efforts in this matter.
At the moment I am still busy writing down the short essay
on the Sources of German humanism (Quellen des deutschen
Humanismus),1 which Im afraid I rashly told you I had completed
14 days ago. In fact it then proved necessary to complete a number of
specialized, time consuming preliminary studies. And I have not yet
entirely succeeded in producing a neatly condensed version of the
whole thing taking up the limited space necessary for possible print-
ing as a Miszelle in the Historische Zeitschrift. But I certainly hope to
finish the work by the end of next week at the very latest, and will
have it sent to you straight away in legible, typewritten form with a
request for your opinion.
Regarding the Troeltsch editions, I can inform you that the print-
ing of the volume in intellectual history is now well under way.2 In
addition, the little volume in cultural philosophy, which is to be sent
to Siebeck for publication as soon as the big volume is completed,
can now finally be published.3 The individual publishers have already
1
Hans Baron, Zur Frage des Ursprungs des deutschen Humanismus und seiner
religisen Reformbestrebungen. Ein kritischer Bericht ber die neuere Literatur, in:
HZ 132 (1925), pp. 413446.
2
Ernst Troeltsch, Aufstze zur Geistesgeschichte und Religionssoziologie von Ernst
Troeltsch, vol. 4 of the Gesammelte Schriften of Ernst Troeltsch, ed. by Dr. Hans Baron,
Tbingen 1925. Preliminary report by the editor, pp. VXX.
3
Ernst Troeltsch, Deutscher Geist und Westeuropa. Gesammelte Kulturphilosophische
Aufstze und Reden, ed. by Hans Baron, Tbingen 1925. Preliminary remarks by the
editor, pp. IIIX.
vi. hans baron 287
agreed to reprint all his significant writings from the last few years.
So we shall be able to produce a fairly complete collection in this case
as well.
I hope that you have continued to recuperate during the last weeks
of holiday amid the glorious autumn weather. With best wishes to
your dear wife, I remain
In grateful respect,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Baron
2. 16 October 1924: Hans Baron (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 172
After a long wait, the first copies of my work on Calvin arrived today,4
suddenly and unexpectedly, just a few hours after my letter with the
manuscript on humanism had been sent off to you.5 Thus, after mani-
fold metamorphoses, I am finally in a position to present to you this
new and yet old study, whose origins now lie almost three years in the
past, in your seminar.
It may not have been to this little books advantage that it was
put together and written not in one coherent push but as a result of
numerous attemptsthat it was in fact by composing it that I learned
to write in the first place. But Ive grown more fond of it as a result. If
I leaf through it and compare its current form with that first draft for
your seminar, I am keenly aware of how much I owe in rebus histori-
cis to the three years after being permitted to call on you for the first
time in your house in Dahlem. At the time I was still highly immature
and lacked the means to reconcile the impression which Lamprechts6
4
Hans Baron, Calvins Staatsanschauung und das konfessionelle Zeitalter.
Supplement 1 of the HZ, Berlin/Munich 1924. The book is dedicated to Meinecke,
see above, p. 56.
5
See above, p. 286.
6
Karl Lamprecht (18561915), one of the most controversial German historians.
In opposition to traditional German history he championed a cultural history that
sought to grasp the totality of social, economic, political and intellectual phenomena.
288 documents
incredibly wide-ranging approach had just made on me during my

sojourn in Leipzig under Professor Goetz with Rankes more refined
philosophical outlook, which you, my dear teacher, then helped me
to appreciate. And it was only your tutelage which, from that point
forward, increasingly endowed my interest in intellectual history with
a specific direction and methodology and opened my eyes to the
presence and necessity of the great powers7 in this field of history.
Prepared by your instruction, I also came to appreciate Dilthey8 and
Troeltsch, and I am gratefully aware that it was within the framework
of the stimulation provided by these two thinkers and yourself that I
dared to make my first solo flights. When asked to which school I
belong, it is in this stimulation above all else that I profess my faith.
It is not, perhaps, a terribly appropriate way of expressing my thanks
if I take the liberty of dedicating such an imperfect little book to you,
which is what this erstwhile dissertation has remained despite all the
subsequent efforts put into it. But considering this first work, I am
keenly aware that it came about not only through the determinative
influence of Troeltsch, whose name of course crops up so often in its
pages, but is also a product of your school in its form and methods.
It is thus a dear thought, as a symbol of this, to be able to put your
name on these pages as well. I shall be happy if, having had a look at
my study in its present form, you do not regret kindly permitting me
to dedicate it to you.
With this hope, I remain
As ever faithfully and gratefully yours,

Hans Baron
Rejected by Meinecke and others, who accused him of advocating historical material-
ism. Worked at the University of Leipzig from 1891 to 1915, where he was succeeded
by Walter Goetz.
7
Allusion to Rankes famous essay of 1832 on Die groen Mchte, published
repeatedly ever since. Brings out the development of the European state system as the
most important process in early modern European history.
8
Wilhelm Dilthey (18331911), philosopher who set out reasons for the independ-
ence of the humanities amidst disputes with the natural sciences and exercised a sig-
nificant influence on the development of Meineckes history of political ideas.
vi. hans baron 289
3. 18 January 1925: Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
It was an especially great and unexpected pleasure for me to receive the

promised copy of your article in Geschichtswissenschaft der Gegenwart9
yesterday in the post. Having used the free time provided by a Sunday
to subject your book to thorough examination today, may I immedi-
ately take this chance to express my deep gratitude to you, not least for
the especially kind dedication. Indeed, all my old memories of Leipzig
came back to me as I read. Best of all, though, I was permitted a ret-
rospective glimpse of the plans and objectives that undergirded the
institutions and stimuli so valued and dear to me during my years of
education at your institute. Previously, I knew only some of this from
your programmatic report in the Archiv10 on the occasion of your
appointment to the chair in Leipzig and from what you told me in per-
son. When I went to Leipzig in the spring of 1920, I was in precisely
the same state as you describe with reference to your own student days
in your autobiography. I had not managed to gain a firm and fruitful
point of departure in Berlin for my vague desire for historical instruc-
tion; I had as yet no awareness of the valuable things that Meinecke
and Troeltsch might have offered me. But I immediately found what I
was looking for in the regular courses held at your institute and within
the group of students that so naturally banded together there. And
having made this initial, most difficult beginning, everything else has
fit together of its own accord right up to the presentnot least thanks
to your constant kind interest. I cannot deny, of course, that we stu-
dents could get quite annoyed with you at times, that the politician
often deprived us of the teacher,11 though in another sense we had
9
Walter Goetz, Aus dem Leben eines deutschen Historikers [autobiography], in:
Geschichtswissenschaft der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen, ed. by Siegfried Steinberg,
vol. 1, Leipzig 1925, pp. 129170. Printed in a substantially expanded version includ-
ing the period up to 1957 in: Walter Goetz, Historiker in meiner Zeit. Gesammelte
Aufstze, Cologne/Graz 1957, pp. 187.
10
Walter Goetz, Das Institut fr Kultur- und Universalgeschichte an der Universitt
Leipzig, in: Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 12 (1916), pp. 273284.
11
Walter Goetz was a deputy in the National Assembly or German Reichstag for
the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei) from 1919 to 1928.
290 documents
reason to be grateful to the former. Which makes me look forward to

the future all the more enthusiastically, my dear Herr Geheimrat, one
in which, with the help of your personal encouragement and advice,
I hope to grow increasingly into the circle of those interests whose
foundations I received from you in your lectures and classes during
my student days in Leipzig.
I would ask that you regard these lines, which I may perhaps have
spun out at excessive length, merely as a sign of my sincere gratitude
to you.
Respectfully yours,
Hans Baron
4. 2 July 1925: Hans Baron (Rome) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
If I am only now complying with your kind request to hear more about
how my trip is progressing, this is because I wanted to wait until the
beginning of the month in order to enclose, as you indicated I might,
the new application to the ministry. Above all, though, please allow me
to express belatedly my heartfelt thanks for your extremely kind phone
call to my parents, which was the first time they had heard news of me
from anyone in person. My parents wrote to me at the time, express-
ing how delighted they were to receive your kind attention, and asked
me to thank you once again on their behalf in my next letter.
The journey to Rome proceeded very much in line with your
advice. A moonlight walk through the old walls and courtyards in
San Gimignano gave me the chance to reflect on the Middle Ages in
both north and south, in its Gothic and Italian variants; in Siena I
was struck by the depth of feeling in the work of old Duccio,12 which
only made me more aware of the subsequent stagnation and singu-
larity of Quattrocento Florence; in Orvieto I had my first glimpse of
the Umbrian landscape. But Rome made such an impression on me
that it pushed everything else to one side. Admittedly, the old gentle-
12
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 12551319), Italian painter, founded a school of
Gothic painting in Siena.
vi. hans baron 291
men I am in contact with here are very disappointed with modern

Rome, which does in fact threaten to swamp the old buildings and
monuments. Anyone hoping for the romanticism of ruins and the
splendour of Campagna is likely to be frustrated. But if one looks upon
the old Roman buildings in light of what they once were, before they
became ruins, as testimony to a tremendous spirit of construction of a
kind quite unfamiliar to us Northerners, then there is much to admire
even in this modern metropolis of Rome, where new buildings have
gone up at breakneck speed over the last few decades. The oldest and
newest are of equal interest, and the days go by in a whirl of powerful
impressions of nature and history.
Now, of course, my main focus is on library research. Though
there are certain things missing, the Institutes collection13 has in
fact provided me with incomparable opportunities for the purposes
of my Renaissance studies. [ . . . ] Since yesterday I have occupied Dr.
Holtzmanns14 room, which I have at last been authorized to do after
several direct requests to Geheimrat Kehr15 in Spain. [ . . . ]
I have divided up the work in such a way that my initial focus is
on exploiting the Institute library and the Vatican collection in order
to collect and work through recent Italian literature on humanism. I
am increasingly aware of how necessary it is for me to gain a compre-
hensive sense of the overall extent and structure of humanist litera-
ture myself so that I have a firm foundation for any more extensive
attempts to explore the contours of intellectual history. But of course
the handbook16 should not be encumbered with all of this later on.
13
Reference to the collection of the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome.
14
Walter Holtzmann (18911963), historian. Assistant at the Prussian Historical
Institute in Rome in 1925. Having habilitated in Berlin in 1926, he became profes-
sor ordinarius in medieval history at the University of Halle in 1931, and in Bonn in
1936. He was director of what is now the German Historical Institute in Rome from
1953 to 1961.
15
Paul Fridolin Kehr (18601944), one of the leading organizers of German extra-
mural historical research and of collections of medieval documents in the first half of
the 20th century. Headed the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome, closed in 1915
after Italy entered the war, from 1903. Part-time director after it reopened in 1924.
General Director of the Prussian State Archives in Berlin from 1915 to 1929, Director
of the 1917 newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of German History (Kaiser-
Wilhelm-Institut fr Deutsche Geschichte).
16
Baron had been charged with writing a volume on The worldview of the
Renaissance and Reformation (Weltanschauung der Renaissance und Reformation),
for the Handbook of medieval and modern history (Handbuch der Mittelalterlichen
und Neueren Geschichte) edited by Friedrich Meinecke and the Freiburg-based
292 documents
I am now structuring my work in such a way that this inventory of

the humanist literature and all of its branches can at some point be
combined with the bibliography, which I mentioned to you earlier on,
to make a separate book. It would be an account of the sources in the
manner of Wattenbach and Lorenz,17 but for the humanist literature
as a whole; in other words a study of sources in intellectual history.
This would give the handbook a good deal less to cope with and free
up space for genuine issues in the history of ideas. In the meantime,
among the treasures of the Vatican, I have remained faithful to an
old love and have set seriously to work on Leonardo Bruni;18 he is
equally important to me for the beginnings of Platonism and older
Florentine views of the state. Yet in his case the written records are in
a particularly bad way. With respect to those of his works of interest to
the history of ideas, one must more or less manufacture them oneself;
only his historiographical texts have been published in new editions,
and among the humanists, Leonardo is almost the only one never to
have been published in a complete edition in the Quattrocento and
Cinquecento. Would you see any value in a new edition of the writings
of most importance to the history of ideasincluding the substantial
introductions to the translations of Plato and Aristotle, etc.? I would
probably have gathered the material by the end of my journey and
I have already begun to compare texts. I will of course have to have
copies or photographs made of certain things.
Unfortunately, the Vatican library will already be closed on 15 July,
and Feruccio is also going on holiday on 1 August. Then I shall begin
a long tour through central and southern Italy, as far as Sicily. From
September onwards I shall remain in Florence and will not leave until
I have finished the work for my habilitation thesis. Only then, should
historian Georg von Below (18581927) (see CV of Dr. phil. Hans Baron from 1928
in the archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty habilitation records,
1243, folio 259264). The book was never published.
17
Wilhelm Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte
des 13. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., 5th edn., Berlin 1886; Ottokar Lorenz, Deutschlands
Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter seit der Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts, 3rd edn., 2 vols.,
Berlin 1886/87. Both works appeared in new editions or were reprinted on numerous
occasions.
18
Leonardo Bruni (c. 13701444), often with the addition Aretino (Arezzo being
his home town). Leading humanist, chancellor of the city of Florence, 14271444.
Brunis Historia florentini populi is considered the most important work of humanist
historiography.
vi. hans baron 293
there be enough time, will I return to Rome again in spring to make

more use of the Vatican library and the Institute library. I hope that
all these plans meet with your approval.
Finally, in accordance with your kind permission as granted to me
some time ago, I have taken the liberty of sending to you directly
my application to the ministry for an extension of my scholarship,
on the granting of which I am of course dependent if I am to com-
plete my study trip. I am well aware that I am putting you to some
trouble with my request to pass on the application; but in light of Herr
Ministerialrat Richters19 statements to Herr Geheimrat Meinecke,
which I mentioned to you previously, it seems to me that there is too
much doubt as to whether they will approve the extension, particu-
larly this time around after the second year, for me to be sure that it
is enough for me merely to write from Rome. I hope that you agree
with the details of my application. If not, I would immediately make
the necessary changes. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to
you in advance for all your efforts.
In the hopes of receiving very soon a favourable reply from you
with regard to this matter of such importance to me, and with my
best wishes from Romealong with my regards to your dear wifeI
remain
As ever in grateful respect,
Your
Hans Baron
19
Werner Richter (18871960), Germanist and official. Obtained his doctorate in
1910 and habilitated in 1913; he became professor extraordinarius in German lit-
erature and philology in Greifswald in 1919 and professor ordinarius in 1920. High-
level official (Ministerialrat and later Ministerialdirigent) in the Prussian ministry of
science, art and education as well as honorary professor at the University of Berlin
from 1920 to 1932. Became professor ordinarius in Berlin in August 1932. Forced
into early retirement in 1933 on account of a Jewish grandmother. Emigrated to the
United States in 1939. After returning to Germany in 1949, he became a professor at
the University of Bonn and its vice-chancellor from 1951 to 1953.
294 documents
5. 27 June 1927: Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
Please forgive my impatience if I send these lines to you by express

delivery. But I want to make absolutely sure that they reach you before
you leave.
I had the opportunity to talk to Herr Geheimrat Meinecke today,
and mentioned my hopes of going to Gttingen.20 To my dismay,
however, Prof. Meinecke informed me that he had already written
to Brandi21 with regard to the same matter on behalf of Dr. Dietrich
Gerhard. As there is very unlikely to be room for two salaried lecturers
(Privatdozenten) in Gttingen (even after Mommsens departure), I
now find myself in a particularly unfortunate situation. Heidelberg and
Breslau have to be ruled out, as Meinecke has already put the names
of Dr. Holborn and Dr. Masur (from Berlin) forward in these cases.
There are no current vacancies in Frankfurt or Marburg, as he dis-
covered when making these applications. I have thus fallen far behind
my contemporaries as a result of my long study trip,22 and there is
absolutely no time to lose if I wish to avoid finding every door closed
to me. Herr Prof. Meinecke thought there might still be a chance at
Gieen, where there is no lecturer (Privatdozent) at present. However,
it remains highly uncertain whether Roloff of all people will be inter-
ested in my research, and whether the Hessian ministry will approve
a new lectureship for a Privatdozent any time soon. Nevertheless, in
order to leave no stone unturned, I must make enquiries at Gieen as
promptly as possible, as soon as I know what Gttingen have decided.
As I may assume that you will be coming to Berlin at some point dur-
ing the week because of the Reichstag sittings, I shall waste no time in
asking you if you would be good enough to give me the opportunity
(I could perhaps meet you at Anhalter station) to discuss the whole
thing with you face-to-face. Would it perhaps be possible and appro-
20
Reference to his hopes of habilitating at the University of Gttingen.
21
Karl Brandi (18681946), one of the leading German historians of the 1920s and
1930s. Taught in Gttingen as a lecturer from 1895, professor extraordinarius from
1897 and professor ordinarius from 1910 until his retirement.
22
Study trip to Italy, 19251927, financed by the Emergency Committee on
Academic Research in Germany (Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft).
vi. hans baron 295
priate, under the circumstances, to contact Herr Prof. Brandi once

again requesting that he reply as speedily as possible?
I have held onto the proofs of the Bruni book23 since our last con-
versation as you requested. When should I send the corrected sections
back to Teubner?24 I would like to talk this matter over with you as
well.
Thank you very much in advance,
Faithfully yours,
Hans Baron
6. 5 June 1928: Hans Baron to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
Soon after I had sent off my last letter to you, I submitted my habil-
itation thesis to Prof. Hartung for his preliminary inspection. Prof.
Hartungs assessment was essentially the same as I had heard from
Prof. Brackmann. Prof. Hartung also stated that he was willing to
accept it, but explained frankly that, while he had no problem with
how I had dealt with my topic, in his opinion it lies on the outermost
periphery of the discipline of history and could almost be considered
just as much a work in the history of literature or history of philoso-
phy. Though I hadnt said a word to him about my own concerns at
that point, he again strongly advised me to have another careful think
about whether I wished to rely solely on the very slim prospects that
such an off-beat field would offer with regard to an academic career.
Prof. Meinecke, whom I spoke to again afterwards, thought I should
take Hartungs reservations seriously, and when I then mentioned the
possibility of ensuring a firm foundation for the future, to be on the
23
Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Humanistisch-philosophische Schriften mit einer Chrono-
logie seiner Werke und Briefe, ed. and annotated by Dr. Hans Baron. Verffentlichungen
der Forschungsinstitute an der Universitt Leipzig. Institut fr Kultur- und Universal-
geschichte. Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, ed. by
Walter Goetz, vol. 1, Leipzig/Berlin 1928.
24
The volume was published by B. G. Teubner.
296 documents
safe side, through practical training as a teacher, he strongly advised

me, as did the other gentlemen, to sign up for it without delay.
Under the circumstances, I thought it best not to let the deadline for
registering for the pedagogical seminar this summer pass by, particu-
larly given that, after our last conversation, I could assume that you,
my dear Herr Professor, would not advise me any differently in light
of these repeated warnings from the gentlemen assessing my work.
During this summer I shall therefore have to divide my time between
academic and practical work. But in informing you of this and sincerely
requesting your consentin circumstances in which the impetus has
come not from my own anxieties but others warningsI would like
to repeat that I am taking this step while wishing and secretly hoping
that there might after all be a research post at a historical commis-
sion in the foreseeable future that allows me, before long, to devote
all my time to scholarly work once again. Above all, in line with your
intimations, I hope that there might be an opening for an assistant at
the Munich Commission working on one of the volumes of Reichstag
records in the autumn. Over the last few months, in preparation for
the planned trial lecture,25 I have familiarized myself fairly well with
the Imperial and alliance policies of the Protestant Upper German free
cities in the Reformation era.26 Any contribution to the volumes of
Reichstag records from the 16th century could thus be combined with
my own future research plans in the best possible way. But I would
also be happy to work on the older series, from the 14th and 15th
century, as that would take me directly into the late Middle Ages.
This morning I had the opportunity to discuss the whole issue with
Herr Geheimrat Kehr. He was also of the opinion that it might be
possible for me to work on the Reichstag files and that it is probably
the task best suited to me in my current situation. He also promised,
should it be necessary, to speak in favour of giving me a contract at
the meeting of the Munich Commission in autumn and will prob-
25
The trial lecture was required as part of the habilitation process. From 1928
until his dismissal on account of his Jewish descent in 1933, Baron was a researcher
at the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Historische
Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Munich.
26
Only after emigrating did Baron publish an essay in this field: Religion and
Politics in the German Imperial Cities during the Reformation, in: EHR 52 (1937),
pp. 405427, 614633.
vi. hans baron 297
ably contact you then. However, Prof. Kehr thought it quite possible
that they might be rather reluctant to appoint a non-Bavarian to such
an assistantship. He thus suggested, should the occasion arise, that I
commit myself only to a less time-consuming post with a lower wage
than the other assistants have received; and he thought such a solu-
tion worth considering for other reasons as well. But I then told him
openly about my current situation, the other gentlemens assessment
of my research field and my resulting desire to gain a firm, enduring
foundation for the relatively long wait I believe I can expect. I thus
cling to the hope that, thanks especially to your kind intercession, it
might perhaps be possible for me to put all my energy into academic
work again this autumn.
In the meantimeas best I can, as my preparation for the habilita-
tion is taking up most of my free timeI am working on the second
volume of the edited collections, concerned primarily with the Roman
humanist Francesco da Fiano.27 On the basis of photographs of a the-
matically related, hitherto almost unknown defence of ancient litera-
ture by Coluccio Salutati28 that I recently received from the Vatican
library, I shall be able to incorporate this treatise and provide an over-
view of ideas on ancient literature and mythology in trecentist human-
ism in my introduction. As all the preliminary work is already at an
advanced stage, I hope to be able to finish in just a few months time,
probably in August or September.
Once again, in light of the circumstances outlined above, I would be
grateful if you would indicate your consent for my hasty decisions.
As ever faithfully and gratefully yours,

Hans Baron
27
Francesco da Fiano, late 14th/15th century, Italian humanist. Studied in
Bologna. Carried out various assignments for the city of Rome and the papal Curia.
Corresponded with Petrarch and Salutati.
28
Coluccio Salutati (13311406), Italian humanist, chancellor of the city of Florence
from 1375 to 1406.
298 documents
7. 23 March 1933: Hans Baron (Berlin) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
I, and all those with whom I live, feel so sad and sick at heart that
you will understand why it has taken me so long to get in touch and
surely forgive me for it. This will be a sad time for you as well, but
the worst and most terrible thing, that your own compatriots, who
you have considered yourself one of your whole life, can come and
take from you your People and Fatherland and everything that you
thought sacred, thats an experience reserved for us Jews. Our gen-
eration has already been through a lotwar, collapse, the diktat of
Versailles, inflationbut all of that now seems like a minor, fleeting
episode in comparison with this slow process of being torn apart and
dying while still alive. We shall eventually forget the outer horrors of
these last few weeks, which we experienced even in our own home
merely because a cousin of my mother, whose family lives in the same
house as us, was in the Reichsbanner,29 and which we saw first-hand
within our circle of Jewish friends (worse things have happened in
some cases than the uninvolved are aware of ). What is much worse
is the futility of the future existence that awaits us German Jews, at
least those of us who are not Zionists but real Germans and, even with
respect to our intellectual work, cannot live elsewhere. Like so many
others, I shall probably be in financial dire straits in a few weeks or
months.30 Yet one wonders whether there is any point worrying about
such things. For the thought of having to live on in a Germany domi-
nated by racial anti-Semitism under the Swastika Flag is so depressing
that I am almost unable to hope, in my relatively unimportant post
in Munich, that I shall be overlooked and can continue to flourish in
obscurity, though after the economic collapse of these last few crisis
years it has, for some time, been more than just my own immediate
family that depends on my income.
It is rather futile at this stage to think too much about the future and
ones personal fate. For the time being, the one thing I am sure of is
29
The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold. A leftist combat unit tasked with defending
the Weimar Republic, founded in 1924, formally non-partisan but dominated by SPD
supporters.
30
In line with the law on the restoration of the civil service of 7 April 1933, Baron
was dismissed from his post in a letter from the executive secretary of the Historical
Commission, Karl Alexander von Mller, on 13 May 1933 with effect from 30 June
1933 (Goetz papers, vol. 32).
vi. hans baron 299
that I must at least finish the book on humanism, which I have been
writing for so long and which summarizes the results of years of study,
before I think about anything else. I shall probably be able to stick it
out for the six to twelve months which this might at most require, even
if my income dries up. That this work is going so slowly has partly to
do with the troubled times; despite the best of intentions and however
hard I might try, there are always days when I am simply unable to get
anything sensible down on paper. But the crucial thingthis at least is
my hopeis that the whole thing is developing into a major book, one
not just voluminous but also rich in content; one which, in terms of its
methods and key ideas, often brings a new perspective to bear on the
notion of what Renaissance humanism and humanism in general is,
and which also enlivens ones inner relationship to what humanism is.
While there will undoubtedly be a clear focus on both Petrarca31 and
the Florentine humanism of the 15th century, I believe I may dare to
give it the general title The humanism of the Renaissance in Italy,32
because it is an entirely consistent intellectual development that I am
pursuing through these key stages, from the High Middle Ages up
to the Florentine Platonists. The first draft of the second half, on the
Quattrocento, is already largely finished. It is the section on Petrarca
that I have been occupied with over the last few months. I am having
to produce a highly detailed and entirely new reading of the sources,
despite the existing accounts of Petrarca, as my new interpretation of
Quattrocento humanism brings out entirely new aspects of his work.
That my ideas are fruitful is apparent in the fact that new characteris-
tics of the Petrarca material are revealed on almost every page, char-
acteristics that did not catch the attention of earlier writers. This I say
in defence of the fact that I am wasting so much time and space in
my work on Petrarca, who has been worked on so much already! I am
keen to keep you informed about how the work is progressingwhen
I have at last finished it, this book will always be yours as well, for in
the absence of your stimulation I would never have started these stud-
ies and without your help I would never have carried them through.
There is little to report about my work on the Reichstag records. I
am exploiting [word corrected and illegible] and after the results of the
last autumn research trip (which were nothing spectacular in terms of
content), my efforts have so far been entirely unhindered by Prof. A.33
31
Francisco Petrarca or Petrarch (13041374), famous Italian writer.
32
The book that Baron was working on was published only in 1955 under the title
The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in
the Age of Classicism and Tyranny in two volumes by Princeton University Press.
33
Reference to Professor Willy Andreas.
300 documents
I have heard from him just once: the reply to my first letter of intro-
duction, which you know about. It was cold and formal, but clearly
sought to do what it could to facilitate an outwardly smooth relation-
ship. I received no reply to my account of my journey; A. merely sent
on my travel expenses claim to the cash office of the Academy. I shall
follow this up off my own bat with another report on my work in the
near future. Given how things stand overall, I am of course even more
afraid of A.s dubious non-anti-Semitism than I was before. Recently,
when I bumped into Marcks at the university, it seemed to me that he
returned my greetings only reluctantly and in the most perfunctory
fashion. I wondered whether this might have something to do with
A.s conspicuously long silence.
If you were able, at least when things have quietened down a little,
to find the time for the enclosed review article,34 I would be most grate-
ful. It is my first foray into the early Middle Ages and a first attempt
to establish a settled form for the category medieval intellectual his-
tory in the Jahresberichte, after many years during which the review
of literature, which had been written in the style of A. v. Martin,35
often highly abstract and unhistorical [word illegible] was missing. My
belated thanks for your obituary on Karl Bcher!36
My wife and son are well. The boy is coming along splendidly so
far. Hes bringing a lot of joy to my father, who has aged greatly in
recent times as a result of my mothers illness (severe premature calci-
fication), which has hit her very hard mentally. Please do let me know
how you and yours are doing at some point. We often talk about you
and imagine that this must be a hard and anxious time for you and
your wife as well. All best wishes from my wife and I,
Yours,
Hans Baron.
34
Hans Baron, Staatsanschauung und allgemeine Geschichte des geistigen Lebens.
Frhes und Hohes Mittelalter (bis 1300), in: Jahresberichte fr deutsche Geschichte,
6 (1932), pp. 544567.
35
Alfred von Martin (18821979), sociologist and historian.
36
Walter Goetz, Karl Bcher, in: Berichte der Schsischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Phil.-hist. Klasse 83, 5 (1932). Reprinted in: Goetz,
Historiker in meiner Zeit, pp. 277285.
vi. hans baron 301
Hans Baron
8. 9 November 1937: Hans Baron (London) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
Your seventieth birthday is the right time to let you know that my
gratitude for so many good things, which I received from you over
the course of many years, has not diminisheddespite the fact that
I have of necessity remained silent for so long. I have heard nothing
of you, even indirectly, for some time, but very much hope that you,
your wife and children are all well. Above all, I wish you many more
302 documents
years of the wonderful sprightliness that is part and parcel of every

memory of you.
A happy coincidence has ordained that I am able to send you a
study I wrote on this special day. Despite being in English, it very
much fits within the context of the studies that have grown out of my
interests in the Reichstag records37 and are thus connected with you in
a special sense. The way my life has gone, I have had so little oppor-
tunity to thank you with completed work that I am especially pleased
not to be entirely empty-handed today.
That these articles are the first thing of mine published in English
already tells you that I have continued to have an unutterably difficult
time with English and American scholars in terms of what matters most
to me, namely my interest in the Renaissance and intellectual history.
Admittedly, Speculum wants to publish a lengthy paper on Franciscan
Poverty and Civic Wealth in the Making of Humanistic Thought38
next January, and I hope to be able to send you a copy of it then. But
that is the sum total of my accomplishments so far. I failed to find a
publisher for my article on the political and intellectual background
to the early Florentine Renaissance,39 or for my little book on Ciceros
after-effects in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, which I mentioned to
you some considerable time ago.40 After a great deal of exhausting dis-
cussion the Academic Assistance Council denied me the scholarship I
had requested because my studies were insufficiently interesting, and I
finally had to content myself, since early 1937, with financial aid from
a non-academic Jewish action committee, which enabled my wife and
children to join me here one month ago, and which (after numerous
difficulties) I am likely to receive until autumn 1938. This will at least
enable me to complete some major studies and thus to build a spring-
board to America. I am currently in the process of re-writing my study
of Cicero once again within a far broader framework. I intend to call
it Cicero and the Formation of the Humanistic Mind, and I think I
can present my main findings on the internal development of the 15th
century, its ancient sources and the position of Petrarch in this paper.
37
See above, p. 296f.
38
Hans Baron, Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth as Factors in the Rise of
Humanistic Thought, in: Speculum 13 (1938), pp. 137.
39
Hans Baron, The Historical Background of the Florentine Renaissance, in:
History, no. 22 (1938), pp. 315327.
40
However, Baron did manage to publish an essay on this subject: Cicero and the
Roman Civic Spirit in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, in: Bulletin of the
John Rylands Library 22 (1938), pp. 7297.
vi. hans baron 303
Then a volume on the historical thought of the Renaissance should

be coming up.41 In light of my experiences so far, however, I dare not
predict whether any of it will be published next autumn. The transla-
tions, to which I have already begun to contribute actively, take up far
more precious time than completing the studies themselves, and in
some cases their financing is still a rather puzzling problem. But if it is
finished, the book has yet to be published. It is difficult to find private
publishers for topics in intellectual history of this kind and German
issues of the kind I explore, and funded university series only include
the work of members or at any rate those who have a post in this
country. Nonetheless, I think the most important thing is to get these
studies finished in the first place. Sooner or later, it will be possible to
publish with even the most minor of positions in America, but then I
will no longer be able to work independently. I have thus been going
all out to further my work by making use of every day of this final
extended period of time that has been granted to me. We do our best
not to think about the gloomy future, other than my plan to travel to
the USA in the autumn of 1938, hold a few lectures and ultimately try
to gain some kind of foothold.42
We are happy at the moment, back in our own home for the first
time. We brought at least a small part of our furniture over with
usthis we could do as we have a two-room flat. The children, who
are robust and developing well intellectually, had long needed to have
some kind of family life again. They can attend nursery school here,
which takes enough pressure of my wife that she can cope with house-
hold and children. I am happy to be able to give you good news at
present, at least with respect to our personal situation.
Once again the very best wishes to you and your family!
As always in gratitude,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Baron.
Postscript: Thank you very much for the volumes of the Dante year-
book, which I greatly enjoyed.
41
There are no books by Baron on either of these subjects.
42
Baron emigrated to the United States in 1938.
304 documents
9. 17 May 1938: Hans Baron (London) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
You wrote me such a warm and detailed letter in February that I

would have thanked you far sooner had I not wished to wait for pub-
lication of the studies that I now send you as printed matter. I believe
you are currently working on the Renaissance volume for Meineckes
handbook43 and my essays may be arriving just when you need them.
I am pleased that at least something has in fact come of all the years
of preparation, while at the same time I feel depressed when I look
at the pitiful fragments that are supposed to represent the true fruits
of these efforts. If you find time to read, I hope that you will feel that
something of these general results shines through from the individual
studies.44 What the whole thing boils down to is a defence of the old
Burckhardtian and humanist view of the Renaissance against the mod-
ern blurring of Renaissance and Middle Ages with new means.
Unfortunately, it still seems very doubtful to me that these and the
earlier English studies can help me advance. With a few exceptions,
which do nothing to change the situation overall, there is no interest,
and in fact I believe no understanding, for this German-style intellec-
tual history in England. I receive more friendly, in fact very apprecia-
tive letters from America, some from leading scholars in history and
the classics. Yet even there I fall between two stools. Its possible to
stimulate the historians, but at the end of the day no-one is work-
ing independently on Renaissance issues. And the native classicists
are really only interested in philology rather than intellectual history.
In any case the fact is that despite appreciation for my efforts, so far
I have received no invitations to deliver guest lectures and thus had
no opportunities to create a springboard. The economic situation in
America is so bad at present that having someone with influence inter-
vene personally and quite specifically on your behalf is the only thing
that might help. But it is just such an individual that I am unable to
find as I follow my independent course. From October to December I
43
See above, p. 291f. Georg von Below had died (1927) by this point.
44
Probably a reference to the three essays mentioned in the preceding letter, see
fns. 3840.
vi. hans baron 305
shall be able to test things out on the spot. They want to send me over
there at the expense of the relief organizations here, but they are only
really doing it in order to have fulfilled their duties to me. They have
told me openly that they consider new positions over there unlikely at
the moment (even at insignificant colleges), but that they are unwill-
ing to help me further here beyond the end of 1938, as they have a
less than high opinion of my work. Unless I was lucky enough to find
something quickly after all, I would have to give up my profession.
This is probably the most likely scenario, at least initially.
I know you reproach me for not making a move earlier. But I dont
think thats right. From the moment that my hopes of Italy (a matter
of the heart) were finally shattered, I have thought about nothing but
America. But I couldnt go there immediately as others did. I needed
time. Who was I to turn to with my half-finished Renaissance stud-
ies, as there are no historians there who have worked on the Italian
Renaissance? I sent off a few letters but got immediate flat refusals in
response. My only option was the indirect route of either publishing a
major, impressive book beforehand, or at least attracting the attention
even of scholars in quite distant fields through a few essays of general
interest in important journals. The first came to nothing because of
the suspicion of everything to do with intellectual history in England.
Given the time necessary for the translation and how long one needs
to get anything published in journals, the second has taken two years,
until now. Besides, this time was absolutely necessary for my English.
After leaving Italy, my knowledge of English was no more than the
ability to read easy academic English books at a slow pace. The lan-
guage I had a good command of was Italian. Even now I have not
had nearly enough practice, as I have no talent for languages. I only
wrote the last of my five essays myself in English, the one on Cicero,45
and my manuscript required very extensive correction. I shall have
to devote the three months remaining before my departure almost
exclusively to speaking, reading and preparing lectures, if I want to be
able to deliver them in English in the autumn.
As a result I will scarcely be able to finish other work during this
summer, though the many things that are three-quarters and more
finished prey on my mind day and night. For the time being things
45
See above, p. 302.
306 documents
will go on like this, as if no crisis was looming at the end of the year.
I am far too attached to my work and my intellectual world for me to
do anything other than my utmost to try and fight my way through
in the end.
I was keen to write to you about all these things at some point
because I want you to have an accurate memory of me and my fate.
Hopefully I will be able to write and tell you of some positive solution
from America towards the end of the year. At the moment were liv-
ing a fairly quiet life in our nice two-room flat and are enjoying being
together in a way that will of course come to an end again in October
for an indefinite period. My wife and children are well. Our son, now
just over six years old, is attending a state school here, our daughter
a nursery.
I truly hope that you, your wife and sons continue to enjoy the best
of health. Please pass on our best wishes to your wife.
Your ever grateful and faithful,

Hans Baron.
10. 4 April 1954: Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
It has been far too long since I wrote to you. And I had twice as much
reason to write this time, as you sent me your essays on Meinecke and
Khlmann last autumn, to my great delight.46 The tremendous diver-
sity of the topics brought the old range of your interests right back
to me, something that meant so much to me during the days when I
used to meet you in the Wandelhalle of the Reichstag in order to help
you restore the original text of the Kultur der Renaissance in Italien.47
46
Walter Goetz, Friedrich Meinecke. Leben und Persnlichkeit, in: HZ 174
(1952), pp. 231250; Goetz, Die Erinnerungen des Staatssekretrs Richard von
Khlmann. Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 52, no. 3,
Munich 1952.
47
Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch. Reprint
of the original edition, revised by Walter Goetz, Leipzig 1922. English version: The
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, London 1890. See also Hans Baron, Burckhardts
Civilization of the Renaissance a Century After its Publication, in: Renaissance News
13 (1960), pp. 207222.
vi. hans baron 307
Of course, I read your most recent writings with keen interest to see
whether they differ from those of many years ago in terms of your
way of thinking and language, and to my satisfaction I ascertained that
in this respect it is as if the years have passed you by without leaving
a trace. In any event, my best philological methods were inadequate
to the task of distinguishing a page you wrote in 1952 from one dat-
ing from 1922. I have had news of you now and then in letters from
Herbert Grundmann48 and therefore know that you are again enjoying
your old admirable vigour while only your eyes demand rather care-
ful treatment. Would not an addition to your autobiography, perhaps
together with a revised edition of your historiographical essays, be a
task in which an eye complaint is relatively little hindrance?49 I told
Grundmann in a letter that I had always hoped for this, and he replied
that he shares precisely the same wish. Is there not a chance that this
wish might be fulfilled, one that many others certainly share?
I had planned to send you a sign of life every year, but the last few
years have been so busy that this resolution has remained unfulfilled
along with other good intentions. My library post, among whose dis-
advantages is the fact that it allows me neither the time nor money to
travel, not even within America, let alone to visit Europe, has luckily
proved a far more favourable place for my work than I dared hope
when we moved to Chicago five years ago. At least the first of the books
so long in the offing should definitely appear in summer or autumn,
and I hope to finish two more on related topics over the next few
years, which largely date back to preparatory work done before 1933,
but which have not yet been completed due to unfavourable external
circumstances. That the book I have now completed, which I claimed
would soon be finished in a letter to you three years ago, has again
been delayed for so long, was due largely to the fact that it required
unusually extensive preliminary critical studies. I had discovered that
many of the humanist and publicistic sources of the period around
1400 are wrongly dated and have therefore been misunderstood, and
I had to convincingly solve these chronological problems if I was to
reliably reconstruct the relationship between the political experiences
of the Florentines in the early Renaissance and their historical-politi-
cal views (a key theme of my book). Having completed this work after
48
Herbert Grundmann (19021970), medievalist, student of W. Goetz. Became
president of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in 1959.
49
W. Goetz did in fact produce an expanded version of his autobiography in one vol-
ume, together with his essays on historiography and historians in 1957, see above, p. 289.
308 documents
years of effort, it long seemed impossible to have such critical-philo-

logical studies accepted for publication in America in book form, until
I had the good fortune that Prof. Werner Jaeger50 took a great inter-
est in the work, as it applies to the Renaissance sources the meth-
ods of analysis and criticism that have been so successful in classical
philology. Eventually, with Jaegers help, I managed to get the book
accepted by Harvard University Press, which intends to publish it
later this year.51 Thus, the historical account based upon it can now be
published at last by Princeton University Press.52 I have already read
the proofs, and publication is set for late summer or autumn; there
is to be an Italian translation based on the proofs for the Biblioteca
storica del Rinascimento published by Sansoni.53
I always wished to be permitted to dedicate the first Renaissance
book of mine to be published (all my other studies have been essays)
to you and thus to acknowledge once again my status as your student.54
Had I been able to travel to Europe at any point over the last few years,
I would have told you more about the content of the book in person
and asked whether such a dedication meets with your approval. From
this distance I can only send you a table of contents and tell you in
writing how delighted I would be if you were to consent to this. Why I
wish to dedicate this book to you, and what I am most grateful to you
for, is set out in the planned dedication. Of course, for me personally,
the key thing was not just the introduction to the Renaissance, but also
to Italythe impetus to learn the first scraps of Italian while staying
with your family in Leipzig with the help of your wife (who is just as
much a part of this introduction in my memory), my first encoun-
ter with Italian cities under your guidance in the spring of 1925 (the
50
Werner Jaeger (18881961), well-known classical philologist and philosopher.
Migrated to the United States in 1936, where he taught at the University of Harvard
from 1939.
51
Hans Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the
Beginning of the Quattrocento: Studies in Criticism and Chronology, Harvard University
Press, Cambridge/Mass. 1955.
52
See above, p. 59.
53
An Italian translation of the Crisis in its revised second edition of 1966 appeared
only in 1970 under the title: La Crisi del primo Rinascimento italiano, published in
Florence by Sansoni.
54
The Crisis bears the following dedication: To Walter Goetz, my teacher and
friend who introduced me to the Renaissance and taught me that history should be
a study of both politics and culture, on his 87th birthday, November 11, 1954 in
gratitude.
vi. hans baron 309
Certosa di Pavia, Piacenza, Cremona and Parma, I believe), and my

first glimpse of the Mediterranean from the house of your parents-in-
law in Genoa. Despite all these unforgettable memories of my youth,
you will probably feel that the use of the word friend in the dedi-
cation is too bold. I wouldnt use it in German without adding that
your friendship was of the fatherly kind (eine vterliche Freundschaft),
but one cant say that in English, and together with teacher and grati-
tude, the English friend conveys more or less the same impression.
Princeton University Press have just written to tell me that they will
allow me to insert a dedication, but that it must be done quickly. I am
therefore sending this by airmail and would ask you to please reply
by airmail as well. If you would prefer me to omit the dedication for
any reason, please dont hesitate to tell me. Nothing would sadden me
more than to think that you were quite unwilling or half-unwilling to
approve the dedication because we have no opportunity to talk about
it in person, and you find it difficult to decline by letter. I can imagine
many reasons which you might perhaps mention to me in conversa-
tion; but there is no need to state your reasons should you decline by
letter. But if you say yes, then you know from the planned wording of
the dedication why I would like to express my thanks to you in this
book, and thus how delighted I would be to do so.
I would also be delighted to hear a word or two about how your
family is doing; Grundmann told me nothing about that. We have
nothing but good news. All of us are well. Reinhart is now studying
physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and is happily settled in
a small town between the hills and lakes. Renate is still at the college
of the University of Chicago. She is thinking of marrying a biology
student in the near-future,55 but wants to continue with her studies
in the history of art afterwards. However, she is more interested in
art than history. On the whole, then, natural science has triumphed
once again.
With the very best wishes and greetings,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Baron
55
Reinhart and Renate were Barons children.
310 documents
11. 15 October 1954: Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
I want to assure you of my gratitudeall appearances to the contrary.

I would soon have answered both your letters (the detailed report that
crossed my April letter in the post, and the shorter letter in which,
much to my delight, you accepted the dedication of my book) and
your essays on Theodor Heuss and Romans and Italians (Rmer
und Italiener),56 for all of which I was very grateful, had problems
with the printing of the book and all kinds of family events (including
our daughters marriage) not constantly prevented me from doing so.
Now the year is already so well advanced that I must combine my reply
with wishing you many happy returns for your imminent birthday.
My joy at being able to send you my very best wishes for another year
is mixed with my sense of disappointment that, contrary to all expec-
tations, the promised book has not been finished on time. Although
I had seen to the proofs as early as winter 1953/54 and the publisher
was in such a hurry to sort out the dedication to you as late as March,
shortly afterwards there were unexpected delays at Princeton Press as
a result of staffing changes, and rather than explaining the situation
to me, it took them until just a few days ago to clarify things. Now at
last I know that there have been problems in their operations, but that
these have now been resolved. My book is to be printed in February
1955 and dispatched in April. Worryingly, that is five months after
your 87th birthday. But the book is long since finished and set, and I
therefore hope that you are happy for us to leave the dedication in the
form I indicated to you. The book to be published by Harvard Press,
which is dedicated to Prof. Werner Jaeger,57 will now appear before
the Princeton book; I hope to be able to send you a copy around New
Year, so that you at least get to see a forerunner in the near future.
56
Walter Goetz, Rmer und Italiener, in: Festgabe fr S. Knigl. H. Kronprinz
Rupprecht von Bayern, ed. by Walter Goetz, Munich 1953, pp. 127151; Goetz,
Begegnung mit Theodor Heu, in: Begegnungen mit Theodor Heu, ed. by Hans Bott
and Hermann Leins, Tbingen 1954, pp. 3338.
57
See above, p. 308.
vi. hans baron 311
I was so delighted to receive so many of your recent essays. I read

the essay on Romans and Italians (Rmer und Italiener) with par-
ticularly great interest and I am sure I was correct to conclude that
your remark to the effect that you were very interested in my current
research was connected in particular with the problem examined in
Romans and Italians. I think what we have in common is the same
scepticism about identifying the new Italian culture emerging in the late
Middle Ages and Renaissance with Roman traditions. I had noticed a
similar common perspective many years ago when corresponding with
Walter Lenel, who, like you, opposed Solmis58 ideas. I am of course
very pleased to encounter similar questions in your work in particu-
larit may be that, more than I realize, the roots of my own questions
lie in your school of thought with respect to this issue. On the other
hand, I hope that when you have a look at my book later on you are
not disappointed to find that my answer to our question is rather dif-
ferent in some respects. May I explain this in some detail? One of the
steps which, I believe, one must take beyond the points made in your
essay, is to come up with a positive assessment of the particularism
that makes Italys Renaissance era so dissimilar to Roman Italy, as you
emphasize. The independence of the city states and regional states in
both ancient Greece and the Italian Renaissance was doubtless one of
the principal causes of their cultural achievementsone would hardly
have been possible without the other. Is not then the use of the term
particularism, with its censorious undertones, an anachronism from
the perspective of the era in which the modern unified nation state
became the rule and the dominant value?
The second point in which I would go even further in a direction
already indicated by you relates to your critique of attempts to trace
the blossoming of a new Italian culture back chiefly to the injection of
58
Presumably a reference to Arrigio Solmi (18731941). Professor of law in
Cagliari, Parma, Pavia, Milan and Rome. Fascist deputy in the Italian parliament from
1924; undersecretary of state in the education ministry from 1932 to 1935. Among
other studies, published on Sardinian history, Italian medieval history and the politi-
cal thought of Dante. The New York Times Book Review of 26 April 1931 published
a revealing contribution to a dispute among Italian historians of the time. It asserted
that Benedetto Croce saw Italian history as beginning only in 1860, while in his book,
Discorsi sulla storia dItalia, Florence 1935, A. Solmi placed its beginning in the time
of Emperor Augustus and referred to Virgil as an Italian rather than a Roman. Baron
is probably referring indirectly to this dispute.
312 documents
Lombard blood. Despite great circumspection, if I understand correctly,

you adhere largely to the conclusions reached by Fedor Schneider.59
But is their validity not crucially qualified by the fact that, according
to Schneiders own results, the influence of Lombard blood was felt
least among the urban nobility in Tuscany? Hence, given that there is
no doubt that the roots of the new Italian literature and art lay above
all in the soil of Tuscany, Fedor Schneiders findings, as interesting as
they are, clearly do not lead us to what matters most. Would you not
agree? Apart from that, so much of Solmis views remains correct: that
Italy, in comparison with the northern countries, was more ancient
than the rest of Europe as a result of its city-state structure, even in
the Middle Ages. Where Solmi requires correction, it seems to me,
is only in his too one-sided emphasis on the Roman legacy. The kin-
ship of Italian life with Antiquity as a result of the role of the city in
politics and culture common to both must be acknowledged, and this
kinship largely explains the relationship of early humanism to Roman
Antiquity (especially to Cicero) and the humanist rediscovery of the
literature and ideas that arose within the Greek polis. I think this Greek
influence on the early Italian Renaissance, particularly in Florence, is
often underestimated because the role of public spirit and patriotism
in the Italian city republics into the 14th and 15th centuries receives
too little attention. And this happens in turn because, under the sway
of the modern idea of the unified national state, too little account is
taken of important expressions of the political spirit of the humanism
of the Quattrocento, solely because they are bound up with particu-
lar city states. I was surprised to discover recently that Stadelmann,60
who I once saw eye-to-eye with on these issues, has come up with a
very different assessment of the role of public spirit and politics in the
Quattrocento than most others; he was nearer the mark in his excel-
lent essay on personality and state in the Renaissance.61 As soon as one
59
Fedor Schneider (18791932), historian. Holder of the chair in medieval and mod-
ern history at the University of Frankfurt a. M. from 1923. Author, among other things,
of: Die Reichsverwaltung in Toskana. Von der Grndung des Langobardenreiches bis
zum Ausgang der Stauffer (5681268), vol. 1: Die Grundlagen, Rome 1914. Reprinted,
Frankfurt a. M. 1966.
60
Rudolf Stadelmann (19021949), modern historian. Professor in Tbingen from
1938.
61
Rudolf Stadelmann, Persnlichkeit und Staat in der Welt der Renaissance, in:
Welt als Geschichte 5 (1939), pp. 137155.
vi. hans baron 313
removes the notorious nation state spectacles, one can find plenty of
impressive material illustrating the kinship with the ancient city-state.
The elaboration of some of this material is, I hope, what makes my
book valuable. To give you a sample right away I am sending you the
proofs of an appendix and the final chapter of the book. With respect
to your essay, I am doubly sorry that I cannot yet send you the book
itself for your birthday. But at least one of my key themes will probably
be apparent, even from these few pages. I hope you shall find here one
possible and fruitful continuation of the ideas I gleaned from you.
Your questions about my career in America and future plans are
none too easy to answer; but I am particularly grateful for your inter-
est in my fate. Your assumption was correct: accepting the position
in the library in Chicago meant foregoing certain things. It became
evident at the time that I, like certain other immigrant scholars such as
Leonardo Olschki,62 would be unable to resume my academic career. I
can best answer your question by briefly indicating the reasons for this.
Lack of American interest in my field of research and personal factors
came together. It is hard to find doctoral students or young scholars
working independently in the field of Renaissance history (with the
exception of the English variant) in the USA, as adequate linguistic
skills are acquired almost exclusively by those who elect to study the
relevant language and literature as a special subject. The not inconsid-
erable interest in source-based studies of the Renaissance that exists
here is thus limited entirely to the Romance, German and English
departments. The historians require a few people to provide gener-
ally comprehensible and engaging accounts, textbooks and lectures on
the Renaissance, as an appendage to a teaching post in modern history
at best; on the other hand, there is very little interest in original work
or criticism of conventional views in this minor field, or these are
even considered irritating. Thus, right from the outset, there was little
room here for my kind of research in cultural and intellectual history
in light of the sources. Despite this, one or other of the big universities
might have made use of the fact that I was available had there not
62
Leonardo Olschki (18851961), professor of Romance languages in Heidelberg,
19241933. Removed from office on account of his Jewish origins in 1933. Exchange
and visiting professor in Romance philology in Rome from 1932 to 1938. Emigrated to
the United States in 1939, where he taught at various universities, lastly the University
of California, Berkeley.
314 documents
been such a widespread, almost hateful resistance to humanism, intel-

lectual history and anything that bears the least resemblance to the
Burckhardtian tradition among the ever growing numbers of increas-
ingly powerful historians of science. When I wished to hold a lecture
on the Renaissance at Columbia University in New York after arriving
in the country in 1938, Lynn Thorndike,63 one of the leaders of this
school, wrote to me that he and most other American historians no
longer believed that there was a Renaissance, so I could hardly hold a
lecture on it. There are of course many other people in the numerous
history departments in the country, but my particular misfortune was
the slanders and lies with which Bertalot cast suspicion not only on
my working methods, but also my personal integrity, in his reviews of
my book on Bruni;64 these always provided my academic opponents
with plenty of ammunition when decisions were made. I heard this
on several occasions, but by then it was already too late; in such cases,
an immigrant scholar, whose foreign-language production is known
to very few (no-one had seen my response to Bertalot in the Archiv
fr Kulturgeschichte), finds himself in a difficult situation. In any case,
between 1945 and 1950, none of the prospects that existed at several
universities back then came to anything, and I assume that, the mat-
ter once having been discussed and decided upon, these rejections are
final with respect to the future as well. As a result, I have taught at the
university level in America just once for three semestersat the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, which I drove to from Princeton
once a week.65 I was happy there, and found my students to be a recep-
63
Lynn Thorndike (19021963) was not a he, as Baron writes, but a leading
woman historian of the Middle Ages. Taught at Columbia University in New York
from 1924 until her retirement in 1952. Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America,
founder of the History of Science Society and president of the American Historical
Association from 1955 to 1956.
64
On these controversies, see Ludwig Bertalots sharply critical reviews of Barons
edition of Brunis Humanistisch-philosophische Schriften, in: Archivum Romanicum 15
(1931), pp. 284323 and in the Historische Vierteljahrsschrift 29 (1934), pp. 385400,
Barons response: Forschungen ber Leonardo Bruni Aretino. Eine Erwiderung, in:
Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 22 (1932), pp. 352371 and the repudiation of the second
critique in a statement by Walter Goetz, according to which Bertalot was persecuting
Baron with near-fanatical hatred. Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 25 (1935), p. 251f.
65
In 1946/47. Baron was a member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Prince-
ton from 1944 to 1948. Later, Baron was visiting professor at Ohio State University
in 1958/59, Cornell University in 1961, Dartmouth College in 1964 and Harvard
University in 1970. From 19631968, in addition to his post at Newberry Library, he
vi. hans baron 315
tive and grateful bunch. I would have remained there permanently had
I not had the misfortune that my predecessor, who retained for two
years the right to return to his old chair, suddenly decided, contrary to
expectations, to do just thatand he has remained at Johns Hopkins
ever since. I am of course not the only immigrant who has not man-
aged to resume his original university career in America for one rea-
son or another. As a rule, such people have to make do with more
or less school-like college postswhich, luckily rather than unluckily
as far as Im concerned, are closed to me because of my hardness of
hearing, which makes constant discussions in classes of 2530 stu-
dents both too difficult and too strenuous. In these circumstances, the
library post here has proven highly advantageous in relative terms,
though I greatly miss the teaching and contact with young people,
which are of course among the best aspects of the scholars life. One
compensation is the library job, not unpleasant in itself, which con-
sists of the gradual development of one of the best libraries for the
history and literature of all continental European countries from the
early Middle Ages into the 18th century;66 this alternates with furnish-
ing the complex scholarly information requested from the library, and
with studies and publications on Renaissance manuscripts which the
library occasionally acquires on my advice. As this job requires only
about 4 to 5 hours a day and the library is of course getting better
year on year for the purposes of my own work, I am beginning to
tell myself that this overly reclusive, too little respected and under-
paid refuge is perhaps not the worst solution for me in many respects.
I have well advanced, more than half-finished manuscripts of three
other books on the Renaissance (two in German and one in English),
which await completion, and I am busy with various other plans. If
the ratio of time spent working at the library to time spent on my
own work continues to be so favourable (unfortunately, this cannot
be stipulated in a contract, as there is no planned academic post at the
library and they merely granted me privileges for reasons of prestige),
was also professorial lecturer in Renaissance Studies. He was fellow at the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford in 1967/68 and Guggenheim
fellow in 1975.
66
Newberry Library in Chicago, where Baron worked from 1949 until his retire-
ment in 1970. Baron regularly published unsigned reports on the librarys acquisitions
in: The Newberry Library Bulletin.
316 documents
then I have reason to hope that I shall finish all these studies in peace
over the next few years; and even if I am unable to travel, I can always
contribute to German journals from here (which I have firm plans to
do), and rather than the missing teaching post and professorship, I can
use the time to contribute to promising publicationsfor example, I
recently produced an article on the Renaissance for the new edition of
the Cambridge Modern History, which is currently in the pipeline.67
This, then, gives you a rough idea of the life which, barring mishaps, I
believe I have ahead of me (a life with restrictions, but also sufficient
satisfactions).
I find it hard to imagine that it might still be possible for me to
return to Germany, though Ive often dreamt of it. I dream of it when
the intellectual isolation here becomes too onerous and when, time and
again, new German literature confirms the impression that the tradi-
tion of Renaissance studies in Germany, which I absorbed through
you and your Institute in Leipzig, threatens to peter out entirely. Our
children will soon be at a point where they no longer have such need
of us. But how would it be possible to return to Germany in material
terms given what I constantly hear about the financial difficulties of
German universities, as confirmed by the report in your last letter?
A chair that gave me the opportunity, in the roughly twelve years
remaining to me, to train some young scholars in the fields of Italian
and German Renaissance history is the only thing that might make
any sense. And the income would have to be large enough to allow us,
in our otherwise frugal existence, either to travel annually to America
ourselves or to allow our children to make the trip to Germany; in
light of our situation, there is no need to explain this imperative.
Only a personal chair or a specially created post at somewhere like
the Petrarca Institute in Cologne or Renaissance Institute in Munich
(which is obviously in a very weak state) could meet these require-
ments. So there would have to be a good fairy at one of the ministries,
and I fear that the fairies have countless urgent problems of the day to
alleviate through their gifts at the German universities at the moment.
I therefore believe that what I have just written belongs solely to the
67
Hans Baron, Fifteenth-Century Civilization and the Renaissance, in: The
New Cambridge Modern History I. The Renaissance, 14931520, Cambridge 1957,
pp. 5075.
vi. hans baron 317
world of fantasy, and that the above outline of my current position

indicates the direction in which I must seek my future.
Finally, I must reply briefly to your enquiry regarding the planned
Erasmus edition. I need not belabour the point that a new edition rep-
resents an extremely important and urgent task. As regards me per-
sonally, however, someone in my insignificant position is hardly the
right man to involve himself in the organizational workat least not
in America, where ones public position counts most in any joint ven-
ture. And I shouldnt take on the editing of any of Erasmus writings,
I think, as long as I have the half-finished manuscripts of several books
lying on the shelf. The right two people for organizational collabora-
tion in the USA, it seems to me, are Wallace K. Ferguson68 and Paul
Oskar Kristeller (both in New York). If, rather than writing directly to
them, you would prefer to send appropriate material to them through
me, I am of course delighted to offer my services. I know both of them
very well.
My letter (please forgive me!) is now far too long, but I wanted to
tell you all these things at some point. Thank you so much for your
interest in my situation! Other that that, I would only ask that you
pass on my regards to your wife from my wife and I. Please tell her
how grateful I am that she has made it possible for me to have the
great pleasure of receiving such long and substantial letters from you
by taking on the writing.
My very best wishes for 11 November. I hope you remain in the
best of health and continue to work vigorously on the studies you
mentioned to me.

Hans Baron.
68
Wallace K. Ferguson (19021983), leading expert on Erasmus; Paul Oskar Kristel-
ler (19051999), philosopher. Obtained his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1928. Funded
by the Emergency Committee on Academic Research in Germany (Notgemeinschaft
der Deutschen Wissenschaft) in 19321933. A Jew, he emigrated to Italy in 1934 and
to the United States in 1939. Taught at Columbia University in New York from 1939
until his retirement. One of the most important scholars of the Renaissance and
humanism.
318 documents
12. 15 August 1956: Hans Baron (Chicago) to Walter Goetz

NL Goetz 32
No, I really dont expect you to write me long letters or to review

my books! Last December you sent me a wonderful long letter of
acknowledgment for the books, which made me far happier, grate-
ful and proud than any printed announcement could have done. You
should have seen how happy we both were to receive it!
Back then, in December, you expressed some doubts about the fur-
ther progress of your book on Wilhelm II,69 and I am thus all the more
delighted to see that you are getting on with the book. I am very, very
well aware how important it is that you complete this book, if at all
possible, for no-one will ever be able to write a biography of Wilhelm II
again the way you will, as one of the few historians who lived through
that time, playing a critical and active role. Personally, I must admit, I
am just as keen to see your plan for a history of the Munich Historical
Commission (Mnchener Historische Kommission) move further for-
ward, for with your long experience and active involvement you would
have an incomparable advantage over all the younger editors of the
jubilee history in this subject too.70 [ . . . ]
I am quite satisfied with how my books have been received. A large
number of reviews have appeared in the American academic journals.
Admittedly, I feel that the basic problems and solutions in intellectual
history that I explore have been little understood by the reviewers, but
there has been plenty of interest and praise. I have heard little from
Italy for the time being (other than a nice review by Nino Valeri), as,
though the translation is already finished, Sansonis Italian edition of
69
There is an unpublished manuscript entitled Kaiser Wilhelm II. Eine Biographie,
1958, in the Goetz family archive in Rome. See Wolf Volker Weigand, Walter Wil-
helm Goetz 18671958. Eine biographische Studie ber den Historiker, Politiker und
Publizisten, Boppard am Rhein 1992, p. 383. Goetz had already published an essay
entitled Kaiser Wilhelm II. und die deutsche Geschichtsschreibung in the HZ, 179,
pp. 2144 in 1955.
70
Goetz was extraordinary member of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences from 1911, full member from 1913, President from 1945 to 1951
and finally Honorary President. The volume on the Commissions hundredth anni-
versary, Die Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
18581958, Munich 1958, contains no article by Goetz.
vi. hans baron 319
the books seems to be taking for ever,71 while in view of the prom-
ised speedy appearance of the Italian edition, the American publish-
ers have sent just a few review copies to Italy. From Germany, I have
received a short but particularly pleasing review by M. Seidlmayer in
Das Historisch-politische Buch, vol. IV, 4 (1956), p. 107f. A review by
F. Schalk (the Cologne Romanist),72 who has long been interested in
my interpretation of humanism, is likely to appear in the Historische
Zeitschrift.
My wife and the children are well. Both my son and daughter are
still in the latter stages of their degrees (Reinhart in physics and Renate
in history of art). As for me, I have some more news for you: I was
made emeritus professor extraordinarius a few weeks ago as a result
of the restitution proceedings. We are very pleased that the matter has
been settled in this way. Assuming that the approved payments are
not stopped again in future as a result of international problems or
possible domestic developments in Germany, this will mean an end to
our financial worries and there is a good prospect that, after reaching
pensionable age in the library in eight or nine years time, I will be able
to continue my academic research without financial problems, perhaps
by moving to Germany or Italy for our old age. But its best if I tell you
about my future work schedule and current research next time we see
each other, which will of course be soon. [. . . . .]
Until then, with the very best wishes from both of us to you and
your wife,

Hans Baron
71
An Italian edition of Crisis appeared only in 1970 in Florence, published by
Sansoni under the title La Crisi del primo Rinascimento italiano.
72
Review of Barons books The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance and Humanistic
and Political Literature in Florence and Venice by F. Schalk, in: HZ 186 (1958),
pp. 416420.
320 documents
VII. Helene Wieruszowski
1. 3 November [1926]:1 Helene Wieruszowski (Berlin) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL M.einecke 52
Having talked it over with Herr Prof. Brackmannn in some detail, I

have decided to follow your advice and investigate Machiavellianism
prior to Machiavelli. Perhaps I can tell you more at your seminar at
some point over the next few weeks.
With thanks and best wishes,
Yours faithfully,
H. Wieruszowski
2. 22 October [1933]: Helene Wieruszowski (Bonn) to Albert

Brackmann
NL Brackmann 40
My current situation gives me the courage to approach you once

again with a request. I really have been laid off, that is, forced into
retirement in accordance with 3 of the law on civil servants. My
remaining period of employment, during which I will still receive
a salary and must continue to work, runs until 31 January 34. In
the meantime I shall have to look around for a new job or at least
obtain the means to do so. I have been in touch with the Emergency
Committee on German Scholars Abroad (Notgemeinschaft deutscher
Wissenschaftler im Ausland), whose office is in Zurich, and they have
1
No year is indicated. The card probably dates from the first year of her training
as librarian (19261928) at the Prussian State Library in Berlin.
vii. helene wieruszowski 321
asked me to send in my CV and references. Prof. Levison,2 Geheimrat

Hansen3 in Cologne and above all my boss here, Prof. v. Rath,4 are
going to provide me with references. May I ask you the large favour,
dear Herr Professor, of jotting down a few words for me to the effect
that you know my work and that my book5 will be published as part
of the series edited by you and Meinecke, and perhaps also that you
know me from your classes? I am quite sure that a few words from
you would stand me in very good stead.
If nothing permanent turns up, as may well be the case given the
run on positions abroad at present, I intend to head first for Spain
or Italy and work in the academic field. If I live frugally and perhaps
find some small source of extra income, I can hold out for some time.
My greatest wish would be to begin large-scale research of some kind,
which perhaps had some kind of loose connection with German aca-
demic life. I have already been in touch with Geheimrat Finke6 because
of Spain. He wants to discuss this with me at some point. But for the
time being it is impossible to assess whether the situation in Spain will
be favourable to my plans. How good it would be to have the chance
to discuss with you whether Rome or Florence might be more advan-
tageous and whether there might be any possibility of playing some
kind of role within the framework of the Monumenta7 for example,
2
Wilhelm Levison (18761947), medievalist, habilitated in Bonn in 1903, made
professor extraordinarius in Bonn in 1912 and ordinarius in 1920. Member of the
board of directors of Monumenta Germaniae Historica from 1925. Forced into retire-
ment because of his Jewish descent in 1935. Emigrated to Great Britain in 1939, where
he taught as honorary fellow at the University of Durham, which had awarded him an
honorary doctorate as early as 1925.
3
Joseph Hansen (18621943), Prussian state archivist, later director of the Cologne
city archive. Obtained his doctorate in Mnster in 1893, chairman of the Society for
Rhenish History (Gesellschaft fr Rheinische Geschichtskunde) from 1893.
4
Erich von Rath (18811948), librarian. Doctor of Laws. Head of the university
library in Bonn from 1921. Honorary professor in Bonn from 1924.
5
Helene Wieruszowski, Vom Imperium zum Nationalen Knigtum. Vergleichende
Studien ber die publizistischen Kmpfe Kaiser Friedrich II. und Knig Philipps des
Schnen mit der Kurie, supplement 30 to the HZ, Munich/Berlin 1933.
6
Heinrich Finke (18551938). Medievalist. Habilitated at the Academy in Mnster
in 1887, where he was made professor extraordinarius in 1891 and ordinarius in 1897.
Professor in Freiburg from 1899 to 1924. President of the Catholic Grres Society
(Grres-Gesellschaft) from 1924 and founder of a historical institute under the Societys
auspices in Madrid.
7
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, leading institution producing edited volumes
of sources on medieval history.
322 documents
on an unpaid basis of course. I am aware that in light of the current

tendencies there can be no commitment from the other side, such as
guaranteed publication. But it would be a source of support and con-
solation if I could get an assignment in some field or otherin order
to avoid being completely detached from the soil on which, I believe,
I have acquired a right of abode not only through birth and education
but also through my own work.
If you think, dear Herr Professor, that I might further my goals by
discussing them with you in person and that this would not be too
much of a burden on you, I would be willing to come to Berlin in
the near future. I wanted to visit my old friends there once more in
any case given that I will be going away for some time. I would also
welcome your thoughts on whether I should talk to Geheimrat Kehr8
as Prof. Levison advised me.
Please forgive me for turning to you with this request.
Best wishes,
Yours faithfully,
Helene Wieruszowski
3. 25 October 1933: Albert Brackmann to Helene Wieruszowski

NL Brackmann 40, copy
Dear Frulein Doktor,
I enclose the requested reference9 and hope that it will be of use to you.
It is very difficult to say anything about a new research topic at the
moment. Everything is in a state of transition here, and no-one knows
how things will be organized in future. No doubt things will be clearer
in six months time. So it is probably advisable to wait a little longer.
Still, you could ask Herr Geheimrat Kehr in Rome whether there was
anything to be done in Rome or Florence; Im in complete agreement
8
Geheimrat Prof. Paul Fridolin Kehr.
9
H. Wieruszowski had requested this reference in her letter of 22 October 1933.
with Professor Levison on that point; they will of course retain institu-
tions such as the Mon. Germ.10
Very best wishes,

Your
4. 4 November 1933: Helene Wieruszowski (Bonn) to Albert

Brackmann
NL Brackmann 40
Oldenbourg, the publishers, have just informed me that that they have
already sent you a copy of my book.11 I would of course have done so
myself otherwise.
But I shall take this opportunity to repeat the thanks expressed in
the published foreword. I cant tell you, in my current situation, how
pleasing and comforting it is to me that it was still possible for these
long-term studies to be published. Who knows whether it would have
been feasible at a later point. I have you alone to thank for that and
will not forget it.
But I also want to thank you for the fine reference and accompany-
ing letter. A copy of the letter of recommendation has been sent to
Zurich. But I do not think there is much chance that my application
will be successful, as the number of applicants far outweighs the small
number of opportunities. I suspect I shall have no other option than
to go somewhere abroad with a research plan and then to look for the
necessary academic basis there. At any rate, in line with your advice
and because I will be in office for another three months, I wish to wait
for a while until things become a little clearer. For the time being,
I have merely sent my book to Herr Geheimrat Kehr and Ive just
10
The Monumenta Germaniae Historica was renamed the Imperial Institute of
Ancient German History (Reichsinstitut fr ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde) in
1935, but remained essentially unchanged.
11
See above, p. 62f.
324 documents
received confirmation that he has received it. In a few weeks I shall

write to him properly and ask for his advice.
My heartfelt thanks to you once again for all you have done.
Best wishes,
Yours faithfully,
Helene Wieruszowski
5. 11 August [1946]:12 Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 52
I have had news of you ever since you and Rosenberg resumed con-
tact, and it was one of the most exciting moments of the post-war era
for me when I read your appeal to German students13 published in one
of the newspapers here. It was as if a door into the old days was being
reopened, into my intellectual past in Germany, a past in which I am
rooted. That you are alive, that it was your voice that brought them
back to life again in my mind, seemed at the time like good news and a
sign that I too would be able to open the door that had been closed.
All in all, though, it was an illusion, and this, dear Herr Geheimrat,
is why I had not yet written to you, though I eagerly imbibed all the
news Rosenberg gave me from your letters. I am so happy that you,
your dear wife and daughters have emerged safely from the pandemo-
nium, that the people in Gttingen were able to help you and that you
even plan to return to your own house in Dahlem.14 I myself am also
back in contact with old friends in Bonn and Cologne. It is wonder-
ful that the bonds of personal friendship are being revived. Yet I feel
the difficulties and obstacles mount with every passing day when I try
12
No year is indicated. However, the context clearly points to 1946.
13
Probably a reference to Meineckes article Zur Selbstbesinnung, published in
the Mnchner Zeitung on 16 June 1945 and regularly reprinted in other countries.
This is not, however, an appeal to German students, though the final paragraph does
address the German youth in particular.
14
In fact, Meinecke was brought back to Berlin by K. S. Pinson as early as 9 July
1946.
to understand and imagine myself back in Germany. Too much has

happened, the scale is too enormous, the collective acts go beyond the
episodic and individual kind that history may pass over, other than in
special cases. Germany, your great Germany, Herr Geheimrat, the one
I first came to appreciate in your Cosmopolitanism (Weltbrgertum),
was lost in the Germany of the Third Reich; I at least cannot see it
anymore.
But you should not imagine that I have forgotten my debt of love
and gratitude to individuals, and thus I am writing this letter in the
hope that it reaches you and your wife and expresses these feelings to
you. You wouldnt believe how much I am able to draw on the trea-
sures obtained during my university days and especially from your
classes here. I have learnt an endless amount [word illegible] of new
things, and as I have been teaching general courses on European his-
tory for two years in the same college as Rosenberg (with his help, but
not, unfortunately, on the basis of a permanent position like him), it
has become intellectually routine to place Germany within a European
context. As I have always been very interested in the Western democ-
racies and parliamentarism, partly because of family traditionI no
doubt told you that my maternal grandmother was the sister (Klara) of
Ludwig Bamberger15and my own inclinations, this has never posed
a problem. I am grateful to have received the fundamentals from you,
Oncken and Betzold.16 I have also had good opportunities to carry on
the tradition myself. In the first two years I was a research associate at
Johns Hopkins University at the same time as Fr. Engel-Janosi17you
are probably most familiar with him from his studies of Prokesch.18 He
has subsequently worked in many other areas here. E.-J. gave lectures
on historiography and I took part in the discussions. Both of us kept
15
Ludwig Bamberger (18231899), leading liberal politician and journalist.
Member of the Reichstag from 1871 to 1893, initially for the National Liberal Party
and from 1880 for a breakaway grouping which merged with the German Progress
Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei) in 1884 to make the liberal Free Thought Party
(Freisinnige Partei). Champion of free trade.
16
Probably a reference to the historian Friedrich von Bezold (18481928). After
habilitating in Munich in 1875, he taught as professor ordinarius in Bonn from 1896.
H. Wieruszowski obtained her doctorate in Bonn.
17
Friedrich Engel-Janosi (18931978), Austrian historian. Emigrated first to Great
Britain in 1939, then the USA in 1940. Returned to his native city of Vienna as honor-
ary professor in 1959.
18
Friedrich Engel-Janosi, Die Jugendzeit des Grafen Prokesch von Osten, Innsbruck
1938.
326 documents
coming back to you, especially your historism.19 (This and the little
collected volume Vom geschichtlichen Sinn . . .20 are the only books of
yours that I managed to save from the triple auto-da-f of my library
in Cologne, Barcelona and Florence). E.-J. went on to publish his lec-
tures, but I have to say that he never did any more than to paraphrase
and popularize your ideas, on Goethe for instance. I myself then tried
my hand in this field with a German essay on Goethes view of the
Middle Ages in Helena, which I shall send you.21 I have otherwise
remained faithful to the Middle Ages, the 13th century, the Dante era,
Spain and Italy. After my last essay on the tradition of a famous pas-
sage in the Convivio and its role models,22 Engel-Janosi wrote to me
that all the merits of Meineckian humanities-based methodology are
combined here in the most pleasing way . . . I do not write this, my
dear Herr Geheimrat, out of vanity: I want you to know that I have
remained true to you.

Helene Wieruszowski
My best wishes to your wife.
Marginal additions:
1.) Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Im afraid
its impossible to send anything to Berlin as yet.
2.) Should this letter reach you while you are still in Gttingen, would
you be so kind as to give my regards to my old friend Richard
Reitzenstein in the university library?
3.) My father died in February 1945 in the Jewish old peoples home
in Berlin at the age of 87. His second Aryan wife managed to
shield him from the worst.
19
Meinecke, Entstehung des Historismus.
20
Friedrich Meinecke, Vom geschichtlichen Sinn und vom Sinn der Geschichte,
Leipzig 1939.
21
Helene Wieruszowski, Das Mittelalterbild in Goethes Helena , in: Monatshefte
fr deutschen Unterricht 36 (1944), pp. 6581. The journal was published in Madison,
Wisconsin. Helena is a major character in Goethes Faust II.
22
Helene Wieruszowski, An early anticipation of Dantes Cieli e scienze , in:
Modern Language Notes 1945, pp. 217228.
Helene Wieruszowski
6. 16 February [1947]:23 Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to Fried-

rich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 52
I was awfully pleased to get your card, of 28 November, which reached

me early in the new year. To think that you can still work and even
23
No year is indicated. 1947 is apparent from the content.
328 documents
teach after all the years of mental suffering and despite the physical
strains and hardships. Rosenberg also let me read both your letters.
How wonderfully vigorous and able-bodied your wife too evidently
is. I am happy that your charming house, which I remember very well
(the first time I visited you there was when you had hurt your finger),
is still standing and that you have your daughters with you. I also had
a lovely evening in Rosenbergs house with Masur, who was beginning
to feel bored in South America and has therefore settled in our more
interesting, but, as he remarked disdainfully, unromantic North. Your
ears must have been ringing that evening. We talked about almost
nothing but you. I had just borrowed from R.24 and read your fine
memoirs.25 My sister has promised to send me your book The German
Catastrophe (Die Deutsche Katastrophe) from Switzerland.
Unfortunately I am not yet able to send you my essay on Goethe.
(Printed matter is not permitted as yet.) Its nothing special in schol-
arly terms, more an expression of my longing for Germany and for my
father, who brought the medieval episode of Helena in Faust II to my
attention back in the old days. It may interest you to know that I have
just been asked to contribute to a major work: A History of the Crusades
(chapter on the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Crusades).26 That
would have pleased my great teacher Wilhelm Levison, who has just
died in Durham, England. Yes, it is nice that Rosenberg is also here
at BC.27 But unfortunately my post here is merely an interim one. It is
very difficult to find a permanent position in my field!
Ive just had a CARE package sent off to you. Please, do not thank
me for it. Can I ever thank you enough?
My warm regards to both of you.
Your ever admiring,

Helene Wieruszowski
24
Hans Rosenberg.
25
Meinecke, Erlebtes 18621901.
26
Helene Wieruszowski, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Crusades, in: A
History of the Crusades, ed. by Kenneth M. Setton, vol. II: The later Crusades 1189
1311, ed. by Robert Lee Wolff and Harry W. Hazard, Philadelphia 1962, pp. 342.
27
Brooklyn College in New York.
7. 9 October 1948: Helene Wieruszowski (Brooklyn) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 52
I feel very guilty on account of my long silence. The Akademie-Verlag

sent me the booklet of your lecture at the Academy on Ranke and
Burckhardt on your instructions.28 This served as a reminder to write
to you again at last. As well as expressing my sincere thanks for sending
me your interesting booklet, which I will add to my historiographical
collectionwhich already contains a whole number of your writings
as a kind of autograph, I want to provide you with some explanation
of my silence. I was in fact in Heidelberg for the German summer
semester, where I gave a lecture and postgraduate seminar as visiting
lecturer (history of the Italian cities in the early Middle Ages and prob-
lems relating to the sources on the history of the Crusades). It was an
interesting period, rich in experiences. It may even trigger a decisive
change in my life at some point. But for the time being the University
of Heidelberg was unable to offer me anything financially secure. As I
am also supporting two of my sisters to some extent, for now I must
carry on earning money in a good currency and wait for any decent
offer of a lectureship in medieval history that may come along. But I
shall not forget that I had diligent, highly engaged students and that
for me this is the most agreeable kind of teaching. My reaction to their
political attitudes and potential to achieve a deeper understanding is
less positive: I found them alarmingly obdurate and blind with regard
to the events of the recent past. My Conversations with German stu-
dents (Gesprche mit deutschen Studenten),29 based on my regular
discussion evenings, will likely be published in Wandlung, where you
will be able to read it. I wish I had had more time.
I hope you and your family are well.
Your always grateful and admiring,

Helene Wieruszowski
28
See above, p. 17.
29
Helene Wieruszowski, Gesprche mit deutschen Studenten, in: Wandlung
1949, pp. 8291.
330 documents
VIII. Hans Rosenberg
1. 23 April 1924: Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
At last the moment has come for me to ask you to admit me to your
seminar. I began my studies in my native city of Cologne, but stayed
there for just one semester as there was no-one there other than Max
Scheler that captured my imagination. I was enticed to Berlin by your
Cosmopolitanism (Weltbrgertum),1 and have been studying there for
the last three semesters. I have found the embodiment of my scholarly
ideal in you and Herr Spranger.2 My academic inclinations draw me
primarily to problems in intellectual history and philosophy of history.
I not only revere you as a great scholar and researcher, but also feel
and I say this without inhibitiona sense of personal love for you. I
consider myself fortunate, and feel proud, to be introduced to scholar-
ship under your guidance. I love academic scholarship above all else
and I wish to dedicate my life to research and teaching, unless I come
to doubt my talent for it. I am not a student who has distinguished
himself through special knowledge, as I have increasingly striven to
attain understanding rather than knowledge as such; contexts have
always been more important to me than facts. I have worked a great
deal and suffered a great deal of privation over the last few years and
have been very ill over the last few months. But I am now hopeful that
I shall be able to set to work again with renewed vigour.
Before coming to see you in person, I want to at least hint at a
request I would like to make of you. I would like to obtain my doctor-
ate under your guidance with a study of Wilhelm Dilthey as a writer
of history (Wilhelm Dilthey als Geschichtsschreiber),3 my primary
concern being to shed light on the peculiar aspects of his view of
1
See above, p. 4f.
2
Eduard Spranger (18821963), philosopher, psychologist and educationalist, pro-
fessor at the University of Berlin, friend of Meinecke.
3
Meinecke advised Rosenberg against his planned dissertation on Dilthey and sug-
gested he examine Rudolf Haym. See above, p. 66f.
viii. hans rosenberg 331
history and to place this within the overall philosophical and historiogra-
phical context. I am well aware of the difficulty of this project but
would nonetheless hope to be able to complete it in two-and-a-half
years. This is the one piece of work that I would truly put my heart and
soul into, because it would introduce me to all those problems I have
in mind as later fields of study. If I am to begin my research only at
the end of this semester, then it is very important to mein terms of
acquiring the relevant books apart from anything elseto know soon
whether I can count on your approval and, should that be the case, on
your help in accessing handwritten material. For it seems to me that
given the kind of figure Dilthey represents, I shall be able to complete
my task only if I relate his work to the person he was and his intel-
lectual development. I can do no more for now than put my request
to you. I must leave it to your seasoned judgement to decide whether
such a study would be of value to scholarship, to which all personal
wishes must be subordinated.
I shall take the liberty of introducing myself to you this coming
Monday. I come to you full of the faith of a devoted follower and full
of respect and I hope that you will not push away a young soul that
rushes to open itself to you, and that, at least with respect to academic
matters, you will be willing to furnish me with your assistance and
advice.
Your ever faithful

Hans Rosenberg
2. 2 September 1925: Hans Rosenberg (Kempten, Bavaria) to Fried-

rich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
I would like to make a requestappealing to your indefatigable gen-

erositywhich requires me to provide you with a brief account of the
state of my research.
In the spring I spent two months looking through Hayms papers
in Halle. Thanks to the generosity of Frau Prof. Schmidt-Haym, the
entire corpus of his unpublished papers has been made available to
me until I have completed my research; everything I need will be sent
332 documents
Hans Rosenberg
to me in Berlin. As I worked twelve to fourteen hours a day for those

two months, I was able to make a note of all the essential material. I
shall try to give you a brief outline of the most important items. His
lecture notebooks, more than thirty hefty tomes, make up the core of
the material. [. . .] Only on the basis of these manuscripts could one
dare approach the task of, for example, producing a watertight account
of his far from insignificant philosophical stance, which often antici-
pates Dilthey; [. . .]
I hope to have got together the most important source materials
by Christmas of this year and to be able to complete my disserta-
tion, covering the period up to 1857, by the end of next year. The
emphasisinevitably in light of the materialwill be on elucidating
Hayms educational history, his development over time and his view
of history, but I shall also have to take thorough and precise account
of the interplay of scholarship and politicsa problem with special
appeal to me given that my intellectual approach tends so strongly
towards the empirical. And if ever it was necessary to fall back time
and again on the individual, on his personality, this is especially true of
Haym.4 How his character developed amid the tumult of life, how his
soul was formedto portray this will be perhaps my most interesting
and undoubtedly most pleasant task. The awe I feel when faced with
the enigma of an important figure, and the love with which I seek to
encompass all that is truly and authentically human, make this aspect
of my assignment especially valuable to me. The manuscript that I
venture to write will be an initial effort and as yet rather rough; I can
perhaps express my intentions most pithily in the words of Constantin
Rler,5 someone I have long held in high regard: True biography
is a soulful contemplation of the eternal within the transitory, and
a profound marriage of both. This in itself makes it clear that it is
not my intention to offer a narrative that rolls along at a sedate and
leisurely pace, that deals with external circumstances in breadth and
detail while passing over in silence key aspects that transcend several
intellectual contexts; I want always to have one eye on the whole, with-
out neglecting the specific. It is one thing to tell the life story of a great
poet, quite another to write the biography of an important scholar.
The tendency towards objectivization, which is, or in my opinion must
be, characteristic of the biography of a scholar, can undoubtedly be
combined with lively contemplation and depiction of individual and
human aspects. The historian will be on his guard against the abstract
conceptual schematics and sometimes rash typifications and general-
izations that have become so common in certain parts of the contem-
porary humanities, but on the other hand he will be able toand have
tomake use of the instructive sources of stimulation on offer there,
4
Rudolf Haym (18211901), philosopher, historian and liberal politician. Member
of the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848/49. Founded the Prussian Yearbooks
(Preuische Jahrbcher) in 1858, which he edited until 1864. Made professor extra-
ordinarius in history of literature in Halle in 1860 and ordinarius in 1868.
5
Constantin Rler (18201896), journalist and diplomat. As a journalist he
defended the policies of the Prussian government and Bismarck. Headed the press
office of the Imperial government from 1877 to 1892 after which he took up a post
in the foreign ministry.
334 documents
such as Jaspers types6 in the field of psychology, without overstepping

the bounds of his domain. I believe one must always bear in mind
that people exist beyond the borders of history. But perhaps I myself
am presuming to make overly general and apodictic assertions which
it is impossible for me to explain in more detail here. In any event, I
am convinced that the biography is the form best suited to the rich
life, progressing in accordance with such striking patterns, of Rudolf
Haym, while Dilthey, who never emerged from the narrow confines
of his professorial existence, may be best dealt with in a monograph.
I now feel grateful to you, Herr Geheimrat, for advising me against a
study of Dilthey.7 Over the course of the last year I have gained clar-
ity about myself in many respects and I can state that both Hayms
personality and intellectual stance are significantly closer to my views.
The love with which I devote myself to my work entails no risk of me
becoming a panegyrist. I am of a sufficiently critical dispositionand
may perhaps have an overly pronounced inclination towards scepti-
cism and everything antinomicalfor me not to be aware of the lim-
its of humanity as represented by Haym. Yet I would still agree with
Treitschke that he was: a marvellous man! It is hardly necessary to
point out that this study will be an absolutely splendid way for me to
grow into the intellectual history and philosophy of history of the 19th
century, while not losing sight of the connections extending back to
the 18th century. But more important to me than this selfish sating of
my thirst for knowledge is my desire to contribute to the advancement
of scholarship and thus of life itself through a precise and thorough
piece of research.
I shall take the further liberty of telling you about my impressions
of my semester in Freiburg. The last four months have been of only
negligible benefit to my work. As a consequence of a nervous illness,
of which I suffered increasingly severe episodes, and powerful inter-
nal upheavalswhich I certainly have no desire to complain about,
6
Karl Jaspers (18831969), philosopher, psychologist and doctor. Jasper had a
background in psychology when he took up philosophy. Made extraordinarius in psy-
chology in Heidelberg in 1916, he became professor ordinarius in philosophy in 1922,
again in Heidelberg. On account of his Jewish wife, a sister of Gustav Mayer, Jaspers
was forced into early retirement in 1937. Reinstated following the end of Nazi rule. In
1948 he took up an appointment at the University of Basle. After 1945 he published
various writings critical of contemporary political development, particularly in West
Germany. Member of the Order Pour le Mrite from 1964.
7
See above, p. 66f.
for it is only these that facilitate genuine understanding and endow

one with the capacity to appreciate things and people soft-heartedly
and yet criticallymy creative powers have been crippled. My intel-
lectual capacity wasand is stillso weakened that it became quite
impossible for me to study Hegel. As I had to find my feet in south-
ern Germany for the first time in my life for any length of time, I
initially found it very difficult to settle in. This Baden indolence and
nonchalance, laxness, sluggishness and bourgeois attitude, which are
coupled with a certain guilelessness and enjoyment of lifes pleasures,
are very alien to my nature. And I can feel, not without some satis-
faction, just how Prussian and Protestant I am. The university was a
great disappointment to me, especially Herr Husserl.8 As much as I
respect this great scholarly figure, his total lack of understanding for
the historical dimension, his distance from real life and his conviction,
expressed in dramatic turns of phrase, that philosophy begins with
him, make it impossible for me to relate inwardly to his work. I also
have the impression that Husserl is not exactly having the most posi-
tive of influences on his inner circle of students. Never beforeand the
experiences of my friend Schaidnagl, who has lived here for a whole
year, are identical to my ownhave I encountered such one-sided-
ness and narrow horizons as among these phenomenologists. Nothing
exists for them outside of phenomenology. They read nothing else,
they grapple with no other ideas; every other branch of philosophy
and especially historism, they claim, has been outgrown and brushed
aside, and it is therefore pointless to study them. This partiality no
doubt gives them a certain drive, as they consider themselves the cus-
todians of the Absolute, but on the other hand it seems to me that
they shy away from history because the second part of that famous line
from Nietzsche9 applies to them: History can be borne only by strong
personalities; it obliterates the weak.
As far as the students in general are concerned, I have often heard
it said, with satisfaction and a fair degree of self-righteousness, that
the social level here is significantly higher than in Berlin. If I am to
8
Edmund Husserl (18591938), philosopher. Founder of phenomenology. Professor
ordinarius in Freiburg from 1916 until his retirement in 1928. Stripped of the title of
professor because of his Jewish wife in 1936.
9
Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900), famous philosopher, classicist and psycholo-
gist. Rejected the historism of the 19th century in his work On the Use and Abuse
of History for Life, (Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie fr das Leben) which
appears in his Untimely Meditations, Cambridge 1983.
336 documents
judge according to my own, of course limited observations, I can only

say that while the wallets are all rather fatter, the heads are a good
deal emptier, and the will and sense of social responsibility weaker
despite lots of lovely, high-sounding platitudes, which stand in sharp
contrast with the frivolous, all too often pleasure-seeking lifestyle. I am
certainly not so Philistine as to think that one should begrudge young
people, a group to which I belong, their gaiety. But I believe one has
to distinguish between noble and base forms, and in any case I take
the perhaps rather too one-sided and absolutist view that one must
first of all work and achieve something in the contemporary era. Jonas
Cohn10 is said to have declared recently that at the time when you were
still working in Freiburg everything was quite different, far better and
more pleasant. Among many historians, especially Belows students, I
have encountered the view that in order to become a professor the first
thing you have to be is a staunch German nationalist. A strange idea,
presumably based on the assumption that accomplishments will sim-
ply fall from the skies if the correct mentality is present. But it has
become quite obvious to me here how fateful the lack of philosophical
and in particular ethical formation can be for the academic specialist
and his inner freedom. One could become quite pessimistic in view
of the fact that Germanys future depends on this new generation, of
which I too am a member. But even the so-called youth movement, to
which so many had looked with such hope, such as Eduard Spranger,
has now fallen apart. I never had much confidence in this movement,
which often degenerated into club mania and collective thinking.
Those I have got to know here from among these circles make an
extremely weary, crestfallen, indeed at times hopeless impression on
me. But perhaps I am taking far too dim a view of things. It may be
that I am too quick to generalize about observations gleaned from a
limited range of experience in a comparatively short period of time,
observations which have given rise to a great longing for the seminars
of Friedrich Meinecke and Erich Marcks. As I have had a bit of a look
behind the scenes here, I am keen not to leave you in the dark about a
matter that indirectly concerns you. As I know from a reliable source,
people have crossed themselves against the candidates you put for-
10
Jonas Cohn (18691947), philosopher, psychologist and educationalist. Professor
in Freiburg, emigrated to Great Britain in 1933.
ward for Rachfahls chair,11 and dropped all kinds of derisive remarks
about the whole affair. People generally refer to Erich Marcks as the
novella writer (Der Novellist). Please, dear Herr Geheimrat, do not
misunderstand me if I speak about things about which it is better to
keep quiet and about which I shall say absolutely nothing to anyone
else. The great admiration I feel for you, and the debt of gratitude I
owe you, make it my obligation, without mentioning names, to make
you aware of a sentiment you might otherwise have remained in the
dark about.
Perhaps I ought to apologise for talking so candidly and openly
about matters both personal and factual, but it is simply in my nature
to say what I think and feel clearly, bluntly and firmly.
I shall be back in Berlin, fully restored to health with any luck, from
1 October. I actually wrote to ask if you might sacrifice no more than
an hour of your precious time to me sometime in October, as there
are a number of questions I would like to put to you that I lack the
knowledge to answer on my own.
It is my honour, in great admiration and gratitude, to be
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg [. . .]
3. 15 April 1927: Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 39
As I have to go away during the Easter week for a few days, I am

unfortunately unable to submit my dissertation to you in person. In
order to avoid delaying submission unnecessarily, I delivered my work
yesterday to your home.
Despite all my efforts, I did not manage to complete the third sec-
tion of my study to the point that I could include it in the dissertation.
I have in fact already completed several chapters of this third section.
11
Felix Rachfahl (18671925), modern historian. Professor ordinarius in Freiburg
from 1914 until his death in 1925.
338 documents
But I had to work so quickly that I was unable to complete my task in

an academically satisfactory way. Certain parts only may be regarded
as more or less acceptable, such as my examination of the relationship
between Haym and Lessing, my account of the Lichtfreunde move-
ment and the brief sketch, based on a wide range of source materials,
of the history of the historiography of philosophy, which forms the
prelude to the analysis of Hayms article Philosophie.12 This article,
which is 460 columns long, in fact contains an entire history of phi-
losophy as well as Hayms own philosophical position. In this third
section of my study my aim was again to eliminate any trace of an
in-group mentality and historians chauvinism and, regardless of my
personal inclinations and passions, to investigate all the problems that
fall within the scope of my topic.
It pains me that I am unable to present you with a dissertation that
is a coherent whole rather than mere fragment.13 This is all the more
unfortunate in that the structure and composition of my study can
only truly be understood through the addition of the third section.
Furthermore, in many respects the third section would have furnished
the evidence for assertions made in the first two sections. I lacked
the time, relaxed state of mind, spare time, freedom from worries and
above all sufficient sleep to put the finishing touches to my disserta-
tion. I am well aware how uneven and choppy, how unbalanced and
juvenile my study is, how it suffers from the lack of a refined form,
how dull and rationalistic it is in parts. But there has been no lack of
good will and sincere aspirations. I have done the best I could. Hence,
despite the many deficiencies of my treatise, I still have a clear con-
science. To quote Ranke: No-one can do more than he has the intel-
lect and strength for.
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg
p.s. I would like to suggest the following title for my study: Hayms early
years, to 1844 (Hayms Jugendgeschichte bis zum Jahre 1844).
12
See the article Philosophie in: Johann Samuel Ersch/Johann Gottfried Gruber
(eds.), Allgemeine Encyclopaedie der Wissenschaften und Knste, Leipzig 1818/1889,
Section 3, vol. 24, 1848, pp. 1231.
13
See above, p. 67.
4. 13 February 1929: Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to his mother and

siblings
NL Rosenberg 4
Dear all,
Though I wrote to you just recently, I feel compelled to thank you

without delay for this latest token of your love. I can hardly express
how pleased I was to receive the parceldespite my admonitions. How
dependent we all are on our stomachs. If youve had nothing to eat for
weeks but barley, porridge, vegetables cooked without fat and mar-
malade you fairly pounce on anything sweet or fatty. And of course
youve done too much again by sending me five bars of chocolate,
among other things. Like the smoking of cigars, such luxury is more
than I deserve. You really mustnt do that again. I had an exquisite
Sunday lunch: hot dogs, enough to do me next Sunday as well. In two
weeks time I shall make myself some really fatty fried potatoes with
the bacon fat. Overall, I am thus living quite the life of luxury at pres-
ent. [. . .] As I am another few thousand marks in the clear according to
Walter14 and still have M14,000 myself, there will probably be no need
for me to break into any more of my money for the time being, as I
will be earning a salary again from 15 March. Its a good thing too, as
I do not know how much I will be making. On the whole, I am really
in an enviable position. I have enough to eat, can research and study
whatever I like, am dependent on no-one, and am surrounded by much
love from afar. And yet my life lacks variety and stimulation. I think
a tour or a few weeks in Ruppichteroth15 would do me a lot of good.
Im also pretty worn-out. But of course I must abandon such longings.
In two weeks time I will be degraded to the status of a calculating
machine, and then my soul, on a flight of fancy of particular intensity
these last few days, will descend into the stale greyness of mundane
reality. Since Christmas I have almost entirely disregarded history and
devoted myself to philosophy. So far, philosophy has brought me more
suffering than joy; it has robbed me of the carefreeness of youth, the
cheerfulness. And yet I cant seem to tear myself away from it. I am
compelled to contemplate the human being, life and the world. When
all is said and done, in history too it is the human being, the idea that
14
Rosenbergs brother.
15
Climatic health resort in the district of Cologne, home to his fianc and later
wife.
340 documents
I seek; this is why I am so often beset with doubts about the value of
the historical as traditionally imparted. But to prevent any misunder-
standing by Walter, I notice that the speculative mind, of the kind
that I have, never asks what is of value to practical life, but only what
might have value for knowledge of the truth. For me, history without
philosophy is a dead, mute thing; [. . .] And as a result my knowledge
of historical facts is negligible. I am in search of the hidden intellec-
tual forces of history that make up the essence of life. Some of my
views differ from those of Ranke and the historical establishment. If
my internal development continues along the same lines as hitherto, I
shall have a hard battle to fight at some point, but one I cannot avoid
if I want the truth. If I am to succeed, I will require peace and leisure
and freedom from all material concerns, though there is almost no
prospect of this happening. Everything is still in a state of flux. My
intellectual struggles are far more exhausting, but also more profound
and radical than applies to most people in my field. The last few weeks
have brought me one step forward; I now see the relationship between
history and philosophy rather more clearly. In a few years, I think, my
point of view will have taken on a clear shape, at least with respect to
its main features. In the holidays I shall have a closer look at Spranger,
to whom I am already greatly indebted, if I am not half-stupid from
all the adding up in the evenings. Since last week I have been reading
Wilhelm Diltheys The worldview and analysis of the human being
since the Renaissance and Reformation (Weltanschauung und Analyse
des Menschen seit Renaissance und Reformation).16 I never went to bed
before one or two in the morningthats how gripped I was by this
book, which I shall often re-read and which I would certainly buy if it
wasnt so expensive. I am clearer about certain things than before but
more muddled about others. Please dont hold it against me if I tell
you about these things again and again: it unburdens my heart, so I
have also been keeping a kind of diary for a few weeks.
Yesterday I attended a plenary session of the Reichstag. It confirmed
the views I had previously formed on a theoretical level. Engraved
in letters of gold above the Reichstag building are the words: to the
German people (Dem Deutschen Volke). It really ought to say: the talk-
16
Wilhelm Dilthey, Weltanschauung und Analyse des Menschen seit Renaissance
und Reformation. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Religion, vol. 2 of
the Gesammelte Werke Wilhelm Diltheys, 3rd edn., Leipzig/Berlin 1923.
ing shop of the German people. Its disgusting to hear how they run
each other down and hurl abuse at one another, and at this of all
times. From what I heard, the representatives of all the parties pro-
duce nothing but platitudes, trifles, commonplaces and superficial
knowledge. Kahl, of the German Peoples Party (Deutsche Volkspartei),
professor ordinarius in canon law in Berlin, was the least objection-
able.17 But on the other hand, it has shown me that I am essentially a
very unpolitical person, a quiet scholar too delicately strung for public
engagement, that my heart belongs more to the past than the present.
This unsavoury bickering is quite alien to me. I am interested solely in
the eternal within the human being, what some would call the divine.
At bottom I am not merely of a theoretical and aesthetic, but also
religious character, as paradoxical as this may sound to Walter, given
that I have championed the cause of atheism. Religion is notto quote
the best thing Carlyle18 ever saida persons profession of faith in a
particular church, but his actual beliefs about himself and the universe.
A few days ago I was pleased to read how, in his Heptaplomeres, Jean
Bodin,19 a figure who stands at the very beginning of the modern era,
has Toralbaa character very similar to Nathan20say: the deity will
be agreeable to everyone who worships it with a pure heart, even if his
particular notions of this deity are completely wrong. In my opinion,
what matters is the sacredness of constant change.
My thanks once again for your love.
Warmest wishes,
Your
Hans
17
Wilhelm Kahl (18491932), jurist and politician. Member of the Constitutional
Committee of the National Assembly in 1919 and of the German Reichstag from 1920
to 1932. Professor in Berlin from 1895.
18
Thomas Carlyle (17951881), British historian.
19
Jean Bodin (15301596), leading French humanist, teacher of law and political
thinker. Rosenberg mentions the work Heptaplomeres de rerum sublimium arcanis
abditis, a dialogue between seven disputants concerning the existing religious parties,
in which Bodin showed that each had a right to be recognised as long as it did not
attack the state, morality or piety.
20
Reference to Nathan the Wise (Nathan der Weise), the central figure in the
drama of the same name by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
342 documents
If I write to you so often, please feel no obligation to reply with the

same frequency.
I think Im a bit of a monk deep down.
On Sunday I wrote to Dr. Flomann, who I hadnt written to for
more than two years. I set out some of my theories to him. I wonder
what hell say about how I have changed intellectually over the last
few years?
5. 8 December 1931: Hans and Leni Rosenberg (Berlin) to Eugene

N. Anderson
NL Rosenberg 14
Dear Herr Anderson!21
I have to say it is gradually beginning to weigh rather heavily on my

mind that I have yet to send you a more detailed letter. And yet it is
already two-and-a-half months since we returned from England! It
was a lovely time, our stay in England, and it was highly stimulating,
varied and instructive. Considering that we were there for five weeks,
its remarkable how much we managed to see. When we returned to
our native soil, things in Germany had changed fundamentally. You
will know from the newspapers how rapidly and disastrously things
have gone downhill over here and how much the Nazis, pathologi-
cally euphoric with victory, are already acting like the future rulers of
Germany, though they are, by the way, still a good way from achieving
that. The economic crisis has assumed proportions here in Germany
greater than even the most pessimistic of forecasts. The living standards
of all social strata have taken a terrible battering. I too have suffered
from one cutback after another. These have forced me to look around
for a new field of activity, especially given that it is doubtful that the
21
Eugene N. Anderson (19001984), American historian, focussed chiefly on 19th-
and 20th-century German history. Came into contact with Meinecke while carrying
out research in Berlin in the early 1930s and was friends with his students Rosenberg,
Kehr and Gilbert. Became assistant professor at the University of Chicago after his
return to the United States. During the war he succeeded Dorn as leader of the Central
European section of the OSS Research and Analysis Branch in 1944. After the war he
was made professor at the University of Nebraska and subsequently professor at the
University of California, Los Angeles from 1955 until his retirement in 1968.
Imperial Commission (Reichskommission) can avoid total financial

collapse towards the middle of next year. In all probability I shall move
to Cologne over the course of the coming year in order to habilitate
in modern history and newspaper science (Neuere Geschichte und Zei-
tungswissenschaft) at the university. I have already started taking the
necessary steps; at some point in the next few days I shall be travelling
to Cologne to clarify and organize all the personal aspects. Though it is
currently difficult to engage in scholarship, let alone historical scholar-
ship, at a time that virtually demands that one take practical action,
the studies I have begun are nonetheless progressing as normal. I shall
enlarge the little book on Rodbertus I told you about by editing his
unpublished political writings in their entirety in collaboration with
Dehio.22 For the time being, however, it remains uncertain how the
printing costs will be met.
And you? What are you up to? [. . .] I hope this dreadful economic
crisis is not an obstacle to the realization of your marriage plans in
the near future. We shall be very pleased to hear from you again at
some point.
With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year [. . .]
Your
Hans and Leni Rosenberg
22
The planned edition of Rodbertus (18051875) unpublished political writ-
ings was never to appear. However, Rosenberg published his copies of a memo-
randum by Rodbertus from 1859 and of letters by and to Rodbertus from 1859
to 1862 in an addendum to his essay Honoratiorenpolitiker und Grodeutsche
Sammlungsbestrebungen im Reichsgrndungsjahrzehnt, in: Jahrbuch fr Geschichte
Mittel- und Ostdeutschland 19 (1970), pp. 155233. Essay reprinted in: Rosenberg,
Machteliten und Wirtschaftskonjunkturen. Studien zur neueren deutschen Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Gttingen 1978, pp. 198254, 326337. Rosenberg wrote that
these were copies in his possession that were originally to be brought together to form
a chapter in a volume of sources on Rodbertus-Jagetzow and his circle of political
acquaintances, which he had planned in collaboration with the then state archivist
Ludwig Dehio. The manuscript was to appear as a special issue of the Historisch-poli-
tisches Archiv zur Deutschen Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, a series pub-
lished by the Imperial Historical Commission (Historische Reichskommission). The
Archiv, however, never made it beyond a second issue, which meant, as Rosenberg
wrote, that our project was buried without a word (p. 156).
344 documents
6. 23 July 1932: Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
My dear, beloved sweetheart,
Your letter and parcel have arrived successfully. Thank you so much.
It was very sweet of you to enclose the plans of the flat. It gave me a
very positive view of the place and I would be delighted if it worked
out. I had no idea the rooms were so large.
I am very much enjoying the work as such, and am making fairly
good progress. Its just that everythings taking too long. There is abso-
lutely no prospect of finishing the draft before you return. I am only
on page nineteen. And it will certainly be fifty pages long. I really hope
it will be a decent piece of work; it is the first study in the history of
crises23 ever undertaken by a historian, and is virgin academic territory
in that sense.
I have been, and still am, very excited by political developments.
There is no prospect of a general strike. The leftists strategy is to keep
very quiet for the time being until the elections have passed off peace-
fully. It is of course as yet quite impossible to predict what will happen
afterwards. For now there is no chance of any kind of revolutionary
impetus from the SPD. It is very doubtful whether they will ever get
to that point again. That the opposition will strengthen and fortify
itself and make preparations for future action goes without saying, in
light of current realities and power relations. The reactionary forces
are digging their own grave through their actions. The ascendancy of a
tiny upper class can be maintained only temporarily given the present
class situation. You are quite right about that: the more extreme they
become, the stronger the reaction will be and the sooner it will come.
At the moment, however, people are paralyzed by the fear of naked
violence. I too expect the Nazis to suffer a setback in the elections.24
But this setback might possibly be cancelled out by the around one-
23
Reference to drafts of Rosenbergs book Die Weltwirtschaftskrisis von 18571859,
Stuttgart 1934.
24
The NSDAP increased its share of the votes from 18.3% at the previous Reichstag
elections of 14 September 1930 to 37.3% at the elections of 31 July 1932. Hitler won
36.8% of the votes in the second round of voting in the presidential elections of 10
April 1932.
and-a-half million new voters added to the voting rolls since the last
Reichstag elections.
Quite unexpectedly, the stock market initially reacted positively to
the coup in Prussia.25 But this has less to do with any assessment of
events than with the completely flat nature of the market, which has
already been typical for a week. The most trifling of purchase orders
is all it takes to increase prices at the moment. I continue to expect
greater fluctuations in the run-up to the elections.
I always think of you with so much affection and very much hope
that you are having a nice Sunday. Im not worried about little Fritz;26
after all, we must bear in mind that changing school is a major event
for him.
Soon youll be in my arms again and then we shall be very happy
together and very sweet to one another. Tender kisses from
Your
Hans
7. 2 September 1932: Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Eugene N.

Anderson
NL Rosenberg 24
Dear Anderson,
Just a few weeks ago I would never have dreamt that I would so soon
be in the position of congratulating you and Paulineon behalf of my
wife as well, who is back in Cologne at the momenton your mar-
riage, which has passed off so successfully. You can imagine what a
pleasant surprise your letter was for us and how much we laughed at
your hilarious account of your journey!
Our days in Berlin are numbered. Were moving to Cologne on
1 October. [. . .] The habilitation process has officially been under-
way since April. Even if everything goes smoothly and there are no
25
Reference to the so-called Prussian Putsch of 20 July 1932, the dismissal of the
caretaker government in Prussia, led by Otto Braun as prime minister, by Imperial
Chancellor Franz von Papen, who became Reichskommissar for Prussia.
26
Son of Leni Rosenberg from her first marriage.
346 documents
complications, and there might well be given my left-wing political

views, the whole business will not be resolved before December. Too
many people have a say in what happens and the process is a long-
drawn-out and complicated one. So I will not be able to begin teaching
before spring of next year.
To answer your question as to how my work is going, Im happy to
report that the overall situation is quite satisfactory. Though I greatly
neglected my critical bibliography over the past year, I did make sig-
nificant progress with my book on Haym and classical liberalism and
got started on or completed a number of other studies. For example,
and this may be of particular interest to you, I completed a short study
on The eras of political liberalism in Germany (Die Epochen des
politischen Liberalismus in Deutschland) (18001932), an abridged
version of which I wish to use as my inaugural lecture in Cologne
and then publish as a pamphlet.27 In this study I tackled the subject
in close connection with socio-economic structural changes and espe-
cially with the developmental stages of capitalism. I then wrote a short
study on the power struggle over the German-Austrian customs union,
though I would like this to be regarded merely as the forerunner of
an as yet unwritten book on the Struggle over German-Austrian
economic agreements from 1815 to 1931.28 Finally and above all, I
am currently working on a book which, if the question of a publisher
can be resolved, will hopefully appear in the coming spring. This is a
book on The world economic crisis of 1857. Causes, course and con-
sequences.29 It is the first sources-based account of the subject that
draws equally on the German, Austrian, French, British and American
material, and, as far as I know, it is the first examination of the history
of economic crises ever undertaken by a historian. It is also my first
contribution to the history of your country. I am very curious to see
what you think of my treatise once you have a chance to look at it. If I
look back over the past year, I do feel quite satisfied with how my work
has gone. I have worked very hard and I also have the feeling that the
hard work has yielded results. [. . .]
27
The inaugural lecture, to be found in Rosenbergs papers (vol. 97), was not pub-
lished. See below, p. 362.
28
Hans Rosenberg, The Struggle for a German-Austrian Customs Union, 1815
1931, in: The Slavonic and East European Review 14 (1936), pp. 332342. Nothing
came of the planned book.
29
Hans Rosenberg, Die Weltwirtschaftskrisis von 18571859, Stuttgart 1934.
2nd edn. With a preliminary report entitled: Die Weltwirtschaftskrise 18571859,
Gttingen 1974.
Kehr will be heading over there around Christmas. Hell soon be

joined by his wife once hes found his feet. I would be happy to have
your Chicago student pay us a visit. Everyone who comes to visit us
on your recommendation will receive a warm welcome. We are always
delighted to receive any sign of life from you. My wife will also be writ-
ing letters to what is now the Anderson family from time to time.
Very best regards to you and Pauline,
Your
Hans Rosenberg
Its a shame that you wont be coming to Germany again in the near
future. Given the state of permanent political, social and economic
revolution in which we are living, everything is even more interesting
than when you were here.
8. 21 April 1933: Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Eugene N.

Anderson
NL Rosenberg 24
Dear Anderson,
You will no doubt have learned from Kehr that while I have been
a well-established lecturer (Privatdozent) in medieval and modern
history at the University of Cologne since the end of last year, I am
nonetheless facing a virtually hopeless situation in professional terms.
I am unable to write as openly as I would like to, so I shall have to
make do with a few pointers. Quite apart from the associated mental
distress, for me personally the national revolution in Germany means
the radical destruction of my livelihood. The way things stand, it is
quite impossible for me to progress here, even on the most modest
scale. I am therefore determined to seek a new place for my life to
unfold abroad. I have been thinking chiefly of the United States. Ive
already been suspended from the university for the coming semes-
ter. I have to assume that my right to give lectures will be withdrawn
entirely within a few weeks.30 So theres no point hiding my head in
the sand. I have no choice but to create a new life abroad. As long as
30
Already barred from teaching for the summer semester, his venia legendi was
formally withdrawn on 2 September 1933.
348 documents
there is even a glimmer of hope, I want to try to progress within the

framework of my discipline and academic profession. So I shall try
to acquire a new sphere of activity at an American university or, if
that doesnt work out, at an American research institute. To this end
I would be most grateful if you would give me your advice as soon as
possible and provide me with a list of influential individuals whom I
might contact with requests for references and other forms of assis-
tance. I wrote a similar letter to Josef Redlich of Harvard University
a few days ago.31
31
A three-page handwritten reply to Rosenbergs letter to Redlich of 11 April 1933
appears in Rosenbergs papers, vol. 34. The Austrian jurist, politician and historian
Josef Redlich (18691936), who held a chair at the Harvard Law School, writes on 2
May 1933: As for your wish to move to the USA as an individual and as a scholar,
I certainly understand itfor six weeks, I have been receiving several letters a week
from younger and older academic colleagues arising from the same impulse as your
wish and your letter. Among those prominent ordinarius professors expelled by the
universities who have fled abroad, there is a close relative of mine and several schol-
ars very well known to me personally. I have to say the same thing to you as I have
to those close to me. To put it in a nutshell: it is next to impossible to immigrate to
the United States and obtain an academic post that secures ones livelihood at the
moment. For this country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has long
affected the universities and which is placing them under increasing financial strain.
Younger scholars from Germany, unless they have a good mastery of the English lan-
guage and already have good relations with leading figures in academic circles here
forged at an earlier point in time, thus have very little prospect of achieving anything
here. For one or other of the leading German scholars, who have now been divested of
their academic posts in Germany, it may prove possiblein time, though again not at
presentto obtain an appointment at one of the American universities. Especially in
the case of doctors and physicists, etc. By emigrating, Redlich felt, Rosenberg would
jeopardize and likely wreck his academic career. Rosenberg, he thought, had pursued a
research path and, through the study of intellectual and socio-historical problems, had
developed a European way of thinking, for which there is very little understanding in
contemporary America and for the cultivation of which there is, if not no basis at all
in this country, one that will be even narrower than hitherto over the next few years.
Even at our colleges and universities, it has become very difficult to accommodate the
next generation of young American scholars. He advised Rosenberg to complete the
books he had written to him about, which he could just as well work on in Germany.
Despite Germanys current politically & socially lamentable state, arising from its
intellectual and spiritual plight, I am convinced that this state of affairs cannot last
long. As a student of Meinecke, I am sure that you can continue your research for
the Imperial Commission (Reichskommission). He also advised Rosenberg to try to
get a Rockefeller scholarship and to take advantage of the guaranteed year in the
United States that this offers and to acquire a thorough knowledge of the English
language and [forge] personal ties with the country and its universities. Later, on 5
September 1934, Redlich wrote a two-page testimonial for the Comit international
pour le placement des intellectuels refugis in Geneva for Rosenberg and in a letter
of 26 July 1935 from Vienna informed him that he had been delighted to hear that
Rosenbergs plans to immigrate to the United States were going well: Mr. Murrow,
Please send me the private addresses of the leading American his-

torians and Rockefellers private address. Im sure I dont need to say
anything to you about my academic qualifications. Luckily, my stud-
ies are so far advanced that, as long as the question of a publisher is
soon resolved, I will be able to publish two books before the year is
out. First, my habilitation thesis on Rudolf Haym and the origins
of classical liberalism and second my book, which will be finished
in a few weeks, on The world economic crisis of 18571859 (Die
Weltwirtschaftskrise von 185759), which goes significantly further
than the title suggests to provide an account of global economic trends
from 1848 to 1862. My critical bibliography will also be ready for
press by spring of next year. I have collected almost all the material
and will begin to prepare the final manuscript in just a few months. As
I can largely get by without libraries now, the manuscript could also be
finished outside Germany. Thus, if necessary, I am in a position to up
sticks as early as autumn of this year and set off across the ocean. I am
of course well aware that I will be able to realize my plans for emigra-
tion, if at all, only with the greatest of difficulties. I view the problem of
language ability in a more optimistic light. As I can now read English
books with a fair degree of fluency, I believe that six months in the
English-speaking world will be enough to master the English language.
Fortunately, of course, I also have the option of going to England for
a few months to brush up my language skills before any emigration
to the U.S.A.
Over the last few years I have increasingly devoted myself to stud-
ies in economic theory and economic history. Over the long term, I
therefore believe I can work successfully not solely in the limited realm
of history, but also in the broad fields of social economics. It is on the
basis of this particular set of scholarly skills that I hope to be able to
advance in the U.S.A.
Please excuse me if I have spoken only about myself today in such
a self-centred way. But my very future is currently at stake. And as
the secretary of the Emergency Committee, no doubt helped bring about this turn of
events. I talked to him at length in his office in New York and would be absolutely
delighted if he continues to act so effectively on your behalf. I shall be very happy
to help you as you requested, as far as possible. He would, he stated, write a letter
of recommendation in English and give my opinion on your character and your
impressive research and recommend you most highly. As well as this general letter
of recommendation, he would write specific ones to William L. Langer and Sidney B.
Fay. Letters and testimonial in Rosenbergs papers, vol. 34.
350 documents
I am married, I have twice as much reason to focus all my time and

energy on solving the problem of my career. I would thus be particu-
larly grateful if, with your exhaustive knowledge of the situation over
there, you would tell me more about the options open to me.
In the meantime the very best wishes to you and your wife.
Your
Hans and Frau Rosenberg
9. 2 May 1933: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
Your warm words of 29 April were very moving and I read them
with much sympathy. There is still a space free in the series of supple-
ments to the H. Z. for 1933, and so I am also writingwith some dif-
ficulty, as I have just got over another lengthy bout of bronchitisto
Oldenbourg and warmly recommending that he include your Haym
monograph among the 1933 supplements. There is however very little
chance of him publishing it before autumn, as two other issues are
already in press. In any case we must await his decision, for as pub-
lisher he always has the final say with regard to the supplements.
Theres another decision were waiting for. This is for your ears
only, but I can tell you that about eight days ago, in accordance with
the civil servants law of 7/4/33, the imperial minister asked me to
provide the personal details of those working for the H. R. K.
[Historische Reichskommission or Imperial Historical Commission].32
I therefore had to mention your name among those of non-Aryan ori-
gin, but I also put forward every possible academic reason for allowing
you to maintain your present relationship with the H. R. K. until you
have completed your work in 1934. At the same time I requested a pri-
vate audience, and asked that it be granted once I have fully recovered.
So for now we have to wait and see.
32
See above, p. 69f.
Im sure I can take it as read that you will, as far as possible, expedite
completion of the final manuscript for the critical bibliography.33
Very best wishes,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
10. 22 May 1933: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Oldenbourg-

Verlag
Bavarian Economic Archive (Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv) F 5/
248
To the publishing division,
With regard to your kind letter of the sixteenth of this month34 con-
cerning supplements and Rosenberg, I would like to try once again
33
See above, p. 70.
34
Wilhelm Oldenbourg replied to a letter from Meinecke of 2 May 1933 concerning
the supplements to the HZ planned for 1933 that two studies in modern history by
Rudolf Stadelmann (Das Jahr 1865 und das Problem von Bismarcks deutscher Politik,
Munich/Berlin 1933, supplement 29 to the HZ) and Georg Lenz (Demokratie und
Diktatur in der englischen Revolution 16401660, Munich/Berlin 1933, supplement 28
of the HZ) were already in press and that Albert Brackmann had suggested the stud-
ies by Helene Wieruszowski Vom Imperium zum nationalen Knigtum (see above,
p. 62f.) and Ruth Hildebrand Die Monarchie Heinrich des Lwen for the other two
supplements of 1933. As he assumed, in line with a letter from Brackmann, that he
had reached an agreement with Meinecke, he consented to Brackmanns suggestion.
The length of the manuscript by H. Wieruszowski was estimated at 16 folios (256
pages). As he had come to an agreement with Meinecke that the supplements should
not exceed 1012 folios, he had sent back the manuscript and asked for a reduction of
at least two folios, to which the author had agreed. He had as yet heard nothing about
the other work. For the time being, he asked Meinecke to come to an agreement with
Brackmann about the fourth issue, for which Meinecke had warmly recommended
Rosenbergs study on Rudolf Haym. With regard to Rosenbergs study, he had res-
ervations about its length and a possible contribution to the printing costs. As Herr
Dr. Rosenberg is a lecturer (Privatdozent), I would rather avoid asking him for a con-
tribution to the printing. On the other hand, the financial situation in the book trade
is absolutely disastrous at present. The turnover of academic books has declined every
month for a year, so that to be quite honest I would prefer to publish supplements for
which I can receive a contribution to the printing costs. Rosenberg, he wrote, wished
to see his work published very soon. As the supplements by Stadelmann and Lenz
would be published during the summer semester, it was quite impossible for the next
issue to appear before mid-September.
352 documents
to facilitate the inclusion of Rosenbergs work on Haym in this years

supplements. First of all, it might be stipulated that he shorten the
length of his study to twelve folios. I would then forego any editors
fee for this issue, and for the two supplements currently in press by
Lenz and Stadelmann. Herr Brackmann is quite willing to move the
study by Frl. Ruth Hildebrand to the supplements for 1934,35 if it could
appear at the beginning of the new year.
It is highly doubtful whether Dr. Rosenberg himself would be in
a position to make a small contribution to the printing costs. But if
worse comes to worse the question could be put to him.36 I believe his
work would be a particular credit to the supplements.
Yours truly,
Fr. Meinecke
35
The study by Ruth Hildebrand, Der schsische Staat Heinrichs des Lwen,
dedicated to A. Brackmann, was published not as a supplement to the HZ, but as issue
302 of Historische Studien, Berlin 1937.
36
Oldenbourg informed Meinecke on 24 May 1933 that he would publish
Rosenbergs work, by which Meinecke set such great store, particularly in light of the
fact that Meinecke had waived the editors fee for the three supplements and Rosenberg
had agreed to a reduction to twelve folios. In his letter of 2 June, Oldenbourg notified
Rosenberg, among other things, of the following conditions: reduction to twelve folios
(192 pages), print run: 800 copies, of which 80 review, deposit and complimentary
copies. 25 complimentary copies for Rosenberg, cover price 7 marks. The first 350
copies free of charge. From the 351st copy on Rosenberg would receive a turnover
fee of 20% of the retail price. Delivery of the manuscript by 1 August 1933, distribu-
tion of the work by mid-October 1933 at the latest. The publisher did not insist on a
contribution to the printing costs. Rosenbergs study, which ultimately ran to 13 folios
(208 p.), was later requested from the publisher by the Official party review board for
the protection of National Socialist literature (Parteiamtliche Prfungskommission
zum Schutze des NS-Schrifttums), which was connected with the office of the deputy
Fhrer. On 7 June 1935, the publisher was notified: Ideologically the work lies out-
side of the sphere of the NSDAP. The way the subject matter is dealt with also fails
to meet the demands of National Socialism. (All these letters are in the Bavarian
Economic Archive [Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv], holding F5, Oldenbourg Verlag,
box 248).
11. 9 June 1933: Hans Rosenberg (Cologne) to Eugene N.

Anderson
NL Rosenberg 24
Dear Anderson,
My warmest thanks for your dear letter,37 which did me a great deal
of good. Im sending this letter to your old address, as Im afraid I was
unable to make out your new one.
Im still reeling from the terrible news that Eckart Kehr died quite
suddenly in Washington eight days ago. I dont know any more than
that.38 As yet, neither does Kehrs wife. We got a letter from her today
explaining that she had already obtained her visa and tickets for travel
to the U.S.A. and was expecting a telegram to arrive at any moment
letting her know when she should leave. Instead she received news of
her husbands death.
My personal situation has become somewhat less tense over the last
few weeks. I can be reasonably sure of being able to continue my work
at the Imperial Historical Commission until around the end of this
year. If I can evade dismissal until after the 1 July, I will probably
even manage to hold out until early next year and, if Im very lucky,
I may even be able to complete my bibliography in its entirety, that
is, by spring of 1934.39 Given the circumstances I want to stick it out
for the time being and wait and see how things develop, particularly
as there seems very little prospect of obtaining a post in the U.S.A.
from here. I want to use the time remaining to me exclusively for the
completion and publication of my major studies. Im glad to say that
my habilitation thesis on Haym will be published as a book as soon as
the first half of October. I shall send you a copy when it comes out.
Given how things stand at present, its uncertain whether Ill man-
age to find a publisher for my World economic crisis of 18571859
(Weltwirtschaftskrise von 185759) despite the topicality of the
37
Andersons letter to Rosenberg, 18 May 1933, Rosenberg papers, vol. 24.
38
See the letter from Frau Kehr to Rosenberg of 11 August 1933, below, pp. 486489.
39
In fact, Rosenbergs position at the Imperial Historical Commission (Historische
Reichskommission) came to an end only on 30 November 1934. Subsequently, he was
also remunerated for time spent correcting and drawing up the index for the publica-
tion Nationalpolitische Publizistik. See below, p. 366f.
354 documents
subject.40 From what you know of the situation there, do you think it
might perhaps be possible to have the book printed by an American
publisher? It would of course first have to be translated into English
at the publishers expense. In terms of the subject matter and content,
the book is ultimately of greater interest to the English-speaking world
than the German readership. I would owe you yet another debt of
gratitude if you would give me your thoughts on this at some point
and provide me with the addresses of a few potential publishers.
As I will definitely be able to stick it out financially for the next six
months, I dont need to plan for the future with quite the degree of
urgency that seemed necessary a few weeks ago. To buy some time and
gain the necessary access to the U.S.A. by fully mastering the English
language and making contacts, I wish to try and obtain the Rockefeller
scholarship from 1934 for one or two years.41 At present I simply dont
know whether this will be possible in practical terms. Some time ago I
heard that the relevant German government departments would pro-
hibit the acceptance of scholarships from foreign sponsors. Even if this
is not the case, it is of course extremely uncertain whether my appli-
cation would be successful. First, given how things stand at present,
the number of applicants will be far larger than normal, and second,
the commission charged with allocation of the scholarships will have
adapted to the changed power relations by then and yielded to the
tendency towards Gleichschaltung. As I intend to go to Berlin for
a month towards the end of July, I will very soon know exactly how
things stand with regard to these things. With respect to this set of
problems, I would be grateful if you could give me your views on the
following points: 1) Is there a chance that my application might receive
firm backing from the U.S.A. and my candidacy be commended to the
Berlin branch office? If so, is it advisable to contact Mr. Rockefeller,
among others, directly? 2) Should my application stipulate a specific
research topic or can I leave that open for the time being? Though I
do in fact intend to make a contribution to the history of America, I
am reluctant to pin myself down too precisely before having fathomed
the material in greater depth. As it is quite uncertain, as I have said,
whether I will be awarded the scholarship, I want to try, on the basis
40
Die Weltwirtschaftskrisis was published in 1934 as supplement 30 of the
Vierteljahrsschrift fr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte by W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart/
Berlin.
41
Rosenberg did not manage to obtain a Rockefeller scholarship.
of the addresses you have given me,42 to get one or other American
scholar or patron of scholarly endeavour interested in my work. So I
will write to all of them over time. Should I have to leave Germany at
the beginning of next year, without having a position elsewhere, then I
would like to stick to my plan to go first to England for a few months
to work on my language skills. With the support of our relatives, we
can live there far more cheaply than in the U.S.A. As we have to be
prepared for the possibility that we will initially have to live in the
U.S.A. without an income for a while, could you please let me know
how many dollars my wife and I would likely need per month if we are
extremely undemanding and limit ourselves to one furnished room? If
we are to take this step into the unknown, we must at least be able to
make reasonably precise calculations regarding these questions. Despite
all the major problems and obstacles I must overcome in order to gain
a toehold in the U.S.A., I am quite convinced that I shall prevail. Thus,
as long as I manage to keep my head even slightly above water, I do
not intend, should the occasion arise, to accept a position that offers
me no prospect of advancement in accordance with my abilities. It is
of course still quite uncertain how I will get on with the immigration
authorities. Is it more advisable to apply for the entry permit merely
for a number of years initially or immediately on a permanent basis?
If I take the step of crossing the ocean, without being equipped with
the Rockefeller scholarship, it will be with the intention of settling
permanently in America and with the goal of acquiring American citi-
zenship. As far as my confessional and racial affiliation is concerned,
for your personal information I would merely like to state that I am a
Protestant and come from a family of Protestant officials resident in
the Mark of Brandenburg on my mothers side, and a family of Jewish
businessmen from the Lower Rhine region on my fathers side.
42
In the letter of 18 May 1933, Anderson informed Rosenberg of the addresses
of John D. Rockefeller, Felix M. Warburg, Stephen S. Wise, W. A. Wieboldt, Alfred
E. Smith, Dean Balduf and Professor H. E. Bourne, editor of the AHR. Rockefeller,
Wieboldt and Warburg were businessmen, Wise, according to Anderson, was a very
powerful rabbi, Smith a former candidate for President. Dean Balduf, he explained,
was a German-American and worked at a college in Chicago that was growing steadily
and might need teachers. In a supplement he also mentioned the professors W. L.
Langer, Professor C. J. Hayes, Professor Carl Becker, Professor James W. Thompson
and Professor W. E. Lingelboch. Anderson later provided Rosenberg with a detailed
recommendation in a testimonial of 14 October 1935 (Rosenberg papers, vol. 24).
356 documents
Thank you once again so much for your advice and support. For now
I shall make just one more request of you: could you please make sure
that your letter answering my questions reaches me before I depart for
Berlin, that is, by around the end of July. The steps I am considering
taking in Berlin depend on how you answer them.
Best wishes to you and your wife,
Your
Hans and Leni Rosenberg
12. 5 September 1933: Hans Rosenberg (Berlin) to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
My darling Leni,
When I get home this evening I hope to find a few lines from you tell-
ing me that you are tolerably well. Im already getting ready to leave
and will certainly arrive on Thursday on the train I indicated. I was
naturally very pleased and reassured that M.[einecke] is taking such a
positive view of my plans to move and has expressly volunteered to go
on helping me in future, as far as possible, though he expects moves to
be made against him too despite his emeritus status.43 He and his wife
are even considering subletting rooms. There will be mass dismiss-
als and redundancies at the Prussian universities before this month
is out. But that will by no means be the end of the great cleansing.
The sword of Damocles will continue to hang over all those who are
not Pgs [members of the Nazi Party] far into the future. According to
Meineckes information, Ziekursch44 is also among those at immedi-
ate risk, as in fact applies to a whole number of pure Aryans. It seems
that we will have more personal contacts in London right from the
outset than we had in Cologne over the course of an entire year. By the
way, Frau Meinecke is in favour of you getting involved in the musical
field or similar while abroad like Frau Lennox. I tell you this only to
convey the prevailing mood. Perhaps we shall be lucky there in the
43
Meineckes status as emeritus was not challenged, but he had to give up the edi-
torship of the HZ and his position as president of the Imperial Historical Commission
(Historische Reichskommission), disbanded in 1935 (see above, p. 14f.).
44
Ziekursch was able to continue teaching after 1933.
coming years despite strong competition. Meinecke reckons that I will

be recognised as an academic figure internationally through publica-
tion of the bibliography. With respect to my emigration, his only res-
ervation was that I might perhaps neglect my obligations to the H.R.K.
[Historische Reichskommission or Imperial Historical Commission].
But I managed to reassure him on that front.
I hope you look at me on Thursday with shining, affectionate eyes
and are less sad as a result. Thats always very hard for me. My little
Leni is so brave really. I love you so much.
Kisses from
Your
Hans
13. [18 November 1933]: CV and educational background of Hans

Rosenberg, for submission to the secretary of the International
Institute of Education45
NL Rosenberg 1, copy
[. . . . .] In my academic research, as evident in the appended list of

publications, my primary point of departure originally lay in intellec-
tual, party political and domestic political problems of 19th-century
German history. I have tackled this complex of problems in a num-
ber of longer and shorter studies published since 1925, as well as my
book on Rudolf Haym and the origins of classical liberalism (Rudolf
Haym und die Anfnge des klassischen Liberalismus). This attempts to
cast light on the genesis, as reflected in the individual, of the liberal-
ism of the German educational aristocracya liberalism rooted in the
classical era of German thought and literature, one that became mani-
fest in a worldview of ideal-realism and is closely bound up with the
intellectual, political and social changes of the 19th century, but also
with the problems of the present.
That my academic research has gained breadth and perspective as I
have become older and more mature is, I believe, apparent in my book
on The world economic crisis of 18571859 (Die Weltwirtschaftskrisis
von 18571859), to be published by W. Kohlhammer in Stuttgart in
45
Appended to Rosenbergs letter to The Secretary, International Institute of Edu-
cation, 18 November 1933. Rosenbergs CV in note form has been omitted.
358 documents
late January 1934. This work, based on a combination of historical

research and the scientific analysis of business cycles and statistics,
aims to provide an account of structural changes in the global econ-
omy and cyclical movements in countries at various stages of develop-
ment from 1848 until into the 1860s; these are discussed in connection
with mid-century intellectual, domestic political, colonial and world
political upheavals.
I have devoted the vast majority of my efforts over the last five
years to the groundwork for a comprehensive study of National
political journalism in Germany from the beginning of the New Era
in Prussia to the outbreak of the German War. A critical bibliogra-
phy (Deutschlands nationalpolitische Publizistik vom Eintritt der
Neuen Aera in Preussen bis zum Ausbruch des Deutschen Krieges. Eine
kritische Bibliographie), which I have been preparing since October
1928 on behalf of the Imperial Historical Commission (Historische
Reichskommission). This undertaking, designed to get to grips with
what initially appeared to be an endless mass of materialnecessi-
tating research in about ninety libraries and archivesaims to cast
light on the attempts of the national movement to establish a German
empire in connection with the struggles of socioeconomic interests and
clashes of moral and intellectual ideas, while including as much mate-
rial as possible. This study, which discusses all the significant domestic
and foreign, economic and social problems of Central Europe during
the era in question and attempts to provide a cross-sectional view of
the entire party political scene that does justice to both liberalism and
conservatism, political Catholicism and the dawning labour move-
ment, is now close to completion. As I was able to start work on the
final manuscript some months ago, the study should be completed in
its entirety by spring of 1934. It will then be printed in two volumes by
the publisher of the Imperial Historical Commission, Gerhard Stalling
in Oldenburg, during the second half of 1934.46
Assuming that it will be possible to find a new position within my
field in the distant future, I am determined to turn from the study of
problems in German and Central European history to those of the
British Empire and the United States. I feel bound to emphasize that
this resolution is not a consequence of the political upheaval occur-
ring in Germany, but has grown gradually within me over the last few
46
The work was in fact published by Oldenbourg, Munich/Berlin 1935.
years, as will be apparent in my Weltwirtschaftskrisis von 18571859.

As my academic interests have begun to focus increasingly on eco-
nomic and social issues, my research plans will revolve chiefly around
this aspect of Anglo-American history, but especially the interplay of
world economy and world politics. However, given the nature of my
methodological convictions, my aim will not be to isolate specific fac-
tors in a way that fails to convey the richness of historical events, but
rather to explain the overall historical context in any given case on the
basis of the deepest possible structural analysis of economic, social,
political and intellectual factors.
I shall conclude, if I may, by mentioning the following individuals
who can provide more detailed academic and personal information
about me:47
[. . .]
14. 20 November 1933: Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches,

Bavarian Economic Archive F5/248
[. . .] Rudolf Haym, a figure so well known around the middle of the

last century until into the early days of the Bismarckian Empire, has
been pushed somewhat into the background as a result of the his-
torical events of the last few decades. The author of the present book
brings out his contemporary relevance, chiefly in the political sense.
Rudolf Haym took the cultural historical and psychological biography
to brilliant new heights thanks to a combination of philosophy, his-
tory and philology in his studies of Gentz, W. von Humboldt, Hegel,
Schopenhauer, Herder48 and the Romantic School, which broke new
ground not only in terms of the ideas underlying them but also their
47
Rosenberg then mentions, in the following order, with their titles, names and
addresses: Friedrich Meinecke, Johannes Ziekursch, Josef Hansen, Albert Salomon,
G. P. Gooch, Josef Redlich and Eugene N. Anderson.
48
Friedrich Gentz (17641832), politician and journalist. Opponent of the French
Revolution and early German liberalism. Sometime close colleague of Metternich;
Wilhelm von Humboldt (17671835), scholar, statesman and university reformer.
Head of the section for culture and teaching in the Prussian ministry of the interior
in 1809/10. Founded the University of Berlin in 1811. Advocated, among other things,
the unity of research and teaching at the university; Arthur Schopenhauer (1788
1860), philosopher; Johann Gottfried Herder (17441803), Protestant theologian and
philosopher. Herder is considered one of the pioneers of historism. On Hegel, see
above, p. 132.
360 documents
literary form. He is an abiding figure within the history of the humani-

ties in Germany as writer of history, biographer and essayist. Yet he
also plays an important role as a politician and political journalist.
With regard to the classical liberalism among whose champions and
pioneers he must be included, he already exercised an influence on his
era as a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly and later as edi-
tor of the Preussische Jahrbcher. The study of his character touches on
political contexts and issues which help us understand contemporary
realities. By carefully combining research methods and problems in
political, intellectual and social history, this account, which aims to
bring out changes in the character of the system of culture as a whole,
extends from its biographical point of departure to include an analysis
of the system of liberal ideas. While revising traditional evaluations, it
casts a critical light on how this system of ideas collided with political
realities, with the basic questions of our national existence and process
of becoming a nation state, beyond the revolutionary era of 1848 and
up to the beginnings of the reactionary period.
[. . .]
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Rosenberg
15. 5 December 1933: Friedrich Meineckes (Berlin) testimonial49

on Hans Rosenberg, for submission to the Academic Assistance
Council in London
NL Rosenberg 33
To the Academic Assistance Council in London
I would like to recommend most warmly Herr Dr. Hans Rosenberg,

until recently a lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Cologne.
After his authority to teach in Cologne was withdrawn because of
his non-Aryan background in line with the new civil service law,
he is compelled to seek an academic career abroad. He is one of the
49
Handwritten testimonial signed by Meinecke. Rosenberg received a mainte-
nance grant from the Council from June 1934 to the end of July 1935. The Academic
Assistance Council was founded in May 1933 on the initiative of William Beveridge
to support German scholars forced into emigration.
students closest to me, and I believe him to be a particularly gifted

researcher who has already achieved a good deal and promises to
make an important contribution in future. He started out with stud-
ies of Rudolf Haym and the intellectual and political currents of the
19th century, produced an exemplary edition of Hayms selected cor-
respondence50 on behalf of the Historical Commission at the Munich
Academy of Sciences and has now completed his studies of Haym
in a monograph that has just appeared in the supplements to the
Historische Zeitschrift.51 Further, on behalf of the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission), he has been working for
five years on a Critical bibliography of national political journalism
from 1859 to 1866, which will attempt to provide an account of the
endlessly complex currents of the national movement during this era
on the basis of thousands of pamphlets, journals, etc.
Rosenberg is, I believe, the right man to take on such a task, which
requires not only tremendous diligence, conscientiousness, a nose for
little-known sources, etc., but also [word illegible] intellectual qualities,
a feeling for the intellectual background of all political will, the power
to see every small and isolated element within a broad context. Apart
from his monograph on Haym, a number of published essays on the
history of specific 19th-century problems also display this combination
of great learning and rich material with subtle, penetrating interpreta-
tion. Of much interest to me recently was another essay that has just
been published on the world economic crisis of 18571859.52 Beyond
his interests as pursued so far, which have lain within the humanities,
here he demonstrates his training in economic history. To combine
intellectual history, political history and economic history to create a
coherent method is a great and productive ambition. I sincerely hope
that fate might grant him the opportunity to realize it.
Fr. Meinecke
50
Hans Rosenberg (ed.), Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel Rudolf Hayms, Stuttgart/Berlin/
Leipzig 1930.
51
Hans Rosenberg, Rudolf Haym und die Anfnge des klassischen Liberalismus,
Munich 1933.
52
Hans Rosenberg, Die zoll- und handelspolitischen Auswirkungen der Weltwirt-
schaftskrisis 18571859, in: Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 38 (1933), pp. 368383. This
essay was a forerunner of Rosenbergs book on the world economic crisis of 1857 to
1859.
362 documents
16. 29 January 1934: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear Dr.,
The Fisk Teachers Agency in Chicago asked me for an academic ref-

erence. I am sending it off today and hope to have composed it in
such a way that it is of real use to you. There is little I can do for you,
but I do it with great pleasure. So it saddens me all the more that I
must return your lecture to you.53 As I was thinking of publishing it in
the next issue, I read and considered it again carefully and have real-
ized that it is no longer acceptable for the H.Z. I could only explain
why in person. But I must add that even academically I endorse your
views only partly. I feel that there is too much one-sided criticism, too
little empathy for the positive internal forces of the opposing parties,
and too much about the external dynamics of the parties process of
regrouping.
I noticed the same difference in our views when reading your excel-
lent book on Haym as well. It is very well thought through, has a richly
independent take on tortuous problems and is highly stimulatingbut
at the point where the criticism of the Erbkaiserparteis (party favour-
ing the Prussian king as KaiserEmperorby inheritance)54 stance in
1848 begins, I can no longer go along with it. The party could in no
way have acted otherwise if it wished to remain true to its ideals, and
you generally fail to appreciate, I believe, the amount of natural con-
servative sentiment that secretly lives within it and within right-wing
liberalism in general. Even if the party came to grief because of this
senno senza forza (Campanella) is still better than forza senza senno.55
53
This refers to Rosenbergs unpublished inaugural lecture, which formed part of
his habilitation, on Die Epochen des parteipolitischen Liberalismus in Deutschland
(Periods of party political liberalism in Germany); see above, p. 69. Meinecke was
initially against printing the lecture in the HZ as he thought it too political, and sug-
gested publication in a more general periodical. On 8 February 1933 he wrote to
Rosenberg: In light of the changed circumstances, however, I would like to pub-
lish it after allyou understand. But he requested that Rosenberg tone down some
overly general conclusions and acknowledge the presence of spiritual values among
the opposing forces as well (NL Rosenberg 33).
54
The Erbkaiserpartei, to which Haym belonged, was on the right wing of German
liberalism.
55
Wisdom without power is still better than power without wisdom. Tommaso
Campanella (15681639) was an Italian theorist of the state imprisoned by the
Spaniards for twenty-seven years. Among other things, he wrote the famous utopia
I grew up in this conservative world, and although I have outgrown it, I

know the values that it entailed. Around 1848, the people too were still
largely so conservative-minded, the miles perpetuus56 was so implicitly
superior, that the kind of revolutionary politics that you imagine the
Erbkaiserpartei might have pursued would also have come to grief. The
fate of our nation is and remains simply tragic. I believe, as you have
intimated, that you will be able to find a place for the article elsewhere.
You will easily eliminate the minor changes that I began to insert here
and there in the text to bring it into line with the H.Z.
Many thanks for re-addressing my letter to Holborn. I think of all of
you with constant concern and hope so much for your advancement.
With very best wishes,
Your
Friedrich Meinecke
I would be very grateful if you would send me the next quarterly

report57 in early March, as 14 March is the annual meeting of the HRK.
[Historische Reichskommission or Imperial Historical Commission].
As long planned, I will then resign from the chairmanship, but retain
the report on your work.
17. 17 April 1934: Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches, Surrey,

England) to Friedrich Meinecke58
NL Meinecke 39
Among the many anxieties by which I am currently troubled is that

concerning the speedy publication of my critical bibliography. It is
The City of the Sun (Citt del sole), of 1623. Campanellas ideas, particularly his central
concern with how, in addition to wisdom without power, to gain the power neces-
sary to create the combination of power, wisdom and love for which he yearned,
are explored in depth by Meinecke in his Staatsrson (Werke, vol. 1, pp. 106138, esp.
114f; English title: Machiavellism. Epping 1984).
56
The regular soldier.
57
Rosenbergs quarterly reports on his work for the Imperial Historical
Commission.
58
Note by Meinecke at the end of the letter summarizing his reply of 2 May: after
checking we can print the ms. if everything proceeds as normal. Number of folios
should be indicated to expedite negotiations with the publishers.
364 documents
quite crucial to my plans for the future. In light of this, would you
be so kind as to let me know, in accordance with the decisions of
the annual meeting of the H.R.K. [Historische Reichskommission or
Imperial Historical Commission], whether I can expect the printing
to begin as soon as the manuscript has been submitted?
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg
18. 30 June 1934: Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches, Surrey,

England) to Friedrich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
The final stages of the work on the critical bibliography have pro-
gressed according to schedule in the period under review. As a total of
880 pages of the final manuscript have now been completed, I expect
to be able to send you the whole manuscript, as planned, in the first
few days of August, with the exception of the introductory chapter and
indices. I very much hope that the negotiations with Oldenbourg have
led or will soon lead to a satisfactory conclusion, so that the printing
can commence shortly.
As far as my prospects of a new sphere of activity in England are con-
cerned, Im afraid everything is still up in the air. Attempts to find me
a lecturing post at the University of Birmingham or Manchester, which
seemed very promising at first, sadly came to nothing. Ultimately, the
chances of a permanent appointment in this country are still van-
ishingly small. To begin by making greater personal contact with our
English colleagues, I have got in touch with the Institute of Historical
Research at the University of London. It is not beyond the realms of
possibility that this will eventually lead to a teaching position. Once
my bibliography is finally finished, should the problem of material
survival be more or less resolved, I shall devote myself to research on
17th- and 18th-century British History. However, as my situation is
unclear as regards both the material and inner dimensions, I am of
course unsure as yet what will become of my plans, if anything.
With best wishes for your wellbeing, I remain with grateful

respect,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg
19. [August 1934]: Hans Rosenberg to Friedrich Meinecke59

NL Meinecke 39
[want to] complete the corrections despite this of course. As far as

my commercial and financial relationship to the H.R.K. [Historische
ReichskommissionImperial Historical Commission] is concerned,
the way things stand it is by no means the case that after submitting
the outstanding introductory reflections I would merely be engaged
in proofreading. As well as completing the corrections, I also have
to prepare and complete the indices. While completing the index of
journals will not take long, far more effort will be involved in drawing
up the index of names and authors. As this is a source book, I feel that
an index merely showing names and page numbers is insufficient. In
order to be able to assess the individual texts and place them in his-
torical context, it is imperative to add brief biographical notes to the
names listed in the index, in so far as these are not already contained
in the individual titles. I will of course have to consult a large num-
ber of reference works to this end. My plan for the final stages of the
project is to combine the proofreading with compilation of the indices;
as you have already underlined, I would be paid in line with the same
principles as have applied hitherto.
One question that still needs to be resolved is that of the title of the
work as a whole. According to the contract, it is a Critical bibliogra-
phy of national political journalism from 1858 to July 1866 (Kritische
Bibliographie der nationalpolitischen Publizistik von 1858Juli 1866).
I have regarded this title as purely provisional from the outset and,
having considered the problem at length, would, if I may, like to pro-
pose the following version: National political journalism in Germany
from the beginning of the New Era in Prussia to the outbreak of the
59
The first page of the letter is missing from Meineckes papers according to infor-
mation obtained from the Secret State Archive (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preuischer
Kulturbesitz) on 24 October 1988.
366 documents
German War. A critical bibliography (Deutschlands nationalpo-

litische Publizistik vom Eintritt der Neuen ra in Preuen bis zum
Ausbruch des Deutschen Krieges. Eine kritische Bibliographie).60 In
my opinion, the important thing is to come up with a title that conveys
the factual content as exactly as possible while still being pleasing to
the ear, in such a way that the interests of the author, editor and pub-
lisher are all accommodated. As it has become increasingly common
to choose the kind of title typically used for interpretative accounts
even in the case of such source books merely containing copies of
documents, I do not believe it would be immodest for my work, which
entails a certain interpretative element, to be given a corresponding
title.
I hope you wont feel disappointed when you read the manuscript.
The preliminary report provides information about the principles
that have guided me in my work. As I had to complete my study at
an accelerated pace in accordance with orders from above, in terms
both of its content and external form it is not quite what it would
have been under more normal circumstances. Had I wished to fully
achieve my goal, I would have to have spent another year on the study.
As this was impossible in present circumstances, I have had to make
do with this solution and come to terms with it, though with a heavy
heart. Very generally, I would merely like to remark that it was not
easy to bring the complex material to life through the rigid form of a
critical bibliography. A straightforward account would actually have
better fitted my inclinations and, I would like to believe, my abilities as
well. As I was charged with this study on the basis of your trust in me,
my primary concern is to satisfy you. I will not deny, therefore, that it
would be very hard for me if you were to be dissatisfied with my work.
Thank you so much once again for everything you have done for me.
Yours faithfully
Hans Rosenberg61
60
The final title was: Die nationalpolitische Publizistik Deutschlands vom Eintritt
der Neuen ra in Preuen bis zum Ausbruch des Deutschen Krieges. Eine kritische
Bibliographie. On the publishers ideas about the title, see Rosenbergs letter to the
Oldenbourg Verlag of 21 August 1934, below p. 367f.
61
Meinecke made the following notes on a sheet enclosed with the letter: 16/8
agreed with Oncken 1. Send to members of the Imperial Historical Commission allow-
ing six weeks for responses 2. Payment of fee until Nov. incl., from then on he should
20. 21 August 1934: Hans Rosenberg (Carshalton Beeches, Surrey,

England) to Oldenbourg-Verlag
As far as the title of the work is concerned, the following version

has now been chosen in agreement with the Imperial Commission:
National political journalism in Germany from the beginning of the
New Era in Prussia to the outbreak of the German War. A critical
bibliography (Die nationalpolitische Publizistik Deutschlands vom
Eintritt der Neuen Aera in Preussen bis zum Ausbruch des Deutschen
Krieges. Eine kritische Bibliographie.) With respect to the wishes
expressed regarding the form of the title in your letter of 13 June this
year, I would, if I may, make the following remarks: the key thing was
to find a title that did equal justice to the interests of the author, editor
and publisher and which was, therefore, both melodious in its exter-
nal form while conveying the factual content as precisely as possible.
I do not believe it would be possible to find a title that better meets
these requirements than the one above. In itself it would no doubt be
desirable to replace the word journalism [Publizistik] with the word
literature, if the terms were identical, which unfortunately they are
not. As far the titles temporal delimitation is concerned, an objection
to the term New Era is unfounded in as much as, in accordance
with writings on Prussian-German history generally acknowledged
hitherto, only the period from 1858 to 1862 is viewed as the so-called
New Era. Strictly speaking there have no doubt been a whole number
of new eras within Prussian history, which, however, have nothing
whatsoever to do with the so-called New Era. Neither do I believe
that it would be clearer to use Prussian-Austrian War rather than
German War. First of all, it is simply the case that this war tends to
live on in the historical memory as the German war and, second, in
reality, it was of course not a war between just Prussia and Austria,
but one in which the small and medium-sized German states and Italy
played an active role. This war is known as the German War because
virtually all the German states were directly involved in it and because
indicate the actual amount of time worked, 6 hours = 1 working day. To be paid later
in line with our current regulations. Eventual deduction for working hours of less than
six hours in the months since Sept. 3. Title Die Nationalpolitische Publizistik Dtschl.
Thank you for your work on 24/8, ms. sent to Oldenbourg.
368 documents
it largely settled the so-called German question, that is, the problem
of Germanys unification as a nation state.
I for my part am also very grateful that you have decided to publish
the book despite the destitution of our time. In truth, there is practi-
cally no historical subject of greater contemporary relevance than the
one discussed in my book. Though the basic questions of Germanys
destiny are examined here only in the form of a source book, as Herr
Meinecke has already acknowledged of his own accord this is a source
book of an entirely novel typethe first of its kind.
Yours faithfully
21. 9 September 1934: testimonial from Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin)

on Hans Rosenberg
Herr Dr. Hans Rosenberg, who habilitated at the University of Cologne,

has been compelled by the Aryan laws to seek a new life and academic
career abroad. I wish him every success with this, for I consider him
among my most capable and promising students. His initial interests
lay in intellectual history and he chose to study Rudolf Haym, the
great exponent of a national liberalism in the mid-19th century. Both
through an exemplary edition of his correspondence, on behalf of the
Munich Historical Commission, and his recently published mono-
graph on Hayms development up to 1850, he has shown the ability to
appreciate the life of an important individual within the overall intel-
lectual and political context.62 I do not agree with all the views set out
in these studies, but nonetheless consider them among the most pen-
etrating and informative contributions to the history of ideas in the
19th century produced over the last few years. His sound knowledge
of philosophy is also evident in his introduction to the new edition
of Hayms great work on Hegel.63 But Rosenberg has gone beyond
intellectual history. In order to attain a deeper understanding of the
19th century, he has also grappled with studies in social and economic
62
See above, p. 67.
63
Rudolf Haym, Hegel und seine Zeit. Vorlesungen ber die Entstehung, Wesen und
Werk der Hegelschen Philosophie, 2nd edn., ed. by Hans Rosenberg, Leipzig 1927.
history. His recent writings in the field are again distinguished by vig-
orous research that gets at the heart of things.
His most extensive academic work is still in manuscript form. It
is the critical bibliography of political journalism in Germany from
1858 to 1866, which he prepared on behalf of the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission), with my guidance, from
1928 to 1934 and which has now been sent to press.64 Those members
of the Imperial Historical Commission whom I have asked to inspect
parts of the manuscript share my opinion that here an exceptionally
difficult problem, requiring excellent instincts and a great deal of care-
ful selection, has been solved in such a way as to produce a very sig-
nificant enrichment of our view of the will and thought of the German
nation at the time of the Empires foundation. A deft approach man-
ages to avoid the tedium of a mere bibliography. Both hefty volumes of
the work are always stimulating and often even exciting to read. I am
quite sure that what we have here is a standard work on the history of
the Empires foundation that will henceforth be indispensible. I hope
it will help smooth the authors path through life.
Professor Dr. Friedrich Meinecke.
22. 19 November 1934: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans

Rosenberg
NL Rosenberg 33
Dear Herr Dr.,
Im delighted that the printing of the bibliography is progressing so

rapidly and that we can therefore expect it to be published in the near
future. As far as your introduction is concerned, it has been a head-
ache for both me and Herr Oncken. You yourself write that you had
a hard time with it. It isnt quite there yet in a literary sense. If only
you could break up all of your informal, confusing and convoluted
sentences into four short, powerful and lively ones! Please dont be
offended at this deep sigh from your old teacher. We took less excep-
tion to the content, but even it would automatically gain a more pow-
erful and tangible form if you were to change the prose.
64
See above, p. 366.
370 documents
But we came to the conclusion that such an introduction is not

absolutely necessary for the publication itself.65 It will have an impact
on the reader in its own right anyway, just as it already had a very
pleasing effect on the gentlemen who read the various parts of the
manuscript. It occurred to me that you might rework your introduc-
tion, as an essay advertising the book, for publication in the Hist.
Zeitschr.. In this case, you would have to take due account of the needs
of the H.Z.s readers as well as their situation at present. In principle
I am quite prepared to include such an essay in the H.Z. and would
have written to you some time ago had I myself not been waiting to
discover whether my editorship of the H.Z. is to continue.66 I have
been waiting for the publishers decision for several weeks and have
yet to receive it. The thing is, the publisher is also dependent on other
factors. Should they decide to keep me on, I will let you know and ask
you to rewrite the introduction as an essay.
Congratulations on the fellowship. Lets hope that gives you a
more solid basis. Perhaps you might come to Berlin when you are in
Germany? Many thanks for your concern for my wellbeing. In fact,
despite the general process of getting older, Im faring not too badly.
Please send the index of journals directly to Oldenbourg.
Best wishes,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
65
Nationalpolitische Publizistik was finally published with merely a preliminary
report (Vorbericht) but no introduction. The unpublished eleven-page manuscript
entitled Zur Einfhrung in Rosenbergs papers (vol. 95) deals with the development
of journalism on the German question in connection with the great political problems
of the time: the world economic crisis of 1857 to 1859, the war fought by Piedmont
and France against Austria in 1859, the new era in Prussia, the army and constitu-
tional conflict in Prussia, plans to reform the Habsburg Empire, the German-Danish
war of 1864, the dualism between Austria and Prussia. The social agents of journalism
and the development of the great schools of thoughtliberalism, conservatism, politi-
cal Catholicismas well as the material interests underpinning the different views are
also discussed.
66
After Meinecke was ousted as editor of the HZ there was of course no longer any
prospect of such an essay. Rosenbergs work was not even reviewed in the HZ.
23. 27 August 1935: William L. Langer67 (Annisquam, Mass.) to

Hans Rosenberg
NL Rosenberg 32, letter in English
My dear Dr. Rosenberg,
I recently received a letter from my friend Professor Redlich68 telling

me of your desire to come to this country and your hope of finding
some academic position. I am glad, therefore, to have received from
you a list of your publications and the letters of recommendation of
men like Meinecke, Ziekursch, Gooch and Webster.69 When you do
arrive in New York, I hope you will get in touch with me. I shall be in
Cambridge at that time and shall be very happy indeed to make your
personal acquaintance.
With regard to finding a position, I should not be frank if I did
not warn you that this will be very difficult, even if the Emergency
Committee70 is willing to supply the funds to pay your salary for two
years. Professor Redlich must have told you how tight things are on
this side of the water. This year we have had rather better luck than
in the past years in placing the younger men who finish their work
at this university, but there has been such an accumulation and so
few positions, that many really good men found it impossible to get
work or were obliged to content themselves with very inferior posi-
tions. Of course, German scholars have found places here and it may
be that something suitable for you will turn up. I shall certainly do my
utmost to be of assistance, but I hardly know where to turn, the more
so as I have long since exhausted the possibilities of which I knew.
67
William L. Langer (18961977), leading American historian, who produced
important studies, especially on the history of international relations before 1914.
Professor at Harvard from 1927 until his retirement in 1964. Langer was the key con-
tact for many German historians persecuted by the National Socialists who attempted
to acquire a post in the USA. He was also head of the Research and Analysis section
of the Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) from 1942 to 1945, in which a large number of
German migrssuch as Meineckes students Holborn and Gilbertwere employed.
Special Assistant to the American Secretary of State in 1946. See also above, p. 44f.
68
See above, p. 348f.
69
Sir Charles Kingsley Webster (18861961), famous British historian and influ-
ential adviser to government departments and international institutions. Professor in
international relations at the London School of Economics from 1932 until his retire-
ment in 1953. President of the British Academy from 1950.
70
The Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German (later Foreign) Scholars
in the United States. See above, p. 257.
372 documents
Painful though it may be to you, I ought also to say that there is not a
little anti-Semitic feeling here. It goes back a long time and is not the
result of recent developments. But we have always had great difficulty
in placing young Jews in academic positions. We have here now a
young Jewish scholar of unusual brilliance, who is working in the same
period as yourself, but with reference to French intellectual and social
history. Despite his undoubted ability we have as yet been unsuccess-
ful in finding him a position. I mention this merely to indicate to you
that the possibilities in this country are distinctly limited. If you feel
nevertheless that you wish to come, it goes without saying that I shall
exert myself to the utmost to assist you.
Sincerely yours,
William L. Langer
24. [1943]: Hans Rosenbergs outline for a work on the Junker71

NL Rosenberg 1, copy in English
This project has crystallized in my mind under the impact of the war.
Its primary objective is to give a thoroughly integrated picture of
the economic, social, political, administrative, military and ideologi-
cal role that the Junkers have played in German history from the era
of east-Elbian colonization to the present. As to methods of research
and presentation, the study is and will be strictly academic in charac-
ter and, consequently, based essentially on primary sources, such as
the medieval and modern Stndeakten, the Acta Borussica, the Acta
Brandenburgica, the Publikationen aus den Preuss. Staatsarchiven,
and the Deutsche Geschichtsquellen des 19. Jahrhunderts.
A secondary though vital short-run objective of the project, consists
in stimulating thought and developing a proper historical perspective
with regard to that crucial chapter of post-war reconstruction which
concerns the future status of the Junkers. They, after all, represent the
71
Undated typewritten copy of a research plan by Hans Rosenberg. This plan was
part of an application either for a research grant from the Social Science Research
Council or a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In a
letter from the Social Science Research Council of 23 March 1943, Rosenberg received
a contribution of $500 to complete his book on the Junker. He held an eighteen-
month fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation from 1945 until early 1947. The
dating of the document is based on the reference to the essay mentioned in fn. 73.
only governing class produced by Germany that has retained an

almost unbroken record of preeminence in public life for the last five
hundred years.
The study is subdivided into four chronological units of uneven
length. Topical analysis prevails within each unit.
The first and longest part traces the complex social and ethnic ori-
gins of Junkerdom and its functional position in society from the
eastern frontier movement to the middle of the seventeenth century.
This part puts emphasis on the emergence and further growth of the
Junkers as a landowning aristocracy and their gradual transformation
into a squirearchy through the conquest of political power and pub-
lic administration in consequence of processes of feudalization. In
addition, this first part describes and explains the economic and social
institutions of Gutsherrschaft, i.e. the entrepreneurial leadership of the
Junkers in the development of a system of agrarian capitalism, espe-
cially during the period of the Price Revolution.
In the era of dynastic absolutism and dynastic state-making under
the Hohenzollerns the Junkers of Brandenburg-Prussia, replenished
by immigrants of Germanic, Slavic, and French origin, passed through
a psychological revolution. The second part (ca. 1660 to 1807) of the
project, therefore, will stress the emergence of a new mentality, new
loyalties, a new conception of social ethics, and a new esprit de corps.
As to the institutional manifestations of this process of change, par-
ticular attention will be paid to the role of the Junker class in shaping
the organization and the spirit of the newly created instruments of
Prussian militarism and the Prussian bureaucracy, both of which were
used for political expansion in an eastward and westward direction.
The third part (18071918) will concentrate on the concessions
and adjustments which the Junkersin their triple capacity as a mili-
tary and bureaucratic office-aristocracysaw themselves compelled
to make in clashing with the principles and developing institutional
fabric of modern nationalism, liberalism, constitutionalism, industrial
capitalism, socialism, and imperialism.
The last part (since 1918) will sketch the post-war recovery of the
Junkers, through the Reichswehr, the bureaucracy, the Landbund, and
the organized exploitation of political, social, and economic tensions.
The concluding section of the project will draw particular attention
to the Junkers fateful sacrifice of the traditional idea of the Rechtsstaat,
and their continuing moral and ideological reorientation under the
Nazi system.
374 documents
The project differs from similar work done by myself or by others

in two fundamental respects. It represents the first attempt made so
far by anybody to write a continuous history of the Junker caste and
class from their beginnings to the present. In the second place, the
project aims at total treatment in the sense that it integrates the diver-
sified functional activities of the Junkers in German History, i.e. their
fluctuating group-career not merely as landed rentiers or agricultural
and industrial entrepreneurs, but also as army officers, public admin-
istrators, politicians, and moulders of social values. With regard to
the method of analysis my intentions, roughly stated for the sake of
brevity, come nearest to what Caroline F. Ware has termed the cultu-
ral approach to history.72 I would not venture such an ambitious
attempt if I had not devoted most of my research conducted during
the past eighteen years to different phases of central-European history.
Moreover, on account of almost ten years of continuous residence in
England and America I believe to have developed a sharpened sense
of intellectual distance and a broad perspective which, I think, adds to
my qualifications for the comprehensive job of revaluation.
The work already completed includes
(1) the collections of all data needed for the writing of the history of
the Junkers down to the early 18th century,
(2) the collection of part of the materials concerning developments
since the early 18th century,
(3) the writing of several drafts covering the history of the Junkers
down to the middle of the 17th century. A large section of one of
these drafts, entitled The rise of the Junkers, 14101653 (ca. 40
45 pages in print), has been recently accepted by The American
Historical Review for publication.73
72
Caroline Farrar Ware (18991990), American historian and social activist in
the New Deal era. Taught at the Vassar Womens College and later at the American
University in Washington, D.C. Edited the book The Cultural Approach to History,
New York 1940, to which some of the leading American historians contributed. This
was an attempt to make the social reality of life, especially industrialization and work-
ers experiences, the focus of historical analysis rather than institutions and social
elites. C. Ware was later chief editor of vol. VI of the History of Mankind sponsored
by the UN. Cultural and Scientific Development, vol. VI by Caroline F. Ware, K. M.
Panikkar and J. M. Romein: The Twentieth Century, London 1966.
73
Published under the title: The Rise of the Junkers in Brandenburg-Prussia 1410
1653, in: AHR 49 (1943/44), pp. 122, 228242. He concluded his application with a
bibliography of his writings and provided four references (Dr. William R. Gaede, Dean
25. 24 July 1944: Hans Rosenberg to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
Dearest darling,
[. . .] The Junker insurrection74 is surely the beginning of the end. Even

you will now be convinced that the war will be over this year. The col-
lapse of the German army from within, quite apart from the devastat-
ing military defeats, is already well underway, and with the bloodbath
that Hitler is likely to carry out, he is also writing the final chapter
of my book.75 Of the two questions with which I concluded my two
essays on the Junker,76 the first has already been answered in part. The
rest will follow in the next few months. And next summer or autumn
you will certainly be able to travel to Europe again.
As far as citizenship77 is concerned, essentially, one really ought to
look at these things from a purely practical point of view. With an
American passport and American currency, the world will be your oys-
ter after this war. Thats the flipside of emigration. An American court
itself recently ruled that the acquisition of citizenship does not entail
the moral obligation to become an American patriot, but merely the
obligation to respect American laws. In terms of my political persua-
sion, I myself have been a democrat since I was twenty years old, so I
have no need to change my attitude in America in that regard. And
narrow-minded, bigoted political nationalism, whether of the German
or American of English variety, is equally odious to me. In terms of
my cultural affiliation, I am German and always will be. It is ultimately
no coincidence that over the last five years, after learning the language
and adapting myself to some extent to the American college business,
of Faculty, Brooklyn College; Dr. Jesse D. Clarkson, Professor of History, Brooklyn

College; Professor Guy Stanton Ford, American Historical Association, Library of
Congress; Dr. J. Salwyn Chapireau, Professor Emeritus of History).
74
Reference to the failed assassination attempt on Hitler of 20 July 1944.
75
Rosenbergs planned book on the Junker.
76
See above, p. 374. At the end of the essay, Rosenberg concludes that the Junker
had outwitted the German liberals of the 19th century, the Hohenzollern in 1918,
the Allies in 1918/19 and the Social Democrats and the Weimar Republic and asks:
Will they be able to outwit the Nazis? And if so, will they be able to outwit again the
German and the non-German enemies of the Nazis? (p. 242).
77
Rosenberg obtained American citizenship in 1944.
376 documents
I have devoted myself once again chiefly to the study of German his-
tory and culture and tried to render the German Problem more
comprehensible to educated Americans and Englishmen.
And from 1947 on I am thinking of going to Europe more often
again. This is by no means a fantastical notion. The travel costs will
go down dramatically within a few years, and one will be able to live
splendidly on the continent for 2025 dollars a week. Apart from that,
Im convinced that my book will bring us a few hundred dollars per
annum for a number of years.
[. . .] With love and an affectionate kiss good night,
Your
Hans
26. 6 May 1946: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 39
From Professor Fay in Harvard and Dr. Felix Gilbert I have learned
that you have been living a life of quiet seclusion in Gttingen these
last few months. I have often thought anxiously of my old teacher and
his loved ones during the terrible years of war, and I am of course
extremely glad and relieved to know that you and your closest rela-
tives have survived the pandemonium in relatively good shape. All of
our own relatives are still alive, apart from our only nephew, who fell
two years ago.
If we disregard the mental distress, neither my wife nor I have suf-
fered directly from the war. It has been quite clear for many years,
and really right from the outset to anyone with any understanding,
that the terrible leadership would meet a terrible end. So I have had
a long time to think about the social and political forces of the post-
war Germany to come and this has led me to study German history
intensively once again. Apart from a series of shorter studies which I
have published in England and America since 1939, these efforts have
produced a book that will likely be published next year under the title
The Prusso-German Junkers: A History of a Social Class. I have been
on leave for a year, and it has just been extended to February 1947 to
allow me to complete the book.78 This study is a sociological history of

Junkerdom from the Middle Ages until 1945; in other words, it is my
scholarly and ideological contribution to the democratic restructuring
of Germany. As dreadful as the situation over there is and will prob-
ably remain for years to come, should the occasion arise I would be
willing to return to a German university, though I have had lifelong
tenure as professor here in New York since 1941.
My wife will travel to Germany as soon as she gets the permit from
the State Department. Theres very little chance of me myself making
it over before summer 1948. How lovely it would be to see you and
your dear wife again after all the long years!
With the very best wishes from my family to yours,
Yours faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg
27. 12 June 1946: Friedrich Meinecke (Gttingen) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
I was delighted to get your news, and such good news, in your letter
of 6 May,79 which I received yesterday. All my relatives and I have also
made it through all the terrible events of the last year in pretty good
shapebut all of us have suffered, in terms of internal and external
values, and continue to live under the greatest of pressures. That you
would take up an appointment in Germany is very brave. If I am asked
I shall mention your name. Though everything is in such a state of
chaos that I rarely get such opportunities. At the moment I am severely
impeded by cataracts and the difficulties of having them operated on.
Your planned book relates to one of the most basic and central issues
of modern history and a burning one at present, that of the values and
inner justification of Prussia-Germanys unique development amid the
78
Reference to the Guggenheim fellowship that Rosenberg held from mid-1945 to
early 1947. See above, p. 372.
79
See above, p. 376f.
378 documents
overall development of the West. I myself have written a little book on

The German Catastrophe,80 which will be published in the near future
(by F. A. Brockhaus in Wiesbaden), in which I tried to say at least a
few things in broad outline about this subject. Above all, I avoided
an opportunistic black-and-white account that sees certain things in
a wholly negative light and others in a wholly positive one. Sidney
Fay managed to avoid this, much to my delight, in his little history
of Brandenburg-Prussia.81 On the other hand, there can be no doubt
that we must take a far sterner view of the negative aspects of Prussian
Junkerdom than hitherto. I hope you manage to write a genuinely his-
torical, truly impartial assessment of Prussian Junkerdom.
Fontanes Altersbriefe82 would be of much use to youalways, of
course, in connection with his roots in his native soil, to which his life
so clearly attested.
We are about to return to Berlin-Dahlem, where our house has
remained largely intact. It would be lovely if your wife, and perhaps you
as well eventually, were to visit us there! Though an eighty-three-year-
old must cherish such hopes only with an inherent sense of resignation.
Best wishes,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
Addition by Frau Meinecke: Dear Frau Rosenberg! How happy I am

to send the two of you my warm regards. Perhaps you will make it to
Dahlem again as our guests. We dream of going back homeit is as
difficult as if we wanted to emigrate! Weve been through some very
hard times and have become quite poor. My husband is advancing in
years but is still amazingly sound of mind. Come to Berlin, come and
stay with us. It will be simple but you will be well received.
Your
Meinecke
80
See above, p. 71.
81
Sydney Bradshaw Fay, The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786, New York 1937.
82
For Fontanes Altersbriefe, see: Theodor Fontane, Werke, Schriften und Briefe,
section IV: Briefe, vol. 3: 18791889; vol. 4: 18901898, Munich 19801982.
28. 28 November 1946: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans

Rosenberg
NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
The arrival of the CARE package you sent to us was a source of quite
unexpected joy and relief to my family and I. Thank you so much!
Who among us, fifteen years ago, would have thought that you would
do us such a good turn all the way from America and that we would be
so moved and grateful to accept it! But what hard times you yourself
had to go through before attaining your present position! It is mar-
vellous how, in every event of our daily lives, no matter how small,
one perceives the stamp of tremendous world historical events and the
dawning of a new historical era.
Certainly, I too am having a hard time of it at the moment, and Im
also burdened with deteriorating sight (cataracts) and hearing. And yet,
along with my family I still feel utterly privileged in light of the appall-
ing fate suffered by countless Germans at present. Our house survived,
though it was damaged. All our children and grandchildren are alive,
and Im still surrounded by my bookswith the exception of the very
best of them, which I wanted to save. Despite being eighty-four, I am
now trying to do a bit of teaching for the university in the shape of a
historical colloquy in my own home. I dont know whether you have
received my work The German Catastrophe, which I wrote last year.
If not, I shall try again to make it available to you. I was delighted to
receive a lengthy letter from Frulein Dr. Wieruszowski.83 Should my
reply fail to reach her because of the almost illegible address, would
you please be so kind as to pass on my heartfelt thanks.
Your Nationalpolit. Publizistik 1859/6684 is constantly on my desk
at the moment as it is one of the basic texts for my colloquy. Bit by
bit, the German journalism of the 19th century in its entirety will now
have to be dealt with on this model in order to attain a deeper under-
standing of the development of public spirit in the 19th century.
With best wishes,
Yours gratefully,
Fr. Meinecke
83
See Helene Wieruszowskis letter to Meinecke of 11 August 1946, above, pp. 324326.
84
See above, p. 67f.
380 documents
29. 5 January 1947: Hans Rosenberg (New York) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
Before I had a chance to thank you for your warm letter from
Gttingen,85 I was delighted to hear from you again from your old
house in Berlin,86 though we were of course extremely sad to hear how
much you and yours have been affected by the general state of misery.
The reason it has taken me so long to get in touch is that unfortunately
I have been very unwell over the last few months. This has caused ter-
rible disruption to my research plans, and I have ceased to write any
letters at all. But Im feeling better now and I hope to be able to catch
up this year on those things I neglected last year.
Your ears really must have been ringing eight days ago. For a whole
number of your old students came together at the annual conference
of the American Historical Association: Holborn, Gilbert, Gerhard,
Baron, Wieruszowski, and yours truly. Rothfels was also expected from
Chicago, but he had to cancel at the last minute. We talked about you
a great deal and thought about you with grateful loyalty. My old friend
Anderson told me many things both happy and sad about his visit to
Dahlem.87 It will please you and must be a source of great satisfac-
tion that all the Meineckians have gradually established themselves
within American academic life. Frulein Wieruszowski, who had some
particularly hard years behind her, has been a successful and widely
respected member of my department for two years. Gilbert has been
working at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania since October. Masur
will shortly be taking up a post at Sweet Briar College, a little girls col-
lege in Virginia. Im sure hell move on from there before too long.88
85
Meinecke to Rosenberg, 12 June 1946, see above, p. 377f.
86
Meinecke to Rosenberg, 28 November 1946, see above, p. 379.
87
On Anderson, see above, p. 342. There are three letters from the 19471950
period in Meineckes papers (no. 1) in which Anderson thanks Meinecke for letters
and for sending him his books and essays and states that he will be sending him
CARE packages. He also offers to get Meinecke any books he might need. In a letter
of 12 October 1947 he informs Meinecke that he had left his government post, sold
his house in Washington and had taken up his earlier profession as historian with his
appointment to a chair at the University of Nebraska.
88
Despite the offer of chairs in Tbingen and at the Free University of Berlin and
numerous visiting professorships, Masur taught at Sweet Briar until his retirement
Each of us, and each in his own way, has followed his own path, with-
out forgetting how greatly indebted we all are to you and how much
you have given us.
I recently read the first volume of your memoirs.89 I obtained a copy
through an old friend, who managed to send it to me through one
of my former students. It was of course very moving to read it and
it helped me understand better many aspects of your lifes work. Im
afraid I never received the copy of The German Catastrophe you had
earmarked for me. I have a burning interest in this book for both per-
sonal and intellectual reasons. Should you have a spare copy available,
I really would be much obliged if you would be so kind as to get it to
me. There should be an opportunity to do so in the near future. For
towards the end of January or beginning of February you will receive
a visit from a former student of mine, a Herr Ralph Spritzer, who is
currently working for the American military government in Berlin and
who has already served as intermediary for us on many occasions.
Since spring we have heard from our relatives and old friends in
Germany on a regular basis. All are victims of the collapse in one way
or another and more or less dependent on supplies from America. It
makes us happy to be able to help relieve the hardships of everyday
life a little. But we are particularly grateful that you permit us to send
you and yours a tangible greeting from so far away from time to time.
Incidentally, how do things stand with the smoking? Do you still
smoke cigars exclusively, or have you come to an arrangement with
the pipe? Pipe tobacco would be the easiest thing to send, particularly
from spring onwards, as it is available here in hermetically sealed tins
and thus keeps its aroma.
All of us have been deeply impressed by the fact that you have
resumed teaching despite your advanced age and poor health. I must
admit, I am very pleased that my Nationalpolitische Publizistik, which
was hushed up under the Nazis, has found favour in this context. I
hope you will live to see the completion of my study of the Junker
and that it will meet with your approval. It is the first substantial study
produced by the Meinecke students in America. Im currently working
on the thirteenth chapter. I hope to finish the rest of the book during
in 1966, where he also served as chairman of the department of history from 1957
to 1965.
89
Friedrich Meinecke, Erlebtes 18621901, Leipzig 1941. Reprinted in: Meinecke
Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp. 3134.
382 documents
the coming long summer holidays. My teaching job here demands

so much time and energy that its not always easy to concentrate on
research or writing. To give you an idea of the books structure, I have
taken the liberty of copying out the table of contents overleaf.90
With best wishes and warm regards to your dear wife,
Your
Hans Rosenberg
30. 31 January 1947: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Harry D.

Gideonse91
NL Rosenberg 65, in English
Dear Mr. President,
It is with a strange mixture of elation and uneasiness that, upon the

expiration of my leave of absence, I respectfully submit to you a report
on the work accomplished and not accomplished during the past year
and a half. My feeling of uneasiness stems from the fact that, contrary
to expectations, I am not ready yet to deliver the goods. My sense of
elation, on the other hand, is sustained by the inner certainty that after
prolonged strife I have actually overcome, with a comforting degree of
success, the cardinal intellectual and methodological obstacles imbed-
ded in my project.
Until the late spring of 1946 progress was almost according to plan,
except for the failure of keeping up with the time schedule which I
had set myself. Throughout the early part of that year, although dimly
90
Rosenberg enclosed the plan for his book on the Junker in his letter, which
is largely identical with the plan included in Rosenbergs letter to the president of
Brooklyn College of 31 January 1947 (see below, p. 384f.).
91
On the first page of the letter, signed by Rosenberg, he has added the words: the
original draft. Harry D. Gideonse (19011985). Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands,
he went to the United States in 1904. Studied economics at Columbia University in
New York and at the University of Geneva as a graduate student. After teaching eco-
nomics at various American universities, he became chairman of the department of
economics and sociology at Barnard College of the University of Columbia. President
of Brooklyn College in New York from 1939 to 1966. Later chancellor of the New
School for Social Research in New York until 1975.
aware of, but not yet seriously perturbed by, an undercurrent of doubt
in the back of my mind, I was indeed under the impression, pleasing,
as it were, while it lasted, that I had passed the hump. For that fatal
delusion, in months to come, I paid dearly in sweat and tears. In
retrospect, as I see it now, the real trouble started in dormant form
as early as the late fall of 1945 when I began to write about the nine-
teenth century. Taken off guard by the fact that my knowledge of that
century, relative to that of any other historical period, is more detailed
and thorough I felt somewhat cocky about the remainder of my job.
Hence, when plunging into the analysis of an increasingly intricate sec-
ular process of social disintegration I woefully underrated the baffling
subtleties inherent in the study of nineteenth century society. I simply
did not envisage the traps and difficulties which I was to encounter.
Moreover, by that time I was already embarking upon a race against
time. In good faith I had committed myself to completing my book
until February 1947. This psychic pressure acted both as a stimulant
and a deterrent. It functioned as a stimulant by tempting me to go
ahead without a sufficient degree of preliminary patient reflection. In
consequence, to go on more or less meant to drift along. Measured by
results, it was plain folly to attempt a short cut by making a bargain
with the devil, symbolized by the seductive principle of speed-up in
the work of the mind. Only slowlytardiness, in good part, being due
to mental fatigue which had set in the meantimedid I grow con-
scious, first, of the possibility, then, of the probability and, finally, of
the certainty that I had chosen the wrong road. Only reluctantly did
I pay attention to the recurrent appearance of symptoms indicating a
gradual breakdown of the unity of thought which, by and large, I had
managed to maintain previously. Thus, only by degrees did I come
to face the fact that what I was doing was becoming dull, pointless
irrelevant; that it ceased to be suggestive and interesting; that the
tools of analysis which I was employing were too crude and nave for
the tricky task in hand; in short, that my handling of the subject mat-
ter was too amateurish, if gauged by the exacting standards of a good,
historically-minded sociologist (rare as that species still is, whatever
the glories of its future). The ultimate recognition of having reached an
impasse, of the need for a fresh start and the adoption of an essentially
different scheme of organization and integration for the last 150 years
was, believe me, a very unhappy, an almost exasperating experience.
Midway, after having lost the self-inflicted mental battle of the bulge
I was forced to turn back and to marshal all my resources before I
could set out again under a new course.
384 documents
The focus of my study is concerned neither with the history of the

state or any other institution, nor with the history of an idea, but with
a social group in the whole complexity of its historical evolution. My
fundamental problem, therefore, was to work out a method of analysis
and scheme of synthesis which fits both my material and my objectives
without imposing a fanciful pattern of thought upon social reality. As
seen in long-run perspective, my Junkers have proved the most cru-
cial, the most influential and, by force of the wide range and functional
diversity of their historic activities, perhaps the most intriguing seg-
ment of German society. To make the fluctuating career of such a group
understandable, a group which in unbroken continuity for more than
half a millennium performed strategic social functions, calls, among
other things, for an attempt to contrast it, at least on the side line, with
comparable social strata in other European countries. To have moved
in the direction of such a comparative treatment, largely by implica-
tion, constitutes, in my own estimation, a distinguishing feature of
my study which in its present and, as to all essentials, ultimate form
is organized as follows:
THE PRUSSO-GERMAN JUNKERS

A HISTORY OF A SOCIAL CLASS
PART ONE
The Formation of the Junker Class, 12001653
Ch. I Social and Ethnic Origins of the East German Nobility92

II The Transformation into a Political and Administrative Oligarchy
III Junker Entrepreneurship and the Rise of Agrarian Capitalism
IV The Great Depression of 16181650 and the Compromise of 1653
PART TWO
The Differentiation of the Junker Class, 16531806
Ch. V The Impact of Dynastic Absolutism upon Social Stratification
VI Prussian Militarism and the Army Service Nobility
VII Prussian Bureaucracy and the Civil Service Nobility
VIII The Squirearchy of East Elbia
IX The Emergence of an Intellectual and Artistic Junker Elite
92
East Elbian Nobility was the phrase used in the plan enclosed in Rosenbergs
letter to Meinecke of 5 January 1947 (see above, pp. 380382).
PART THREE
The Transmutation into a Modern Social Class, 18061914
X Secular Trends of Class Consolidation and Disintegration
XI The Social Crisis of 18061815
XII The Broadening of Class Structure, 18151848
XIII The Dilution of Aristocratic Status, Outlook and Way of Life,
1848191493
Epilogue
XIV The Downfall, 19141945
As for the present status of my project, I am now in the midst of

Chapter XIII. The rest of that chapter, together with the Epilogue, I
expect to complete during the summer of 1947. Thereafter, a certain
amount of final revision and polishing up will still have to be done
until I feel ready to turn over the manuscript to the publisher.
That is, in brief, where the matter rests. Not an altogether satisfac-
tory situation, to be sure. Yet, all things considered, the outcome could
have been worse. The whole adventure might easily have ended in
disaster. Instead, there is now the near prospect of a happy ending.
This gives me, I cannot deny, a feeling of elation. I am not returning
to school with empty hands. I wont have to face my students either
with the barren shabbiness of an intellectual bankrupt or with the pre-
posterous claims of a swaggering charlatan. I clearly realize that I did
not accomplish as much as I had hoped to accomplish. I also know
that my finished product will be far from perfect. Still, I am not dis-
heartened. I have done all I was capable of doing, and I am indeed
confident that my study will be recognized by serious reviewers and
serious readers as a non-emotional contribution, however small, to
permanent knowledge and as a step toward better social and interna-
tional understanding among men of good will.
I am inclined to close this official report in a personal vein. As you
know, I spent about half, in fact, the more impressionable half of my
adult life in Europe and the other half in North America. My book,
as it stands, is an organic outgrowth of this eye-opening inter-conti-
nental experience as a whole. My research project is closely linked to
93
In the draft plan sent to Meinecke there are two chapters before the epilogue:
XIII The Dilution of Aristocratic Status, Outlook and Conduct, 18481879; XIV The
Restabilization of Aristocratic Society 18791914.
386 documents
the perennial puzzle of the German problem, which only too often
has been studied either in morbid self-absorption or under the wob-
bling impact of political passions and moral wrath. In the light of the
course of events since 1933 the German question, more than ever, is
of world-wide concern. I have been drawn to this confusion of faces
at a time when the German Janus found its most sordid expression in
history, and when it was quite uncertain whether the designs looming
underneath its ignoble head would clatter down in ruin or provide the
world with a new Leitmotiv. Since then the anxiety and the nightmare
of those trying years have largely faded away. But the yearning for
finding out more about the whence and whither of the turmoil that
has come to all of us not only has remained; it has gained in force.
I find it worth my while to attempt the historical dissection of an
old-established aristocratic ruling class and to trace its twisted course
through social life from birth eventually down to the bitter end, has-
tened, as it were, by the reckless, frantic, tipsy alliance with a group of
fraudulent political gamblers, tossed up by the incidents of fate in the
age of the fleeting masses. To a certain degree, my study is intended to
be a kind of case history. As such, it is founded on the deep-rooted
conviction that the search for truth as much as the impelling need for
re-education, a need which, although differentiated, is nonetheless
both eternal and universal, demand a deliberate assault upon national
boundaries of the mind and on the various brands of nationalist
complacency and self-glamorization. By virtue of being aware of my
mobile background and of the problems of social disorder, brought
home to me by the temporary loss of personal security and stability, I
am prompted by the conscious desire to serve sine ira et studio, if at
all possible, as a mediator and interpreter of the conflicting valuations,
real and fancied, of different national cultures.
My outlook is no longer that of an emigrant. By degrees I have
acquired the mentality of an immigrant who has taken roots in the
land of his adoption. How much so became crystal clear to me half
a year ago when siren calls from the other side urged the natives
return. I am profoundly grateful to the United States, to Brooklyn
College, the Department of History and its students for what they have
done for me, both in an external and an inner sense. At the same
time, however, I do not consider it a disloyal attitude if I endeavour
in a humble and restrained way, to remain faithful to what I value as
the fruitful kernel of the German university tradition which, however
gleamed or perverted in recent years, has made no trifling contribution
to the common treasures of western civilization. In all fairness to my
old academic masters, now dead, maimed, or halfstarved, it must be

said that it was the magic of that, to some extent, transplantable tradi-
tion rather than stirring intellectual events at Brooklyn College which
furnished me with the major incentive to tackle a bigger and more
difficult job than I had ever ventured to handle before. Obviously,
from its successful completion, now no longer an empty dream, I will
derive considerable personal satisfaction. And as I do not hold a preju-
dice against money, the slim eventuality of a modest commercial
success, if it were to materialize, would strengthen, not weaken my
sense of gratification. But, whatever the rewards in the quest for the
fulfilment of personal aspirations and self-seeking interests, I am also
conscious of something else which promises to affect our college com-
munity more directly. Aided by the Social Science Research Council
and the Guggenheim Foundation, I have been privileged enough to
join hands with those of my colleagues, who are bent on demonstrat-
ing that Brooklyn College is not only a good teaching institution, but
also a place where significant work in the social sciences beyond the
Ph.D. level is and can be conducted.
Naturally, after a lengthy period of seclusion, introspection, and
lonesome mental stock-taking I have now reached the point when I
look forward again to direct association with alert, suspicious, inquisi-
tive, bewildered young students, hardened and matured by grim con-
tact with the social cataclysm of war and its ugly aftermath.
Sincerely yours,
Hans Rosenberg
31. 12 February 1947: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
I was really delighted to receive your dear, detailed letter of 5 January.94

How nice that you were able to get together with my other old migr
students! And how wonderful that all of you have managed to gain a
position within the academic life of the U.S.A.! I am especially pleased
that Masur is now also in the U.S.A.
94
388 documents
Herr Ralph Spritzer says he will come to see me tomorrow. I shall

give him this letter and a copy of The German Catastrophe and the
little volumes on historical meaning and aphorisms to take along with
him, which were published during the war.95
Youve already showed your willingness to help us out once before.
Indeed, as things stand, with all the deprivation and hardship, we
accept with heartfelt thanks the gifts we have received out of human
feeling and kindness. You asked me whether I had taken to smoking
a pipe,yes, I have, and would be very grateful to receive the tobacco
you plan to send. It is in extremely short supply here.
Overall, fate has been infinitely kinder to us than to millions of oth-
ers who have lost practically everything other than their bare lives.
In the dreadful cold that heaven has imposed on Europe as an extra
punishment, life and work have become even more difficult for an old
man like me, with all the aches and pains of old agebut this suffer-
ing must come to an end at some point, and there are sufficient inner
consolations to keep ones spirits up.
I often think of the difficulties that you and your companions in
misfortune had to face when you were compelled to leave Germany.
Though pressure from the Party blunted the impact of your National
political journalism (Nationalpolit. Publizistik), it was well-regarded
and appreciated by the experts. Have you had a chance to read Srbiks
very appreciative review, I think in the Mitt. f. sterr. Gesch.?96 He also
makes a lot of use of your work in his four-volume German unity
(Deutsche Einheit),97 and you were also much used by the last biogra-
pher of Bismarck, A. O. Meyer, whose c. 700-page book I am currently
reading and getting quite a lot out of,98 but which will be unavailable
to you because the greater part of the print run has been destroyed. As
a Junker, Bismarck is portrayed through rather rose-tinted spectacles,
but one can still learn many new details of his character.
95
Reference to the following books by Meinecke: Die deutsche Katastrophe,
Wiesbaden 1946; Vom geschichtlichen Sinn und vom Sinn der Geschichte, Leipzig 1939;
Aphorismen und Skizzen zur Geschichte, Leipzig 1941.
96
Srbiks review in: Mitteilungen des sterreichischen Instituts fr Geschichts-
forschung 50 (1936), pp. 501504.
97
Heinrich Ritter von Srbik (18781951), Deutsche Einheit. Idee und Wirklichkeit
vom Heiligen Rmischen Reich bis Kniggrtz, 4 vols., Munich 19351942. The Greater
German Srbik believed in a German mission to provide the peoples of Central Europe
with a new, just political order. A conservative nationalist by background, he sup-
ported Nazi policies and showed anti-Semitic tendencies in his historical writing.
98
Arnold Oskar Meyer (18771944), Bismarck. Der Mensch und Staatsmann,
Leipzig 1944.
I am very curious to see your book on the Junker. A topic worthy of

the most intensive examination on the basis of the highest of scholarly
standards and the need for truth. How typical that Fontane could love
these Junker while at the same time seeing through them and criticiz-
ing them in the sharpest of terms. His letters contain a great deal on
that. Your plan for the book is very much to my liking.
My warm regards to Frulein Wieruszowski, whose last letter I
answered some time ago.
And my best wishes to you yourself.
Gratefully yours,
Fr. Meinecke99
32. 11 June 1947: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
Your second charitable package arrived yesterday and again filled us

with amazement, joy and gratitude. I am very touched by your self-
sacrificing loyaltyand particularly touched by the generous gift of
tobacco which will give me many pleasant and stimulating hours of
quiet reflection for a long time to come. For my sins I once wrote a
few lines on this subject, which I include overleaf as a small symbol of
my deep gratitude.
With any luck you will have received my letter of 12 Febr.100 We
have escaped from the prison of winter since then and the sun is
shining once againyet on the horizon of the world itself we still see
nothing but the most dense and threatening of clouds. Many here are
panicking about the prospect of war. I myself am struggling not to, but
do regard the situation as very serious. No-one wants war. I pray that
this sentiment prevails.
I am increasingly aware of my age because of my ever declining
sight and hearing, but I can still read and work a little, though at a
99
A large ink stain renders Meineckes postscript of 13 February only partly leg-
ible: Mr. Spritzer and his friend came yesterday evening and brought [. . .] new chari-
table gift so lavish that we are quite overwhelmed. Our heartfelt thanks!
100
390 documents
much slower pace, and recently gave a talk at the Academy on Ranke
and Burckhardt, the published version of which I will hopefully be
able to send you soon.101 I would also like to send you the reprint of
my Entstehung des Historismus,102 which has now been published, but
am unable to do so as yet. Or perhaps you know a way of sending it?
My warmest wishes and thanks,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
Today I long reflected

Oh, hows the spirit so deflected.
Its ascent to ethereal
Leads always through material.
Caffeine and nicotine
Have oft to give it wing.
So the great Jakob [sic] Burckhardt,
The spirits high warden,
Found cigars and coffee
Essential to his creativity.
In truth, when could spirit ever be
Free of material reality.
Or does Gods breath wind
Through spirit and mind?
In a daze I often get
Over this universal secret.
However much the problem stays ripe
I still smoke my pipe.
Should shame make me glum?
Calmly I say: homo sum.103
101
Friedrich Meinecke, Ranke und Burckhardt, in: Deutsche Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Vortrge und Schriften, no. 27, Berlin 1948. Reprinted in:
Meinecke Werke, vol. 7: Zur Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 93121.
102
Friedrich Meinecke, Die Entstehung des Historismus, 1st edn., 2 vols., Munich
1936. 2nd edn. in one vol. 1946; English edition: Historism. The Rise of a New Historical
Outlook, London 1972.
103
Translation by Roger Chickering. The German version reads:
Lange dacht ich heute nach.
Ach, wie ist der Geist so schwach.
Immer nur durchs Materielle
Steigt er auf ins Ideelle.
Friedrich Meinecke
Koffein und Nikotin

Mssen oft beflgeln ihn.
Selbst dem groen Jakob Burckhardt,
Unsres Geistes hohem Burgwart,
War Zigarre und der Kaffee
Unentbehrlich beim Geschaffe.
Ja, wann wr der Geist wohl je
Frei von der Materie.
Oder weht durch Geist und Sinne
Gottes Odem mitten inne?
Ich gerate in Vertrumnis
ber dieses Weltgeheimnis.
Wie mich dies Problem auch kneife,
Rauch ich weiter doch die Pfeife.
Soll ich mich nun schmen drum?
Ruhig sag ich: Homo sum.
392 documents
33. 29 June 1947: Hans Rosenberg (New York) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
Im ashamed that its taken me so long to reply to your dear letter,

which meant a great deal to me.104 The past semester was, however,
exceptionally demanding. And I was constantly plagued by sleepless-
ness, so that I had to restrict myself to the fulfilment of my professional
obligations and put all private correspondence on the back burner.105
Its lovely to think that we were able to bring you and yours a little
pleasure in the midst of that terrible winter. Herr Spritzer will have
passed on our greetings to you again a few weeks ago. Im afraid the
rules have changed again, so that for the time being we wont be able
to send any kind of tobacco products. We sent a second CARE pack-
age in January that should have been delivered in March or April.
As the CARE organization sent us no acknowledgement of receipt, I
recently made enquiries about the parcel. So we may assume that it
will reach you very shortly, if you havent received it already.
I am of course much obliged to you for the books you sent me
through Herr Spritzer,106 all of which reached me in perfect condition.
I was particularly moved by The German Catastrophe. The strength of
the book, if I may be permitted to say so, lies in the diagnosis rather
than the cure. In any case it is astonishing that you managed to pro-
duce such far-reaching conclusions in your twilight years.
I hope to write the final two, very short chapters of my book on the
Junker over the summer. Whether I will manage to do so and how
they will turn out, depends largely on whether I manage to sleep more
or less normally. We all have our little crosses to bear!
Im afraid it is still quite uncertain when my wife will make it to
Germany. The regulations that currently apply make it impossible to
obtain a visa.
104
Letter from Meinecke to Rosenberg of 12 February 1947, see above, pp. 387389.
Meineckes letter of 11 June 1947 was obviously yet to reach Rosenberg.
105
Meinecke noted on the letter: Thanked him for the package on 11/6.
106
See above, p. 388.
I sincerely hope that, after the winter, which was terribly harsh in
almost every respect, you and your loved ones have had a chance to
recuperate a little over the last few months.
Very best wishes from my family to yours.
I remain always, in grateful respect,
Your
Hans Rosenberg
34. 27 November 1947: Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Leni Rosen-

berg
NL Rosenberg 33
Dear Frau Rosenberg,
I wonder if this will reach you before the year is out. I have succumbed
to the urge to include a German pamphlet107 that presents our cur-
rent perspective so precisely and paints such an accurate pictureand
which the two of you may get something out of as well. I also enclose a
photograph of my husband that may remind you, or rather your hus-
band, of him from time to time. It was taken in Salzwedelwithout
his knowledgewhen he had to sign his name in the towns honorary
book (Ehrenbuch). His old hometown arranged for a car to bring us for
a two-day stay (in August) to attend an official ceremony in his hon-
our. It was quite delightful and almost certainly our last journey. For
he is truly growing older every day now, not least as he hasmiracu-
louslyjust got over a serious bout of pneumonia. He was seriously
ill in bed on his 85th birthday and only Holborn, who had arranged
his tour through Germany in such a way that he could be here on that
day, popped in to shake his hand. Were now constantly being helped
107
As evident in Rosenbergs letter to Meinecke of 2 May 1948 (see below, p. 398),
the book in question is by the journalist and writer Ernst Friedlaender (18951973),
who emigrated first to Locarno then Liechtenstein in 1931 in response to political
developments in Germany. Returned to Germany in 1946 and was deputy editor of
the weekly Die Zeit until 1950. As one of the leading exponents of the idea of the
political unification of Europe, he was president of the Europa-Union Deutschlands
from 1956 to 1958. Probably a reference to his 1945 work: Das Wesen des Friedens.
394 documents
by the USAits quite odd how our lives are being propped up from
there. Prof. Pinson brought us to Dahlem,108 it was Americans that
held on to the house for us and then we received your quite unex-
pected material support, without which we would never have survived
these times, which have been indescribably more difficult for others.
And now the Epsteins, who really show such loving devotion and cir-
cumspection for all those in need, have provided us with penicillin.
This has saved my husbands life. We received a birthday cable from
the history department at Harvard with some words greatly honouring
my husband. And there on his bedside table with the gorgeous flowers
was your tobacco tin and the tin of coffee, which I had set aside for a
rainy day, and for which, through me, he now expresses his deepest
gratitude. Indeed, the coffee from all of you is a source of great plea-
sure for him twice a day, and every time he sings out his gratitude!
Hes long since back in his study by now and his pipe is in continuous
use, thanks to your devoted assistance. As he always says, Im not
going to be stingy when I have so little time left! All he now hopes
for is to be able to continue holding the colloquy and we hope he will
be doing so in nine days time. He has had the blue-covered volumes
by Humboldt at his side in bed at all times. He has long since worked
through them and has often said If only I have the chance to con-
vey Humboldt to the students as he lives in me. He has aged greatly
these past few weeks, walks with quite a stoop and very slowlybut
his mental vigour is still intact. I am truly grateful that he wants for
nothing: warm underthings, a warm suit, good food, good coffee, good
tobaccoall from the U.S.A.all thanks to his loyal students. How
blessed he is in his old age. The Mayor of Berlin (Friedensburg)109 has
asked him for an essay for the 18 March.110 Hes already delivered it.
Will this be his final work? Does your husband have the first edition of
Historismus? It has been reissued and, if he does not have a copy, my
108
The American historian Koppel S. Pinson, a friend of Meinecke, in Germany
as an officer in the army of occupation. Drove Meinecke and his wife back to Berlin
from Gttingen on 9 July 1946.
109
Ferdinand Friedensburg (18861972), politician and economist. Co-founder of
the CDU in Berlin after 1945. Became deputy mayor from late 1946 to early 1951.
Briefly acting mayor of Berlin, from 14 August to 1 December 1948.
110
The Revolution of 1848 erupted in Berlin on 18 March with unrest and fight-
ing in the streets. Meineckes essay 1848. Eine Skularbetrachtung appeared in the
Berliner Almanach, pp. 4477. Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 9: Brandenburg-
Preuen-Deutschland, pp. 345363.
husband would be happy to send him one.111 But how can we send it
to you? The best thing is for you to come and get it! There is a chance
of that happening this year. You must come and stay with us. Holborn
was in Berlin officially and was put up in good style. We can only offer
a bed in our attic room, but with the warmest of welcomes!
Our warmest wishes to both of you. How is your husband?
Your
Antonie Meinecke
35. 4 December 1947: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
Im ashamed of taking so long to get in touch. But I have often thought

of you and yours, and I was with you in spirit for your eighty-fifth
birthday. I hope you will forgive me if I send you my warm wishes
only today. Since the start of the semester Ive had literally no time to
think. To really understand this, you have to know the ins and outs
of the American college business. With fifteen hours of teaching a
week and an enormous number of student veterans, you have to draw
on all your strength and energy if you want to maintain the standards
youve set yourself.
I was recently offered an appointment as ordinarius and successor
to Ziekursch at the University of Cologne. I turned it down a few days
ago.112 It was not an easy decision, for despite the dreadful material
situation and political uncertainty, there are many reasons I would like
to return. Furthermore, I believe that the spirit lives on even amid the
ruins, or at least that it can be revived.
There is some chance that I might go to Cologne next autumn
for a semester. In any event, I plan to spend the summer of 1948 in
Europe. I will probably stay in England for two months to visit my
111
See above, p. 6.
112
See above, p. 75.
396 documents
elderly mother, who moved to East Anglia a few months ago. Ill go
to Germany as well for a few weeks if Im granted permission. And Ill
certainly make my way to Berlin, for it is extremely important to me
to see you again and to visit my old friend Martin Groppler in Berlin-
Waidmannslust.
My wife left for Germany in mid-October. Since her arrival, apart
from a telegram, Im afraid Ive heard nothing from her, for the postal
service has become very sluggish again. My wife has a residence permit
for thirty days. Should it be extended, she will also go to Berlin and
pass on my best wishes to you.
As yet I have no idea when I might complete my study of Junkerdom.
Last summer was so tropically warm that it was quite impossible to
think clearly, work briskly and get enough sleep. Im hoping that my
four weeks of winter holiday and next summer will take me a good
bit further.
Hopefully this winter will be less harsh and cruel than last year.
How hard it must be for all of you not to lose heart entirely. Most of
the letters I get from Germany paint a shocking picture.
My best wishes to you and your family for the New Year.
I remain as always your loyal and grateful

Hans Rosenberg
p.s. A pack of lard is on its way to your address. May I ask your dear
wife if she would be so kind as to sign and send off the enclosed post-
card once it has arrived?
36. 12 January 1948: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
In addition to all your other generous gifts, you have now sent us a
pack of lard as welleven while facing a hard struggle for your own
job. My sincere thanks. I hope we see each other again here and that
you come and stay with us. Only then will we be able to have a full and
proper discussion about all the great problems of our terrible times.
I had already discussed in depth and expressed my support for your
appointment to Cologne, which you told me about in your letter of
4 December,113 in conversation with the dean of Cologne University,

who paid me a visit, despite suspecting that you would have reserva-
tions. I understand these all too wellRothfels also ultimately turned
down the chair in Heidelberg. But a practical substitute is available in
the form of guest lectures, so I hope you will come and we will get to
see each other.
Thanks also for wishing me a happy eighty-fifth birthday. As I cel-
ebrated it I was still ill with pneumonia, but the penicillin donated
by the Americans here helped and gave me a little more time. And I
shall try to fill it as well as I can with my remaining capacity for work
and declining sight. My little colloquy with around ten students in my
own studywhich also has to serve as living and dining room for my
familygives me a fair bit of work but a great deal of pleasure. For
there is a tremendous need for intellectual support, for the most valu-
able of knowledge, among the better of our youth. The good German
spirit is still there, however abused and crushed, one of the few signs
of hope for a better future. Were going through W. von Humboldt at
the moment, who has a powerful affect on the young people, especially
through his early work on the limits of the efficacy of the state114
which is easy to understand today! At the request of the Mayor of
Berlin, before falling ill in October I wrote a short reflection on the
one hundredth anniversary of 1848115 for the planned commemora-
tion ceremony. Its currently in press and will show that I have tried
to learn from what we have gone through, without having been untrue
to myself as a result. Justice, including for ones opponents, no mat-
ter whether of the right or leftoffers the only prospect of achieving
scholarship that will endure into the futureeverything else is merely
[word illegible].
My earlier talk on Ranke and Burckhardt116 is also in press and with
any luck will soon be ready for dispatch. All printing is bedevilled
113
See above, p. 395.
114
Wilhelm von Humboldt, Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grnzen der Wirksamkeit
des Staates zu bestimmen, 1792, in: von Humboldt, Werke, ed. by Andreas Flitner
and Klaus Giel, vol. 1, Darmstadt 1960. This famous work by Wilhelm von Humboldt
is tackled by Meinecke in his Weltbrgertum und Nationalstaat, Meinecke Werke, vol.
5, p. 40ff.
115
See above, p. 17.
116
Ibid.
398 documents
by the dearth of paper, etc. An English translation of my Deutsche

Katastrophe, the third edition of which is already out of print, is appar-
ently underway at Harvard Press.117
My wife will write more to you.
With warmth and gratitude,
Your old
Fr. Meinecke
37. 2 May 1948: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 39
After you and your dear wife had already sent us a particularly moving
Christmas greeting (I am referring to the stirring little book by Ernst
Friedlaender),118 one week ago I also received your serene, wise and
penetrating reflections on the one hundredth anniversary of 1848.119
My most sincere thanks for this fine gift, which I value greatly. You are
the last living representative of several generations of great German
professors of history. It is nonetheless astonishing to see how, amidst
the inner and outer hardships and after serious illness, you still man-
age to see a critical chapter in our often tragic past in a new light.
And the day before yesterday I also read your deeply moving letter
to Mr. Ford, published in the latest issue of the American Historical
Review.120 It would scarcely be possible to express more beautifully
and profoundly in a few words what needs to be said about the posi-
tion and mission of history in our time.
My wife was very sad not to be able to go to Berlin. In fact, her trip
to Germany as a whole really took it out of her. After she had returned,
it took months for her to regain her physical and mental equilibrium. I
myself will leave for Rotterdam on 2 July. I plan to spend the best part
of the summer in France and England. But I will go to Germany for
117
The German Catastrophe. Translation by Sidney B. Fay, Cambridge/Mass.,
Harvard University Press 1950.
118
See above, p. 393.
119
See above, p. 17.
120
See above, p. 112.
two weeks in July. I had it all planned out so nicelyI would visit you
in Berlin and, after an interruption of fifteen years, have the chance to
talk to my hearts content once again with you, my dear old teacher.
But it seems very doubtful whether this dream will become reality,
as the cutting off of Berlin from the outside world has become a
bitter reality for the time being.121 During my brief stay in Germany,
I also want to get in touch with the University of Cologne. It is likely,
though by no means certain as yet, that I will go to Cologne as visiting
professor early next year, initially for one semester. Considering the
large number of student veterans, it is quite difficult to obtain leave
here. But I will keep at it and hope that the technical difficulties can
be overcome.
Kind regards and warmest wishes from my family to yours.
I remain as always your grateful

Hans Rosenberg
38. 10 September 1948: Hans Rosenberg to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
My darling,
[. . .] Mummy was very well-behaved throughout the week. Shes had

a good cry and expressed all her deepest feelings, so she is calmer and
more sensible now. Her nerves suffered terribly from the war, espe-
cially the bombing, and one must of course take this and various other
things into account in order to understand her oddities. Both mummy
and Thea122 are literally overwhelming me with their love. Their focus
is on the external things of course, as they have no or only very little
notion of inner needs.
Mummy bought me a lovely new tie and I treated myself to one as
well. But thats going to be it, as I have abandoned my plan to buy a
pair of shoes here. Practically everything here is very expensive and
of poor quality. Even if one changed the rest of the pounds at a poor
rate of exchange in New York, one would still be better off than if one
spent them on the junk available here.
121
West Berlin was cut off by the Berlin Blockade imposed by the Soviet Union. The
city was maintained by an airlift carried out by the Western powers.
122
Sister of Hans Rosenberg.
400 documents
[. . .] The essay Im working on is largely intended to earn money

and help meet the costs of the crossing next year. This is a very aver-
age reporting job of little literary merit. Its really not my thing at all
and demands a disproportionate amount of time and energy. And it is
anything but easy to reconcile the highly conflicting trends in German
society. I will probably finish the draft123 and be able to make a start on
revising it only during the crossing. I will then have to complete the
final revision during the first few weekends in New York.
And now to your question concerning the problem of remigration.
My stay in Cologne basically confirmed my expectations and calcula-
tions, apart from the fact that I found the material living conditions to
be far better than I had assumed. As far as the intellectual and political
meaning and purpose of professional life, within the context of ones
personal abilities, is concerned, an academic teaching post in Germany
offers a quite unique and unrepeatable opportunity over the next 10
to 15 years. Seen from this perspective, I now know even more clearly
than I did last winter that it was a fundamental mistake, and a betrayal
of my innermost convictions, of my better convictions, to turn down
the appointment in Cologne. I know, of course, that accepting it would
have meant a sharp drop in material living standards, at least for a
number of years. But whats the point of life if one subordinates it
solely or almost exclusively to utilitarian considerations?
[. . .] My very best wishes and a tender kiss from
Your
Hans
39. 11 September 1948: Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans

Rosenberg
NL Rosenberg 33
Dear colleague,
I was very glad to receive your friendly letter of 2 May124thank

you very much. I wonder whether your stay in Germany passed off
smoothly. What a shame you were unable to come to Berlin.
123
Probably a reference to an essay Rosenberg planned but never published on the
currency reform in Germany in 1948. The relevant manuscript, which runs to thirty-
two pages, is in Rosenbergs papers, vol. 100.
124
See above, p. 398f.
As you may know already, a new, free university is being established

here with American aid that will be highly dependent on visiting pro-
fessors. This might be of some interest to you!
Im still doing relatively well amid the incredible chaos that cur-
rently prevails in Berlin. I am still free to teach without restriction in
the little colloquy with students that I hold at home. But how dark and
imperilled our whole situation here is! At the end of the day I am still
hoping that the global crisis can be resolved positively and peacefully.
Or at least that the world can take a breather.
I delivered the enclosed lecture one-and-a-half years ago in the
Academy here.125 Would you be so kind as to forward the second copy
to Dr. Wieruszowski, whose address I am unable to find? And what a
great debt of gratitude I still owe you for the gifts of tobacco you sent
me, which continue to relieve the burdens of everyday life.
Best wishes,
Your
Fr. Meinecke
Addition by Frau Meinecke: The second copy went directly to Frl.

Wieruszowski, as did your copy.
40. 6 October 1948: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 39
As I gather from the lines from your dear wife that arrived today you
did not receive my brief letter from Cologne. Yes, I was in Germany,
though unfortunately only for two weeks. I spent the rest of the sum-
mer in France and England. For all sorts of reasons it was impossible
for me to come to Berlin and visit you this time around. Im sure I
hardly need emphasize how greatly I lamented and still regret this.
At bottom I am sad that you live in Berlin, for to be quite honest
for the past two years I have been convinced that the situation of the
Western powers in Berlin is untenable. It is entirely possible that the
125
Lecture on Ranke und Burckhardt, see above, p. 17.
402 documents
American and British occupation in Berlin will continue. But as far as

the political and economic control of Berlin is concerned, the Western
powers will not be able to hold out in Berlin, unless they are willing to
go to war, which I neither believe nor desire. For the poor Berliners
and the East Germans, the international and political situation has
tragic implications.
The chair in Cologne has now been occupied by Herr Schieder.126
Having satisfied myself on the spot as to how productive and benefi-
cial a teaching post at a West German university might and I dare say
would be, I believe it was a fundamental mistake to turn down the offer
made last winter. I already indicated to you that family considerations
played a decisive role in this. I do not believe I would say no again in
future, should another opportunity arise at a good German university.
Thank you very much for the fine gift of your Ranke und
Burckhardt.127 Once again I am amazed by your tremendous capac-
ity, both in the details and on a broad scale, to make old issues and
problems interesting and productive in a quite new and exciting way.
I shall take the liberty of sending you by regular mail a lengthy review
of mine recently published in the American Historical Review.128 It
is nothing of great significance, but will, I think, be of some interest to you.
During my stay in Germany everyone was talking about currency
reform. I committed some thoughts on this to paper, first and fore-
most for my own use.129 I also collected a great deal of material. I may
make an essay out of it.
I hope to spend the entire summer semester of 1949 in Germany
and, should circumstances allow, to go to Berlin. Please accept my
warmest wishes for your approaching birthday.
The very best wishes from my family to yours.
Your
Hans Rosenberg
126
Theodor Schieder (19081984), later a highly influential German historian of
modern history. Became chief editor of the Historische Zeitschrift in 1957 and was pres-
ident of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences from 1964.
127
See above, p. 401.
128
Presumably a reference to Rosenbergs sharply critical review of a book by
Ferdinand Schevill, The Great Elector, Chicago 1947, in: AHR 53 (1948), pp. 815817.
129
See above, p. 400.
41. 17 November 1948: Antonie Meinecke (Berlin) to Hans und

Leni Rosenberg
NL Rosenberg 33
Dear Frau Rosenberg and Herr Professor,
Once again you have blessed us with your kind gifts. We were thrilled
to open your lovely parcela marvellous source of comfort and sol-
ace for the hard times that may lie ahead of us. But youve sent us
provisions so faithfully and frequently that you must please stop now.
You have relatives to think about and were over the worst. Please
forgive my husband for not writing to you himselfthe dark days, the
long blackouts and the increasing problems with his vision exhaust his
eyes so utterly. He is also faced with new tasks that will amaze you.
He was delighted with your letter. The old ties with his students and
friends in America mean so much to him. He immediately passed on
your wish to hold guest lectures here to Prof. Redslob130 in the most
approving terms possible. We very much hope that you obtain a posi-
tion once things are running more smoothly at this newly founded
Free University. In any case we shall keep on pestering them and
reminding them about it. We see a lot of Herr Redslob. He is devot-
edly building up the Free University, where my husband has taken up
an honorary appointment. It was a momentous decision, but when
the new faculty of education approached him with some very Eastern
demands my husband declared that he was ending his association with
Humboldt University. You can imagine all the agitation this caused,
but he pursued his chosen course very firmly and without doubtsIm
proud of his strength and understanding of the overall situation, old
man that he is. Now the city administration, which is behind the new
university, and the students have strongly implored him to take on the
vice-chancellorshipjust to give the whole thing a baptismal bless-
ing. Pro-vicechancellor Redslob will take care of the business side of
thingsbut of course he has to have a general idea of whats going
130
Professor Dr. Edwin Redslob (18841973), art historian. As pro-vicechancel-
lor, he took care of the routine business of the vice-chancellors office at the Free
University, before formally succeeding Meinecke as vice-chancellor in 1949.
404 documents
on and think about new statutes and the opening ceremonies he will
have to speak at.131 Its all too much for an eighty-six-year-old really,
but even the old and especially the brave are needed in our burnt-out
Germany. They all come and see the old scholar with such implicit
faith, though he has no yearning for such honour and acclamation and
just wants to get on with working on his colloquy in peace. It will be
starting on Saturday, in our housemost of the students have seceded
from Humboldt University. The Free University is now accommodated
in the rooms of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and neighbouring villas,
and cinemas and auditoriums are being rented as wellthe students
are devotedly building up this, their creationbut there is still a long
way to go until it becomes a university. I mention this as it may be of
interest to you. We have dangerous times ahead of us. I wonder how
the elections will turn out.132 The results will of course be anti-Eastern.
What will the response be? Lets hope the Allied forces and the airlift
continue to protect us. People are living in dread of the winter. Theyre
chopping down the trees on the street and you cant get coal at any
price. Luckily I bought some last spring, so my husband always has a
warm room, but the house is cold. No-one has central heating with
the exception of those with special connections. But we want to make
it through in upright and respectable fashion. This is our hope. My
husbands decision may have consequences, but he has stuck to his
guns, which is what he truly wished to do.
All is well at home. Everyone has tonnes of work and gets on with
his tasks. Were all united in deep gratitude that we still have our
household head. His birthday was so splendid and there were won-
derful flowersas thanks for joining the university. When you look at
the writing desk a box of tobacco that you sent us can always be seen
in the background, an unfailing source of pleasure and solace. How
often he has expressed such thoughts.
131
Because of illness, Meineckes address had to be transmitted to the auditorium
by broadcaster RIAS at the universitys inaugural ceremony on 4 December 1948. It
appears in: Meinecke Werke: vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, p. 490f.
132
Reference to elections to the Berlin city council of 5 December 1948 in West
Berlin. The SPD received 64.5% of the votes, while the CDU and LDP took 19.4% and
16.1% respectively. Of a total of 98 seats, the SPD gained 60, the CDU 21 and the LDP
17. See Gerhard A. Ritter/Merith Niehuss, Wahlen in Deutschland 19461991. Ein
Handbuch, Munich 1991, p. 150. No candidates were fielded by the SED.
Our best wishes to you both. I wonder how you are doing health-
wise. How absolutely wonderful it would be if you were to show up
here! Thank you so much to both of you for your kind help.
Your
Antonie Meinecke
42. 15 January 1949: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 221
Dear Herr Geheimrat and Frau Meinecke,
Thank you so much for your letter of 17 November,133 which we

received fourteen days ago and still feel very moved by. Indeed, all
of us here who feel a close bond with you are deeply impressed by
the brave, direct and upright way in which you and your family, and
so many others that labour and are heavy laden in Berlin, are resist-
ing the Eastern demands. The fact that you, my dear Herr Geheimrat,
have made up your mind to place every last ounce of your strength at
the service of the Free University is a source of moral support and
guidance to your students and admirers in America. It may interest
you to know that people talked a great deal about you just recently
at the annual conference of the American Historical Association in
Washington, which revolved around the revolution of 1848. It is, I
think, quite impossible to foresee what kind of short-term solution
the Berlin crisis is heading towards.
There are probably just two possibilities over the long term: either
Berlin will absorb the Eastern Zone or the Eastern Zone will absorb
Berlin.
Im afraid I wont be able to go through with my plan to teach at
the University of Cologne with financial support from the Rockefeller
Foundation during the coming summer semester. Henceforth, the
Foundation will no longer contribute to the funding of visiting pro-
fessorships, as the War Department has now made funds available to
133
406 documents
this end. Of course only those German universities in the American

zone will benefit from these funds.134 Decisions on the selection and
appointment of visiting professorships are made not in Washington
but by the American central office in Germany. As far as the chain of
authority and recruitment preferences are concerned, the initiative lies
with the administrative sections of the German universities. Should it
suit the Free University for me to teach in Berlin during the coming
summer semester, then the university administration would have to
file an application to that effect with the
Chief,
Education Branch,
Education and Cultural Relations Division,
US Army,
APO 696A.
How wonderful it would be if I could see you again and talk to you
after sixteen long and fateful years! I hope the winter was and is just
about bearable. We are all fine. My wife has regained her old vitality
and happily I am now over the worst of a flu that was a great hin-
drance in October and November.
In old affection and loyal remembrance I remain,
With best wishes from my family to yours,
Your grateful
Hans Rosenberg
43. 9 April 1949: Hans Rosenberg (Brooklyn) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 39
I just wanted to dash off a few lines to tell you how much I am look-
ing forward to seeing you and yours again in about four weeks. We
134
Cologne was in the British occupation zone.
shall make the crossing on a British ship and are expected to arrive in
Cherbourg on 1 May. From there we shall immediately go via Paris to
Cologne, where I am thinking of staying with my brother-in-law (his
address is overleaf ) for one or two days. As I informed Pro-vicechan-
cellor Redslob yesterday, I would ask that instructions for the jour-
ney from Frankfurt to Berlin, planned for the 4 May, be sent to my
brother-in-laws address. My wife will initially stay with her family for
one month. Although theres no time left to clarify the practical details
by letter, we expect that the relevant Berlin authorities will permit her
to join me in Berlin from early June.
Thank you so much for all your efforts. I look forward to seeing
you soon.
Best wishes from my family to yours,
Your faithfully,
Hans Rosenberg
44. 11 November 1950: Hans Rosenberg to the Department of State,

Division of Exchange of Persons (Washington, D.C.)
NL Rosenberg 42, typewritten copy in English featuring handwrit-
ten corrections by Rosenberg
Gentlemen,
After having conferred with members of your Department in

Washington on September 21 and September 22, immediately after
my return to the United States, I take pleasure in sending you here-
with my written report with respect to my mission to Germany.135 On
135
In what was obviously a draft of the report, also of 11 November 1950, Rosenberg
writes with regard to the character of his mission: My mission was never offi-
cially defined. Furthermore, I never received any instructions from HICOG [Allied
High Commission for Germany], as implied in your Authorization of official Travel
which, incidentally, did not reach me before the end of July, i.e. almost six weeks
after my arrival in Berlin. As early as last February, I was informed by Mr. Howard
Johnston, Higher Education Adviser, Berlin, that his headquarters in Bad Nauheim
had transmitted to you a request for a travel grant which was to enable me to teach
in the Free University Berlin from the middle of May until the end of the Summer
Semester. Since the processing of this request took more time than expected and since
this delay, in my considered opinion, tended to jeopardize the very purpose of my
408 documents
account of various other commitments I have not been able to submit

this report to you at an earlier date. Please accept my apologies for
this delay.
Before I set out to describe my activities and to record some of the
impressions which I gained during the summer it must be said, for
the sake of perspective, that this was my third trip to Germany since
the end of the war. In June and July, 1948, after an intermission of
fifteen years, I revisited Western Germany in response to an invitation
from the University of Cologne. Aside from gaining on this occasion
some insight into the problems of the German postwar university, I
had the unexpected opportunity of observing on the spot the electri-
fying impact of currency reform just after its introduction. In 1949, I
went over for a period of four months. For three consecutive months
I served as Visiting Professor of Modern History at the newly estab-
lished Free University. When I returned this year I had, therefore, not
only a basis of comparison. I also had a practically tested and, conse-
quently, a more definitive conception as to how to go about re-educa-
tion and reorientation.
Sustained reflection about these matters conditioned, first of all, the
choice of my teaching program and the particular method which I
employed to reach my limited objectives. From June 16 to August 16,
I gave a lecture course (4 hours a week plus several hours of discussion
each week) on the history of Europe and the United States from 1918
to 1939. In addition, I conducted a research seminar which was made
up mostly of Ph.D. candidates.
German students who, like their teachers, have been shut off from
the outside world for such a long time obviously must acquire, criti-
cally ascertained knowledge and understanding of the immediate his-
toric framework of the complex and dislocated society in which they
live. How are they to overcome their emotional ressentiments, their
spiritual solitude, moral confusion and often muddled thinking, how
are they to face the facts unless they learn to comprehend, in rigor-
ously realistic terms, what has happened to them, to their nation and
to mankind at large, how it happened, and why it happened?
mission I finally decided to proceed on my own initiative. Hence I left for Berlin by
June 14, arrived there on the 15th, and assumed my self-imposed duties immediately
thereafter. I mention these facts merely in order to explain a somewhat anomalous
situation which impelled me to map out in my own way a string of activities whereby
a Specialist in History might hope to help to implement the foreign policy objectives
of the US Government in Germany.
The professional historians of western Germany today, except for a

bare handful of men, do not think it proper to pay serious attention
to the scientific study and teaching of contemporary history, broadly
conceived. This negative attitude which in its practical consequences
entails a rather irresponsible and complacent escape from the present
is, no doubt, in line with the allegedly non-political traditions of
the German university as they crystallized in the days after Schmoller,
Wagner, Brentano, and Treitschke.136 This aversion to take stock of the
disagreeable recent past has been strongly reinforced by the revulsion
against the Nazi regime which had bent its efforts though, on the uni-
versity level, only with limited success, to convert the writing and teach-
ing of history into the obedient political handmaiden of the Ministry
of Propaganda. Any attempt at appraising developments since 1918, if
not 1890, the year of Bismarcks dismissal from office, is regarded by
the average German historian as being necessarily distorted by sub-
jectivity and politics, ruling out the very possibility of a scholarly
inquiry. Moreover, there is nowadays among German professors a
widespread propensity to avoid touchy issues and thereby the dan-
ger of possibly getting again into personal trouble. Last, but not least,
formidable and not easily surmountable intellectual obstacles account
for this unwillingness to turn to a methodical study of the history of
the 20th century. Having been wrapped up in recent decades, whether
by personal inclination or by force of circumstances, in the more or
less isolated investigation of phases of their own national past, German
historians and the almost non-existing German political scientists
today simply do not know enough the development of the contem-
poraneous outside world in order to be qualified to offer a compre-
hensive and, as to factual knowledge, tools of analysis, interpretative
approach, and unity of thought, up-to-date course in 20th century his-
tory. Few in Germany are aware of the considerable amount of high-
caliber work which in this field has been accomplished by American,
British, and French political scientists, economists, sociologists, and
historians. And these few who are aware of it do not have as yet access
136
Reference to political economists Lujo Brentano (18441931), Gustav von
Schmoller (18361917), and political economist and public finance specialist Adolph
Wagner (18351917), who played a leading role in the Society for Social Policy (Verein
fr Sozialpolitik), founded in 1872, the most important organization concerned with
bourgeois social reform in the German Empire, as so-called lecture theatre socialists
(Kathedersozialisten). Heinrich von Treitschke (see above, p. 132) was an emphati-
cally nationalist political historian and Reichstag deputy who made a strong public
impact.
410 documents
to most of the foreign publications which they need as a prerequisite

to trying to catch up with the progress of scholarship in the West. It
is commonplace knowledge that particularly in the social sciences the
Germans have fallen far behind since the close of World War I. In this
crucial area the need for reorientation is most urgent.
By and large, in my considered opinion, re-education will no lon-
ger be served by applying external pressure to German thought and
behaviour. It is too late for that. Moreover, anything that has the odor
of imported propaganda or indoctrination, anything that is accom-
panied by the blowing of trumpets and the beating of drums almost
invariably meets with suspicion and resentment, hurts the resurgent
sensibilities of national vanity and thus makes it more difficult even
for the open-minded to see the light on their own accord. I did not,
therefore, consider it my task to plead, in general terms, for reform
and rethinking. I did not attempt to give guidance and communicate
ideas by telling my audience I am better than you; I have studied this
as you have not. Knowing a bit about the bewildered, embittered and
disillusioned state of mind of German youth and the inner reserva-
tions of the rather selfsatisfied bulk of German university teachers, I
am indeed convinced that a visiting professor from abroad, bent on
challenging the deeply ingrained misconceptions and prejudices of the
politically ill-informed or uninformed, of the emotionally unbalanced
and socially uprooted, is confronted with an exacting job. If he hap-
pens to be a social scientist and well-meaning ambassador of internatio-
nal understanding he may, in the given circumstances, do more harm
than good unless he makes a sustained, carefully prepared effort to
demonstrate, on the basis of a specific case study, what exactly it
means to have lived so long in an intellectual ghetto and political
prison. Proceeding on this assumption, I have tried in all sincerity
and with all the energy at my command to convert my main teach-
ing subject last summer into such a case study. Incidentally, it formed
a natural sequel of the lecture course on Strukturwandlungen der
europischen Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. 18501914 which I
gave in Berlin last year. In dealing with the European-American world
after 1918 I made an effort to acquaint my students with the diverse
lines of approach, the most fruitful methods and the basic findings
of western research in this particular field of study, hitherto a terra
incognita to them. I used every conceivable opportunity to show in
applied form how useful and indispensable the services are which the
social sciences can render to a scholarly appraisal of the major social,
economic, and political problems of the more recent past.
This year I had the good fortune of starting out at once with a core
of students who had become attached to me the year before. I am
happy to report that more than just a few among the more than 150
students who worked with me during the summer seem to have drawn
right conclusions from what I tried to convey to them by implication
rather than prescription. To a larger or lesser extent these responsive,
alert, impressionable, and earnest young people are beginning to see
more clearly that some of the most glaring shortcomings of present
day German historiography and university teaching in history must
be attributed to a type of training which, if not outright obsolete, at
least is no longer adequate. And indeed, the plain fact that in recent
decades most German history professors and university students of
history have received little or no instruction in the social sciences is,
in no small measure, responsible for the mental isolation and impasse
into which most of them have drifted. Hence the widespread narrow-
ness of outlook, the prevalence of immaturity of political judgement
and of a harmful spirit of political parochialism, the lack of insight
into the complexities of social processes, the often amazing ignorance
and naivet with reference to matters economic and technological, the
staleness and inflexible conventionalism in the choice of research top-
ics, the clinging to the old stuff in teaching. Obviously, it will take
several decades to break this vicious circle.
Most German students as I got to know them in Berlin are still
highly mouldable. Their loyalties are not yet definitely fixed. Potentially,
there is a good chance of winning over, under proper guidance, the
majority to a genuinely democratic way of life and to constructive
activities which are serviceable to voluntary international cooperation.
Especially the more enterprising and sober-minded among the war
veterans are quite eager to seek and to test new and better ways than
those which their elders have passed on or are passing on to them. It
is a relatively easy task to stir up a desire for reorientation, to help
to fortify an inner urge in this direction where it already exists and to
define and outline the specific objectives to be attained. Unhappily
enough, however, a guest professor from abroad, just because he is
only a passing visitor, can offer little enduring aid in making good
intentions and wishful thinking effectively translate themselves into
sustained action and practical deeds. Take for instance the situation of
those thoughtful students majoring or minoring in history who have
come to realize the pressing need for acquiring some up-to-date train-
ing in the social sciences for the sake of bringing a new lan and some
vitality into their professional work, present and future, of learning to
412 documents
critically analyze significant political and economic problems and of

developing a higher capacity for qualified civic leadership and improved
community service. Unless promising students of this kind enjoy the
privilege of being sent to America or Great Britain for a year or two
there is mighty little they can actually do within the traditionalist
German university system, as it stands today. A number of formidable
obstacles beyond the control of the individual impose serious checks
upon the most earnest effort. Most German university students and
particularly those at the Free University are a poverty-stricken lot who
can devote little or no time to intellectual luxuries. Many who as
soldiers and prisoners of war have lost many precious years of their
lives are impelled or, at any rate, feel obligated to streamline their
studies. Competition happens to be extraordinarily intense, and the
fear of arriving too late on the labor market interferes with the matur-
ing of thought and of convictions which are more than loose opinions,
superficially scraped together. Most of the history majors and minors
are prospective high school teachers. The high school teaching license
calls for a combination of history and language or history and geogra-
phy training. There is hardly any room for economics, sociology, polit-
ical science, and social psychology in their curriculum. Even if adequate
offerings in the social sciences are available, which is neither the case
in the Free University nor in most west German universities, history
students, under present conditions, simply do not have the time to
avail themselves of these opportunities. Their own history professors
are, with few exceptions, not social science minded. More or less set
in their old ways, either too old or intellectually too phlegmatic and
self-satisfied or too overworked with day to day tasks, they are not
particularly over-zealous to turn over a new leaf and to encourage
nonconformist tendencies among their students. And since these gen-
tlemen are used to replenish their ranks by cooptation down to the
point of designating, not infrequently, their own successors their grip
will not easily be broken. The inclination of the vast majority of
German history professors to look backward rather than forward is
typical of the prevalent way of thinking in the German academic world
today. Everything which is not in accord with pre-1933, if not pre-
1914, university traditions is looked upon with misgivings or even
meets with open hostility. Significantly enough the very moderate
proposals for university reform which the mixed English-German
commission under the chairmanship of Lord Lindsay worked out, in
1948,137 have been quietly buried in the files. There is, no doubt, in all
west German universities a small, vigil, courageous but isolated and
hard-pressed group of professors who know that the world shaking
events of the past few decades call for a readjustment of the social
functions of the German university, particularly with regard to its
public responsibilities and place in the community at large, its admin-
istrative organization, its curriculum, teaching methods and network
of professor-student relationships. Compared to institutions such as
Gttingen, Heidelberg, Bonn, Marburg, there is in the Free University
a larger percentage of self-critical teachers and scholars who clearly
realize that many features of the German university which, no doubt,
were admirable in the days of Wilhelm von Humboldt and, perhaps,
may have been good and adequate twenty or thirty years ago have
become deficient, outmoded or outright harmful at present. Yet, the
disconcerting fact remains that the influence of these men is weaker
now than it was a year ago. In the largest Berlin faculty, the Philosophical
Faculty, which I happen to know best the reformers are already
fighting with their back against the wall. After having arrived, the
great majority of the teaching staff seeks to enhance its reputation by
trying to cover up the stigma of belonging to an unconventional
parvenu university which, moreover, as many fear, in the end may
turn out to be just a stopgap university. Engaged in the struggle for the
speedy attainment of settled living and working conditions and very
much concerned about gaining recognition on the footing of equality,
most Free University professors, highly conscious of their precarious
position, do not cherish the idea, that professional colleagues in
137
Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, first Baron Lindsay of Birker (18791952), philoso-
pher and leading expert on the education system. Master of Balliol College, Oxford,
19241949, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, 19351938. Advocated the
admission of migr German scholars to his college. Adviser on educational issues
to the Labour Party and the Labour government, which awarded him a peerage after
the Second World War. In 1948 he became the most influential member of a com-
mission on the reform of the German university system made up mainly of Germans,
whose far-reaching proposals were not implemented. The commissions conclusions,
the so-called Blaue Gutachten, often wrongly described as the Lindsay Report,
was published by the British government: University Reform in Germany. Report by a
German Commission, London 1949. On the German response to the report, see Harold
Husemann, Anglo-German Relations in Higher Education, in: Arthur Hearnden
(ed.), The British in Germany. Educational Construction after 1945, London 1978,
p. 158173, esp. pp. 169171.
414 documents
Western Germany might look upon them as eccentrics. Hence the

drift into voluntary Gleichschaltung, generated by the great ambi-
tion to transform the Free University into an ordinary west German
university. Though only two years old and by virtue of its unique local
setting and its fresh start potentially qualified to play the role of a
pioneer in German higher education, the Free University, it seems to
me, is on the verge of loosing its original identity and purpose of exis-
tence, for the initial lan has largely petered out. If free university
merely means to be free from Russian domination and communist
party control, the so-called Free University is not more free than any
other west German university. However, the German and American
founders of the Free University envisaged an institution which indeed
should share this precious freedom with its west German sister institu-
tions but at the same time should be distinct from them by being more
free than they are from the dead weight of old-style German university
tradition. Of this spirit of liberty there is very little left in Berlin. And
this applies not merely to the majority of the professors but, unfortu-
nately enough, also to the bulk of the newly matriculated students,
especially in so far as the latter are recent graduates of the west Berlin
high schools. As life in general has outwardly become more normal
again in the western sectors of Berlin since the lifting of the blockade,
and, as for material comforts and political mentality, somewhat more
west Germanized, so the Free University, at an even more breathtak-
ing pace, has normalized its mode of existence. It is good to know
that the Free University has come of age. At the same time, however,
it is, perhaps, a bit alarming to note that the attenuation of external
pressures and material difficulties and the resulting acquisition of a
modest amount of security and stability threaten to nip in the bud the,
at the point of origin, strong possibility of making the Free University
function as a particularly noteworthy center of reorientation in the
realm of higher learning. The transition from hasty improvisations to
the working out of necessary routines of regular work has been accom-
panied by premature eagerness to mould the Free University in the
image of the timehonored German university pattern which, as a mat-
ter of the historic record, has failed to meet the pragmatic test in an
age of political turmoil, social fermentation, and moral confusion.
Clearly, in the course of the twentieth century the German universities
have on the whole retired more and more from any responsibility
towards what has happened.
While in Berlin, I did not confine my activities to teaching in the for-

mal sense. Aside from having many conferences with individual students
and small groups of students who worked under my guidance I had
innumerable conversations with various members of the Free University
community. I was in particularly close contact with two groups: with
those vigorous and often outstanding students who play an active role
in student self-government; and with those colleagues who seek encour-
agement and inner support because they are swimming against the cur-
rent stream. These intimate and mutually candid discussions served the
good purpose of airing an intertwined combination of personal, intel-
lectual, professional, educational, and political problems, linked to the
fundamental objective of reorientation and of making clear, in specific
terms, what American policy stands for. Whenever I associated with
German people, whether elderly, middle-aged or young, I made it my
business to approach them patiently, unassumingly, naturally, avoiding
argumentation in the abstract but not avoiding the manly expression of
clear conclusions. Finally, I tried to reach a wider audience by lecturing,
under the auspices of RIAS, over the university of the air.138
Since I had the opportunity of watching with a critical eye the
cross-currents of development in the Free University from the inside
I informally reported from time to time to E & CR BR [Education
and Cultural Relation Branch] officials in Berlin. I also conferred
with Dr. John Riedl in Bad Nauheim. People of good will at the Free
University have often complained to me that, aside from the Higher
Education Adviser, they hardly ever get a chance of meeting American
officials, of exchanging ideas with them, of learning from them what
exactly, in their considered opinion, democratisation would mean
in its application to the structure and daily life of the Free University.
Unquestionably, the strengthening of American influence upon the
Free University is largely a matter of human relations and of person-
nel. Government acts through human beings, and its quality is largely
judged by the caliber of its representatives. In a crucial and vulnerable
outpost such as Berlin it is, in the interest of the good cause, absolutely
essential that all those Americans who, as a matter of professional
138
Reference to the lectures Limits of historical understanding (Grenzen der
historischen Erkenntnis) and The changing nature of Marxism (Wandlungen des
Marxismus) broadcast by RIAS. The manuscripts are to be found in Rosenbergs
papers, vols. 108 and 106.
416 documents
duty, have to deal with the subtleties of educational and cultural

affairs are top-level performers and impressive personalities. The US
Government has been fortunate in having had in Mr. Johnston139 a
young official whose sincerity and humanity, simplicity and modesty,
selfless devotion and enthusiasm have earned him the admiration
and affection of the grateful bulk of the student body and the respect
of the reformers among the Free University professors. However,
it is not to be forgotten that the triangle of heavily inflated personal
self-esteem, social group vanity and national pride which in the case
of the average German university professor has made for a peculiar
sense of belonging to an aristocratic intellectual and social elite does
not help to make this species of man inclined to accept advice from
an ordinary outsider. If the US Government wishes to increase its
influence upon Free University developments it would, for the sake
of assuring the maximum effect, seem advisable to entrust the office
of Higher Education Adviser to an exceptionally outstanding scholar,
preferably to an American-born social scientist or philosopher who
should have an assistant concentrating on the petty administra-
tive detail. Your higher education representative should be a person
who really knows Germany and the Germans, past and present, who
combines strong convictions with common sense, sound judgement,
imagination and tact, who by the sheer force of his personality and his
superior attainments would be bound to make a strong impression.
This would enable him to foster, though mainly by means of informal
contacts, the growth of the wholesome things he stands for.
If such a miracle man cannot be found or if it is thought unnec-
essary to look for such a person, there are other ways and means to
enhance American influence. After all, the Free University depends
for its further consolidation and expansion on the continued financial
support of the American Government. The bankrupt City Government
of Berlin cannot be expected to finance all the vital needs of the Free
University. Should the Federal Government in Bonn provide substan-
tial subsidies the drift into west Germanization at the Free University
would receive an additional impetus. Beyond doubt, the Free University
needs more money because it needs more buildings, lecture rooms,
139
Howard W. Johnston, higher education adviser to the US mission in Berlin.
Advocated the foundation of the Free University.
offices, laboratories, equipment and books if it is to do its job well

and to remain a place of refuge for students coming from the Russian
Zone. I wonder whether the time may not have come to discontinue
the practice of furnishing American financial support through pay-
ment of an annual or quarterly lump sum to be spent at the discretion
of the German university authorities. Even with limited funds more
might be accomplished by earmarking American subsidies, by setting
them aside for specific purposes which, from the American point of
view, appear to be particularly worthy and necessary and, therefore,
hold out the prospect of yielding a handsome dividend. The recently
established Institute of Political Science140 is, in my humble opinion,
a step in the right direction, for it is not only designed to develop an
important field of learning which to the German university virtually is
a virgin field. Potentially, this Institute makes possible the re-training
of some re-trainable faculty members, especially if they work together
with a distinguished foreign scholar, brought over not just for a few
weeks or a few months but for a whole year or even two years. Above
all, reasonably well-endowed and well managed institutes of this kind
provide an excellent opportunity for the most gifted, the most enterpri-
sing and, as to character and political reliability, most trustworthy
young scholars to mature and to work in peace and security. Thus they
could prepare themselves for the hard task of effectively contributing
to the reorientation of the German university, by making it less iso-
lated from a great part of the population and public opinion and by
making it assume duties which go beyond the pursuit of pure knowl-
edge. Viewed in the long term perspective, this reorientation stands
and falls with the influence which younger men of the described type
will manage to gain in German institutions of higher learning. Under
the impact of the unforgettable lesson in international politics, which
the people of Berlin have been taught Berlin has become a sort of
international city. Why not, I venture to ask, use this novel and chal-
lenging social situation as a springboard for attempting to develop,
under clearly directed American auspices, the Free University into an
international, that is, into a western rather than a distinctively west
140
The Institut fr Politische Wissenschaft, for which Karl Dietrich Bracher was
working when he composed and published Die Auflsung der Weimarer Republik.
Eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie, Villingen 1955, held in
very high regard by Rosenberg, as part of the Institutes own series of publications.
418 documents
German institution? I just wonder. Why start form scratch in Brussels,

as is now being done, if the institutional basis and the proper local
milieu for such an experiment already exist in Berlin?
A word remains to be said about my activities from the middle of
August to September 20, when I returned to the States. During that
period I followed up more fully a little research project which I had
begun to tackle before, namely, to look into the rather elusive pres-
ent state of mind of the German professional historians, as such. In
recent years, and at first just as a matter of personal curiosity, I have
been keeping track of the major German publications in medieval and
modern history. In the early part of the summer I filled in certain
gaps in my knowledge, and in the later part I methodically ploughed
through all German historical journals, put out since 1945. I was pri-
marily interested in finding out to what extent and in what specific
forms new ways of thinking, new standards of values, new habits of
doing things have crystallized among German historians since 1945.
During the first half of September, in order to complement the pub-
lished record of reorientation from within with more direct human
evidence, I visited the Universities of Freiburg, Tbingen, and Bonn
where I interviewed a number of professional colleagues, especially
those who published little or nothing since the end of the war. Lack of
time prevented a comprehensive and thorough check. Naturally, the
spotty picture which I have gained is a divided one. It goes beyond the
scope of this report to illustrate here the issues which are involved or
even to state the conclusions which I have reached. However, it may
interest you to know that in the immediate future my findings, though
somewhat provisional and tentative in character, will be summed up
in a report which, in the form of a straightforward essay, is sched-
uled to appear in Der Monat, published by the Information Service
Division, HICOG.141
Respectfully yours
Hans Rosenberg
141
There is no evidence of an article by Rosenberg on history in Germany. In
the first edition of his book Bureaucracy, Aristocracy, Autocracy (see above, p. 71),
published after much delay in 1958, Rosenberg subjected the development of the dis-
cipline of history in Germany to critical examination in a postscript (pp. 229238).
This was omitted in the 1966 paperback edition.
45. [after 1948] Hans Rosenbergs notes on Friedrich Meinecke

NL Rosenberg 105, handwritten in English
Meinecke the man; his moral stature as a human being; a humanist

liberal.
the teacher, tolerant, no spoon-feeder, though conventional in his
lectures
the historianwith Hintze the leading G. [German] historian
the political activistNotabelnpolitik [politics of notables]
born 1862 when the Prussian Const. Conflict began
died in 1954
pupil of Droysen, Moritz Ritter, R. Koser,142 Dilthey
Straburg, Freiburg, Bln, editor of HZ
Long a believer in & defender of Bs [Bismarcks] empire, ended as a
sharp critic of Pruss. militarism
Always a stubborn upholder of freedom of conscience
His pol. loyalties & preferences shifted a lot in the course of his life
After the 1870s, German historiography without a fresh lan, except
the historical school of economics, a pioneering trail blazer, and the
drift into the history of ideas, initiated by R. Haym & W. Dilthey.
ignorant in matters of econ. history
started out as an archivist which gave him time to think, to meditate
& mature. Boyen (189698)
ZA [Zeitalter] der deutschen Erhebung 17951815 (1906),143 with
emphasis on the ideas which the Reformers sought to project into
the outer world; still believes then in the alliance between spirit &
power, ethics & politics
Weltbrgertum [Cosmopolitanism] (1908), still marked by state-adula-
tion, at least an idealisation of the state in general & the German
national state in particular.Hegel, Ranke, Bism. [Bismarck]
growth of national consciousnessthe transition from the
142
Moriz Ritter (18401923). Meinecke attended lectures by Ritter during his two
semesters in Bonn. Reinhold Koser (18521914), historian and archivist. Professor
extraordinarius for modern general history and the history of Brandenburg-Prussia
in Berlin from 1884. Director of the State Archives in Prussia and of the Secret State
Archive from 1896. Wrote mainly on Frederick the Great.
143
Published in English as The Age of German Liberation, Berkeley/London 1977.
420 documents
Germans as a cultural nation to a pol. nationKulturnation &

Staatsnationmoves on mountain peaks;144 something esoteric
about itinterested in the leading pol. thinkers.
Radowitz (1913), the advisor of FW IV. [Friedrich Wilhelm IV] with
emphasis on 184850145
Staatsrson [Machiavellism] (1924)no longer reveals the harmoniz-
ing optimism & lofty idealism of the past.W.W. I [World War I]
caused the break; stresses the conflict between might & ethics; rai-
son dtat vs. [versus] morality & justicehistory was to him now
an unfolding of tragedy, a perpetual dualism from Machiavelli to
the present; now deals with Europ. rather than with German his-
torythe widening of horizon.
Gesch. des dtsch-engl. Bndnisproblems 18901901 [History of the
Anglo-German alliance problem, 18971901] (1927)
Entstehung des Historismus [Historism. The Rise of a New Historical
Outlook] (1936), reveals M. as the last of the great romantic histo-
rianstreats not the history of the historical theories but rather the
history of historical consciousness & relativism as a Weltanschauung,
understanding everyth. & forgiving & justifying everything.
as against the normative rational thinking of the Enlightenment
an epigone of German classical idealism from Herder to Ranke.
The German Catastrophe, preceded by long period of silence, an agoniz-
ing book
as a politiciana conservative reformer trying to integrate the
working class into the nation & the national state
a Vernunftrepublikaner [republican by reason] after 1918, joined the
Democratic Party
Horrified by the emergence of the Nazi regime
1948 F.U. [Free University]
underrated & failed to understand really the social and espec. [ially]
the econ. preconditions & foundations of ideas as well as of his-
torical actioncompare with his contemporaries (as Srbik) suggests
with Pirenne or (my idea) with Marc Bloch!146
144
In his writings on intellectual history, Meinecke focussed consciously on the
peaks of the great thinkers while neglecting the lowly spheres of political thought.
145
Friedrich Meinecke, Radowitz und die deutsche Revolution, Berlin 1913.
146
Henry Pirenne (18621935) was a leading Belgian historian, Marc Bloch (1886
1945), who was murdered as a resistance fighter and Jew in 1944, a great French
one.
the danger in Meinecke: he tends to treat the history of ideas in a

social & econ.& sometimes even pol. vacuum
takes aesthetic pleasures in the unfolding of these ideas espec. if they
are beautiful & lofty ideas in themselves; a more pragmatist
approach with emphasis on functional analysis in the serviceability
& social career of ideas rather alien to him.
the Meinecke school: Rothfels, Kaehler, Holborn, Baron, Gerhard,
Gilbert, Masur, & the heretics: Kehr & myself.
[another sheet of notes:]
tried to tie up the study of history with both politics & philosophy
was always intellectually & emotionally involved
Weltbrgertumexpressed a philosophy of harmony & contentment
a history of historical thinking
shows the historical origins of the historical sense in France, England,
Germany
of the changing conception of history
the concept of development and of individuality
development not = progressive perfection
doctrine of relativity
[another sheet:]
M. combined enormous learning with great modesty
extremely subtle in his analysis of ideas
His style often cryptic
after Dilthey, no other German historian (except Troeltsch)147 more
given to philosophical speculation
history of ideas to M. meant mainly history of pol. thought & history
of historical thought & of speculation about the meaning of history
M. as an intellectual personality completely absorbed in his work &
dedicated to it
147
Ernst Troeltsch (18651923), leading Protestant theologian and philosopher.
Held a chair in philosophy of culture, history, society and religion and history of
Christianity at the faculty of philosophy in Berlin from 1915. Friend of Meinecke.
422 documents
46. [1953/1954]: Hans Rosenbergs outline of a project on the his-

tory of the German bureaucracy since 1815
NL Rosenberg 1, copy, typewritten in English
Statement of Proposed Activity

A Study of the German Bureaucracy Since 1815.148
The research project which I offer for consideration is closely related
to my long-range professional interests. It is the natural sequel to
my recently completed book entitled: Bureaucracy and Aristocracy in
Absolutist Prussia, 16601815. A Study of the Origins of the Modern
Public Service and of the Regrouping of a Governing Class.149 The
manuscript of this study is in process of acceptance by the Harvard
University Press. For exact information I refer your Committee
to Professor Oscar Handlin,150 Chairman of the Committees on
Publication of the Harvard University History Department.
It is my intention to carry out a comprehensive investigation,
predominantly based on original research, of some major aspects of
the transformation of the civil government bureaucracy in Germany
since 1815. The proposed inquiry is not concerned with the minutia
of administrative organization. Nor does it entail a legalistic treatment
or a detailed account of the day-to-day activities of the Civil Service
(Berufsbeamtentum) as a technical instrument of public admin-
istration. My interest rather is focused on the development of the
bureaucracy as a peculiar social status group, per se (Beamtenstand),
and as a distinct political interest-, mentality- and action-group, cher-
148
Copy of remarks made within the context of an application, on the basis of which
Rosenberg was apparently granted funds for a Fulbright professorship in Marburg and
at the Free University of Berlin in 1954/1955. See the letter to Rosenberg from the
Department of State of 28 May 1954 (NL Rosenberg, vol. 42), in which the approval
of government aid within the framework of the educational exchange programme is
confirmed in accordance with the Fulbright Act. The application is undated, but was
probably written in 1953 or early 1954.
149
Published after long delay, Cambridge/Mass. 1958, under the title: Bureaucracy,
Aristocracy and Autocracy. The Prussian Experience 16601815.
150
Oscar Handlin (b. 1915), leading American historian with a focus on issues
in social history and especially immigration to the United States and its influence
on American culture. Professor at Harvard from 1939, made full professor in 1954.
Became director of the Center for the Study of the History of Liberty in America in
1958 and of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History in 1968. Head
of the Harvard university library from 1979 to 1983. Won Pulitzer Prize for his book
The Uprooted (1951).
ishing the traditions of the authoritarian Beamtenstaat. Because of the

delimitation of subject matter and because of the frame of reference, as
here defined, primary emphasis will be placed on the factual clarifica-
tion and interpretive appraisal of the following, intimately interlocked
phases of development:
(1) The changes that took place in the composition of the professional
public service hierarchy and in the standards and methods of both
personnel selection and of advancement to positions of responsi-
bility and special trust.
(2) The basic alterations undergone in the function and authority of
the bureaucracy; in its public influence and prestige; in its actual
social status attributes and group cohesion; in its attitudes, loyal-
ties and ways of living. Special consideration will be paid:
a) to contacts, both friendly and hostile, with the politically most
significant competing elites of German society;
b) to the checkered process of adjustment to the rise of consti-
tutionally limited government, to the growth of parliamentary
institutions, and to the emergence of a modern political party
system.
I do not pretend to solve all these knotty problems. Nevertheless, I

expect to bring into bold relief both the typical and the peculiar fea-
tures in the case history of the German bureaucracy as a social and
political force. This, I hope, will make for a significant contribution
to the appreciation of a generally important problem. Because of its
deep-seated aristocratic-oligarchic traditions and of its formidable
vested interests, it has nowhere been an easy undertaking to convert,
in recent generations, the bureaucratic manager class of the modern
state, upon whom society has become largely dependent, into public
servants, representative of, and subservient to, the political will of a
democratic community. My purpose is to explain, in considerable detail
and with analytical precision, why it has proved particularly difficult
in Germany to transform the bureaucratic corps of administrative spe-
cialists and professional technicians, headed, in fact, by permanent
politicians, into sincere cobuilders of a democratic society.
It should be obvious, then, that my proposed inquiry, in view of its
subject matter, its lines of approach and its ultimate aims, is especially
relevant to the country applied for. Whatever its imperfections, my
424 documents
study is designed to serve the needs of the historian, the political sci-
entist and the sociologist.
For the purpose in hand I have already collected a substantial body
of pertinent data in American libraries. I also have done some prelimi-
nary writing on the post-1815 period. A vast amount of labor, how-
ever, still needs to be done; it must be done in Germany for only there
are many of the most important primary sources accessible. Under
present conditions it would be most advantageous to establish my
headquarters in Marburg, which, in the Westdeutsche Bibliothek,
the west German successor of the former Preussische Staatsbibliothek,
offers the best library facilities of all the German universities. As for
the use of unpublished materials, I would have to rely mainly on the
resources of the Hauptarchiv in Berlin Dahlem, on the newly established
Bundesarchiv in Koblenz and, perhaps, on some of the Lnderarchive.
I am prepared to give occasional lectures in Germany.
It goes without saying that I am eager to do this empirical study
not to satisfy my personal curiosity alone. I also want to demonstrate
the abiding usefulness of the historical method in the social sciences.
Eventually I plan to present my findings in published form to fellow
workers and to other members of the international fraternity of men
of good will who are seriously interested in a searching examination
of some crucial aspects of the impeded historic growth of professional
public service, strictly speaking.151
151
The project did not produce a publication. In Rosenbergs papers there is a 57-
page handwritten manuscript on the topic Elites in Germany, 18071918 (vol. 138),
a typewritten manuscript of 64 pages with a summary, also typewritten, of 12 pages
on Occupation, Social Status and the German Governing Elite, 18071918 (vol. 139)
and another manuscript on Occupation, Status and German Governing Elites 1807
1918, together with a German translation by H. J. Ginsburg entitled Macht, Beruf,
Status und herrschende Elite in Deutschland 18071918 (vol. 142). This manuscript
features the following remark by Rosenberg: Unpublished book fragment on the his-
tory of German elite groups in the 19th century. All the manuscripts are undated. It
is likely that these manuscripts were further developments of the research project on
the history of the German bureaucracy outlined by Rosenberg.
47. [1957]: Hans Rosenbergs statement concerning his claim for

restitution152
I begin the following remarks and explanations with a brief summary

of the external course of my academic career since my doctoral exami-
nation at the University of Berlin in summer 1927.
I
1927: Dr. phil. dissertation: eximium (summa cum laude); oral
examination: magna cum laude. Subjects examined: medieval and
modern history, philosophy and political economy. (See appendix 2).
192728: 1. 11. 192731. 10. 1928: researcher for the Historical
Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and research
scholar for the Emergency Committee on German Scholarship
(Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft).
192834: 1. 10. 1928 to late 1934: researcher at the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission).
193233: December 1932 to September 1933: lecturer (Privatdozent)
in medieval and modern history at the University of Cologne.
193435: 1. 6. 193431. 7. 1935: research scholar at the Institute of
Historical Research at the University of London.
193536: 1. 8. 193531. 5. 1936: unemployed. 23. 9. 1935 until early
September 1936 resident in New York City.
1936: summer semester (June to August): lecturer in history, City
College of New York.
193638: 193637: instructor, 193738: assistant professor in history
and political science at Illinois College.
193947: assistant professor, 194851: associate professor, 1952: pro-
fessor in history at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
194344: research scholar at the Social Science Research Council.
152
Unsigned and undated copy, presumably from late 1957. This date is suggested
by the reference to the imminent publication of his book Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and
Autocracy, which appeared in 1958, as well as Rosenbergs letter to Dr. A. Guttmann
of the United Restitution Organization of 13 September 1957 (Rosenberg papers,
vol. 42), who advised Rosenberg to persist with his claims in a letter of 6 June 1957.
Rosenberg forewent his claims to restitution for damages of 1012,000 marks arising
from travel costs and material damage as a result of his migration to the United States,
but claimed for damage to his professional advancement.
426 documents
194547: 1. 7. 194531. 1. 1947: Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim

Memorial Foundation.
194950: summer semester 1949 and 1950: visiting professor of mod-
ern history at the Free University of Berlin; function, rank and
remuneration as professor ordinarius.
195455: Fulbright Professor at Philippsuniversitaet Marburg (winter
semester 1954/55) and the Free University of Berlin (summer semes-
ter 1955).
195657: 1. 9. 195631. 6. 1957: visiting professor at Princeton
University.
I am a member of the American Association of University Professors,
American Historical Association, Modern History Association, Eco-
nomic History Association (USA), Economic History Society (Great
Britain), and the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
The Modern History Association made me co-editor of the Journal
of Modern History, the leading American journal in the field of
non-American modern history, in December 1952.
II
It is part of the venerable tradition and true character of the German
universities that they serve both research and teaching. In line with
this, lecturing is preceded by a lengthy period of research and the full-
time career as university teacher is determined first and foremost by
the individuals reputation as scholar, especially the quality and quan-
tity of academic publications.
My official practical training for the position of university teacher
began a few months after passing the doctoral exam with a research
assignment from the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy
of Sciences (appendices 3 and 4). More crucial to my academic
career was the contract of employment from the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission),153 initially for three
years, which came into effect on 1 October 1928 (appendix 5). After its
expiry this contract was extended by tacit agreement. I was dismissed
by the Imperial Historical Commission only at the end of 1934, that
153
The Imperial Historical Commission (Historische Reichskommission), a public
corporation founded to study the history of the German Empire in 1928, was a depart-
ment of the Imperial ministry of the interior in budgetary terms. Administratively,
that is, above all with respect to its financial administration, it was affiliated with the
Imperial Archive in Potsdam.
is, two years after habilitating in medieval and modern history at the
University of Cologne (appendix 6).
III
The damage to my career began in spring 1933 as a result of 3 of the
law on the restoration of the civil service of 7 April 1933. As early as
28 April 1933, with reference to the decree issued by the minister for
science, art and national education of 26 April 1933 U.I. no. 840.1, the
governing board of the University of Cologne requested that I desist
from holding the lectures and classes announced by me, as otherwise
they would have to respond to this threat to public order and secu-
rity at the university that would damage the standing of the lectur-
ers and of the university. (Appendix 7). My authority to teach at the
University of Cologne was finally rescinded by the ministerial decree
of 2 September 1933. The document concerning the withdrawal of the
venia legendi [granting authority to teach] is no longer in my posses-
sion. For the sake of completeness I should also mention that I was
expelled from the dependents relief fund of the Imperial Association
of German Universities (Reichsverband der Deutschen Hochschulen)
with effect from 1 October 1935. (Appendices 8 and 9).
As a result of a decree from the Imperial ministry of the interior
of 31 July 1933, communicated to the chair of the Imperial Historical
Commission (Geh. Rat Prof. Dr. Friedrich Meinecke), staff mem-
ber Dr. Rosenberg was requested to expedite completion of his
research on national political journalism in Germany; he is not to be
called on to work for the Imperial Historical Commission in future.
(Appendices 10 and 11).
It was thus clear that as long as the National Socialist regime was
in place it would be impossible for me to work as university teacher
and researcher within the public sector in Germany. In search of new
options in life and in order to avoid further steps being taken against
me, but also in order to stay true to my convictions, I felt compelled to
emigrate in early October 1933. My stay in England (from 7 October
1933 to 14 September 1935) was an essential preliminary to emigrating
to the USA. As a consequence of the general economic situation, still
extremely parlous at the time, the financial plight of the universities
and the high percentage of jobless university teachers in the USA, com-
petition within academia was exceptionally tough. Given this state of
affairs, a young German immigrant lecturer without complete mastery
of the English language and radical retraining adapted to the needs
428 documents
and realities of American universities would have been condemned to

hopeless failure in his academic career. Hence my detour via England.
IV
Despite preparing carefully for my American adventure; despite the
academic reputation that I was on the point of acquiring beyond the
Atlantic Ocean;154, 155 despite the fact that the sponsors going out of
their way to help me reintegrate professionally included three former
presidents of the American Historical Association, namely Sidney
B. Fay (Harvard), Carl Becker (Cornell)156 and Guy Stanton Ford
(Minnesota),157 my start in the USA was far from easy. It began with
eight months of unemployment. Only after that did I manage to
find my feet.
My teaching experience and teaching successes in the summer of
1936 at City College, N.Y., and during both academic years from
1936 to 1938 in Illinois (appendices 12 and 13) led to my appoint-
ment as assistant professor of history at Brooklyn College in New York
in autumn 1938. Though still officially classified as an enemy alien
at the time, my position as full-time university professor on a fixed-
term contract was replaced with a lifetime position as civil servant
in 1941. To use the American term, I received permanent tenure.
(Appendix 14). With effect from 1 January 1948 I was promoted to
associate professor of history. On the basis of the application filed by
154
Footnote of Rosenberg with additions of the editor in square brackets: I am
referring here in particular to the reviews of my then published books that appeared
in American journals in 1934 and 1935. See The American Historical Review, XL, 374,
559 [reviews of the books on the world economic crisis and Haym]; XLI, 541542
[review of National political journalism (Nationalpolitische Publizistik)]; The Journal
of Modern History, VI, 235 [review of the book on Haym]; VIII, 113114 [review of
National political journalism (Nationalpolitische Publizistik)]; The Journal of Political
Economy, XLII, 841842 [review of World economic crisis (Weltwirtschaftskrisis)];
Social Research, II, 124125 [review of World economic crisis (Weltwirtschaftskrisis)].
155
Further reviews in English-language academic journals of the book on Haym
and of World economic crisis (Weltwirtschaftskrisis) appeared respectively in the
EHR 50 (1935), p. 189f. and in EconHR 5 (1935), p. 149f.
156
Carl Lotus Becker (18731945), leading American historian. Taught at Cornell
University from 1917 to 1945. Carried out in-depth research on the development
of ideas. His writings defended the tradition of Western civilization against anti-
democratic tendencies.
157
Guy Stanton Ford (18731962), historian. Studied at the University of Berlin
from 1899 to 1900. President of the American Historical Association in 1937/38. Held
the full-time position of executive secretary of the AHA, a highly influential role given
that a new president was elected every year, from 1941 to 1953, and was at the same
time managing editor of the American Historical Review.
my faculty senate in autumn 1950, I was appointed professor of his-

tory by the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York on 18
June 1951. (Appendices 1517).
Hence, after being put to the test for a lengthy period, I have, as it
were, made it in the United States. My academic career would no
doubt have led far more rapidly and smoothly to the status of profes-
sor ordinarius in my native country, had there been no 1933.
V
In light of those of my publications that had appeared in Germany
by 1935 (appendix 18) and with respect to my aptitude for the posi-
tion of full-time university teacher, tested out in practice abroad in
the years immediately following, it may in fact be assumed that with-
out the intermezzo of National Socialism I would in all probability
have become professor ordinarius at a German university before 1940.
This is all the more likely given that, under normal circumstances, my
writings published by 1935 would have been rapidly followed by oth-
ers that would have established my reputation as researcher even more
firmly. Because I was forcibly uprooted in 193334, because of the
long-term and difficult process of adjustment to the New World and
the exceptionally high demands in terms of time and energy made
of university teachers in this country, my academic career and aca-
demic production were inevitably retarded after 1935. Nevertheless, I
can point with some satisfaction to the fact that the final manuscript
of the most fully developed and best of all my academic studies, the
fruit of more than ten years of extensive research, is now ready and
will appear in book form over the course of this year as volume 67 of
the Harvard Historical Studies, published since 1900.158 (See number
17 in appendix 18).
The great upheaval of 1933 meant that for the most part my writings
had an appreciable impact on German scholarship only after 1945.
However, until the mid-1930s, though mostly beyond the borders of
the Empire, the odd scholar in the German-speaking world did quite
openly give my academic output its due. I would point in particular
(in addition to appendix 19) to the evaluation of my National politi-
cal journalism (Nationalpolitische Publizistik) by the most prominent
Austrian historian of the 20th century, Heinrich Ritter von Srbik,159
158
The volume appeared only in 1958 as a result of a delay.
159
See above, p. 388.
430 documents
former Austrian minister of education and cultural affairs and presi-

dent of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. (Appendix 20).
How leading representatives of history in Germany assessed my
academic qualifications shortly after my habilitation is apparent in the
testimonials by Friedrich Meinecke and Johannes Ziekursch (appen-
dices 21 and 22).
It is indicative that in 1947 the philosophy faculty of the University
of Cologne put me forward as preferred successor to Ziekursch for
the chair in medieval and modern history made vacant by his death
(appendix 23). A similar situation arose eighteen months later, when
I took up the still unoccupied chair in modern history at the Free
University of Berlin in spring 1949 (appendices 2429). I came to
Berlin as visiting professor, while the blockade was still in place, and
was both delighted and taken aback when my old teacher Meinecke,
vice-chancellor of the Free University, Herr Prof. Edwin Redslob, the
pro-vicechancellor, Herr Prof. Friedrich Goethert, dean of the philoso-
phy faculty,160 and numerous colleagues from all the faculties in Berlin
suggested that I make this temporary arrangement a permanent one
during the summer of 1949.
This is not the place to explain why I have been and still am unable
to make up my mind to burn my bridges with the USA in order, as it
were, to start again from scratch in the Federal Republic. It will have
to suffice to underline that the recognition I have achieved in German
universities following the collapse of National socialism would have
made itself felt all the more and at a significantly earlier stage of my
academic career, through appointment to a chair, had the Nazi regime
not prevented this from 1933 to 1945. (See the views set out by a col-
league in appendix 30.)
VI
The information provided in this statement is correct to the best of my
knowledge and belief.161
160
Friedrich Goethert (19071978), professor ordinarius in classical archaeology at
the Free University of Berlin.
161
The above-mentioned letter from Dr. Guttmann of 13 September 1957 shows
that, as a result of a decision by the minister for education and culture of the Land
of North Rhine-Westphalia of 2 October 1956, Rosenberg was appointed professor
ordinarius [salary grade H1b] with effect from 1 April 1940 and was awarded emeri-
tus status [salary grade H1b final stage] with effect from 1 January 1954. His regular
remuneration as emeritus amounted to 1,796 DM a month by late 1957. Rosenberg
48. 12 August 1964: Hans Rosenbergs outline of a project on

NL Rosenberg 65, copy in English
After having read, with great interest and some awe, the Research
Proposal of the Institute of International Relations,163 it is appar-
ent that my present research study does not really fit any of the
received this compensation on the basis of the federal law on restitution in the civil
service as amended on 23 December 1955, in which paragraph 21b states: If the
damaged party would in all probability have . . . become professor ordinarius [over the
course of his academic career], he is to be granted the legal status and salary com-
mensurate with . . . a position in salary grade H1b. An application to convert the pro-
fessorship, which Rosenberg had not availed himself of, into emeritus status could be
made at any time. Rosenberg presumably reached the final stage of salary grade H1b
in late 1953. As notified by the United Restitution Organization on 16 September
1960, in response to his application, of which the explanation reproduced here formed
part, Rosenberg received restitution for damages to professional advancement for the
period from 1 October 1933 to 31 July 1947 to the amount of 9382.77 DM from the
restitution authorities of the chief executive of Cologne (Rosenberg papers, vol. 1)
on the basis of the federal law on restitution (Bundesentschdigungsgesetz or BEG).
The payments he had missed out were calculated at 46,913.84 M, converted into DM
in accordance with paragraph 11 (1) of the BEG at a ratio of 10 to 2. Of the sum
granted, 842 DM was deducted for contribution and costs, so that he received a total
of 8.540.77. DM. Restitution for the period from 1 August 1947 to 30 June 1948 was
rejected as Rosenberg had turned down the appointment at the University of Cologne.
The editor thanks Hans Gnter Hockerts for information on the law on restitution.
162
Copy with typewritten signature. On this research programme, see also
Rosenbergs letter to his colleague, historian of Eastern Europe N. V. Riasanovsky,
from 5 December 1963 (NL Rosenberg, vol. 65), in which he mentions that he had
collected and examined a large amount of material, though not yet enough, particu-
larly in the libraries of Berlin, Hamburg, Gttingen, Vienna, Zurich and Munich, and
had written a very rough draft of the first two chapters on the monarchs and other
aristocratic classes and their transformation as social, economic, occupational and
political status group. I also made a sketch of the differentiated collective group
career of the upper clergy and of the patrician urban strata during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. He hoped to be granted leave for the academic year 1966/1967:
I am reasonably confident that I shall manage to complete my book in publishable
form during that year. However, please bear in mind that nothing is certain until it
has happened. He also wrote: My present inquiry into the evolution of social classes
and groupings during the twilight age that sometimes is called the Later Middles Ages,
i.e., put differently, my study of the formation of the early modern class and group
structure in Germanic Central Europe constitutes, it seems to me, a difficult, novel,
and major effort. Even more so than my last book, my present project, I venture to
claim, has implications that concern specialists in central European history as well as
historians and social scientists preoccupied with other periods and geographic areas.
There is no publication by Rosenberg relating to this project. However, there are notes
and manuscripts, particularly on the so-called Peasants War, among his unpublished
works (vols. 148156).
163
Institute of the University of California, Berkeley.
432 documents
established projects or centers of the Institute. Moreover, this study

which, in my own humble opinion, is intricate, comprehensive, novel
and, perhaps, overambitious in character and scope, may be too paro-
chial, too empirical and, chronologically, too remote to live up to the
lofty, presentminded and rather grandiose objectives of the Institute,
as stated in the Research Proposal. In any event, if at all of interest
to the Institute, my investigation might best be classified as a special
scholars program concerned with exploratory research.
I am in the midst of, and for a number of years to come expect to
be preoccupied with, an exploration in late medieval and early mod-
ern social history, the theme, foci, and unifying principle of which are
perhaps best indicated by the prospective title of this study:
An Historical Study of Social, Political, and Economic Stratification
(and, I might add, of the problems of what sociologists nowadays call
status discrepancy).
In essence, I am concerned with a concrete historical case study
of the formation of the early modern class and group structure in
a traditionally aristocratic and, hence, rigorously hierarchical pre-
industrial society the fundamentals of which remained intact until the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, that is, until the more
revolutionary take-off into modernization and development, con-
ventionally so-called. I am interested in the exploration of the initial
phase of the early modern modernization of the inherited medieval
social class and group structure. This process of change, though it
continued to be dominated by a highly differentiated social, political
and economic status system defined largely in juridical terms, in fact,
and contrary to widespread misconceptions, had room for a rather
astounding degree of vertical and horizontal mobility and for histori-
cally as well as sociologically significant shifts in the character and
relative weight of the status determinants and channels of mobility.
This at least is one of my chief preliminary findings with regard to
the personal composition and recruitment of the various hierarchical
social orders during the particular period which I am studying. This is
the fascinating period that stretched from the great demographic cri-
sis of the Black Death to the violent and, both in the short and in the
long run, extremely important social upheaval of 1525, the rather mis-
named German Peasants War, when the lower ranks of society were
pushed by their betters into the ditch where the former remained
until the breakthrough of modern industrialism.
German Society, as defined in geographic terms for the purposes
of my descriptive as well as analytic historical inquiry, refers to a com-
parative study of the real rather than the ideological stratification
patterns in the differential social regions of German Central Europe.
Under the conditions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, German
Central Europe as a meaningful unit of social history includes all those
areas which at present constitute, in terms of political geography, the
two German republics, the states of Austria and Czechoslovakia, and
those pre-1918 east German provinces which since 1945 have been de
facto parts of Poland and of the Soviet Union.
An empirical inquiry into the nature and historical significance of
Inequality in German Society, 13481525 obviously calls for the
Collection and focalized interrogation of a huge body of diverse source
materials which are often difficult to read and to translate, difficult to
interpret, and sometimes difficult to find. If successfully carried out in
due course, my study, as I conceive of it, may prove useful and sug-
gestive not merely to a handful of area specialists but also to a much
larger group of historians and social scientists preoccupied with dif-
ferent periods, geographic regions, social structures, conceptual frame-
works, methodological considerations, and scholarly aspirations.
Hans Rosenberg
49. 25 April 1965: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
My darling,
[. . .] When I set seriously to work on typing my essay for Wehler164

immediately after your departure and sorted out my loose folios and
164
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, b. 1931, German historian. Friend of Hans Rosenberg.
Wehler wished to include Rosenbergs essay Political and Social Consequences of
the Great Depression of 18731896, in: Economic History Review 13 (1943), pp. 58
73, in German translation in the anthology Moderne deutsche Sozialgeschichte edited
by him within the framework of the Neue Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek series. As
434 documents
notes, etc., I realized that, without meaning to and without even notic-
ing, since August of last year I have in fact written a book rather than
an essay. It is a small and, it seems to me, good book of around 200
typewritten pages, 100 of which I have already typed up. Ill be doing
the rest, with all the trimmings, over the next two weeks, using my last
reserves of strength to keep going. I have cancelled my seminars over
the last week and will do so again this coming week. I will of course
have to catch up on everything later, which means that throughout
May I shall have four seminars per week alongside the committee
work, which will be continuing anyway. Im exhausted of course, but
it is a source of satisfaction to me that at my advanced age I have
managed to get something like this up and running so quickly despite
a difficult academic year. After sending my manuscript to Wehler and
negotiating with him, I shall offer my manuscript for publication to the
Berlin Historical Commission, whose publications appear in superbly
designed volumes printed by a very respectable publisher. It fits very
well into the great industrialization project and would, I believe,
make a very good first volume. The title is Wirtschaftskonjunktur,
Gesellschaft und Politik in Mitteleuropa 18731896 (Economic
trends, society and politics in Central Europe, 18731896).165 I had a
letter from Wehler yesterday with a lot of enclosures. I cant reply to
the letter at the moment and cant even read the enclosures for lack of
time. Hes expecting my manuscript by the end of April and of course
has no idea that it is a book, albeit a small one. It has its weaknesses
of course, as I hadnt enough time, but all in all I think it works well.
Rosenberg was dissatisfied with the attempts at translation with which he was pre-
sented, he wished to translate the essay himself.
165
The title finally chosen by Rosenberg was Groe Depression und Bismarckzeit.
Wirtschaftsablauf, Gesellschaft und Politik in Mitteleuropa (The Great Depression and
the Bismarck era. Economic developments, society and politics in Central Europe),
Berlin 1967, Walther de Gruyter & Co. and it ran to IX and 301 pages. As he had
planned, the book did in fact appear in the series Verffentlichungen der Historischen
Kommission zu Berlin beim Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universitt, vol. 24
and as vol. 2 of the Publikationen zur Geschichte der Industrialisierung. Rosenberg
was involved in the conception and carrying out of the history of industrialization
project. In a letter to Gerhard A. Ritter of 21 March 1970, in light of the critique of the
term Great Depression, made by the editor of this volume among others, Rosenberg
remarked that he wanted to replace it with the phrase Great Deflation, which he
considered more precise and less easy to misunderstand. He also refers to the Great
Deflation of 18731896 in the preliminary report to the 1974 2nd edition of his
book on the world economic crisis of 18571859 (p. XXV).
Please do me a favour and call him. Explain the situation to him so

that he isnt too flabbergasted. He can of course include just one or
two chapters of my study in his volume.166 Above all, please tell him
that the manuscript will arrive in Cologne only around mid-May. You
will no doubt be as flabbergasted by this as I was. [. . .]
Very best wishes to everyone and an especially tender kiss to you
Your
Hans
50. 21 December 1967: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A.

Ritter
Ritter: private papers
Dear Ritter,
[. . .] I am very grateful to you for taking the time to give your views
on my book in such detail. It is no more than a long essay, though
of course it makes no claim to any greater status. I am well aware of
numerous imperfections, both large and small. Im genuinely delighted
that your overall impression is nonetheless a highly positive one.
All of your critical remarks are justified. My errors in this regard are
due partly to ignorance, partly to a lack of preparatory work and partly
to the insufficient time available to me for this project. Particularly
embarrassing is the statistical mishap in my treatment of the SPD,
which had a fateful impact on my interpretation.167
166
Wehler ultimately included a preprint of parts of the book entitled: Wirtschaft-
konjunktur, Gesellschaft und Politik in Mitteleuropa, 18731896, (pp. 225253) in
Moderne deutsche Sozialgeschichte, Cologne/Berlin 1966.
167
Rosenberg had (p. 143) claimed that the Social Democrats enjoyed a declining
share of the vote during the period of the anti-socialists law, from 1878 to 1890,
drawing on erroneous information in: Ernst Rudolf Huber, Dokumente zur Deutschen
Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. 2: Deutsche Verfassungsdokumente 18711918, Stuttgart
1964, p. 537, in which the Social Democrats share of the votes in the Reichstag elec-
tions of 1887 was given as 7.1% (rather than the correct figure of 10.1%). In fact, the
Social Democrats vote share, which was 9.1% in 1877 and 7.6% in 1878, shortly before
the law was passed, increased again from 1884: 1881: 6.1%, 1884: 9.7%, 1887: 10.1%,
1890: 19.7%. See Gerhard A. Ritter, Wahlgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch. Materialien zur
Statistik des Kaiserreichs 18711918, Munich 1980, pp. 3840.
436 documents
The American edition should be significantly better. I will be able to

deal with factual errors and unclear concepts and terms. Not only that,
but I plan to deepen and expand the study in a broad range of ways.
So I wont be done with it so quickly after all, though theres not the
slightest prospect of getting started on the revision before next spring.
The impetus to do so comes from the miserable attempt at a transla-
tion with which my American publisher presented me. It is utterly
dreadful, and I essentially have to rewrite the whole thing. The time
and energy involved can be justified only if the content is thoroughly
revised at the same time.168
[. . .] Im very pleased to hear that you and your family are well over
there in Mnster, despite the fact that you yourself are suffering from
an excessive workload and distracting busy-work. But thats a near-
universal evil in the contemporary universities, by which I too have
been plagued for many years, especially given that Im no longer as
strong as I used to be. I am therefore very much looking forward to my
retirement, which becomes due in three years time. If I stay reason-
ably healthy, I shall at last have the opportunity to read for pleasure
from time to time, to work seriously on my general education and to
pursue my academic studies in peace and quiet. I would also like to
travel more than I have done over the last ten years, and visit parts of
the world such as East Asia and South America, with which I am as
yet quite unfamiliar. By the way, in the summer of 1970 I want to use
the international historical conference in Moscow as an opportunity
to make a trip to Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. As
you can see, Im becoming rather adventurous in my old age, while
my wife, who has had the travel bug all her life, is now beginning
to tire of travel.
I look forward to seeing you, your good wife and your children
again. In the meantime, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year
from my family to yours.
Your
Hans Rosenberg
168
The planned American edition was never to appear, as Rosenberg also rejected
all other sample translations with which he was presented as unsatisfactory and, partly
because of changed research interests, never found the time and energy to rewrite the
book himself in English.
51. 8 March 1969: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A. Ritter

Dear Ritter,
This is the first chance Ive had to express my sincere thanks to you
and your wife for your congratulations on my sixty-fifth birthday. Of
the many such messages which I received this time around, yours were
among the nicest and kindest. Your faithful remembrance and gen-
erous words did me a great deal of good, though they also put me
somewhat to shame. But however self-critical I may be Im enough of a
realist to realize, looking back, that my decades of efforts as researcher
and teacher have not fizzled out without effect, but have left behind
visible traces in both the United States and West Germany. Thats a
good feeling, for which one is all the more grateful if, as is the case
with me, ones strength is gradually declining.
The almost completed Festschrift in my honour is naturally a source
of great happiness to me and, with respect to the contributors, a great
surprise that fills me with gratitude.169 [. . .]
A slim volume I wrote entitled Problems in German social his-
tory (Probleme der deutschen Sozialgeschichte) will appear in Edition
Suhrkamp in August.170 Half of it consists of older studies, but the
other half is new and is being published for the first time and may per-
haps be of some interest to you. I shall have a copy sent to you in any
case. Incidentally, Im astonished that such a conservative historian as
Conze recently responded (in EHR) to my Great Depression (Grosse
Depression) in an unusually positive way.171
As you will probably know from the newspapers, there has again
been open conflict in Berkeley, and this time it led to bloody clashes,
numerous acts of violence and vandalous demonstrations. This time it
is the racial problem that stands centre stage, which of course plays no
169
Entstehung und Wandel der modernen Gesellschaft. Festschrift fr Hans Rosenberg
zum 65. Geburtstag. Ed. by Gerhard A. Ritter, Berlin 1970.
170
Hans Rosenberg, Probleme der deutschen Sozialgeschichte, Frankfurt a. M.
1969.
171
Review of the book by Werner Conze, in: EconHR 21 (1968), p. 653f. Werner
Conze (19101986) was one of the leading German social historians.
438 documents
real role in Germany. Ernst Nolte172 was here last week and provided
us with a chronicle of the events in Marburg. Wolfgang Mommsen
will be coming next week, and may also have something to say about
common threats.
Thank you so much for your good wishes and all the trouble you
have gone to on my behalf.
Very best wishes to you and your dear wife.
Your old friend,

Hans Rosenberg
52. 30 September 1969: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Gerhard A.

Ritter
Dear Ritter,
Its about time that I expressed my sincere thanks for your friendly
letter of 9 September and you literary enclosures. Im glad Probleme173
went down well with you. Though it appeared only recently, I have in
fact received a whole number of lettersall very positive, some even
enthusiastic. Admittedly they are from people, young and old, both
here and over there, all of whom are more or less close to me intellec-
tually and/or personally. I understand only too well the mild sense of
despair that you sometimes feel (I feel the same way), when you come
to realize how little we all know about what is actually going on in the
humanities and social sciences internationally. It is in fact becoming
ever more difficult and in some respects impossible to protect oneself
against intellectual parochialization. You are wrong, incidentally, if
you think that I have been stimulated in this regard to any appreciable
extent by conversations with American colleagues. This is not the case,
apart from anything else because I have always been something of a
one-horse carriage and began, even before emigrating, to inform myself
a little about trends in history and social science across the world off
172
Ernst Nolte, b. 1923, German historian. Made professor in Marburg in 1965 and
professor at the Free University of Berlin from 1973.
173
Hans Rosenberg, Probleme der deutschen Sozialgeschichte, Frankfurt a. M. 1969.
my own bat. In teaching, I was subsequently aided by my avoidance

of excessive specialization, underpinned by systematic efforts to keep
up with a number of informative academic journals. However, to the
extent that I have expanded my horizons over the decadesas mod-
est as my achievements in this regard seem in retrospect, with the end
approaching sooner or laterI have done so through my own efforts.
And in as much as I have others to thank, it is my students rather than
my colleagues.
I read your documentary volume on the Revolution of 1918 in
Switzerland this summer.174 I found it highly instructive to be able
to read this widely scattered and sometimes even formerly unknown
material in context. Purely in human terms, what I found particularly
impressive as I read was how decently and reasonably the Social
Democrats thinking and actions were in this complex situation.
[. . .] You again emphasize the 1890s as a key turning point, while, as
you know, I tend to emphasize the 1870s as crucial juncture. At bot-
tom this is an old dispute relating to attempts at periodization, as also
found, for example, in the case of the Renaissance. Is the key period
that during which the trends in question become clearly visible or that
during which they become more dominant?
[. . .] Very best wishes to you and your family
Your
Hans Rosenberg
53. 6 July 1970: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf Braun

Braun: papers
Dear Braun,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and your confidence. It is
surely in the objective long-term interests of everyone involved that
you hold off making the big decision until autumn. Though we would
174
Gerhard A. Ritter and Susanne Miller (eds.), Die deutsche Revolution 1918/1919,
Dokumente. 1st edn., Frankfurt a. M./Hamburg 1968. A substantially expanded and
revised 2nd edition was published in Hamburg, 1975.
440 documents
consider ourselves lucky to be able to count you as one of us, the last
thing we want to do is put you under any kind of pressure.175
I am pleased and honoured that you like my Bureaucracy,
Aristocracy176 so much. In Germany (West and East) with a few excep-
tions, it has been boycotted so far. In America, meanwhile, it had a
strong impact, and not only on historians, but also sociologists and
political scientists. In purely material terms, this impact is reflected
in the fact that Harvard Press has brought out three editions since
1958. In addition, Beacon Press in Boston is still issuing the paperback
edition.
[. . .]
Best regards from my family to yours. I look forward to seeing you
soon.
Fond wishes,
Hans Rosenberg
54. 10 November 1970: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf Braun

Braun papers
Dear Braun,
You will be in Zurich now, and the great decision with which you
are faced moves ever closer. As the situation at Berlin University
has become utterly chaotic, it seems obvious that you will opt either
for Zurich or Berkeley.177 As I wrote recently to Gerhard Schulz,178 I
believe it will take ten to fifteen, if not fifteen to twenty years to resolve
175
Rudolf Braun (b. 1930 in Basle), Swiss social and economic historian. After
carrying out research at the universities of Mnster and Chicago and a lectureship
in Berlin, he became professor ordinarius at the Free University of Berlin in 1968.
Professor ordinarius at the University of Zurich from 1971 until his retirement. Close
friend of Rosenberg. Rudolf Braun was offered an appointment as professor at Berkeley
as successor to Hans Rosenberg, but he ultimately turned it down. He had also been
offered an appointment at the University of Zurich, which he accepted.
176
See above, p 71.
177
See above, p. 440, footnote 175.
178
Gerhard Schulz (19242004), modern historian. Obtained his doctorate at the
Free University of Berlin in 1952 and habilitated in 1960. Professor in contemporary
history in Tbingen from 1962. One of Rosenbergs students at the Free University
of Berlin in 1949/1950.
the great structural crisis that has hit the German university. In the
interim the pendulum will probably swing back and forth dramati-
cally. There will be no lack of experiments, loss of substance and shat-
tered nerves, and things will most likely get back on track only very
slowly, on quite different foundations. That, in any case, is my pessi-
mistic prognosis. The Swiss universities will also struggle to avoid the
great upheaval, though it will be less profound than in West Germany.
I view the future development of the American universities in a far
more positive light, because here, as far as the objective requirements
are concerned, there is significantly less to reform and highly effective
bulwarks have been erected to counter the danger of politicization in
light of the experiences of the last few years.
As I already wrote to you, having gone through the broadest range
of possibilities, academic life in Berkeley has again become entirely
peaceful. In both teaching and research, people are working diligently,
more intensively and devotedly than ever. What is moredespite a
number of blemishesat national level and particularly in the state
of California the result of the American elections was unexpectedly
positive overall. True, the election campaign was more spiteful, low-
brow, unscrupulous and demagogic than any Ive experienced over
the last thirty-five years. But Nixon-Agnew-Reagan and associates
got almost nowhere with that. It is encouraging to see that the great
majority of the American people were not duped and that reason
has triumphed over emotions and moral nihilism. True, Reagan was
re-elected in California, though with substantially fewer votes than
four years ago. But his wings have been clipped. As youve probably
read, he has lost the majority in both houses of the state legislature,
and for the first time in half a century, California is now represented
by two Democratic and furthermore very liberal senators in the US
Senate. A negro has replaced the reactionary Rafferty as Californian
education minister, and with a large majority of the votes no less.179
179
Rosenberg is referring to the elections to the US Congress of 3 November 1970
and concurrent elections in California. In the congressional elections, the Republicans,
who had held the presidency since January 1969 in the shape of Richard Nixon with
his vice-president Spiro Agnew, suffered a heavy defeat. With 55 seats in the Senate
as against 45 for the Republicans and 255 seats in the House of Representatives as
opposed to a Republican tally of 180, the Democrats retained control of Congress and
won a number of key governorships. In California, Governor Ronald Reagan man-
aged to prevail against his Democrat opponent Jess Unruh by a clear margin, though
it was halved compared with 1966. Also in California, Republican senator George L.
442 documents
The election results should also have a very positive impact on the
University of California. Some of the most dreadful members of our
board of regents are now being replaced by progressively minded indi-
viduals who understand the needs of a leading university. The puni-
tive measures taken against the university will now become a thing
of the past. In terms of the budget too, the sudden, heartening change
of political scene and climate should have a very favourable impact. I
believe for example that the pay rise of 11 1/2% for 19711972 pro-
posed for the faculty will be accepted in full or almost in full by the
state legislature. The wind has changed, and thats something you must
take into account in making your decision.
[. . .]
Very best wishes from my family to yours,
Yours always,
Hans Rosenberg
55. 8 May 1974: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Leni Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 4
My darling,
[. . .] The first copy of the new edition of my World economic cri-

sis (Weltwirtschaftskrise)180 arrived by airmail two days ago. Its very
nicely printed and has an unusually sturdy cover for a paperback. You
will see it in Rupp[ichteroth], as the publisher has already sent a copy
to Fritz,181 who, by the way, sent me a card from Israel. I cant deny
Murphy was defeated by the young Democrat John Varick Tunney, a friend of Edward
Kennedy. The other senator for California, Alan Cranston, was also a Democrat. The
Democrats also gained a majority in the California state legislature. Particularly dis-
tressing to Reagan was the surprising victory of African-American Wilson Riles in
the election for State Superintendent of Public InstructionRosenbergs education
ministerover the markedly right-wing incumbent Max Rafferty, who played a
significant role in the harsh disciplinary measures taken against the Californian state
universities.
180
Hans Rosenberg, Die Weltwirtschaftskrise 18571859. 2nd edn. With a prelimi-
nary report, Gttingen 1974.
181
Fritz was the son of Frau Rosenberg from her first marriage. He was the owner
of a middle-sized enterprise who lived with his family in Ruppichteroth.
that Im delighted to see new life being breathed into my forty-year-

old early work. Despite the tremendous historical changes that have
occurred, it still has a certain freshness and topicality, and as I am now
a so-called famous historian, it will have a far greater impact than it
did nearly half a century ago.
[. . .] I am saddened by Brandts unexpected resignation,182 for he is
undoubtedly the most decent and principled Western statesman of the
last decade. You have no idea what an appalling moral quagmire has
come to light in the White House since your departure. More than
ever before, Nixon has gone off the rails. With a complete lack of scru-
ples, he is prepared to risk the most serious of conflicts. The crucial
material evidence against him has obviously been destroyed, and his
old chums are sticking together and swear one false oath after another.
Even if it ultimately comes to impeachment,183 as is probable, it is still
very doubtful whether it will be possible to obtain the necessary two-
thirds majority in the Senate that would condemn him and drive him
from office. But enough of this!
The preparations for the lecture184 are going a bit better now. I still
have a good deal of work ahead of me, but after lots of to-ing and
182
Willy Brandt (19131992), German federal chancellor from 1969 until his res-
ignation on 6 May 1974.
183
Impeachment is the procedure for removing an American president from office.
As Art. 2, Section 4 of the US constitution states: The President, Vice President and
all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment
for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
When a president is impeached, the charge is brought by the House of Representatives.
According to Art. 1, Section 3, the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all
Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation.
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And
no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members
present. Richard Nixon (19131994), president of the United States from 19691974.
Resigned when it became apparent that two-thirds of the Senate would support his
conviction in an impeachment trial. The reason was the so-called Watergate scandal,
centred on a Nixon-approved raid on the campaign headquarters of the Democratic
Party during the presidential elections of 1972 in order to obtain information about
the campaign being run by his opponent George McGovern, and attempts to obstruct
the prosecution of these criminal acts.
184
With reference to this lecture, Rosenberg wrote to Gerhard A. Ritter on 10
September 1973: As you probably know, I have accepted the surprising invitation
to deliver the final address at the Braunschweig congress of German historians, albeit
with some hesitation. That they invited me of all people, must, I assume, be due to
the initiative of members of the younger generation. I will be speaking on Ruling
elites and social system conflict in the German civil war of 1525. Rosenberg con-
sciously chose the term civil war rather than Peasants War. He ultimately called
444 documents
froing the basic ideas have clarified and Im now inwardly sure that the
thing holds water and wont end in disaster.
I sincerely hope that you have a few more really good weeks ahead
of you. I think about you a great deal.
All my love and a tender kiss from
Your
Hans
56. 12 December 1975: Hans Rosenberg (Berkeley) to Rudolf

Braun
Braun papers
Dear Rudi,
We havent heard from each other in a long time, and its about time
that we renewed the old ties. I hope youve been reasonably well and
that your health, especially the high blood pressure, which is unfortu-
nately a chronic phenomenon, has improved. I myself am not doing
too brilliantly in this regard, though it could be worse. All in all, this
year was better than last, though by no means satisfactory. It was cer-
tainly a mistake not to leave Berkeley for a single day for rather more
than a whole year. I should have come to Europe in summer rather
than autumn and spent a few weeks in the mountains. I refrained from
doing so because the last two years my sojourn in the mountains gave
me a serious cold, which ruined the holiday. Despite this, I managed
to suffer a similar setback this year as well. The summer months were
off the address, which had cost him many sleepless nights. Another of Meineckes
students, Gerhard Masur, stepped in and delivered a speech on National character as
a problem of German history (Der Nationale Charakter als Problem der deutschen
Geschichte), published in: HZ 221 (1975), pp. 603622. Rosenbergs papers (vol. 149)
include manuscripts by Rosenberg entitled The Peasants War in historical and social
scientific perspective (30 p.) and The Peasants war as social system conflict (12 p.),
as well as the typewritten manuscript of a lecture at the University of Freiburg entitled
The Peasants War in social historical perspective with corrections by Rosenberg. On
23 November 1978, Rosenberg wrote to his colleague at Berkeley, Gerald D. Feldman,
concerning this lecture: I had worked on it very hard and prepared a manuscript
of what I could use only half though I spoke for 70 minutes. The manuscript, he
explained, formed the basis of a small book which he hoped to complete during the
next spring or summer (Rosenberg papers, vol. 49). Rosenberg did not publish an
essay or book on this subject.
exceptionally cool, foggy and uncomfortable here this year, while the
autumn months were utterly delightful. We had an uninterruptedly
warm and sunny Indian Summer. Nevertheless I picked up an infec-
tion about six weeks ago, which quickly developed into a bad cold
that weakened me greatly and crippled me mentally and which I still
havent managed to shake off. However, I hope to change this through
a radical change of climate. One week from today I set off on a one-
month roundtrip through Central America, beginning in Panama and
ending in Yucatan, Mexico. Im greatly looking forward to it, assum-
ing that I hold up physically, for this journey will undoubtedly be
strenuous and not without risk to the gastric organs. Im especially
interested in the great Mayan civilizations of Honduras, Guatemala
and Yucatan, whose brilliant feats of creativity far surpass those of the
Incas in Peru.
We are about to go through another fundamental change in our
lives and, you will be amazed to hear, our days in the USA are num-
bered. Two months ago our family suffered a heavy blow, which
greatly affected my wife in particular. Her only son suddenly died of a
heart attack at the age of just fifty-three. Our six grandchildren, who
live scattered throughout the Federal Republic of Germany and who
lost their mother five years ago, have now become orphans. They are
between the ages of seventeen and twenty-six and, we believe, are now
very much dependent on our advice and support. My wife, who has
gradually become very isolated here since my retirement, has been toy-
ing for years with the idea of remigration, despite the significant
risks involved. It is now set to become a reality over the course of
the coming year. After careful consideration, for a whole number of
reasons we have decided to settle in Freiburg im Breisgau, if we can
find somewhat suitable accommodation there. If that works out, we
would, as it were, be neighbours. And as you often come over to Basle
from Zurich and Basle is just one hour away from Freiburg, we can
look forward to the highly pleasing prospect of being able to meet up
and talk now and then. If it doesnt work out in Freiburg, we want to
try our luck in Munich, though we are a bit afraid of that big, if highly
interesting city.
Immediately after my return from Central America my wife will go
to Germany, first to see the grandchildren and discuss their new situ-
ation with them, and then, around the beginning of February, to look
for somewhere to live in Freiburg. Should the outcome be positive, I
myself shall come over for a short visit, probably in late February or
early March, to sort out business matters. What we would like is our
446 documents
own large flat with a nice view right on the edge of the Black Forest, if
possible a flat still under construction so that our personal wishes and
needs can be taken into account. These are our current plans, whose
realization would bring the two of us closer again. And as we are good
friends and will surely remain so till the end of our lives, this letter
will be welcome news for you as well. Happily, Freiburg has a good
university, where I have appealing personal contacts.
I hope you are in good shape health-wise and had a satisfactory
semester in professional terms.
The very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to you and
your ladies from my wife and I,
Yours always,
Hans
57. 9 November 1977: Hans Rosenberg (Freiburg) to Rudolf Braun

Braun papers
Dear Rudi,
First of all let me say how sorry I am for being such an old devil and
taking so long to get in touch, though I have been living in Freiburg
since the end of June and have often thought of you. But so much has
happened over the last few months that I have had to put my letter
writing and much else to one side. In a few days time I shall be return-
ing to Berkeley for seven weeks to make a start on the final prepara-
tions for the big move and get our affairs in the USA in order.
Ill just give you my most important personal news for now. Despite
initial doubts and reservations, we have settled down surprisingly
quickly in Freiburg, though we are still living in hotels. We feel at home
in this lovely city with its many historical faces. Were very taken with
the area and people and love the Black Forest. The university has been
remarkably welcoming to me and despite a great lack of space has pro-
vided me with my own study, though I am of course no more than an
honorary professor here, with no official duties. Weve also been lucky
in our search for accommodation. Months ago we bought a lovely and
very spacious flat in Kirchzarten, 10km south of Freiburg, in scenic
surroundings and with plenty of fresh air, as we get the refreshing
wind from the Hllental. The flat is still under construction, but will
be ready to move into in two months time. And Ive really hit the
jackpot, as Ill be getting a nicer and bigger study (48 square metres)
than Ive ever had before. With any luck Ill have the pleasure of it for
some time to come and manage to produce something of significance
in it, though very soon Ill be seventy-four.
As you may know the University of Bielefeld awarded me its first
honorary doctorate a few days ago. It all passed off in a very pleas-
ant and dignified manner, and the day will stay with me as a particu-
larly cherished memory. And the same goes for my wife too of course.
Wehler presented a very generous laudatio, and I myself had to give a
long speech, prepared of course. It will appear this coming year in my
essay collection to be published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht under
the title Elite change, economic trends and social historiography
(Elitenwandel, Wirtschaftskonjunktur und Sozialhistoriographie).185
All in all, then, our new beginning in the old homeland has been highly
auspicious, and were thankful for that, for its quite an adventure to
start a new life from scratch in ones later years.
As soon as were properly established in Kirchzarten we really must
arrange a get-together. Should Freiburg be too far away for you, we
can meet half-way in Basle, since you go there anyway from time to
time. Apart from that we shall no doubt be seeing each other next June
at the conference in Bielefeld, where youll be making an appearance
as one of the big guns. I hope youre enjoying much better health
than has been the case over the last few years, which have been a great
strain on you. We ourselves cant really complain on that front given
our age. I see from your essay in GG,186 which has just appeared, that
your creative powers are on the rise again. I shall take it with me to
Berkeley and give it a thorough read.
Very best wishes from my wife and I.
Yours always,
Hans
185
Hans Rosenberg, Rckblick auf ein Historikerleben zwischen zwei Kulturen,
in: Rosenberg, Machteliten und Wirtschaftskonjunkturen, pp. 1123.
186
Rudolf Braun, Historische Demographie im Rahmen einer integrierten
Geschichtsbetrachtung: Jngere Forschungsanstze und ihre Verwendung, in: GG
31 (1977), pp. 525536.
448 documents
IX. Hedwig Hintze
1. 7 February 1920: Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Antonie Meinecke

NL Meinecke 213
Dearest Frau Meinecke,
How lovely of you to kindly remember the sixth of February1 and send
me such a delightful historical card, which suits me so splendidly and
which must have been very difficult to part with, as it appears to be a
cherished souvenir from a journey. Thank you so much! I get a child-
like enjoyment out of such historical pictures, cards, sayings, etc. I keep
such things safely among my excerpts and notes; I pick them up again,
often years later, and they trigger whole series of memories! I am writ-
ing surrounded by the smell of hyacinths; my dear husband gave me
the loveliest budding pink bouquet he could get hold ofand we had
a lovely time yesterday altogether, despite not being able to have our
friends round because of the domestic situation. But with any luck we
shall be able to make up for it in the near future. How wonderful it was
at your house the other day! My dear husbands rather strained leg is
back to normal thank goodness now that the swelling has gone down,
and it did him so much good mentally and emotionally.
All the very best from us to you.
Your
HH
2. 30 August 1921: Hedwig Hintze (Schnau bei Berchtesgaden) to

Antonie Meinecke
NL Meinecke 213
Dear Frau Meinecke,
The birthday wishes from you and your dear husband were the loveli-
estthe warmest and most full of sincere understandingwhich my
dear husband was fortunate enough to receive on 27 August.2 By rights
1
Hedwig Hintze was born on 6 February 1884.
2
60th birthday of Otto Hintze.
ix. hedwig hintze 449
you should both be receiving a very special and absolutely personal

thanks from himbut as you know, he has particular difficulties with
writing, particularly in this countryside resort, where all the tables are
too low for someone of his size. So Im sure you wont be put out by
the division of labour weve agreed on: that I shall reply to all your
kind and sympathetic questions in some detail while my husband
inserts a few lines in his own hand3 to the two of you!
It took us a couple of weeks to get acclimatized and for my dear hus-
band to recover from the journey, which was quite a strain. But then
we had a good time. We went for a lot of delightful walks on the flat
together; though Im mountain mad as soon as I come into contact
with this native soil4 and have abandoned my poor husband particularly
often this year. I did the easier mountain hikes all by myself, preferring
to set off while the stars are still out. Its different here than close to
the cityits quite safe to go on such solitary hikes; but many of the
tourists stare at you in amazement, as if you were from another planet
or some kind of heroine. I do the more difficult and longer tours in
suitable company and I found an authorized mountain guide for my
greatest achievement so far, the Hoher Gll. All of which hasnt exactly
made me fatter, I think, but I was already tanned like a mulatto, and
a thin figure is better suited to the beloved traditional hiking clothes,
the longed-for trousers and the leather hat; people say I look like a
wild Savoyard boy. Its a shame that I couldnt go hiking with Sabine.5
I havent made it up the Watzmann yet in any case; so far this moun-
tain has been so dreadfully overrun, it is said, that hundreds of people
stayed in the lodge every night. With any luck the flood will subside a
little once the Bavarian school holidays are over (1 September). On the
whole, weve pretty much abandoned scholarship here, despite many
heroic resolutions. However, together we conquered the three hefty
volumes of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky; and to be honest,
it was more work than pleasureinsights into a quite alien world, yet
so alien, so incommensurable I would almost say, that it left us with
an agonizing feeling we were unable to shake off. Now were reading
3
The letter contains no additions by Otto Hintze.
4
Hedwig Hintze was born in Munich.
5
Daughter of Meinecke.
450 documents
Merezhkovskys work on Leonardo da Vinci.6 As the 27 August was

also mentioned in the Mnchener Neueste Nachrichten this year, the
very kind manageress of this pension surprised us with a quite won-
derful tart, which I have tucked into with even more gusto than the
birthday boy. Scent for the deity alone, yet food for the priests, one
might almost say, to borrow from Lichtenbergs epigram,7 which my
husband sometimes quotes. I was also able to put a bunch of cycla-
men on his breakfast table this yearthey tend to grow very well in
pots back home. They were small ones that Id picked myself, and they
smelt wonderful. The locals say they are a rarity at this time of year.
Im afraid that the tie [which I always give him] (cornflower blue this
year) is only half-finished! Our best wishes to you. We hope for a
happy reunion in September.
Your always,
Hedwig Hintze
3. 10 December 1923: Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to the dean of the

philosophy faculty, Berlin University8
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty doctoral
records 627
To the Dean
of the Faculty of Philosophy,
University of Berlin.
I hereby submit to you my study on The problem of federalism in the

early stages of the French Revolution (Das Problem des Fderalismus
in der Frhzeit der Franzsischen Revolution) and my personal
6
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky (18651941), Russian author. Published a
famous book on Leonardo da Vinci in 1903.
7
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799), physicist and author. His notes, not
always correctly described as aphorisms, were published thirty-five years after his
death.
8
For the period to 1914, divergent and supplementary wording in the CV submit-
ted for habilitation are indicated in the footnotes. For the subsequent period, despite
some overlap with the CV submitted with a view to gaining a doctorate, the CV sub-
mitted for habilitation (see below, pp. 458462) is shown in full.
Hedwig Hintze
papers with the request that you kindly accept my registration for the
doctoral examination.
Further, I would request that you regard the tenth chapter, The
Constituantes legislation on the departement (Die Departementsge-
setzgebung der Constituante)9 (pp. 246298, together with the notes
on pp. 123140 of the supplementary volume), as the actual disserta-
tion to be used for the typewritten or printed deposit copies to be
submitted later.
9
The final version was: Die Municipalgesetzgebung der Constituante. It later
formed chapter 11 of her book on Staatseinheit und Fderalismus im alten Frankreich
und der Revolution, Berlin/Leipzig 1928, pp. 207234.
452 documents
I wish to be examined in the following subjects:

Main subject: history
Subsidiary subjects: state sciences (Staatswissenschaften), philosophy.
Hedwig Hintze
ne Guggenheimer
a. 10 December 1923: Hedwig Hintzes CV/appendix to doctoral

application
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, philosophy faculty doctoral
records 627
CV
I was born on 6 February 1884 in Munich, daughter of deceased banker

Moritz Guggenheimer and his wife Helene, ne Wolff.
I was raised as a Protestant.
My education initially consisted partly in private lessons, partly
from 1895in attendance at a girls high school (Hhere Mdchenschule
der Damen Neumeyer) in Munich.
The courses in the later years of the school led by the university teach-
ers Professor Dr. Roman Woerner and Professor Dr. Franz Muncker
first introduced me to the academic study of the history of states, art
and literaturesubjects that already greatly appealed to me.
In addition I engaged in intensive study of modern languages, pri-
marily French, and passed the Bavarian state exam for women teach-
ers of French language in Munich in April 1901.
My schooling in Munich was interrupted by trips abroad on sev-
eral occasions; during these months I frequently attended French girls
schools in Nice.
From autumn 1901 I spent roughly one year in a boarding school for
girls in Brussels. The mechanical way in which it was run and perfunc-
tory atmosphere of this establishment were so repellent to me that I
subjected the whole system of such education for girls to thorough and
severe criticism, published in a supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung
entitled The question of education in December 1903.10
10
Hedwig Guggenheimer, Zur Erziehungsfrage, in: supplement to the Allgemeine
Zeitung, 3 December 1903, p. 438f. The CV submitted as part of the habilitation pro-
From 1902 to 1904, I attended both lectures at the Berlin

Victorialyzeum and similar courses for women that had been initiated
in Munich.
In autumn of 1904 I was granted permission to attend lectures at
Munich University. My studies focussed mainly on German language
and literature and history of literature. Above all I attended the lec-
tures and classes of professors Hermann Paul11 and Franz Muncker
while attempting to familiarize myself with the intellectual problems
at hand through my own efforts. I had the opportunity to present my
findings in the seminars on several occasions, and sometimes in a spe-
cial association as well. My main focus at the time being on the work of
Richard Wagner as a whole, I published an essay on Novalis Hymns
to the Night and Richard Wagners Tristan and Isolde (Novalis
Hymnen an die Nacht und Richard Wagners Tristan und Isolde) in
the Leipzig Neue Musikzeitung in July 1905 and a treatise on E. T. A.
Hoffmann and Richard Wagner (E. T. A. Hoffmann und Richard
Wagner) running to more than two folios in the second volume of
the Richard Wagner Yearbook published in Berlin by Hermann Paetel
in 1907.12
In addition, Professor Muncker tasked me with compilation
of a detailed name and subject index for his revised version of the
Lachmann edition of Lessing.13 This work prompted me to take a closer
look at Lessings work and the intellectual history of the 18th century
cess adds: What mattered to me above all, however, was to go beyond merely criticiz-
ing the girls education of the time and acquire for myself a more thorough education
and take up an occupation that matched my inclinations and abilities. Unfortunately,
I did not immediately take the approach, which was still somewhat complicated for
women at the time, of preparing for the grammar school leaving exam (Abiturium),
but rather, on the advice of Professor Muncker, applied for permission to attend lec-
tures at the University of Munich. On the basis of my teaching certificate and a num-
ber of other references concerning my private studies, I was admitted to the university
as Hrerin [attending courses but not working towards a degree] in winter 1904.
11
Hermann Paul (18461921), Germanist. Obtained his doctorate in 1870 and
habilitated in 1874. Initially made professor extraordinarius at Freiburg in 1874, then
professor ordinarius from 1877. Taught as ordinarius at Ludwig Maximilian University
in Munich from 1893 until his retirement in 1916.
12
See above, p. 81.
13
In the CV submitted for habilitation she added that the index of names appeared
only in 1924 after the late completion of the new edition, as its 23rd volume, revised
by Franz Steinleitner and Franz Muncker. Franz Steinleitner, librarian at the Prussian
454 documents
in general, but in time proved excessively time-consuming and overly

one-sided. In particular, I now felt more keenly my lack of knowledge
of the ancient languages.14
In spring of 1908, I thus decided to break off all my current assign-
ments and university studies for the time being in order to devote
myself exclusively to preparing to pass the final exam at a grammar
school with a focus on the classics.
I carried out these preparatory studies in Berlin; they were super-
vised by professors, particularly those of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium,
who aided my progress in the relevant subjects to such an extent that
I was able to pass the final exam before an official commission in the
classics department of the Hohenzollernschule in Schneberg in Easter
of 1910.
I enrolled at Berlin University in the summer semester of 1910 and,
as well as resuming my studies of German language and literature,
now turned, with growing interest, to the study of history.
I participated in the preparatory classes of Struck and Krabbo15 with
papers and oral presentations; in the summer semester of 1910, the
classes of Herr Professor Struck introduced me to the sources on the
historical background to the French Revolution and recent contro-
versies relating to the Revolution; in the winter semester of 1910/11,
State Library in Berlin; Franz Muncker (18551926), literary historian. Habilitated in

Munich in 1879, he was made professor extraordinarius in modern German literature
in 1890 and professor ordinarius in 1896.
14
Addition to the CV submitted for habilitation: while working on this index I
satisfied myself that without knowledge of the ancient languages I would be unable
to continue my studies successfully. I moved to Berlin in spring 1908 to prepare for
the school-leaving exam at a classically oriented grammar school. Instruction from
such an outstanding philologist as Professor Paul Stengel of the Joachimthal gram-
mar school, in whose house I lived like a member of the family for several years, the
tremendously stimulating history lectures by his colleague, Professor Paul Schlesinger,
now sadly deceased, and other private lessons by excellent teachers led to the desired
result. Professor Stengel was a grammar school teacher related to Hedwig Hintze.
15
Dr. Herbert Krabbo taught beginners classes introducing students to the study of
medieval history and on the auxiliary sciences of history (historische Hilfswissenschaften)
at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Dr. Walter Struck taught French history
and early modern German history at the university and taught a class introducing
modern history, taking the origins of the French Revolution as an example, during the
summer semester of 1910. Struck was later professor extraordinarius in history at the
University of Breslau. Following his death in 1923, his widow edited his unpublished
work Montesquieu als Politiker, no. 228 of Historische Studien, Vaduz 1933. Reprinted
Berlin 1965.
Professor Krabbo familiarized us primarily with the rudiments of the

auxiliary sciences of history (historische Hilfswissenschaften), particu-
larly diplomatics and chronology. I passed the exam concluding his
class in Easter 1911.
Thus prepared, I was admitted to the seminar of Herr Professor
Otto Hintze in the summer semester of 1911, whose lecture course on
general constitutional history I had attended the previous winter.
I was soon captivated by the studies pursued in this seminar. The
productive fusion which Professor Hintze sought to achieve, of true
history with political science [Staatslehre] and Staatenkunde [the
study of the state], while taking full account of the institutional factor
opened up the prospect of a rewarding field of study of my own. Such
prospects were also inspired by the great lecture course on General
theories of state and society on a historical basis (politics) delivered
by Professor Hintze in the summer semester of 1911, while his lectures
on political theory since Machiavelli, which complemented the history
of institutions, introduced me to the history of political ideas.
Alongside the ongoing seminar, which at the time covered the
period roughly from the 13th to 18th century (inclusive) and in which
I played a lively part, at the suggestion of Professor Hintze I began
a major study of my own on the development of the unified French
state, which I was able to further during the holidays through trips to
France and studies carried out at the National Library in Paris.16
When Professor Hintze broke off his lectures and classes in the win-
ter semester of 1911/12, I began to attend the seminars of Professor
Tangl and Professor Erich Schmidt.17
In the seminar of Professor Erich Schmidt, I submitted a study on
the various versions of Goethes Iphigenia running to about 32 pages,
while in Professor Tangls18 seminar, alongside ongoing studies com-
mon to all, I produced two short pieces concerned with issues specific
to the field of documentary research and medieval chronology.
16
The CV submitted as part of the habilitation process adds: The work on the
formation of the French state suggested by Professor Hintze then became crucial to
the progress of my studies and my scholarly activities as a whole.
17
Erich Schmidt (18531913), Germanist. Taught in Berlin from 1887. Became
president of the Goethe Society in 1906.
18
Michael Tangl (18611921), Austrian historian. Occupied the chair in medieval
history and the auxiliary sciences of history (historische Hilfswissenschaften) at the
University of Berlin from 1897.
456 documents
During the winter semester of 1911/12 I also expanded my stud-

ies to include state sciences (Staatswissenschaften), beginning with
attendance at a lecture on practical political economy by Professor
von Schmoller.
I returned to Professor Hintzes seminar in the summer semester of
1912, to whom I was married in December of that year.
I took my name off the university register in autumn 1912 in order to
contribute to my husbands work as his assistant for the time being.19
However, I soon resumed my own studies alongside this.
As Gasthrerin [attending lectures and seminars without working
towards a degree], I attended the lectures of Professor Troeltsch from
summer 1915, joining his seminar in winter semester 1916/17, of which
I was a lively member for a number of years. Professor Troeltsch pur-
sued with us the preparatory studies for his great work on Historism
and its problems (Historismus und seine Probleme).20 I gave two
detailed presentations in his seminar, on The relationship between
Karl Marx and P. J. Proudhon, which required tackling the problems
of historical materialism and on Wilhelm Wundts theory of history
in the winter semesters of 1917/18 and 1918/19 respectively.
These studies enabled me, in an essay published in Hilfe on the
Decline of the West21 in January 1920, to present my views on the
book of the same name by Oswald Spengler, that is, the first volume of
his work, and to place this latest philosophy of history in the context
of, or demarcate it from, other modern theories of history.
At the same time I had resumed my studies in political economy
under the guidance of Professor Herkner.
My own studies were increasingly focussed on exploring the gen-
esis of the French state, very much in light of the Great Revolution;
and I was able to use my 1911 seminar paper as a starting point. I
was constantly stimulated and aided by my husband, who now steered
my studies towards the federalistic undercurrent that was a constant
accompaniment to the unification of France and which made itself felt
with particular force in the modern regionalism.
19
In the CV submitted as part of the habilitation process she adds that the state
of [Hintzes] health necessitated such assistance.
20
Ernst Troeltsch, Der Historismus und seine Probleme. Book 1: Das logische
Problem der Geschichtsphilosophie, Tbingen 1922. Reprinted Aalen 1961.
21
Hedwig Hintze, review of Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The
Decline of the West), in: Die Hilfe 26 (1920), pp. 4447.
Greatly attracted by these problems of modern France, I published

a lengthy essay on Modern French regionalism and its roots (Der
moderne franzsische Regionalismus und seine Wurzeln) in the
Preuische Jahrbcher in September 1920, followed by a shorter arti-
cle taking into account the latest developments, French regionalism
(Der franzsische Regionalismus)22 in der Deutsche Nation in April
1921.
In addition I continuously published book reviews and essays in
Hilfe, one of which (March 1919) dealt with The question of female
suffrage in the French Revolution (Die Frage des Frauenwahlrechts in
der Franzsischen Revolution).23
My studies dedicated to this period were then greatly stimulated
by a lecture course by Professor Meinecke on The era of the French
Revolution and the wars of liberation (Das Zeitalter der Franzsischen
Revolution und der Befreiungskriege), which I attended in the sum-
mer semester of 1919.
In the meantime, my plan for a book on The problem of federal-
ism in the early stages of the French Revolution was gradually taking
shape. I spent the next few years working on it.
At the same time the most recent problems of France were a con-
stant preoccupation.
As part of the lecture course established by the Board on Studies
of Foreign Countries (Beirat fr Auslandsstudien) at the University
of Berlin in November/December 1921, Problems of the Central
European state and economy, I gave a talk on the subject Capital
city and province in France in November 1921.
After publishing an essay on German intellectuality in relation
to France (Deutsche Geistigkeit im Verhltnis zu Frankreich) in
Neues Deutschland in January 1923,24 I was asked by the editor of the
Rheinischer Beobachter newspaper to examine the French daily press,
with the inclusion of certain specialist political and political economy
journals, in a regular weekly chronicle concerned mainly with the
Rhine and Ruhr issue. This job, which I took on in Easter 1923, again
brought me into very close contact with the various political currents
22
See above, p. 83.
23
Hedwig Hintze, Die Frage des Frauenstimmrechts in der Franzsischen
Revolution, in: Die Hilfe 11 (1919), pp. 132134.
24
Hedwig Hintze, Deutsche Geistigkeit im Verhltnis zu Frankreich. Mit einem
Nachwort der Redaktion, in: Das neue Deutschland 11 (1923), pp. 2023.
458 documents
of contemporary France;25 I gave it up after a few months, however,

because the material made available to me had become increasingly
incidental and sporadic in nature, so that it was no longer possible to
obtain a reliable overview.
I enrolled again at the University of Berlin in the summer semes-
ter of 1923, where I took part in a colloquium of Professor Meinecke
on The study of sources and historiography in modern history and
resumed my medieval studies under Professor Brackmann. But my
main focus was on completing my book on The problem of federal-
ism in the early stages of the French Revolution (Das Problem des
Fderalismus in der Frhzeit der Franzsischen Revolution), which
I was able to finish at the start of the winter semester of 1923/24. I
wish to use the tenth chapter on The Constituantes legislation on the
departement as my inaugural dissertation to obtain my doctorate.
Hedwig Hintze
ne Guggenheimer
b. 11 April 1928: Hedwig Hintzes CV (excerpt)/appendix to appli-

cation for habilitation
tion records 1243
[. . .] When the war broke out, I volunteered for the Prussian national
association of the Red Cross and supervised a course in voluntary
nursing in autumn 1914, after which I myself passed the theoretical
exam for Red Cross assistants.
Subsequently, on the one hand, the increasingly difficult economic
situation laid claim to much of my energy, which I would otherwise
have been able to devote to academic work, while on the other hand
prompting me to face up more seriously to the issue of an occupa-
tion once again. Since the summer of 1915, on my husbands advice,
I had resumed my university studiesinitially as a student attend-
ing lectures only (Hrerin); the thrust of my studies of constitutional
history, prompted by my husband, made it necessary to explore eco-
25
See Kaudelka, Rezeption, pp. 254256.
nomics in greater depth, and the lectures of Herr Professor Herkner26

provided me with the stimulation and instruction I was looking for in
abundance. My preparations for the doctoral examination required a
more in-depth study of philosophy. The lectures and classes of Herr
Professor Troeltsch provided a truly plentiful source of stimulation
and prompted me to produce my own studies in the history of phi-
losophy, very much in keeping with my studies in constitutional his-
tory and political economy.
My work on the formation of the French state, suggested by my hus-
band, contained the seeds of a major academic work requiring in-depth
study of the French sources, whose quantityespecially for the period
of the Revolutionrepresents a serious problem in its own right; the
well-known restrictions during the war and the first few years after it
were additional burdens. Furthermore, my husbands bouts of serious
illness once again caused me to interrupt my studies at length.
However, when the Weimar constitution opened up new profes-
sional opportunities to German women in August 1919,27 I gave more
serious consideration to an old ambition, cherished from a young age,
to become a civil servant.
It was very difficult to mark off a section of my extensive studies,
carried out with a major book in mind, for a dissertation; these studies
then dragged on for a few more years before I made up my mind to
interrupt them and prepare for the viva.
I had published several essays on modern French history and politi-
cal science (Staatskunde)28 since 1919. At the invitation of the Board
on Studies of Foreign Countries (Beirat fr Auslandsstudien), I gave
a lecture on the Capital city and province in France at the university
in November 1921, whose success gave fresh impetus to my desire for
regular work of this kind.
26
The CV was submitted by H. Hintze, together with other documents, when she
applied to the philosophy faculty of Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin for habili-
tation in modern history. The date appears at the end of the CV.
27
Art. 109 of the Weimar constitution stated: All Germans are equal before the law.
Men and women have in principle the same civil rights and obligations; Art. 128: In
accordance with the law and in line with their abilities and achievements, all citizens
without distinction must be admitted to public office. All exception clauses relating to
female civil servants are removed.
28
See above, p. 83, and the bibliography of the writings of H. Hintze in Kaudelkas
Rezeption, pp. 500507.
460 documents
In order to complete my university studies, I enrolled again at Berlin

University in the summer of 1923; to prepare for the doctoral exami-
nation I attended the lectures of Meinecke and Brackmann.
At the same time I was doing work as a political journalist, which
I felt I had to take on at the time of the struggle over the Ruhr. For
several weeks in the spring of 1923 I wrote a regular chronicle of
French press commentary on the political situation for the Rheinischer
Beobachter newspaper.29
I passed the doctoral examination on 26 June 1924. My dis-
sertation, The municipal legislation of the Constituante (Die
Munizipalgesetzgebung der Konstituente), is one of the eighteen
chapters of my book The unity of the state and federalism in old
France and in the Revolution (Staatseinheit und Fderalismus im
alten Frankreich und in der Revolution),30 recently published, in April
1928, by the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt in Stuttgart, which I would now
like to submit as my habilitation thesis.
When I passed the doctoral examination, the first twelve chapters
of this book had already been completed in more or less their current
form; it took longer to finish the book than I originally expected, as
the complex problems presented by the six outstanding chapters could
be resolved only through further extensive studies of the sources and
because a number of honourable requests were made of me over the
last few years that I felt unable to refuse.
In June 1924, at the suggestion of Herr Professor Meinecke, the pub-
lisher Duncker & Humblot approached me with a request to write an
introduction to a German translation of Aulards substantial work The
French Revolution. A Political History, 17891804 (Politische Geschichte
der franzsischen Revolution).31 While this was a very interesting and
relatively easy task given the overall thrust of my studies, another
request from the publishers proved an unexpectedly heavy burden on
my time and energy: I was asked to help correct the proofs of the
German translation. But I soon realized that this was not a simple case
of proofreading: the translation, produced without knowledge of the
historical and constitutional foundations of the 800-page work, had to
29
See Kaudelka, Rezeption, pp. 254256.
30
Chapter 11, pp. 207234.
31
Published: Munich 1925, pp. IXXV; English edition: London 1913.
be completely reviseda very difficult task given the haste necessitated

by the process of printing.
Six months after publication of the German edition, in the summer
of 1925, I was approached by Herr Professor Wechssler32 on behalf of
the Board on Studies of Foreign Countries at the University of Berlin
with a request to deliver a weekly two-hour lecture at the university
on State and society in France since the Great Revolution (within
the framework of the language and culture courses) in the winter
semester of 1925/26. I was working on the second half of my book at
the time and would certainly not have interrupted this work on my
own initiative; but given my aspirations to a lecturing career, I felt that
I had to take up an appointment such as this, offered by the university,
and wanted to make myself immediately available when needed. The
subject of the lecture, which was very much in keeping with the stud-
ies of the state for which my husband had been preparing the ground
for some years, was particularly appealing. I completed the course of
lectures with a great sense of satisfaction and with success. I am still
in touch with some of the attendees.
In the summer of 1926, Carl Heymann publishers in Berlin
approached me with a request to edit an unpublished work by Hugo
Preuss together with Herr Professor Gerhard Anschtz. As Professor
Anschtz was heavily burdened by other work, he initially asked me to
take on the bulk of the editorial work, retaining responsibility merely
for the composition of a general introduction; but once I had com-
pleted my task, he asked me to write the introduction as well and
appear as sole editor. This posthumous work appeared at Christmas
of 1926 under the title Constitutional developments in Germany and
Western Europe. Laying the historical foundations for constitutional
law in the German Republic (Verfassungspolitische Entwicklungen
in Deutschland und Westeuropa. Historische Grundlegung zu einem
Staatsrecht der Deutschen Republik).33
Only after this could I focus all my energy on completing my book;
the year 1927, in which a few lengthy essays34 and shorter reviews of
32
Eduard Wechssler (18691949), Romanist. Habilitated in Halle in 1895, he
became professor extraordinarius of Romance philology at Marburg in 1904 and ordi-
narius in 1909. Took up a chair at the University of Berlin in 1920.
33
Introduction to this volume (Berlin 1927), edited by Hedwig Hintze, pp. VXX.
See also above, p. 85f.
34
Hedwig Hintze, Hugo Preu. Eine historisch-politische Gesamtcharakteristik,
in: Die Justiz. Monatsschrift fr Erneuerung des deutschen Rechtswesens, zugleich Organ
462 documents
mine appeared, was otherwise filled almost entirely with the difficult
job of correction, which went on until February 1928.
Since the summer of 1926 I have regularly produced the notes and
news [Notizen und Nachrichten] section on the era of the French
Revolution in the Historische Zeitschrift.35
Dr. Hedwig Hintze
4. 6 July 1924: Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Albert Brackmann

NL Brackmann 12
The whole time Ive been here Ive been contemplating the best way
to gain your attention, that is, to be more accurate, how best to thank
you once again for so much stimulation and support and, finally, for
the examination, which will always be one of the finest memories of
my student days, a time so rich in powerful impressions.
I heard yesterday from Prof. Hampe36 that you are sick again, and
that really affects me deeply. I hope that it will soon pass, but these
increasingly frequent bouts of illness are so dreadful and too much
of a strain on you. I yearn on your behalf for the end of the semes-
ter, which you really ought to have brought about yourself somewhat
earlier.
Im really keen to organize a modest dinner to celebrate my doc-
torate and am wondering how I might get all the various professors
together under one roof. The death affecting the house of our friend
Meinecke and my own need for rest, intensified by all kinds of little
des Republikanischen Richterbundes 2 (1927), pp. 223237; Hintze, Staatseinheit und

Regionalismus in Frankreich, in: Sozialistische Monatshefte 64 (1927), pp. 364371;
Hintze, Staat und Gesellschaft der franzsischen Renaissance unter Franz I., in:
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fr Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 5 (1927),
pp. 485520.
35
The notes and news section provides an overview of articles in academic jour-
nals and brief reviews of books on specific eras of history.
36
Karl Hampe (18691936), medievalist. After obtaining his doctorate from the
University of Vienna in 1893, he worked as researcher for the Monumenta Germaniae
Historica, and was a member of its central committee from 1917. Habilitated in Bonn
in 1898, he was professor ordinarius at the University of Heidelberg from 1903 until
his death.
disturbances, have delayed the matter in any case. I have just been
contemplating Tuesday 15 July at eight in the evening, and thought I
might speak to Meinecke about it tomorrow.
My dear Herr Professorcan I entertain the hope that, restored
to health, I might be able to welcome you then as well as one of my
guests? Its no good without you. If I understood you correctly, your
dear wife is no longer in Berlin; its already a painful enough loss to
have to do without her at the little meal.
I shall probably be in the city a great deal next week for reasons both
scholarly and economic.
Is there anything I can get youparticularly as the lady of the house
isnt there to look after you at the moment?
I hope to receive reassuring news from you soon. My husband adds
his very best wishes.
Yours ever gratefully and faithfully,

Hedwig Hintze
5. 9 October 1924: Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 15
Further to the explanations I gave you in person on Tuesday I am

taking the liberty of sending you the excerpt from the paper with two
addressed envelopes. Once again I would request that you be so kind
as to send it on to Geheimrat Marcks, whom I have contacted by tele-
phone and asked for the necessary signature.
Please find enclosed also the letter from Baroness v. Buschoeveden
thank you so much from both of us. I shall write directly to her as soon
37
as Aulard and the dentist allow me to draw breath.
37
Alphonse Aulard (18491928), famous French historian. First holder of the
chair in the history of the Revolution established at the Sorbonne in Paris. His most
important work, Histoire politique de la Rvolution francaise (1st edn. Paris 1901) was
published in German under the title Politische Geschichte der franzsischen Revolution.
Entstehung und Entwicklung der Demokratie und der Republik 17891804, Munich,
1924, with an introduction by Hedwig Hintze, who also revised the translation.
English edition: The French Revolution. A Political History, London 1910.
464 documents
For many reasonsscholarly and practical (such as the shortness of

the days, lighting conditions)Otto [Hintze] doesnt want to leave the
house this October and November; we hope to be able to explain this
to you soon in person in more detail. However, it would be wonderful
if there was room for us in Assenheim, in May or June for instance,
when the teaching professors are unable to go away, and I would like
to write to the Baroness as soon as possible in this regard.
Thank you once again for everything; we do not yet dare congratu-
late the happy couple38 properly, as the good news was told to me as a
secret, but we are with you and your family in spirit, joyfully sharing
in the forthcoming happy event.
Yours ever gratefully and faithfully,

Hedwig Hintze
6. 7 April 1927: Hedwig Hintze (Berlin) to Albert Brackmann

NL Brackmann 12
Many thanks indeed for your kind card of the fifth of this month and
your interest.
I have referred to your friendly interest in my new submission to the
Emergency Committee, which was just sent off, also on the fifth: the
book39 is now estimated to run to forty folios. Almost twenty-nine or
morethe actual textare already set and I am unable to shorten the
eight outstanding folios of critical apparatus (notes and excursuses),
or the book will be worthless as rigorous scholarship. Two folios are
earmarked for the introduction and conclusion.
Im delighted that you got something out of my husbands essay;40
it is very close to my own views, far closer than the ideas of Troeltsch
38
Reference to the marriage of Meineckes daughter Sabine to Carl Rabl, which
took place in 1925.
39
Hedwig Hintze, Staatseinheit und Fderalismus im alten Frankreich und in der
Revolution, Berlin 1928.
40
Presumably a reference to Otto Hintzes essay Troeltsch und die Probleme des
Historismus. Kritische Studien, in: HZ 135 (1927), pp. 188239.
himself, whom I consider unforgettable and irreplaceable as a friend

and teacher.
I hope you have fine weather and a really good rest. Perhaps I shall
manage to escape from the mountain of work, from which Ive had no
release since 1 August, and head for the Riesengebirge around the end
of April for fourteen days; the rest and relaxation would then have to
do me until the end of July.
Best wishes from both of us and thank you so much once again.
Yours sincerely,
Hedwig Hintze
7. 20 May 1933: Friedrich Meinecke and Albert Brackmann to

Hedwig Hintze41
NL Meinecke 231, draft
Dear colleague,
It is with great sadness that we are compelled to inform you that cer-
tain indications, that cannot be taken lightly, have forced us to con-
clude that the Historische Zeitschrift is now under threat. We shall
assert the journals scholarly character under all circumstances, but
have to be more restrictive in the selection of contributors from now
on in order to guard against these threats. You are simply seen as a
particularly tainted figure politically. We will still be able to publish
your contribution to the new issue, while deleting the names of the
regular contributors,42 but will unfortunately then have to let you go
as a regular contributor. We would also like to express our warmest
thanks for your many years of dedicated and expert service.
M. Br. [Meinecke. Brackmann]
41
Handwritten draft by Meinecke featuring the note: To Frau Hintze 20.5.33.
42
In contrast to earlier issues, the names of the regular contributors are not in fact
mentioned in part two of volume 148 (1933) of the Historische Zeitschrift in the notes
and news column, which features reports on publications on specific periods. The
names are mentioned again in the next issue.
466 documents
8. 21 May 1933: Otto Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 231
Dear friend,
After your verbal disclosure about the situation at the H.Z. on Thursday
of last week I was prepared for the turn that has now occurred. I
understand and appreciate the motives underlying your editorial pol-
icy, but I for my part cannot of course approve of or put my name to
it. I assume, therefore, that you will consider it a matter of course if I
hereby formally request that my name be removed from the title page
of the H.Z. from the next issue on.43 I also want to avoid appearing to
make concessions to a trend in cultural policy whose professed goal,
among other things, is to ensure that the year 1789 is wiped from
world history and that in fifty years time no-one in Germany will
know what the word Marxism means.
Your old friend nonetheless,

Otto Hintze
9. 18 November 1933: Otto Hintze (Berlin) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 231
Dear Meinecke,
Its part of the tragic nature of our times that old friendships become
shaky. But I think its better to let the string that once produced a full
note fade and die away quietly than to tear it apart with a shrill note
of discord.
In this spirit I remain
Your
Otto Hintze
43
From part two of volume 148 (1933) of the HZ, Otto Hintzes name is no longer
among those historians listed as members of the HZ editorial team alongside the two
main editors.
10. 8 May 1942: Konrad Hintze (Pyritz) to Friedrich Meinecke44

NL Meinecke 15
I would like to ask your esteemed advice following an enquiry from the
Prussian Secret State Archive (Preuisches Geheimes Staatsarchiv).
To enable you to assess the matter more easily, I must tell you the
following in the strictest confidence. You will no doubt already have
heard that my deceased brother Otto decreed in his will that My per-
sonal manuscripts are to be destroyed during your meeting with Herr
Professor Hartung and the two gentlemen from Koehler and Amelang
publishers in May 40. His wife, who had emigrated to Holland, was
unwilling to recognize my brothers last will and testament and did
everything she could to come into possession of the manuscripts on
constitutional history,45 claiming in particular that she had a right to
them as his wife and student.
44
Dr. med. Konrad Hintze was a brother of Otto Hintze. He and his wife commit-
ted suicide upon the arrival of the Red Army. Meinecke noted on the letter: Advised
deposit in the G. St. A. (Secret State Archive or Geheimes Staatsarchiv) with the agree-
ment of Hartung, 11/5.
45
Of the manuscript, substantial fragments were published under the titles The con-
stitutional history of Poland from the 16th to the 18th century (Verfassungsgeschichte
Polens vom 16. bis 18. Jahrhundert) and The breakthrough of the democratic nation
state in the American and French Revolutions (Der Durchbruch des demokratischen
Nationalstaates in der amerikanischen und franzsischen Revolution) by Gerhard
Oestreich (in: Hintze, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. 1: Staat und Verfassung, 2nd
expanded edn, Gttingen 1962, pp. 511562 and pp. 503510). Other parts, on medi-
eval Scandinavia, Denmark and Sweden in the early modern period, Poland in the
Middle Ages, Hungary and the Netherlands were published by Guiseppe Di Costanzo,
Michael Erbe and Wolfgang Neugebauer, under the title Allgemeine Verfassungs- und
Verwaltungsgeschichte der neueren Staaten. Fragmente, vol. 1, Calvizzano-Naples
1998. The second volume will relate to Switzerland, Austria, the Italian states and
Spain, drawing on manuscripts listed in Hintzes papers in the Secret State Archive
(Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preuischer Kulturbesitz), VI HA N1, nos. 110. The chapters
on France, Great Britain, the United States and Russia have not survived. Wolfgang
Neugebauer believes that these gaps can be bridged by a four-hundred page writ-
ten record of a lecture by Hintze on the General constitutional history of the new
states (Allgemeine Verfassungsgeschichte der neueren Staaten) dating from the
winter semester 1910/11 and a shorter one from the winter semester of 1913/14.
These documents contain extensive observations on France up to the Revolution,
the early constitutional history of the United States and the political constitution
of Britain. See Neugebauer: Otto Hintze und seine Konzeption der Allgemeinen
Verfassungsgeschichte der neueren Staaten , in: Zeitschrift fr Historische
Forschung 20 (1993), pp. 6596, supplemented by Neugebauer: Zur Quellenlage der
468 documents
We, his siblings, however, decided not to surrender the manu-

scripts, particularly in light of the fact that my brother Otto declined
his wifes request to leave her the manuscripts when she emigrated.
Furthermore, his wife had then mentioned to us that she wished to
make use of the manuscripts for possible publication in the USA,
where, she stated, there was much interest in my brothers work.
At any rate, according to letters we have now found dating from
1938, Professor Stier did in fact submit the first two sections of the
manuscript The rise of the modern state among the leading peoples
of Europe for inclusion in his journal Welt als Geschichte.46
Hintze-Forschung, in: Jahrbuch fr die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 45

(1999), pp. 323338. According to Neugebauer, Hintzes work is not a systematic
comparative structural history of constitutional institutions, but rather an account of
the development of the constitution and administration specific to a given state, with
the concept of state formation being viewed as the central process of early modern his-
tory in Europe and the USA. Here, Hintze focussed on features specific to particular
states rather than the comparative elaboration of universal historical developments
and historical typesas in his great essays published later on: The nature and spread
of feudalism (Wesen und Verbreitung des Feudalismus) (1929), Typology of the
corporative constitutions of the West (Typologie der stndischen Verfassungen des
Abendlandes) (1930), World historical preconditions for the representative consti-
tution (Weltgeschichtliche Bedingungen der Reprsentativverfassung) (1931), The
nature and transformation of the modern state (Wesen und Wandlung des mod-
ernen Staates) (1931) and The rise of the modern state system (Die Entstehung des
modernen Staatslebens) (1932) (in: Hintze, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. 1, pp.
84185, 470496). Apart from the essay entitled The breakthrough of the democratic
nation state (Der Durchbruch des demokratischen Nationalstaates), probably writ-
ten around 1930, those of Hintzes manuscripts published posthumously are based
on his research from the period prior to the First World War and are also rooted in
the ideas of the time. As revealing as these publications are as a contribution to the
development of Hintzes work and ideas, it seems likely to me that his workprob-
ably influenced in part by conversations with his wife, who possessed an outstanding
knowledge of French constitutional historywould have changed at a basic concep-
tual level in subsequent decades, above all by paying greater heed to the comparative
issues so central to his later essays. It is possible that Hintze refrained from publishing
his original manuscript not only because the publisher requested that he abridge the
manuscript, which had been largely completed by around 1930, and later because of
his uncompromising rejection of the Nazi regime, but also because his basic views had
changed. My thanks to Frau Brigitta Oestreich for drawing my attention to a number
of key facts.
46
No publication appeared in the journal Die Welt als Geschichte or elsewhere.
A manuscript entitled The rise of the modern state among the leading peoples of
Europe is listed in Hintzes papers, no. 11, and includes six volumes, but was no
longer extant in the German Central Archive (Deutsches Zentralarchiv) in Merseburg,
Rep. 92, no. 11, where Hintzes papers were housed from the end of the war until
the early 1990s, when the holdings were inspected in 1962, apart from the essay on
the Breakthrough of the democratic nation state, listed as vol. 6 and published by
In 1939, my brother once stated to me that publication of his work

would be inadvisable at the present time.
All these above-mentioned points make one wonder whether it is
best to send the manuscripts to be stored in the archive, where they
might be made available for examination and use. At best, they could
be deposited with the reservation that other individuals cannot use the
papers without permission.
Incidentally, a far more [word illegible] of his manuscript has subse-
quently come to light among his papers than the one indicated in May
1940. This last forms the general part of the Constitutional history
of the modern Western states (Verfassungsgeschichte der neueren
abendlndischen Staatenwelt), while the former more substan-
tial one is the Constitutional history of the leading Western states
(Verfassungsgeschichte der wichtigsten abendlndischen Staaten).
I would be very grateful for a kind response to my request.
I enclose the request from the Secret State Archive together with the
form and letters from Professor Stier, which I would ask you to please
return to me, plus a return envelope.
Our best wishes to you and your wife,
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Hintze
Oestreich. The five missing volumes are listed with the following titles. Vol. 1: Western
Christianity and the European state system; vol. 2: State consolidation in England,
France, Spain; vol. 3: The Spanish-Habsburg monarchy; vol. 4: The confessional crisis
and the absolute monarchy in France and Germany; vol. 5: The confessional crisis
and parliamentary government in England. The missing parts probably never made
it into the archive, and this was merely the manuscripts table of contents. According
to Brigitta Oestreich, Otto Hintze and Hedwig Hintze (p. 35), part of the manuscript
was kept in the safe of the district savings bank (Kreissparkasse) in Pyritz, where Ottos
brother Konrad Hintze lived, and probably went missing once the war was over. Of
Hintzes work, the journal Die Welt als Geschichte, vol. 4, 1938, pp. 157190, merely
contains a slightly revised reprint of the essay on the Nature and spread of feudal-
ism, first published in 1929.
470 documents
X. Eckart Kehr
1. 28 February 1929: Eckart Kehr (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 31
Dear Dr. Rosenberg,
Please find your essay on rationalism1 enclosed. As you will seewith

some anxiety I fearI have written a great deal in the margins and
take a quite different view with regard to many specific points. But
this will also demonstrate to you that I have gone to some lengths to
delve into your speculations. I can only hope you will not conclude
that I came to a standstill at the very start of this thorny path and
merely looked at the mystery of the newly built temple of the collec-
tive history of ideas from way off in the distance. Perhaps you will
consider me among those with that sober, if limited clarity andsup-
posedly!such great certainty about reality, who have no understand-
ing for the irrationality of life, though Im not sure whether spinning
out thoughts is a particularly good way to develop ones sense for the
irrational or whether a scepticism about ideas does not endow one
with a far stronger awareness of the fact that there is no certainty and
no rationality in life.
Butbe that as it mayyou are always welcome to subject my
essays to criticism as well: Im glad of any improvement I can make to
my work, with the help of others, whenever my own brains are insuf-
ficient. Indeed, you have seen this in the case of the introduction to my
review of Meineckes book on the alliance problem,2 the one you and
1
Draft of an essay by Hans Rosenberg, later published under the title Theologi-
scher Rationalismus und vormrzlicher Vulgrliberalismus, in: HZ 141 (1930), pp.
497541. Reprinted in: Rosenberg, Politische Denkstrmungen, pp. 1850, 129132.
2
Eckart Kehr, Deutsch-englisches Bndnisproblem der Jahrhundertwende, in:
Die Gesellschaft 5 (1928/II), pp. 2431. Reprinted in Kehr, Primat der Innenpolitik,
pp. 176183. In this article Kehr discussed Meineckes book: Geschichte des deutsch-
englischen Bndnisproblems 18901901, Munich/Berlin 1927.
x. eckart kehr 471
Gilbert pulled to pieces, while Salomon3 made plenty of corrections to

my essay on the reserve officers.4
Fundamentally, I would like to add that it seems dangerous to me
to generalize to such an extent from the individual problems, firstly
because, as you have structured the essay, sections IIII give the
impression of being a history-of-ideas-based introduction to IV and
this gives rise to an obviously disproportionate accentuation of the dif-
ferent parts, and secondly because much is already known about this
subject on a general level, so the essay would have a greater impact if
it was half or a third as long; and thirdly because I know from myself
and other historians of ideas just how disastrously those who abandon
themselves to such speculations get bogged down in them.
But that takes me beyond my legitimate right to factual critique.
Salomon asked me to pass on his invitation to both of us to visit
him next week for tea. I suggest Wednesday at five thirty; but another
day would be fine as well.
My best regards to you and your dear fiance.
Your fierce critic,

Kehr
whos not as nasty as he might appear.
2. Expert opinions on the manuscript by Eckart Kehr: War losses,

reparations and re-ascendance in the politics of Freiherr vom
Stein (Kriegsverluste, Kriegsentschdigung und Wiederaufstieg
in der Politik des Freiherrn vom Stein)
3
Albert Salomon (18911966), sociologist, lecturer from 1926 to 1931, later profes-
sor at the German College for the Study of Politics (Deutsche Hochschule fr Politik)
in Berlin. Concurrently, from 1928 to 1931, editor of the theoretical journal of the
SPD Die Gesellschaft, in which Kehr published most of his essays from 1928 to 1932.
Salomon emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and from there to the United States in
1935, where he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York.
4
Essay by Kehr: Zur Genesis des Kniglich Preuischen Reserveoffiziers, in: Die
Gesellschaft 5 (1928/II), pp. 492502. Reprinted in: Kehr, Primat der Innenpolitik, pp.
5363.
472 documents
a. 13 August 1931: expert opinion by Richard Thoma (Bonn)

NL Ritter 309, copy
Dear Herr Ministerialrat,
Of the prize entry on Freiherr vom Stein sent to me, only some of
which I have so far been able to examine, I am returning to you the
most extensive, namely the three-volume study by E. Kehr, with
a request that it be presented to one of the historians or economic
historians on the adjudication committee for assessment. By way of
explanation I respectfully refer to my enclosed vote.
I hope to be able to send you the other papers, the majority of which
appear to be of inferior quality, around 20 September, perhaps a few
days later, with my evaluation.
Yours faithfully,
sgd Thoma
II Subject:
War losses, reparations and re-ascendance in the politics of Freiherr
vom Stein (Kriegsverluste, Kriegsentschdigung und Wiederaufstieg in
der Politik des Frhrn. vom Stein).
1) Eckart Kehr: 485 pages!

Vol. I 209 typewritten pages;
Vol. II 180 pages
Vol. III notes:
on vol. I: 41 pages,
on vol. II: 55 pages.
(Table of contents at the beginning of vol. III).

The author also regards the work as a treatment of The relationship
between economy and state in the politics of Freiherr vom Stein and
expresses this in the title of his study. In the foreword, he states that
this study represents the first volume of a longer work to be entitled:
Economy and politics in Prussia during the reform era (Wirtschaft
und Politik in Preuen whrend der Reformzeit).
This is clearly a study composed by a scholar trained in history,
as well as political economy and sociology, on the basis of years of
x. eckart kehr 473
research. Just to read it requires a high degree of economic knowledge,

especially of the techniques of banking and currency.
As a valid assessment of the value of this comprehensive and richly
documented study can be provided only by an expert in history with
a thorough knowledge of the general political, economic policy and
biographical literature on Prussia in the era of the defeat and the wars
of liberation, I have limited my reading to specific chapters and spot
checks. I would describe the impression I have gained in the following
way: it would not surprise me if an expert critique characterized the
study as a seminal, first-rate piece of work. It is quite another thing
whether this study is a possible candidate for the prize awarded by the
Ministry in the first place. Several factors suggest that this question,
which the author himself poses and answers in the affirmative in a
rather unconvincing way in a foreword, must in fact be answered
in the negative.
1) The study, part of a larger work, which, I presume, is intended to

serve as a habilitation thesis,5 was to all appearances largely com-
plete when the competition was announced and was not, therefore,
inspired by it.
2) In no way does the work bear the character [of a] study and account
specifically dedicated to honouring the character, views and impact
of Freiherr vom Stein.
3) If the competition is intended to inspire accounts whichthough
historically reliableare to some extent also meant to be popular
and to educate a wide readership, then the present study, written
by a learned scholar for other learned scholars, fails to meet this
expectation.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that should the assessment of the work by

a qualified party be as favourable as seems probable to me, one ought
to overlook these reservations. It is better to award a prize or even two
prizes (as two topics are in fact tackled) to an academically adequate
study than to exclude it from the competition on the rather formalistic
grounds above in favour of less valuable contributions.
5
Kehrs attempt to habilitate in Knigsberg failed. His habilitation thesis is thought
to be lost. See Wehlers introduction to Kehr, Primat, p. 12.
474 documents
b. 24 September 1931: expert opinion by Gerhard Ritter (Freiburg

im Breisgau)
NL Ritter 309, copy
To the Prussian Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Education
Berlin
In response to the letter from Herr Ministerialrat Dr. von Rottenburg

of the 17th of this month, which I received only yesterday, I am happy
to provide the following expert opinion on Eckart Kehrs prize entry
War losses, reparations and re-ascendance in the politics of Freiherr
vom Stein in light of the restructuring of the relationship between
economy and state in the reform era (Kriegsverluste, Kriegsent-
schdigung und Wiederaufstieg in der Politik des Frh. v. Stein auf
der Grundlage der Neuordnung des Verhltnisses von Wirtschaft und
Staat in der Reformzeit).
As the first referee, Prof. Thoma, has already underlined, this study
is certainly not a prize entry in the sense that the author has worked
under the same conditions as the other applicants, but rather the
habilitation thesis of a young historian who has obtained his material
through years of study and has in reality been working towards very
different goals than those indicated by his two submitted topics. All
the sophistry of the long foreword does nothing to obscure the fact
that within the framework of this book Frh. vom Stein plays only a
minor part, and indeedI wont beat about the bushan utterly piti-
ful one. It must be acknowledged that on a superficial level the author
has very cleverly concealed this fact by putting various chapters of a
longer work together in such a way that that one gains the impres-
sion that this is a combination of two prize-related topics within the
framework of a cohesive study.
In terms of content, only the first volume is a possible candidate
for assessment in the first place, as only it has anything to say about
Stein.
The authors goal is to provide an account and assessment of Prussian
economic policy in the broadest sense during the reform era or, more
accurately, during the era of transition from the closed economy of
the 18th century to modern capitalism. He describes historiography
hitherto as the history of formal politics, which has no clue about or
x. eckart kehr 475
feeling for socio-economic factors, and is a mere history of records

unable to reach independent conclusions. Above all, he states that it
lacks any real knowledge of the processes of economic change and
their natural character. And he reproaches this historiography for
completely misunderstanding Prussian economic policies of the 18th
and early 19th centuries. Initially this verdict takes aim at the tradition
of Prussian economic and social history by the Acta Borussica school
(Schmoller, Hintze, etc.),6 but at the same time also at the bourgeois
ideologues of the political history fraternity, including Lehmann,7
every one of whom must have been blind to the true essence of things
according to Kehr. Kehr seeks to make up for these shortcomings
through sociological and economic investigations, whose concepts are
borrowed chiefly from the social economist Max Weber,8 and draw
in specific cases on recent monographs in economic and administra-
tive history by Ziekursch, Mauer, Weyermann, Zimmermann and
many others, as well as on his ownoften detailedknowledge of the
records of the Secret State Archive. He undeniably shows great intel-
lectual vivacity, originality and knowledge, unusual for a historian, in
the fields of sociology and theoretical political economy, particularly
the science of finance. The work undoubtedly draws attention to seri-
ous gaps in the existing research and brings to light a number of areas
in which the older specialism of political history was rather naive with
its all too limited knowledge of economics.
6
The great source book series Acta Borussica, Denkmler der preuischen
Staatsverwaltung im 18. Jahrhundert was initiated by the political economist, social
policy specialist and historian Gustav Schmoller, produced under his direction until
his death in 1917 and published by the Royal Academy of the Sciences (Knigliche
Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Berlin. Within the framework of this series, the histo-
rian Otto Hintze (18611940) produced two major source books in collaboration with
Schmoller: Die preuische Seidenindustrie im 18. Jahrhundert und ihre Begrndung
durch Friedrich den Groen, 3 vols, Berlin 1892 and Die Behrdenorganisation und
die allgemeine Staatsverwaltung Preuens im 18. Jahrhundert, vols 610 on the period
17401756, Berlin 19011910. The two interpretive works, vol. 3 of the work on the
silk industry and vol. 6, 1 Einleitende Darstellung der Behrdenorganisation und
allgemeinen Verwaltung in Preuen beim Regierungsantritt Friedrichs II. (1901)
were produced by O. Hintze. See also Wolfgang Neugebauer, Gustav Schmoller, Otto
Hintze und die Arbeit an der Acta Borussica, in: Jahrbuch fr die Brandenburgische
Landesgeschichte 48 (1997), pp. 152202.
7
Max Lehmann (18451929), historian. Wrote the Biographie des Freiherrn vom
Stein, 3 vols, Leipzig 19021905, long considered an essential work.
8
Max Weber (18641920), leading sociologist, political economist and historian
and shrewd observer of contemporary politics.
476 documents
Yet there can be no doubt that he has failed to achieve his goal. Every
history, whether economic or political history in the narrower sense,
must be concerned chiefly with achieving understanding if it wishes to
serve its purpose. There is absolutely no sign of understanding in this
book, but merely a know-it-all attitude. Whatever Prussian economic
and social policy of the 18th and early 19th centuries attempted to do,
the author always knows better. Nothing finds favour with him, nei-
ther Frederick the Greats industrial and agricultural policies nor the
decades of effort by the reformist circle to overcome the Frederician
system of economic and social policy. He sees nothing but out-and-out
dilettantism at play everywhere. In fact it is worse than that: nothing
but the lowest form of egotism, the avarice of a corrupt bureaucracy
and a ruling class shamelessly lining its pockets. Modern capital-
ism arrives in Prussia in the repulsive form of the Junkers agricul-
tural capitalism on the one hand, and the pariah capitalism of the
royal Mnzjuden [Jews in the employ of princes who delivered coinage
metal and provided other financial services] on the other. The bureau-
cracy, incompetent and utterly corrupt, rather than directing this
development into tolerable channels, thinks of nothing but extending
its control over the state (which appears in Kehrs work as a mere
power structure for the maintenance of the ruling classes). The driv-
ing forces of events are exclusively the meanest of material motives,
and everything else, especially all forms of patriotism, is nothing
but a more or less absurd ideology, which the bourgeois discipline
of history has of course regularly been taken in by hitherto, thanks
to its lack of socio-economic instincts. Political events too must of
course be explained essentially in terms of such economic processes;
in the sphere of domestic politics all that ever occurs is the adjust-
ment of laws, again and again, to the wishes and needs of the ruling
classes. If we go along with this author, the essence of Prussias inter-
nal history from Frederick the Great until Hardenberg was nothing
but a process in which corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats, Jewish
moneymen and usurious agrarian capitalist profiteers (represented
by the aristocratic Landschaften [credit institutes supported by
regional nobles] and their hangers-on) haggled incessantly over
power.
Within this overall framework, Freiherr vom Stein plays, as I have
said, a quite pitiful role. He was an advocate of unimaginative, hollow
fiscalism like everyone around him prior to 1806, just a little more
industrious and at least personally free of corruption, in contrast to his
x. eckart kehr 477
predecessor Struensee,9 but blinkered and behind the times, a shallow

man of programmes, incapable of recognizing the limits of the real, full
of both the prejudices of a Knight of the old German Empire [the Holy
Roman Empire] and blind Anglomania. A total failure as a reformer
who completely ruins the Prussian finances with a truly unrestrained
amateurism, dependent on such an unclear thinker as Niebuhr10 for
monetary policy. His municipal reform was an arbitrary act, sense-
less in socio-economic terms, which tried to anticipate a much later
capitalist development and thus brought about the dreary domina-
tion of the petty bourgeoisie in the cities; his agricultural policy was
merely a further means of securing and expanding a fraudulent agrar-
ian capitalism, his contributions policy a series of failures, his veering
into the camp of radical soldiers in the summer of 1808 nothing but
a psychological reaction by the weak, inwardly insecure character of
this political amateur, best compared with the way in which Rathenau
submitted to Stinnes following his foreign policy defeats or Schacht
joined the nationalists out of wounded vanity in a similar situation.11
His stubborn optimism in desperate situations is presented as fraud-
ulent pseudo-patriotism, his willingness to accommodate Daru12 as
pitiful caving in, his efforts to muster the financial contributions
with every available means in order to liberate the country from occu-
pation as soon as possible as an irresponsible waste of remaining
9
Karl Gustav Struensee von Karlsbad (17351804), official. Became Geheimer
Finanzrat and director of the Preuische Seehandlung (state bank) in 1782. From
1791 he was minister for excise, customs, commerce and manufacturing in the
Generaldirektorium, the leading institution of the Prussian state.
10
Barthold Georg Niebuhr (17761831), Danish-born statesman and historian. At
the prompting of Freiherr vom Stein he entered the Prussian civil service in 1806 and
became director of the Seehandlung. Prussian envoy in Rome from 1816 to 1833.
11
Walther Rathenau (18671922), industrialist, author and politician from a Jewish
family. Member of the DDP. Became minister of reconstruction in the Wirth cabinet
in May 1921. Appointed foreign minister on 31 January 1922, he was murdered by
members of the far-right Organisation Consul on 24 June 1922 because of his policy
of understanding; Hugo Stinnes (18701924), politically active industrialist; Hjalmar
Schacht (18771970), banker and politician. President of the Reichsbank from 1923
to 1930, when he resigned in protest at the Young Plan. Championed the Nazi Party
in industrial circles. Re-appointed president of the Reichsbank by Hitler in 1933, he
was also made minister for economic affairs in 1934 and plenipotentiary for the war
economy (Wehrwirtschaft) from 1935 to 1937. As he pushed for consolidation of the
finances he was dismissed as minister for economic affairs in 1937, and as president of
the Reichsbank in 1939, but remained minister without portfolio until 1943.
12
Pierre Antoine Daru (17671829), French financier, poet and writer of history.
Close associate of Napoleon I.
478 documents
private assets, of productive capital. According to Ks account, the

real blame for the financial disaster of 1807/8 lies with the Prussian
administration under Steins incompetent leadership, while the French
occupation is praised in every detail: on account of its technical per-
fection, its progressive capitalist methods, its near-incomprehensible
mildness and leniency despite all the provocations by foolish Prussians.
And the only positive to counter all these negatives is the hesitant rec-
ognition of an honourable, though narrow-minded personal stance,
combined with a great deal of criticism of his limited horizons and
a pitying smile, bordering on derision, for the individualism of a
Knight of the old German Empire.
I share the view that one should by no means overstate the origi-
nality of Steins economic and social policies and in my biography I
repeatedly underlined how deeply he was entangled in, and depen-
dent on, the traditions of administrative practice of the 18th century.13
Perhaps the topic chosen by K. was not very well-suited to bringing
out the positive value of Steins deeds. But I would have to write a
whole treatise rather than an expert opinion to show in detail the ques-
tionable, indeed irresponsible methods K. has deployed to disparage
Steins memory and that great era in general: grotesque exaggerations,
frivolous misrepresentations and distortions of both motives and facts,
highlighting specific passages in the sources to back up his own views,
the absolutely extraordinary ease with which he combines and deploys
figures and hypothetical assertions in a way that borders on sophistry
while not shrinking from presenting a whole mass of contradictions
on the same three pages. This book was not written by the understand-
ing love of the historian, but by hatred, combined with a craving for
originality that comes very close to pretentiousness.
I am not familiar with the motives or goals that induced the Minister
to launch this competition, of which I was informed only at a very late
date. But I cannot imagine that it is the task of a state prize com-
memorating the hundredth anniversary of Steins death to have this
statesmans memory publically disparaged in a way that no-one has
dared do in a century. If published, this work will be quite unable to
attain popularity; it is far too badly written for that (one need look no
further than the first page of text: a single sentence fills the entire page,
13
Gerhard Ritter, Stein. Eine politische Biographie, 2 vols., Stuttgart/Berlin 1931.
x. eckart kehr 479
and on top of that the predicate has been forgotten!). But despite this
inadequacy, if it is awarded a state prize there will surely be a huge
public backlash, directed not least at the adjudication committee.
In light of all of this I am in no way able to concur with the positive
assessment by my colleague Thoma, in as much as it seriously contem-
plates awarding this work a prize. Kehrs work will poison peoples
minds rather than having the positive, constructive effect of reconcil-
ing past and present, as a celebration of Stein should aim to do.
sgd Gerhard Ritter.
c. 15 October 1931: expert opinion by Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin)

NL Ritter 309, copy
Professor Dr. Friedrich M e i n e c k es vote.
Supplementary remarks on the study by Eckart K e h r .
I must unfortunately concur in the main with the vote of my colleague

Ritter.13 I say unfortunately because we are dealing here with a very
gifted author, who was one of my students, and from whom I expected
a great deal, and this is a far-reaching achievement based on extensive
study of the sources that breaks some new ground, a piece of work
that the research community will have to grapple with in future. In all
probability, while acknowledging some persuasive individual results,
this research community will reject the authors methods and crite-
ria of evaluation and accuse him of having overstepped the bound-
aries of historical research and judgement. He has, to put it bluntly,
lapsed into the fanatical shrewdness of a detective who, by pursuing
certain tracks in a one-sided way, loses his objective understanding
of the totality of conditions and personalities and by accumulating
isolated pieces of evidence, often interpreted in a drastic manner, ulti-
mately gains a distorted view of them. The economic view of history,
which places emphasis on class struggle and class egotism and which
has greatly influenced the author, is undoubtedly of great heuristic
value. But applied in the unbridled and overbearing way it is here,
it destroys living historical phenomena and makes of them a web of
ignorance, narrowness of outlook and wickedness. All one sees is the
partie honteuse [shameful role] of the Prussian state. While that state
480 documents
may have played such a role, while its financial and economic policies
may have been truly backward, inept and determined by class inter-
ests, one can evaluate this state justly only if one also thinks deeply at
all times about the extremely difficult problems inherent in its overall
international and domestic political situation and the great battle of
minds fought over the soul of the state. But this is entirely lacking
here. In the satyr play that the Prussian financial and economic history
of both ossifying absolutism and the incipient reform era represents
here, S t e i n himself appears not as a morally bad statesman but as
an ignorant and narrow-minded one, and the author builds no bridge
to his great historical achievements. What we are seeing here is unre-
strained iconoclasm.
I too am prompted by these deficiencies to advise firmly against
awarding the author a prize. I would have been willing to overlook
the fact that the study, whose goals are in fact quite different, has been
adjusted to the prize topics only in a very superficial and forced man-
ner, if the large amount of work done were in harmony with its inner
values. I also take objection to the often poor state of the language
used in the work.
All in all, as this is an unusual case, it would be a welcome develop-
ment if other members of the adjudication committee would take a
look at the work.
sgd M e i n e c k e
d. 11 November 1931: expert opinion by Heinrich Herkner

NL Ritter 309, copy
Vote by Professor Dr. Herkner on the study by E. Kehr.
My assessment may be read in light of the remarks made by the

author himself in vol. I, p. IV: In conclusion I would like to under-
line that the uneven areas, gaps and repetitions in my account and
the lack of transitions are due to the fact that the manuscript cannot
be presented in the final planned version of the book as a result of
the extreme shortage of time, as well as the fact that it has not yet
been possible to evaluate all of the relevant published and unpublished
material.
x. eckart kehr 481
In my opinion it is impossible to consider awarding a prize to a

study still in such an unfinished and immature state in terms of both
form and content. The adjudicator must stick with what is; what the
author will or might make of the work under favourable circumstances
cannot be reliably assessed. I also believe that the improvements and
modifications with respect to both language and material would have
to be far more extensive than the author appears to assume. It would
be worth considering changing his entire methodology, of which he is
particularly proud, as well. He prides himself on his socio-economic
instinct in contrast to Lehmann, who he says has none. I think that
this instinct has led the author alarmingly astray. He projects the most
modern sociological terminology, a whole torrent of words, onto the
realities of the 18th century. In conjunction with drastic compari-
sons backed up by references to modern processes and individuals,
the effect of this procedure is often confusing rather than clarifying.
The language, often bordering on the incomprehensible, seems to me
merely to reflect the major obscurities and contradictions still present
in the authors mind. I also have the impression that he has yet to
master economic theory, particularly the monetary system and lend-
ing business, to the point of being able to provide an account satis-
factory to the reader with an interest in political economy. Kehr is
drunk on the fire-water of Max Webers sociology, but ruins any clear
understanding of economic processes through all kinds of isms and
abstractions.
I recognize that the author has produced a very substantial piece
of work and has obtained some new and fruitful insights which, if
carefully elaborated with intellectual composure, level-headedness
and impartiality, could provide valuable results. This would require
the author to study analogous conditions in other German states. He
views many aspects as peculiar to Prussia that can in reality be found
in other places as well throughout this era.
I would be very pleased, should his financial situation require
it, if he were to be awarded a state grant in order to complete his
studies.
sgd Herkner 11 November 1931.
482 documents
3. 18 January 1932: Adolf Grimme,14 Prussian minister for science,

art and education (Berlin), to Friedrich Meinecke
NL Meinecke 177
In line with your suggestion on allocation of the state prize marking the
Freiherr vom Stein jubilee, I have awarded first prize to Studienrtin
Dr. Lotte Sommer in Hirschberg, Studienrat Dr. Hans Haussherr in
Berlin and Studienrat Dr. Karl Watz in Kassel. The work of the follow-
ing are honoured with plaques: Professor Dr. Jumpertz in Berlin, the
student Fritz Erler in Berlin and the teacher Kurt Buttler in Turawa.
I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks to you, esteemed
Herr Geheimrat, for your efforts and trouble in examining and assessing
the studies submitted to you and for the self-sacrificing conscientious-
ness with which you reached the decision as chair of the adjudication
committee. The result of the competition will not entirely have met
your expectations, which makes me all the more grateful for your self-
less work. The work of Professor Koch, which could not be taken into
consideration in reaching the decision, will be honoured outside of the
prize-giving through the award of 500RM; we shall also provide Herr
Dr. Kehr with a grant to help him complete the submitted study.
I shall present you with a copy of the plaque created by the sculptor
A. Oppler.
In special respect,
Yours faithfully,
Grimme
14
Adolf Grimme (18891963), politician and educationalist. Prussian Social
Democratic minister of education and cultural affairs from 1930 to 1932. Sentenced
to three years in a house of correction in 1942. Minister of education and cultural
affairs in Lower Saxony from 1946 to 1948. Subsequently director general of the North
German broadcasting company (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) until 1956.
x. eckart kehr 483
4. 13 November 1932: Eckart Kehr (Berlin) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 31
Dear Dr. Rosenberg.
Thank you so much for your kind letter. Its splendid that things are
going so well with the habilitation. Im sure youll knock out Spahn15
if he gets in your way. He should face disciplinary action for landing
you with the fourth lecture.16
Dehio asked after you the other day, dignified as ever and trying
to maintain his usual elevated posture even while standing. Given his
physical smallness it was quite comical. He sends his best regards.
Z.[iekursch] can only have tried to get out of Holborn when his
work will be finished if he doesnt know him at all. I met H.[olborn]
a few days ago on the occasion of an exam at the university and had
great fun trying to get something out of him. He admitted that his
work is advancing well, but, just as I thought, it was impossible to
get anything more definite out of him. I wanted to know whether his
historical work would appear before the subject itself had turned from
a political into a historical one, but he stated that this was a difficult
question to answer and asked me what I thought of the exam. I doubt
that Z.[iekursch] is very pleased with this result, but if he wants to
know more hell have to vivisect Hs brain.
We are fine, my wife is always cheerful, and Im finding work less of
a strain than I did before. But Im glad I can take a holiday again soon.
Since Easter I have had no more than a couple of days off at Whitsun.
The printing of vol. I of the publication will begin in December.17
15
Martin Spahn (18751945), modern historian and politician. Ordinarius in
Cologne from 1920. Reichstag deputy for the Centre Party from 1910 to 1912. Joined
the far-right DNVP in 1921 and represented it in the German Reichstag from 1924 to
1933. Towards the end of the Weimar Republic he was viewed as a representative of
Young Conservatism (Jungkonservativismus) and joined the NSDAP in 1933.
16
The habilitation process requires the candidate to put forward three topics for
the trial lecture and subsequent seminar, from which the faculty selects one. Spahn
obviously insisted that Rosenberg suggest a fourth topic for his inaugural lecture and
could not use one of the topics rejected for the trial lecture.
17
Obviously reference to the source book prepared by Kehr on Prussian financial
policy from 1806 to 1814, which he never managed to publish. See above, p. 96.
484 documents
My history of Social Democracy is also making progress.18 Something

happened in this connection that I would never have thought possible
and that seems like a dream come trueI send around half of the
manuscript to Zurich and request an advance on the fee. And they
sent me twice the amount requested! Thats certainly not what ones
used to from the State Archive.
Butbureaucracy! You too had some nice stories to tell from
Vienna of course. Ive even learned to love our police force. I had to
wait ten minutes for my certificate of good conduct (Fhrungszeugnis)
for the American visa and it was in my hands, despite the fact that
when it comes to the population of Berlin the letters KaKer alone
require three police clerks to process them. In the American consul-
ate general I waited a) two hours before being told what papers are
required, b) three-and-a-half hours for the visa to be issued. Three to
four visas were issued that morning. Personnel: one information clerk
(everything he said was only half-true), two secretaries, one cashier,
one male doctor, one female doctor, the consul, the vice-consul and
a kind of consular assistant. The latter three sat a three-part writing
desk, the consul in the middle at a table leaf extending out by 1m. If
the consul wanted to know something about me, he asked his deputy,
who asked the assistant. The assistant did the work while the consul
and his deputy were disturbed by the constant questions that got in
the way of their newspaper reading and smoking. The deputys shoul-
ders were so padded that they extended 20cm out over the hips. A
picture for the gods. But as I wanted a visa and immigration authori-
ties are a serious obstacle to entry to the USA, I couldnt even laugh.
But at least all the people I tell have a laugh. The main thing though,
is that I have the visa.
But first Ill be off to Hamburg in early December to go over the
armaments industry with a fine tooth comb examining the material in
the World Economic Archive (Weltwirtschaftsarchiv). This will enable
me to kill several birds with one stone, as the Encyclop. for the Social
Sciences has asked me for an essay on the history of the armaments
18
On the instructions of Friedrich Adler, who wished to publish an international
handbook of socialism and the labour movement, Kehr was working on a history of
German social democracy in 1932. The manuscript, which was obviously never com-
pleted, is considered lost. See the introduction by Wehler to Kehr, Primat, p. 16f.
x. eckart kehr 485
industry.19 Im enthusiastic about this assignment. One can really make

something of it, say something new and bring together new material.
Im also really enjoying the work on Social Democracyits far more
productive than I thought. And the publication, whose profusion of
new material and new problems even my Cerberus, Herr Winter,20
had to concede, will give me the welcome opportunity to really annoy
those rogues Ritter and Oncken21 and to bury them, not in a literal
sense but morally and academically, as they deserve.
Its a shame that Cologne isnt a sea port or that the train to the
port doesnt go via Cologne. But of course I wont stay over there
for ever.
The Meineckes invited us round recently. Why I am being favoured
again in this way after two years I dont know. When Utermann22 saw
me take Frau Meinecke to the table, he said to my wife that this was
intended as reparation. As far as Im concerned theres nothing to
repair. Meinecke was painfully embarrassed to hear that I was going
to document my heretical views with two volumes of recordshe
broached the subject, I had actually planned to say nothingand
simply refused to be persuaded otherwise, saying that he doubted he
would find the time to read them and then expatiated on the pointless-
ness of all publications. Its terrific when one only ever republishes the
same old topics. But there are even more empty patches on the histori-
cal map than in Africa before Livingstone.23 What peculiar spectacles
our professors have on that they cant see these vast areas of white
yet can still discover white patches of one to one-and-a-half square
19
Kehr was preparing a comprehensive study on the armaments industry, which
was never completed. The above-mentioned essay on the armaments industry was
published in the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. XI, pp. 128134. Appears in
German translation in: Kehr, Primat, pp. 184197.
20
Georg Winter (18951961). Winter was archivist at the Prussian Secret State
Archive (Preuisches Geheimes Staatsarchiv) in 1932.
21
On Gerhard Ritter, see his uncompromising rejection of Kehrs prize entry,
above, pp. 474479. Oncken had been against awarding the Rockefeller scholarship
to Kehr, see above, p. 96.
22
K. Utermann was a member of academic staff at the Imperial Historical
Commission (Historische Reichskommission), who was to collect newspapers in paral-
lel to Rosenbergs critical bibliography on national political journalism from 1858 to
1866, which considered only journal articles and pamphlets. Utermanns project was
never completed.
23
David Livingstone (18131873), famous British explorer in Africa.
486 documents
millimetres on the map of their idealist history of concepts, a map

already available to a scale of 1:100,000. How can this methodological
anastigmatism be cured?
I hope things continue to go well for you. Our best wishes to you
and your wife.
Your
Kehr and Hanna Kehr
Eckart Kehr
5. 11 August 1933: Hanna Kehr (Brandenburg) to Hans Rosenberg

NL Rosenberg 31
Dear Herr Dr. Rosenberg,
Please forgive me for taking so long to get in touch and write to you
in detail about my dear Eckes death.24 It still takes a real effort of
24
Eckhart Kehr, who died in Washington on 29 May 1933.
x. eckart kehr 487
will to tell all our dear friends the detail of what happened. When I
write, it brings back all those things one would like to undo. Its so
terribly difficult to go on with life without ones most beloved per-
son. Again and again one asks oneself: Why have things turned out
this way?
But my dear Ecke had reached the end of his life. His heart was
completely worn out and had lost all its vitality. I knew that my hus-
band had a heart defect, but neither of us, thank God, had any idea
that it would have such grave consequences so soon, for otherwise my
dear Ecke, who was far too conscientious and cautious, would never
have married.
He had suffered heart attacks now and then since 1929, which lasted
for about ten minutes and rather longer in winter or when a cold,
strong wind was blowing. There were just a few isolated occurrences
in the summer of 1932, but they became far more severe in November
and lasted for around half an hour. My husband was always very opti-
mistic and put it down to overwork.
I let my husband travel to the U.S.A. with much anxiety, but felt
calmer when he wrote that the attacks had ceased entirely during the
journey and occurred again, rarely, only in mid-February, when it was
very cold over there.
My husband gave a lecture in Chicago in mid-April,25 which he had
to break off for five minutes because he was getting short of breath. He
wrote to me with deep resignation that it was probably the last time
he would speak in public and that he would have to restrict himself
to writing in future. My husband only rarely wrote about his health
because he didnt want to worry me.
While making his way from Chicago to Washington, my husband
visited Prof. Dorn in Columbus for four days, where he arrived in
a bad way, as Prof. Dorn has told me in a letter. My husband then
wrote to me from Wash.[ington] that he had survived the journey
from Chic. to Wash. with no trouble at all. On 12 May he finally found
a small flat and moved in. On our wedding anniversary, 14 May, he
sent me a blissfully happy telegram saying that he was looking forward
immensely to our impending reunion.
25
Lecture on Modern German historiography in the seminar of Bernadotte
Schmitt. German translation in: Kehr, Primat, pp. 254268.
488 documents
From that point on I waited every day for the telegram instructing
me to set off. And then I received this terrible news! I was completely
stunned.
As I then learned from the detailed medical report, my husband
had already gone to see a doctor on 15 May because he had gall blad-
der and stomach troubles. He was admitted to hospital on the seven-
teenth, where he is said to have gone down hill rapidly. The doctors
did all they could to keep him alive but it was hopeless. He was very
listless over the last few days, and lost consciousness six hours before
his death. Hopefully my dear Ecke was quite unaware of it all when
he passed away.
As the doctors were not entirely sure about the cause of death, they
carried out a post-mortem. It emerged that my dear Ecke had a con-
genital heart defect. A thin barrier had formed in his aorta that con-
stantly caused the blood to flow backwards so that his poor heart had
to work twice as hard and as a result it did the work of a sixty-year-old.
As a consequence of the strain on the heart, the pericardium became
dilated. And if the heart is unable to function properly, it takes its toll
on the other organs as well.
My dear Ecke was cremated on 1 June in Washington and his urn
was transported to Germany and buried on 24 June in my home town
of Glckstadt/Elbe.
The Rockefeller Foundation took care of everything with great mag-
nanimity, just as one would have wished, and bore all the costs, even
that of transportation.
It is some consolation to me that my dear Ecke won the total recog-
nition over in America which he was denied here. Its clear from many
of the letters how much they all valued him over there.
Dr. Beard,26 Dr. Correll,27 Prof. Dorn and Dr. Vagts28 have got
together and want to publish a commemorative volume in honour of
26
Charles Austin Beard (18741948), famous American historian.
27
Dr. Correll probably worked for the Rockefeller Foundation.
28
Alfred Hermann Friedrich Vagts (18921986), German historian and politi-
cal scientist. Obtained his doctorate in Hamburg in 1927. Assistant at the Institute
for Foreign Policy at the University of Hamburg from 1923 to 1932. Fellow of the
Rockefeller Foundation from 1927 to 1930. Emigrated to Great Britain in 1932 and to
the USA in 1933. Visiting professor at Harvard University in 1938/39. Taught at the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1939 to 1942 and was subsequently
involved in the Board of Economic Welfare during the war. He never took up a per-
x. eckart kehr 489
my husband, which would include all his writings not yet published
in book form.29
I dont yet know what Im going to do with my life. I still find it very
hard to make any firm decisions. I have the advice and support of my
family and my husbands family. But when all is said and done I have
to face the inner struggle that lies ahead all on my own.
I am with my mother-in-law in Brandenburg at the moment wait-
ing for the box containing my husbands unpublished papers to arrive
so that I can return to Berlin and sort things out on the spot with the
State Archive, who are causing all kinds of problems.30
I have taken the liberty of sending you the enclosed photograph to
remind you of my dear Ecke.
My very best wishes to you and your wife my dear Dr. Rosenberg,
Your
Hanna Kehr
manent teaching position, but was a private scholar. Published a number of books on
international relations and military history, including the two-volume work Deutsch-
land und die Vereinigten Staaten in der Weltpolitik, London 1935.
29
The planned edition of Kehrs unpublished works was never to materialize.
30
Kehrs archival assignment, to edit the records on Prussian financial policies
from 1806 to 1815, had been terminated in a letter from Albert Brackmann, direc-
tor of the Prussian State Archive, of 2 May 1933 (see Wehlers introduction to Kehr,
Primat, p. 20).
490 documents
XI. Hanns Gnther Reissner
1. 18 July 1947: Hanns Gnther Reissner (Bombay) to Friedrich

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 37
I happened to come across the title of your book The German

Catastrophe in a list of new books. I was so delighted to know that
you are alive and felt the urge to send you my greetings as one of
your former students through the publisher. Is your villa in Dahlem
still standing?
I imagine that you hardly remember me: I gained my doctor-
ate in spring of 1926 with a study of Mirabeau and his Monarchie
Prussienne ,1 but I went into business rather than pursuing an aca-
demic career.
As a Jew I left Germany in mid-August 1939 and have been liv-
ing since then with my immediate family (wife and three children)
in Bombay. Im also involved in industry here (as a member of the
executive staff of the Indian subsidiary of the American Firestone tyre
factory); but when I have the time I still try to read, write and give little
lectures on history and politics. The director of programmes of All
India Radio for one seems to think I am a specialist in continental
history and politics and humanities. This, of course, is correct only in
the sense that there is no-one here that is truly qualified. In any event,
this is how fate has decreed it, and it gives me all kinds of opportuni-
ties to clarify my thoughts.
The spatial and temporal distance has really brought home to me
how much I owe to the education I received from figures such as you
and Geheimrat Sering,2 and, more distantly, the influence of teachers
1
Hanns Gnther Reissner, Mirabeau und seine Monarchie Prussienne, Berlin/
Leipzig 1926.
2
Max Sering (18571939), political economist. Occupied the chair in state sciences
(Staatswissenschaften) at the Agricultural University (Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule)
in Berlin from 1897 to 1925.
xi. hanns gnther reissner 491
such as Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 3 and Troeltsch and the writings of

Max Weber and others.
The memory of men such as you helped me overcome my shock at
the Hitler nightmare and to detach my image of Germany from the
impressions left by the experiences of the 1930s.
Nonetheless, you may have some understanding for the fact that I
have no intention of returning. Where there is a rupture, there can
be no return. I cannot and do not wish to encounter people who may
have been the murderers of my parents and relatives.
It would take too long to list the sources of intellectual compensa-
tion offered by the East. The historical, religious and political back-
ground is so utterly different and fascinating to anyone educated in
Europe. In this way one must try to cope with the rupture.
Yours faithfully,
Hanns Reissner
3
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (18481931), leading classical philologist.
Taught at the University of Berlin from 1897.
492 documents
XII. Gustav Mayer
1. 28 December 1910: Gustav Mayer (Berne) to Friedrich

Meinecke1
NL Meinecke 26
We would like to wish you and your wife all the very best for the New
Year.
Ive been in old Berne for the last month to undergo a thorough
course of treatment from Prof. Dubois to tackle my sleeping troubles;
my wife and eldest son have also come to Switzerland for Christmas.
They are staying in Grindelwald and I visit them there for two days at
the end of every week. My doctor has permitted me to work as much
as I wish. That was my conditio sine qua non, and Im busy with a
fairly substantial essay on the split between proletarian and bourgeois
democracy in Germany, which is to appear in the third issue of the
Grnbergsches Archiv.2
Today I learned from Dr. Veit Valentin,3 whom I got to know while
passing through Freiburg, that my book on Schweitzer will be reviewed
in the Histor. Zeitschrift by Prof. Harms4 (Kiel), who is currently on a
trip around the world. This is unfortunate for three reasons: 1) I feel
that Prof. Harms is ignorant of the field of modern German history
in general and party history in particular*, 2) I wrote a highly criti-
cal review of his pamphlet on Lassalle because of its unpsychological
and anti-historical content and I dont know whether he is objective
1
Meineckes notes on the letter: To Marcks. Request return; thanks for Lassalleana.
The names of Oncken and Wahl are mentioned on the second page, followed by ques-
tion marks, as possible reviewers. Lassalleana is a reference to Mayer, Lassalleana.
Unbekannte Briefe Lassalles, in: Archiv fr die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der
Arbeiterbewegung 1 (1911), pp. 176197.
2
Gustav Mayer, Die Trennung der proletarischen von der brgerlichen Demokratie
in Deutschland 18631870, in: Archiv fr die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der
Arbeiterbewegung 2 (1912), pp. 167. The journal was generally referred to as the
Grnbergsches Archiv after its editor, the jurist and political economist Carl Grnberg
(18611940). Mayers essay also appeared as a publication in its own right, Leipzig
1911. Reprinted in: Gustav Mayer, Radikalismus, Sozialismus, brgerliche Demokratie,
ed. by Hans-Ulrich Wehler, 2nd edn, Frankfurt a. M. 1969, pp. 108178.
3
On Veit Valentin, see above, p. 150.
4
Bernhard Harms (18761939), professor in Kiel, director of the Institute for World
Economy and Sea Transport (Institut fr Weltwirtschaft und Seeverkehr) 19141933.
xii. gustav mayer 493
enough not to make me pay for it. 3) I had expected that after the
many favourable but skewed and, Im afraid, factually unstimulating
reviews by political economists, a historian would at last have his say
on my historical book, at least in the Histor. Zeitschr. Dr. V. Valentin
would have been the right man for the job, but when he put himself
forward the book had already been allocated to Harms.5
This is all the more annoying because, particularly from that quar-
ter, I had been hoping for an expert critique that I might learn some-
thing from. When one works in the isolated way I do one is doubly
grateful for any kind of stimulation!!
Im already looking forward to Bismarck as a party man,6 a descrip-
tion that only really applied to him in the early days, wouldnt you say?
He was more of a party founder and destroyer later on, wasnt he?
Unfortunately he didnt succeed in the case of the Centre Party or the
Social Democrats. Had he done so wed have no need to worry about
being choked by the red fire and the black smoke!
Many thanks for referring me to the memoirs of the clever Balt. I
shall get hold of a copy!
With my sincere respect, my dear Herr Geheimrat, I remain
Yours ever faithfully,

Gustav Mayer
* As shown by his book on Lassalle, cobbled together out of bits of

Oncken but with added factual errors.7
5
In fact, Mayers book, Johann Baptist von Schweitzer und die Sozialdemokratie.
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, Jena 1910, reprinted
Glashtten im Taunus 1970, was reviewed in great detail and given a very positive
assessment by Veit Valentin in the HZ 110 (1913), pp. 137146, as a book that will
endure as a work of scholarship.
6
No essay by Meinecke on Bismarck as a party man is mentioned in the highly
detailed bibliography of Friedrich Meineckes writings by Monika Fettke, Friedrich
Meinecke-Bibliographie bis 1979, in Erbe, Meinecke Heute, pp. 199258.
7
Bernhard Harms, Ferdinand Lassalle und seine Bedeutung fr die deutsche Sozial-
demokratie, Jena 1909; Hermann Oncken, Lassalle. Zwischen Marx und Bismarck,
Stuttgart 1904, 4th edn. entitled: Lassalle. Eine politische Biographie, Stuttgart/Berlin
1923.
494 documents
2. 10 January 1918: Gustav Mayer (Berlin) to the philosophy faculty

of the University of Berlin8
tion records 1235
To the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Berlin.
Since the Faculty Commission concluded that I am unqualified to give

lectures at the university at the colloquium on the third of this month,
I feel it is important to submit to the Faculty the following statements
of a factual nature. Should tradition permit it, I request most respect-
fully that my exposition be added to your records.
Towards the end of 1916, without mentioning my own wishes, I
approached the Faculty to enquire whether it would in principle regard
as permissible a habilitation in the science of the state and political
parties (Staaten- und Parteienkunde).9 Some time later, the then Dean
of the Faculty sent me a card requesting that I come and see him as
he wished to answer my query in person. He explained that, after the
most thorough process of deliberation, the Faculty had come to the
conclusion that while lectures on the above-mentioned field would be
highly desirable, there were reservations about allowing a habilitation
in this subject as long as there was no corresponding professorship.
At the same meeting, however, my status as a scholar had been dis-
cussed in depth and it had been decided to suggest to me that I apply
for habilitation in history, and indeed in the subject of history per se,
because, according to the regulations, a habilitation would not be per-
missible in specific subdomains of this field. In this connection, he
explained, the Faculty took the view that it would clearly be desirable
for me to be able to work as an academic teacher in my original field,
in which there is a gap that must be filled. Should I prove a successful
teacher of the science of the state (Staatenkunde), the possibility of
appointing me to a teaching post in this field would be considered.
It was only in response to this invitation that I decided to submit
an application to habilitate in history. I had presented my educational
history, which undoubtedly diverges from the conventional pattern, in
8
The letter features the note: Received 12.1.18, daybook no. 161.
9
See above, p. 100.
the CV attached to this application,10 as well as enclosing my univer-

sity attendance records, which made it clear that when I was a student,
more than twenty-five years ago, I had attended only very few courses
in history. I could therefore only assume that my achievements as a
historian seemed sufficient to the Faculty to make up for gaps in my
general historical knowledge, and hence that you were very much
minded to take account of the singularity of my case. I was quite con-
vinced that I would not be judged by criteria that might be appropriate
to a young person, recently exposed to historical knowledge in semi-
nars and lectures, but not to a man who finished his studies a quarter
of a century ago and has followed his own path.
I submitted my application to habilitate to the then Dean in January
of 1917. On this occasion I brought up the subject of the colloquium
and made no secret of the reservations I had about it. Yet I was fully
reassured when told in reply that all the problems, of which there had
been no lack, were all behind me now and that it would be beneath the
dignity of a scholar with an established reputation, which is what
the Faculty regarded me as, to have to swot up for an exam. At around
the same time I was greeted at a lecture by Professor von Schmoller,
who has now sadly passed away, to whom I had not spoken for eigh-
teen years. He not only made a number of statements of a highly flat-
tering nature about the above-mentioned meeting of the Faculty, but
even formally congratulated me on my habilitation, dismissing my
objection that we werent quite there yet.
In selecting the topic for the colloquium, I took heed of a request
not to draw on the history of the nineteenth century. In light of all
that had happened, I could never have imagined that this colloquium,
which was delayed for more than six months as a result of my being
unable to attend while completing a mission in the interest of the
Fatherland,11 would take the form of a proper exam in the nature of
a doctoral examination or even a school-leaving exam (Abiturium).
When this nonetheless occurred, to my great surprise, on 3 January,
I still initially took it to be a formality and, even when the questions
touched on my own special areas, I responded in the brief and concise
10
See Mayers CV of 22 January 1917 in the philosophy faculty habilitation records,
vol. 1235.
11
Gustav Meyer was sent to Stockholm on an unofficial mission in 1917 by the
foreign ministry to observe and send reports on the planned international socialist
conference and developments in Russia. See above, p. 100.
496 documents
fashion that seemed appropriate given my understanding that the

colloquium would take the form of a conversation. I cannot deny,
in light of my age and position in the academic world, that I would
never have agreed to a full-blown examination that might determine
the decision on my admission without consideration of my scholarly
output or, so it seems to me, my lecture.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Gustav Mayer
3. Dismissal and retirement of Gustav Mayer
a. 21 May 1933: note by Gustav Mayer on his situation according

to the law on the restoration of the civil service12 of 7 April
193313
NL Meinecke 15
In view of the possible consequences of the civil servants law on my

position in relation to the Imperial Historical Commission (Historische
Reichskommission), it is perhaps appropriate for me to point to a
number of facts that may make it easier for the Imperial Historical
Commission to gain a more complete picture of my background and
character:
1) Forebears
My family has been resident in the Mark of Brandenburg since
the 1570s, initially in Stendal, later in Oderberg, and from 1677 to
1933 in Prenzlau. The records of the Secret State Archive (Geheimes
Staatsarchiv) reveal that one of my forebears performed obedient and
useful services to the Electoral House of Brandenburg in the Thirty
Years War, that another was hit by a bullet in 1677 while supply-
ing grain to the Great Elector during the siege of Stettin, and that a
12
Among other things, according to this law all civil servants of non-Aryan
descent were to be immediately pensioned off unless they had been front-line soldiers
in the First World War or their sons or fathers had fallen in the war.
13
At the top of the document, Mayer has added the hand-written note: Copy to
the president of the Imperial Historical Commission [Historische Reichskommission],
Herr Prof. Meinecke.
third was charged by the Great Elector with procuring rare books and
manuscripts for his library. I still have in my possession a certificate of
safe conduct, issued to his son by Elector Frederick III in 1689. When
the Prussian army, defeated at Jena, had to surrender at Prenzlau in
1806, my great grandfather was one of the burghers who offered the
Prussian troops refreshments as they were led away. A Frenchman
punished him by striking him with the butt of his rifle, robbing him
of his eyesight, and he was blind for the remaining forty-five years
of his life. In the records of the Prussian State Archive, my family is
referred to several times as one of the oldest Jewish families resident
in the hereditary states of the Hohenzollern.
2) My own activities
As I was found to be unfit for military service, I offered my services
to the policy department of the general government in Belgium in
autumn 1914 in light of my longstanding familiarity with the situation
in that country. I worked for the department until late 1915. In 1917,
I was sent to Stockholm for several months by the foreign ministry to
file secret reports on the socialist peace conference that was to take
place there, and on the events in the offing in Russia, on the basis of
my expert academic knowledge. It is surely unnecessary to note that
I have never been a member of any kind of socialist party. Following
the collapse, I was asked by the then heads of the foreign ministry to
edit the source publication on the antecedents of the world war, but
only decided to do this when the late Professor Hans Delbrck and
Professor Meinecke had presented it to me as a duty to the Fatherland,
as the assignment might otherwise have ended up in the hands of an
amateur; the two gentlemen persuaded me to take on the assignment
of inspecting the management of the Secret State Archive and the civil
cabinet with these same arguments. I rejected a proposal from the then
Prussian minister of the interior to take over the position of director
general of the State Archives. In preparing the edition of documents,
following a tough battle with the socialist authorities, I saw to it that
they did not begin only with the assassination in Sarajevo, but at least
with a document that laid bare just how much the ground had already
been laid for the war diplomatically.
As far as my personal situation is concerned, I would like to make
the point that I have two grown sons to look after, one of whom is in
a permanent state of poor health and requires my life-long support,
498 documents
while the other, having completed his training by passing the exami-
nation as Referendar, no longer has any way of making a living in his
Fatherland as a consequence of recent legislation.
Berlin-Lankwitz, 21 May 1933
Gustav Mayer
b. 7 June 1933: circular from Friedrich Meinecke (Berlin) to

members of the Imperial Historical Commission (Historische
Reichskommission)
NL Meinecke 15
The enclosed letter to the minister of education and cultural affairs re

our colleague G. Mayer was approved at the meeting of those mem-
bers of the H.R.K. [Imperial Historical Commission or Historische
Reichskommission] resident in Berlin, which took place at my house
on the third of this month, and is now being circulated to all the mem-
bers that live here with the request to sign it and send it on as quickly
as possible. It is advisable, before sending it on to the next address,
to telephone and enquire at so whether the individual in question is
away, and if necessary to send it on immediately to the next contactable
address on the list. If necessary I would request that any impediments
to its circulation be reported to me by telephone.
I enclose a copy of the note written by Mayer himself. Please send
it on and then back to me.
I suggest that the submission be circulated in the following order:
[The following names are then listed, together with addresses and
notes on where to send the submission next: Oncken, Hoetzsch,
Dehio, Brackmann, Marcks, Hartung, Schumacher, Triepel, Haeften
and the undersigned]
Faithfully,
Meinecke
c. 23 June 1933: submission from members of the Imperial Historical

Commission (Historische Reichskommission) to Bernhard Rust,
Prussian minister for science, art and education14
NL Meinecke 15, copy
Honoured Herr Minister,
The undersigned members of the Imperial Historical Commission

(Historische Reichskommission) resident in Berlin and the surrounding
area dare approach you on behalf of former member of the Commission
and former professor extraordinarius at Berlin University, Dr. Gustav
Mayer. He is of non-Aryan descent, sixty-one years old and particu-
larly badly hit by the repercussions of the civil servants law of 7 April
of this year, partly because he has been working as a university teacher
for a relatively short period of twelve to thirteen years and partly
because he has onerous familial obligations. However, his enclosed
submission to us demonstrates that he served the Empire politically
during the war and furthered the long-term interests of the state dur-
ing the revolutionary period. Determined to ensure his academic
independence, he maintained no ties with any political party. Having
researched and become an expert on socialism and the social move-
ments of the 19th century, he enjoys an excellent reputation, both gen-
erally and in particular among the opponents of Marxism, on account
14
Dr. Bernhard Rust (18831945), high school teacher (Studienrat) and Nazi politi-
cian, Prussian minister for science, art and education in 1933/34, Imperial minister for
science, art and national education from 1934 1945. Meinecke has added the following
remarks on the first page of the copy: Circulated for signatures 7.6.33; sent with 10
signatures 23.6. This is followed by the near-illegible names: M.(einecke), Oncken,
Schumacher, Brackmann, Dehio, Hartung, Hoetzsch, Marcks, Triepel, Haeften.
Hermannn Schumacher (18681952), political economist, was professor ordinarius in
state sciences (Staatswissenschaften) at the University of Berlin from 1917 to 1935. Otto
Hoetzsch (18761946), historian and politician. Deputy in the German Reichstag for the
DNVP from 1920 to 1930. Member of the Popular Conservatives (Volkskonservativen)
from 1929. Professor extraordinarius at the University of Berlin from 1913. Received
a personal chair there in 1920. Held the chair in Eastern European history in Berlin
from 1928 until being forced into retirement in 1935. Heinrich Triepel (18681946),
jurist, founded the Association of Teachers of Constitutional Law (Vereinigung der
Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer) in 1922. Professor ordinarius in constitutional, admin-
istrative, canon and international law at the University of Berlin from 1913 to 1935.
Hans von Haeften (18701937), Prussian officer and military historian. The chief of
staff s liaison officer to the Imperial chancellor in 1918. Subsequently head of the mili-
tary history department of the general staff until its disbandment in 1931. President of
the Imperial Archive in Potsdam from 1931 to 1933.
500 documents
of his honest efforts to achieve historical objectivity. Having collabo-

rated with him over the years at the Imperial Historical Commission
(Historische Reichskommission), we have come to appreciate not only
his academic qualities, but also his truly upright character, his ear-
nest attitude, his constant willingness to help and warmly national
persuasion. In addition to the Imperial Historical Commission, he is
also a member of the Historical Commission of the Imperial Archive
(Historische Kommission beim Reichsarchiv) and to our knowledge has
gained widespread respect there as well as a result of his attitude.
We would therefore like to request that in calculating the amount of
his pension, 9, no. 4 of the civil servants law (re compensation for
hardship) be interpreted as generously as possible.
d. 25 January 1934: submission from members of Berlin University

to Bernhard Rust, Prussian minister for science, art and
education15
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin, personal files on G. Mayer
109
The undersigned, former colleagues at Berlin University of Professor

Dr. Gustav Mayer, retired on the basis of the law of 7 April of last
year, would like to request that his pension settlement be reconsid-
ered in a favourable light on the basis of the hardship clause ( 9
no. 4). His academic studies on the history of socialism and social
movements enjoy high standing on account of their critical thorough-
ness and determined objectivity. He has always steered clear of party
political ties and is known to us as a man of unblemished character
and a national persuasion. His activities during the world war, first
in the service of the general government in Brussels, then as repre-
sentative of the foreign ministry in Stockholm in 1917, demonstrate
his trustworthiness in national affairs. Ambassador von der Lancken,16
forcibly pensioned off in 1918, is happy to provide full confirmation of
15
Note on an undated copy in Meinecke papers, no. 15 in Meineckes handwrit-
ing: Sent 25.1.34. Copy for Popitz sent to Penck on 3.2. Johannes Popitz (18841945),
Prussian finance minister from 1933 to 1944. Arrested during the night following the
assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944 and executed on 2 February 1945.
A draft of the petition, clearly initiated by Meinecke, featuring Meineckes detailed
handwritten corrections, can be found in his papers, no. 15. It was rejected by Rust,
see above, p. 104.
16
Oskar Freiherr von der Lancken Wakenitz (18671939), diplomat from 24 August
1914 to 13 November 1918. Head of the policy division of the general government in
this. Mayers recent pension settlement has hit him particularly hard.
He has a wife of delicate health and has to provide for two adult sons,
of whom one is emotionally disturbed and permanently unable to
work. If he is to have any prospect of a secure future, the remainder
of his modest assets must be preserved. The interest on these assets,
together with his pension, amount to an income that would barely
allow Herr Mayer and his family to survive. This would make it impos-
sible for him to continue with his academic research activities and
paralyze his inner life.
sgd Hartung Marcks Meinecke Oncken Penck Schumacher Sering

Sombart Sthlin17
4. 3 January 1946: Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
Rumour has it that you are living in Gttingen, and I have therefore
asked Georg Misch18 to let me know when he might be in a position to
give you a sign of life from me. Ive just been informed that he would
have such an opportunity tomorrow morning; but as he is staying in
the north of England and I am in Oxford, it is very doubtful that these
lines will reach him in time, even if, of necessity, I keep it brief and
write in haste, both of which I hate to do.
So all I can do today is sincerely convey to you how deeply moved
I was by what I learned first from the radio and then your article in
Belgium, occupied by Germany in the First World War. Mayer worked there in the
press division. Forcibly pensioned off in 1919.
17
Werner Sombart (18631941), political economist and sociologist. Made profes-
sor extraordinarius at the University of Breslau in 1890. Professor at the Commercial
College (Handelshochschule) in Berlin from 1906, he was appointed professor ordina-
rius in state sciences (Staatswissenschaften) at the University of Berlin in 1917. Karl
Sthlin (18651939), historian. Habilitated in Heidelberg in 1905, appointed professor
extraordinarius in medieval and modern history there in 1910. After participating in
the First World War from 1914 to 1917, briefly professor ordinarius in Strasbourg
from 1917 until the end of the war. Subsequently honorary professor, first in Leipzig
and from 1920 in Berlin, made emeritus in 1922. Considered a leading expert on
Russian history. Albrecht Penck (18581945), geographer at Berlin University.
18
Georg Misch (18781965), philosopher. Student of Dilthey. Professor of philoso-
phy at the University of Gttingen from 1919 to 1935. Forced into retirement in 1935
and expelled from the Gttingen Academy of Sciences in 1938. Emigrated to Great
Britain in 1939. Returned to his chair in Gttingen in 1946.
502 documents
the Mnchner Zeitung,19 namely that it is still possible to communicate

with you. We know what a heavy toll this apocalyptic time has taken
on you, if only in fragmentary form, from my sister in Heidelberg.20
We hope that your dear wife, who, like you, we have always thought
about with unfailing loyalty, is still alive. And I hope the same goes
for your daughters as well. Our eldest son passed away in 1941 of his
own free will: his delicate soul had had enough of this cruel world. He
lives on in us as long as were still breathing. Our younger son lives
in London and visits us often. He obtained his PhD in Oxford and is
currently working at the Colonial Office as research assistant in the
agrarian sociology of primitive peoples.
I would love to read your autobiography,21 which, as a letter from
Portugal informed me, you published several years ago. The only
part I know is the one on Salzwedel.22 I myself have just sent off the
manuscript of my own memoirs to Switzerland, during the writing of
which I often held dialogues with you as virtually the only intellectual
German I still feel close to. Should it be published, I would like to call
the book: The Drawbridge,23 in light of the drawbridge which has
always shot up at the last moment whenever the German Jew wished
to regard himself as fully German. Now there is a wide river of blood
there, which I can no more cross over again than visitors to Hades
could cross the Styx, which banished them irretrievably from their
world.
That said, I share with you a deep sense of the tragic nature of
Germanys fate. A warm handshake from us to you and your wife.
Your old friend,

Gustav Mayer
19
Meinecke, Zur Selbstbesinnung, in: Mnchner Zeitung, 16 June 1945. Reprinted
in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 2: Politische Schriften und Reden, pp. 484486.
20
Gustav Mayers sister Gertrud had been married to the famous philosopher Karl
Jaspers since 1910.
21
Friedrich Meinecke, Erlebtes 18621901, Leipzig 1941. Reprinted in: Meinecke
Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp. 1134.
22
Meineckes youthful memories of Salzwedel had already been published, together
with his fathers memoirs, as early as 1933, in the Festschrift marking the 700th anni-
versary of the town of Salzwedel. See Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische
Schriften, p. 13.
23
The book was published as: Erinnerungen. Vom Journalisten zum Historiker der
deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, Zurich/Vienna 1949. German licensed edition Munich
1949.
Gustav Mayer
5. 30 March 1946: Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
How good it felt, after these endless years of agonizing silence, to see
your handwriting once again, and to have confirmation from you that
while you certainly received a good splattering, you were spared by the
Flood that swept away so many precious lives. And not just physically.
Despite your age and the threats to your wellbeing, it even left you
with the strength to tell your fellow men and future generations how
you feel and what you think. That is brave!
504 documents
I cannot match your bravery. The tragedy that robbed us of our

noble-minded eldest five years ago24 has left wounds in my soul that
can no longer be healed, and though nothing bad happened to us per-
sonally at the hands of this people, so sure of its instincts, during the
war, it was nonetheless very stressful to live through all these terrible
years here as an enemy alien. That my heart took a bad knock as a
result is perhaps less surprising than the fact that I am keeping toler-
ably well so far with the help of the treatment imposed by my doctor.
However, I can only visit the library in summer now at best. I have
made a virtue of necessity by writing my memoirs, the great majority
of the material for which I had brought with me from back home and
had in a cupboard here.
With regard to your eyesight, my dear friend, we found your hand-
writing just as easy to read as ever, and it may therefore be overly
cautious of me to dictate this letter to my wife, who will type it up,
rather than writing it myself as I would have preferred. In addition
to her other burdensmaid of all work, cleaning lady, washer-
womanshe now has to operate my typewriter as well. We had the
opportunity to observe what the art of medicine can do for cataracts25
a few months ago, in the case of our eighty-four-year-old landlord.
He was sprightly and full of life even before the operation, but in the
end he could hardly read and, especially painful for him, he could no
longer keep his large garden in good order by himself. But now hes
reading his newspapers again, and planting his flowers and tomatoes.
I hope, mutatis mutandis, that it goes the same way for you, should
things have got to that stage.
Even if I wanted to I could never be disloyal to the good German
spirit, which shaped my own.26 But alas, alas, Germany is home to
more than just spirit, and more than just good spirit; if only there had
been, and could be, far more of the latter! Then Im sure none of these
ghastly things would have happened to the land of Goethe and Schiller,
and the Marienkirche in Prenzlau,27 and St. Martin and St. Gereon
24
The eldest son, Peter Mayer, committed suicide in 1941. See Mayers letter to
Meinecke of 3 January 1946, above, p. 502.
25
In a letter of 22 March 1946, Meinecke told Mayer that he was suffering from
worsening cataracts. Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 247.
26
In a letter of 22 March 1946, picking up on the term drawbridge (see above,
p. 502), Meinecke wrote to Mayer: Yes, the drawbridge! I understand only too well
your thoughts in this regard, but can one ever be unfaithful to the good German spirit
once it has hold of one? (Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 248).
27
Prenzlau was Mayers native town.
would still be standing. Should my memoirs be publishedI have no

definite contract as yetI shall get a copy to you as quickly as possible,
my dear friend, and you will see how much I have suffered in my life
for the sake of the German spirit. My memoirs have as little affin-
ity with Weisbachs insipid confessions as I do with Weisbach.28 As it
happens I have lost contact with Weisbach since we have been abroad,
but heard from Basle that he is living at 10 Bernoullistrae. I have
had renewed contact with Basle University circles as the University
restored my doctorate (Doktordiplom) in 1944, after fifty years, as the
only citizen of the German Empire during the Hitler period: Qui cum
in Universitate Berolinensi Professoris munere fungeretur de Republica
ita semper disputavit ut civium Libertatem aequabilemque omnium
rerum distributionem commendaret et sincerum se verae Humanitatis
defensorem praestaret.29 The humanists were always great ones for
talking big! For someone like me who had withdrawn so much from
the world, it was astonishing to discover that anyone in the world still
remembered my work. And I was also pleasantly surprised to find out
recently that my two-volume biography of Engels, which was only just
saved in 1934 before publication and taken by Ullstein from Berlin to
Martinus Nyhoff in the Hague,30 is now suddenly rising from the dead
and is selling well not only in America but on the continent of Europe
as well. Perhaps I shall even live to see it reviewed in Germany. The
translations31 that have appeared so far in England, the United States
and South America were all castratedstripped off all their chapters
on intellectual historyand are thus of no interest to me.
A copy of the latest Gttingen University magazine recently fell into
my hands and included the words spoken by you at Onckens grave.32
Could you please pass on my condolences to Frau Oncken? Is she
28
Meinecke had referred Mayer to the memoirs of art historian Werner Weisbach:
Und alles ist zerstoben. Erinnerungen aus der Jahrhundertwende, Vienna/Zurich
1937.
29
When he was made professor at the University of Berlin, he always advocated
the freedom of the citizens and a fair distribution of all goods in his comments on the
state and showed himself to be a sincere champion of true humanity.
30
Gustav Mayer, Friedrich Engels. Eine Biographie. vol. 1: Friedrich Engels in seiner
Frhzeit, 2nd edn; vol. 2: Friedrich Engels und der Aufstieg der Arbeiterbewegung in
Europa, The Hague 1934. Reprinted Cologne 1972.
31
Gustav Mayer, Friedrich Engels. A Biography, London 1936. The abridged version
in English translation was edited by the Labour politician R. H. S. Crossman.
32
Meineckes address, delivered at Onckens funeral in Gttingen on 2 January
1946, printed in: Gttinger Universittszeitung, 25 January 1946, p. 13. Reprinted in:
506 documents
aware of the highly appreciative and quite detailed obituary published

by The Times? I think it was the first obituary of a German scholar
published here after the war. We gathered from the same issue of the
magazine that our dear Ludwig Dehio survived all the perils which he
too will no doubt have faced. I pray that the same applies to his wife
and sons! Should she get the chance, would your dear wife please be
so kind as to let the Dehios know our address or vice versa?
Of your former students, Felix Gilbert visited us before heading for
Germany. Id be surprised if he hasnt been to see you. We often remi-
nisced about you and Frau Meinecke with Hansi Philippson,33 who
lives in London. I rarely get together with the many former German
professors who stay in Oxford; theres not one among them I feel par-
ticularly drawn to. My wife and I lead a very reclusive life anyway.
My greatest fear for Germany is that the young people, whom no-
one has ever urged to take a critical look at themselves, might once
again be led astray by corrupt instincts. If rump Germany was to
seesaw politically between great powers in the manner of the Great
Elector it would be the road to ruin.
I hope with all my heart that you will soon be able to return to your
old airy rooms and your garden and can enjoy the sun with no-one
to bother you.
I shall conclude here in the hope that the old thread shall never
again be broken until one of us has to depart this world.
All the best to your wife.
Your old friend,

Gustav Mayer
33
Johanna Philippson, historian, student of Meinecke in Freiburg, where she
obtained her doctorate with a study entitled On the origins and introduction of uni-
versal equal suffrage in Germany with a focus on the elections to the Frankfurt parlia-
ment in the Grand Duchy of Baden (ber den Ursprung und die Einfhrung des
allgemeinen gleichen Wahlrechts in Deutschland mit bes. Bercksichtung der Wahlen
zum Frankfurter Parlament im Groherzogtum Baden). Published in Abhandlungen
zur Mittleren und Neueren Geschichte, no. 52, Berlin/Leipzig 1913. Before the table of
contents she thanks her revered teacher Meinecke, who prompted me to write the
present work. Emigrated to England in the 1930s.
6. 12 May 1946: Gustav Mayer (Oxford) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
The main aim of this letter, I believe, must be to secure the line of
communication between us. We must find out whether you managed
to overcome the difficulties which, according to the letter from your
dear wife of 5 April, were still hindering your return to Hirschsprung,34
and we must inform you of our impending move to London. (I shall
write the new address at the top of this page). This change, which is
not something I wanted, has become necessary because Ulrich35 is to
begin a two-year research assignment for the Colonial Office in Kenya.
Up until now he has been living in the bomb-damaged little house in
which he had safely stored our furnishings and the greater part of my
library. Now, to save money, we shall have to move there, though I
am very reluctant to leave the lovely garden that we have use of here.
As Ulrich will most likely be disappearing into the distance only in
the middle of summer, we shall initially be living with him and his
English fiance, whom he will marry before his departure and who
will be going with him as his assistant. Her father, Sir Leon Simon,36
has just moved to Jerusalem as curator of the university, having previ-
ously been a top English official for a number of decades. He is also
a recognized authority on Hebrew and Greek and has, among other
things, translated the most important Platonic dialogues from the
original into modern Hebrew.
My wife and I never miss an opportunity to familiarize ourselves
with the mentality of contemporary Germans in their various groups,
34
Meinecke and his wife were able to return to their house in Berlin-Dahlem, Am
Hirschsprung, from Gttingen just under two months later, on 9 July 1946, through
the initiative of the American historian Koppel S. Pinson (see above, p. 221).
35
Son of Gustav Mayer.
36
Sir Leon Simon (18811965), British civil servant and Zionist. Studied classics
at Oxford and became a civil servant in 1904 following completion of his studies.
Eventually became Director of Savings at the General Post Office, a post from which
he retired in 1944. Member of the Zionist Commission sent to Palestine in 1918. Took
a special interest in Jewish cultural nationalism and the revival of the Hebrew lan-
guage. Became chair of the executive council of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
and member of the universitys board of governors.
508 documents
as defined by geography, age, class and destiny. Gegenwart37 and

Funkbriefkasten [radio letter box] are our main sources, in addition
to what we hear from people returning from Germany. The overwhelm-
ing impression, especially of the English among this last group, is that
of excessive self-pity, which takes too little account of the indescrib-
able misery that the Nazis have brought not only to the neighbouring
peoples, but to muchlet us sayof Europe alone, by unleashing this
unnecessary war. The Germans are having a hard time of it, no doubt,
and sadly there is still a risk that the shortage of food will turn into an
outright famine. And the whole problem of Germanys future is still
quite unresolved and may, I fear, remain so for a long time to come.
All of which is terrible, and as former Germans this pains us greatly
too. If I remember correctly, Ranke had some doubts as to whether
Europe would be willing to tolerate a strong and unified Germany in
its midst over the long term. (Or is my memory letting me down?) I
have never actually taken this view, but I have always believed that a
policy of conquest at the expense of the neighbouring nationalities
would unite them into a ring of iron by which Germany would be
crushed. And thats just what has happened.
We cannot gauge as yet what horror may lie in store for the conti-
nent of Europe (and not just for Germany), unless all the other coun-
tries of the world cooperate and manage to produce and deliver the
supplies needed to prevent a disaster, one that would put at risk
the remaining influence exercised on the continent by religion and the
humanist and humanitarian tradition.
The signatura temporis is poorly understood by anyone in Germany
who, as a result of mental laziness, wishes to wrap himself in the toga
of his resentment. The finger of God demands unification and a will-
ingness to help one another. May your wish for a cultural nation
(Kulturnation) that keeps its spirit pure38 be fulfilled by the future
despite such apocalyptic dangers!
Im already eagerly awaiting your pamphlet, particularly since read-
ing the preprint in Die Sammlung.39 I cant help thinking that the Nazi
witches Sabbath in Germany started at a time when, in view of the
37
Die Gegenwart, a journal published in Freiburg from 1945.
38
Meineckes phrase in his letter to Mayer of 22 March 1946, in: Meinecke Werke,
vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 248.
39
Friedrich Meinecke, Militarismus und Hitlerismus, in: Die Sammlung, no. 6
(1946). The journal was published in Gttingen.
economic situation in the most highly developed states, it should have

burnt itself out. Certainly, a completely blinded youth movement
brought it to power. But where was the older, more mature generation,
that might have imperiously called out quis ego! to this youth? I often
put my head in my hands and would like to believe it was no more
than an awful nightmare that the people of poets and thinkers has
now become the people of the gas chambers in the eyes of the world.
One comes up against nothing but disbelief if one expresses the view
that millions of Germans knew nothing about what was taking place
in Auschwitz, etc.or if one excuses them in light of their power-
lessness. As I mentioned above, no-one believes the first claim, and
they are unwilling to accept the second, stating that far more people
should have risen up in protest! Thats what would have happened in
England, they say. And English soldiers wouldnt have been willing
to go along with so many things that German soldiers were expected
to do against their conscience! The morally elevated Englishmen in
particular, of whom there are so many in this fortunate nation, cannot
come to terms with how easily satisfied Germans are by their talk of
conscience.
But that is a wide field, as Effi Briests father40 tends to say, and I
dont want to torment you with it!
We ourselves have little to report. We are living very modestly
from a small grant from the Society for the Protection of Science and
Learning until Ulrich earns enough to support us. For we have no
expectation of ever receiving our pension. My memoirs will be pub-
lished by Dr. Oprecht publishers in Zurich.41 But it may be quite some
time before the printing can begin. Incidentally, I too mention con-
versations with Haeften und Groener.42 I wonder whether Frau von
Haeften survived the eradication of her family.43
40
Allusion to Theodor Fontanes famous novel Effi Briest, published in 1896.
41
In fact, Mayers Erinnerungen were published by Georg Olms Verlag Zurich/
Vienna.
42
Wilhelm Groener (18671939), Imperial defence minister from 1928 to 1932, as
well as Imperial minister of the interior in 1931/32. One of the few convinced demo-
crats among the high-ranking military officers. Groener and Hans von Haeften took
part in Meineckes famous Sunday walks in the Grunewald. Meinecke wrote a brief
foreword to Dorothea Groener-Geyers biography of her father, dated January 1953,
which was not included in the Friedrich Meinecke bibliography: General Groener.
Soldat und Staatsmann, Frankfurt a. M. 1955.
43
The sons of Hans von Haeften, the diplomat Hans-Bernd von Haeften (1905
1944) and the officer Werner von Haeften (19081944) were closely associated with
510 documents
My wife, who is even busier than usual as she prepares for our move,
asks me to tell your dear wife that Frau Lennox, whom she had asked
about, is teaching in London and renting out rooms.
I hope these lines find you both well and that you have either sur-
vived the move to Dahlem or will do so.
In the old spirit of friendship,
Your
Mayers
7. 13 July 1946: Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
I must have known that your letter of 25 June44 was on its way. For
as if in anticipation of it, I had looked at pictures of Salzstrasse
and Schmiedestrasse, the Steintor and Karlturm and the interesting
Renaissance relief on Joachim Benekes house the evening before, in
the book Aus stillen Sttten der Mark Brandenburg, and asked myself
where in Salzwedel the house you were born in might have stood. As
you can tell, the old Prenzlauer seeks the land of the Greeks with
his soul45 despite knowing in advance that the Germany he catches
himself in search of has gone to rack and ruin. I just read a letter to
my sister from an old art teacher from Prenzlau. He describes how
the whole of the old town centre lies in ruins, while the gable of the
Marienkirche that towered above the market, described so vividly by
Dehio,46 is likely to succumb to the first storm that shakes it.
My thoughts cling to the buildings because they outlive the genera-
tions and represent a continuum. But then they turn to the few people
the resistance movement against Hitler and were executed or shot following the failed
assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944.
44
Reprinted in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 253f.
45
My soul seeking the land of the Greeks. Quote from Iphigenia in Goethes Iphi-
genia in Tauris, Act 1, Scene 1.
46
Georg Dehio (18501932), famous art historian. Mayer is referring to Dehios
book Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmler, 5 vols, 18991912.
dear to me whom I still know in my erstwhile Fatherland, prominent

among whom, my dear friend, are you and your wife. I recently had
a visit from Grimme, the former minister of education, as the first
German from Germany I have met since 1939, and he told me things
about you that your letter, unfortunately, has shown to be mere myth.
He claimed that you were already back in Dahlem and that prior to
that Prime Minister Attlee47 had contacted the English authorities in
Gttingen in person by telephone and arranged for you to be given
better accommodation. So I then assumed that Gooch was misin-
formed when he wrote me shortly afterwards that you were still in
Gttingen.48 I have no way of knowing over here whether the delay in
granting you a permit is a consequence of a failure to reach agreement
about the zones. I tend towards your view, that this is not the case, and
put it down instead to an unholy bureaucracy. Clearly, given that, as
your wife wrote, the English want to give you the use of a car, all it will
take to get things moving in the right direction is a nod from Berlin.
Could one of your daughters there give Schiffer a call? If hes young
enough to be a minister he must be young enough to come to the aid
of a friend. And if not him, you must get hold of younger friends in
Berlin who should help you or at least try to untie these knots. We can
well understand your dear wifes impatience. Its hard for the older
housewives these days: over here our young couple are on a short hon-
eymoon and in the weeks before they leave for Kenya they will stay
in two of the rooms here, which we shall have to rent out afterwards.
Again and again weve looked around in vain for a cleaning lady and a
man to help move the heaviest pieces of furniture. Finally, on Sunday,
like deae ex machina, our daughter-in-laws sister, who works in a
ministry during the week, came with a [female] friend, and they man-
aged to do the heaviest work with their strong young arms.
Im already looking forward to your book49 and when I have it I
shall do what I can to publicize it in England. In America that would
be Holborns task. Hes not a good letter-writer, so we have very little
contact. But once youre in Dahlem, it would be a task for him, and
47
Clement Richard Attlee (18831967), British politician. Leader of the Labour
Party, 19351955. British Prime Minister, 19451951.
48
In fact, the Meineckes returned to their house in Dahlem on 9 July 1946.
49
Reference to Meineckes Die deutsche Katastrophe (The German Catastrophe),
published in 1946.
512 documents
perhaps for Pinson (has he visited you?) and Gilbert as well, to see to
it that you receive regular food packages from the USA (from Harvard
perhaps?). While it has been possible to send individual packages to
Germany from there for a short while, though only to the American
zone, it is forbidden from here, as we too have very little to spare. By
the way, dont you have friends in Sweden who could help you out?
But whatever you do make sure the packages are sent by registered
mail. One intended for my sister in Heidelberg, which friends there
had sent her, went missing.
I can agree with what you wrote about the question of guilt.50 But
of course that would merely be the beginning of any discussion of the
problem, one whose limits have yet to be clearly delineated. [. . .] When
you last visited me in Lankwitz, you were inclined to hold historism
or at least Hegel responsible for the failing strength of absolute values
among the German people (or at least the intellectuals). I believe you
will now put the process of degeneration affecting broad swathes of
the German people of which you wrote, down to a more varied range
of causes, and in any case not primarily the intellectuals. And espe-
cially Hegel! Is there anything that isnt down to him?! I just read in
the last volumes of Varnhagens diary51 that if a truly liberal spirit (in
the shape of the later Frederick III and Victoria)* had taken power
in Prussia when the so-called New Era52 set in, one can perhaps
imagine a scenario in which the bourgeoisie, before it became rich,
50
In his letter of 25 June 1946, Meinecke had written to Mayer: Far too often
people abroad fail to appreciate the terrible pressure all of us lived with during those
twelve years, how completely hopeless it was to resist. We were bound hand and foot.
Certainly, the individual ought to have nonetheless found the courage for martyrdom,
but every individual would have taken his family down with him. Let every foreigner
who now declares the German people guilty in its entirety probe his conscience and
ask whether he would have found the courage to become a martyr and destroy his
family in such circumstances! However, I do agree entirely that a dreadful process
of degeneration had set in, affecting broad swathes of the German people, and, Im
afraid, particularly the bourgeois strata at the forefront of society. I deal with this in
detail in my book, which I expect to be published any day now (Meinecke Werke,
vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 253f.).
51
Karl August Varnhagen von Ense (17751858), diplomat and journalist. The
diaries of K. A. Varnhagen von Ense were published in 14 volumes. His wife Rahel
Varnhagen von Ense (17711833) ran a famous salon in Berlin.
52
The New Era in Prussia refers to the period from the assumption of the regency
by the later Wilhelm I in 1858 until the beginning of the constitutional conflict in
1862.
might still have been healthy enough to awaken a self-evident seeming

self-awarenessbut then I think of how Bismarck drove the liberals
before him. Incidentally, a German antiquarian bookseller here told
me that he had recently published a catalogue of works on German
history, which was selling well; but he had been unable to sell any-
thing to do with Bismarck and his era. The same man told me that all
of Goethes works were unsalable, because people were afraid to have
piles of books in their homes in light of the housing shortage. Despite
us only having two rooms, I have got myself the definitive edition
(Ausgabe letzter Hand), the anniversary edition and all the important
collections of letters and dialogues, and Schiller, his letters, Hlderlin
andHegel. Which of Goethes poems have you been meditating on?
If you wouldnt mind telling me.53
I would have dictated this letter, which has once again turned out
too long, to my wife, if she hadnt had to queue up for meat and cher-
ries. I ask your dear wifes forgiveness in case she has to read out this
long letter to you. Our warm wishes to both of you.
Your
Gustav Mayer
* Addition by Mayer: it wasnt just Westphalen54 and his lot that hated
the Princess Royal55later on, the Empress was also hated, as one who
wished to smuggle liberalism into Prussia, by Treitschke and the many
mock Treitschkes such as Rothfels and his lot.
53
Reference to the poem On the Divine (Das Gttliche) and Dedication
(Zueignung). See Meinecke, Lebenstrster. Betrachtungen ber zwei Goethesche
Gedichte, published in: Goethe, N. F. des Jahrbuchs der Goethe-Gesellschaft 16, 1954,
pp. 198212. Reprinted in Meinecke Werke, vol. 8: Autobiographische Schriften, pp.
492508.
54
Ferdinand Otto Wilhelm von Westphalen (17991876), politician and civil ser-
vant. Minister of the interior and agriculture in Prussia from 1849. Advocated reac-
tionary policies. He was overthrown in 1858, coinciding with the beginning of the
New Era in Prussia, which liberals associated with great hopes of political reform.
Westphalens half-sister Jenny was the wife of Karl Marx.
55
Princess Victoria, wife of crown prince and later Emperor Frederick III.
514 documents
8. 3 October 1946: Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
My wife and would like to say how delighted we are to be able to pic-
ture you both back in the surroundings with which we too were once
so familiar; and we take the content of your kind letter of 1 September
as a whole,56 the vigour of the style and the clarity of the handwrit-
ing, as evidence that you have survived the trials and tribulations of
the final stretch of your odyssey with mind and body undamaged.
Gooch visited us a few days ago and told us that through the media-
tion of the socialist professor Harold Laski,57 a great admirer of your
work, he managed to get Prime Minister Attlee to intervene person-
ally on your behalf. Gooch was in the middle of reading your book,
which August Weber58 had sent him. He proposed that I write five
to six hundred wordsthe standard unit of length hereabout it for
the Contemporary Review, but I can do so only when the copy from
Brockhaus has arrived, for which I have been waiting in vain every
day. No doubt the publisher has had no opportunity to send it yet.
It is quite something that you wish to hold classes, and on the fate-
ful year of 1866 no less, and I was delighted to hear that my book on
Schweitzer59 and my contribution to the Lexis Festschrift60 are of use
to you in that context. The most consistent opposition to [Bismarcks]
Blood and Iron policy was probably expressed in Liebknechts61
articles in the Freiburg Oberrheinischer Kurier. I have just received
56
The letter does not appear in Meineckes Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel.
57
Harold Joseph Laski (18931950), famous British socialist political scientist and
politician. Member of the national executive of the Labour Party from 1936 to 1949
and advisor to Prime Minister Attlee.
58
August Weber (18711957), banker and politician. Reichstag deputy for the
National Liberal Party (Nationalliberale Partei) from 1907 to 1912, and for the German
State Party (Deutsche Staatspartei) from 1930 to 1932, whose parliamentary leader he
became. Emigrated to England in 1938.
59
On Mayers book on Schweitzer, see above, p. 492f.
60
Gustav Mayer, Die Lsung der deutschen Frage im Jahre 1866 und die
Arbeiterbewegung, in: Festgabe fr Wilhelm Lexis. Zur siebzigsten Wiederkehr seines
Geburtstages presented by G. Adler et al., Jena 1907, pp. 221268. Reprinted in:
Mayer, Arbeiterbewegung und Obrigkeitsstaat, ed. by Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Bonn/Bad
Godesberg 1972, pp. 125158.
61
Wilhelm Liebknecht (18261900), important workers leader and journal-
ist. Together with August Bebel, he founded the Saxony Peoples Party (Schsiche
Lassalles biography, the first one in English as far as I can tell,62 which
essentially cannibalizes the six posthumous volumes which I edited63
and which the publisher Springer itself destroyed.
For the honest historian, there can be no question of incende quod
adorasti, adora quod incendisti.64 But we can keep our judgments in
motion to the very end under the influence of the transformations
that we consciously live through. From this point of view Im very
curious about your little book. It was only by writing my memoirs
(which have yet to be printed) that I became fully aware how strongly
first Schmoller, and then my six years in Western Europe (Holland,
Belgium, France), essentially between twenty and thirty,65 had influ-
enced my political views. I saw myself as a German primarily because
it was through classical German idealism that I became myself. I rep-
resented the German spirit out in the world because I identified it
with the spirit of Kant, Goethe and Schiller. It is a shame that the
Humboldts were such rarae aves [rare birds] among the Prussian nobil-
ity and that too many of their class justified Marx in gleefully referring
to the Borussians of his time as anterior-Russians [Vorderrussen].
My dear father, who knew the Uckermark Junker, once told me with
reference to a descendent of Achim of Arnim:66 If he ever opens a
book it would be a timetable. And with regard to the upper middle
classes, I suspect that I will read some strong words about them in
your book.
Id rather say nothing about contemporary politics. Just as there
was once an aspiration for a Third Germany between Prussia and
Volkspartei) in 1866 and the Social Democratic Workers Party (Sozialdemokratische

Arbeiterpartei) in 1869. Vigorous opponent of Bismarcks policies.
62
Presumably a reference to: David J. Footman, Ferdinand Lassalle. Romantic
Revolutionary, New Haven 1947.
63
Ferdinand Lassalle, Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, ed. by Gustav Mayer, 6
vols, Stuttgart/Berlin 19211925.
64
Worship that which you have destroyed, destroy that which you have wor-
shipped. Quotation from the Historiarum libri decem by Gregory of Tours, accord-
ing to which Bishop Remigius of Reims is supposed to have uttered this sentence to
the Merovingian king Clovis during his baptism at Christmas 498. Mayer, however,
has reversed the order of the clauses. Gregory of Tours wrote: adora quod incendisti,
incende quod adorasti.
65
Mayer worked for the Frankfurter Zeitung in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris as
foreign correspondent from 1896 to 1904.
66
Achim von Arnim (17811831), writer and journalist. Achieved fame by collect-
ing old German songs, which, together with Clemens Brentano, he published under
the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn, 3 vols, 18051808.
516 documents
Austria, the question now for the rest of the good Europeans is:
Will the real Europe be able to assert itself between the American and
Russian giants as a third power complex, particularly in an intellectual
sense?
You can be sure that Im delighted to read every word you write to
me. But if its a strain on you, please dont force yourself to do so!
We have received the first letters from Kenya (for my 75th birthday
tomorrow) from our son and his dear young English wife. They were
wearing their winter coats at the Equator.
You are no doubt aware that we are unable to send food to the
continent from England. But one can do so from America. I have
asked Holborn whether packages are being sent to the Hirschsprung
regularly from a reliable source there.
Who is teaching history at the University of Berlin? Of those I can
remember I can think of no-one that would still be suitable. But death
and rebirth (Stirb und Werde) applies to history too of course.
My thoughts are with you as always.
Your
Gustav Mayer
Addition by Frau Mayer: Dear Frau Meinecke. You asked about Frau
Lennox. I havent seen her for years, but recently heard that she is well;
she teaches and rents out part of her flat, so she has no financial wor-
ries. We often think of you and it is sad that we shall never see each
other again. Regards, Flora Mayer
Addition by Mayer: Professor Koebner67 (now in Jerusalem, for-
merly of Breslau) enquired as to your wellbeing and asked me to pass
on his regards.
67
Richard Koebner (18851958). Professor of medieval and modern history
in Breslau from 1924 to 1933. Dismissed in 1933. Emigrated to Palestine in 1934.
Professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1934 to 1955.
9. 9 November 1946: Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
My warm thanks for your little book, which has arrived at last. Its
vigorous style belies your years. Im just about to send a review to
Gooch, which I squeezed only with great reluctance into the five hun-
dred words or so he allowed me.68
How much I could say about your observations and memories,69
and how little one can write. Theres no need for me to assure you that
we agree on a great number of important matters, and I almost think
you may prefer it if I refer to specific passages to which I added a ques-
tion mark, rather timidly on many occasions, on the first reading.
I myself knew Naumann70 very well, swore allegiance to him as a
student and later published a number of articles in his Hilfe and in
the Zeit.71 However, if I were to ask who in Germany first tried to
call into being a social and at the same time national movement, I
would say Lassalle,72 not only because he came first but also because
he did more to break up the soil with his plough. Naumanns impact,
which I am happy to join you in emphasizing, was limited to a bour-
geois elite, while Lassalle, not so much during his lifetime but in the
decade after his death, had an influence on the workers and also, along
with Rodbertus,73 on the bourgeois minority, no longer ossified along
Manchesterian lines, which first came together in the Association for
68
Review of Meineckes Die deutsche Katastrophe in: Contemporary Review 171
(1947), p. 59f.
69
Subtitle of Die Deutsche Katastrophe.
70
Friedrich Naumann (18601919). Politician who championed a national social-
ism and worked for the integration of the workers and the labour movement into the
state and society of the Empire.
71
For these articles, see the list of Gustav Mayers writings, in: Mayer, Erinnerungen,
1993 edn, pp. 395405.
72
Ferdinand Lassalle (18251864). Founded the German General Workers
Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein or ADAV) in Leipzig in 1863.
Lassalle was one of Mayers key research interests.
73
Johann Karl Rodbertus (18051875), political economist, economic historian and
politician. Saw the solution to social problems in state socialism, state regulation
of wages and social relations and the establishment of state monopolies to run such
things as the postal service and the railways.
518 documents
Social Policy74 from 1872 onwards. It was unfortunate for Germany

that, when it became a mass party, social democracy had its feel for
the national dimension drummed out of it by the anti-socialists law.75
The impact of this became particularly clear to me when the great Otto
Hue76 took me along for a Sunday morning drink with his chums in
Essen in 1915. I knew him well and had looked him up at the prompt-
ing of Lancken, to foster a rapprochement between the Emperor and
the national wing of the party. When I leaf through Waldersees
memoirs77 now, it is particularly clear to me, if it wasnt already, how
narrow-minded the Prussian general staff was in terms of its political
tradition. Here in England, Montgomery78 gets on very well with the
social democratic ministers. A Swiss publisher has asked me whether
I would edit the correspondence between Engels and Bebel.79 I feel
too old for it. What would interest me would be to write an intro-
duction showing that the responsibility for the fact that the German
labour movement, in contrast to the English, could be targeted as
internationalistwhich in fact it really wasntlies largely at the door
of Prussian militarism. (I refer the students in your seminar in particu-
lar to the sections Fatherland, borders and languages (Vaterland,
Grenzen und Sprachen) and The soldiery (Das Soldatenwesen)
74
The origins of the Association for Social Policy (Verein fr Sozialpolitik),
established in 1873, lay in a meeting to discuss the social question held in Eisenach
on 67 October 1872. The association became the most important organization for
middle-class social reformers in the Empire. It was supported primarily by the so-
called lecture theatre socialists (Kathedersozialisten), including Schmoller, the key
figure behind its foundation.
75
Through the law against Social Democratic activities inimical to public safety
(Gesetz gegen die gemeingefhrlichen Bestrebungen der Sozialdemokratie), in force
from 1878 to 1890, Bismarck tried in vain to eliminate Social Democracy and the
socialist free trade unions.
76
Otto Hue (18681922), important miners leader. Member of the Reichstag
or National Assembly from 1903 to 1911 and 1919 to 1922 respectively, and of the
Prussian parliament from 1913 to 1918 and 1921 to 1922.
77
Alfred Graf von Waldersee (18321904), succeeded Moltke as chief of the
Prussian general staff in 1888. Die Denkwrdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschalls
Alfred Graf von Waldersee, 3 vols, Stuttgart/Berlin, 1922/23, was published posthu-
mously by H. O. Meissner.
78
Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (18871976),
British field marshal. Supreme commander of the British occupying forces in Germany
in 1945.
79
August Bebels Briefwechsel mit Friedrich Engels was later published by Werner
Blumenberg, London/The Hague/Paris 1965.
in Weitlings 1842 magnum opus: The guarantees of harmony and

freedom [Die Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit]).80
I have thought a lot about your hypothesis that Germany would
never have suffered the mildew of Nazism if Brning and Groener had
retained power.81 I too see the field marshals82 election as president
as a great misfortune and assume that the intrigues swirling around
the old manthe Neudeck estate83 and associated issuesalienated
Hindenburg so greatly from his official advisers that he eventually
dismissed them. But if I transport myself back to the early 1930s,
and think of the profound, fateful split in the labour movement, the
degeneration of the bourgeoisie, which you portray so superbly, and
of the general despondency that increasingly prevailed, I am doubtful
not only as to whether Brning would ever have wrung the signal to
strike from the president, whether he possessed the requisite degree of
decisiveness, but also whether things wouldnt have gone in much the
same way as they did after Rathenaus assassination, with the law on
the protection of the Republic, even if the Reichswehr had attacked.
Perhaps Hitler would have spent a few more months confined in a for-
tress, as he did after the Brgerbrukeller, before the public uproar
forced open the door for him.84
But who would risk stating with certainty how things might have
gone, when they have sadly turned out so differently? And I do not
80
Wilhelm Weitling, Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit, 1842. This work by
Weitling (18081871), a leading early German socialist theorist, was republished with
an introduction and annotations by Bernhard Kaufhold, Berlin 1955.
81
Imperial Chancellor Heinrich Brning (18851970) was toppled on 30 May 1932
by Imperial President Hindenburg. Wilhelm Groener had already resigned as Imperial
defence minister on 12 May 1932, and with the dismissal of the Brning government
he also lost his position as Imperial minister of the interior.
82
Field marshal Paul Hindenburg (18471934) was elected Imperial president on
24 April 1925 and was re-elected after defeating Hitler in the second round of voting
on 10 April 1932.
83
The East Prussian estate of Neudeck belonged to Hindenburg. Many of the East
Prussian landowners in the vicinity of Neudeck, where Hindenburg stayed from 12
28 May 1932, rejected the governments settlement programme as it threatened their
heavily indebted estates; they obviously contributed significantly to Hindenburgs
abandonment of Brning. See Karl Dietrich Bracher, Die Auflsung der Weimarer
Republik, 2nd edn, Stuttgart/ Dsseldorf 1957, pp. 511517.
84
Following the Hitler putsch on 8/9 November 1923, which began with Hitlers
proclamation of the overthrow of the governments of Bavaria and the Empire at
a gathering in the Brgerbrukeller in Munich, Hitler was sentenced to five years
confinement in a fortress in April 1924, but was released early from Landsberg fortress
on 20 December 1924.
520 documents
deny that the future historian will have to give careful consideration
to your hypothesis. If only Brning had been a more charismatic
Fhrer, he might have stopped the seducer in his tracks. And the
same goes for our dear Groener!85
My wife and I were there at the Hirschsprung as invisible guests,
faithfully bearing greetings for your birthday. We remembered your
seventieth, when we were still coming to you from Lankwitz and still
had no idea that we would be exiled from our homeland! I very often
read Fontanes Travels through the Mark before going to sleep.86
I hope you are sitting in front of a warm oven this winter and
hopefully with help from Americahave enough to eat. What was
once a self-evident prerequisite now becomes a cherished wish when
one writes to Germany.
We shall be getting a visit from Frl. Philippson87 this evening. She
said on the telephone that she had just borrowed your book for 48
hours. If by any chance you would like an English translation, I shall
be happy to keep my ears open.88 If only a peace treaty had been
concluded!
Our thoughts are with you and your dear wife.
Your old friend,

Gustav Mayer
85
Having taken part in Meineckes famous Sunday walks, Groener was well
acquainted with Meinecke and Mayer.
86
Theodor Fontane, Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, 5 vols, 18621889.
Many new editions have appeared since then.
87
On 24 March 1947, Meinecke asked Mayer whether his student J. Philippson
would really return to Germany: If so, please let me know. There would be no lack
of things to do, at the Academy for instance. (Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter
Briefwechsel, p. 275f.).
88
The translation of Meineckes Die Deutsche Katastrophe by Meineckes friend,
American historian Sydney B. Fay, appeared under the title: The German Catastrophe,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge/Massachusetts 1950.
10. 23 January 1947: Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
We were particularly delighted to learn from your letter89 and from

the card sent by your dear wife that you are at least not going hungry
and that your eyesight has got better rather than worse. A letter from
Dehio told of your incredible intellectual vigour. Of course, we had
no need of his reassurance: your book and letters were sufficient evi-
dence. Gooch was planning to send you my review of your bookI
had to stick to the prescribed lengthin the Contemporary Review.90
We were also pleased to hear that the Christmas gift which we asked
Sepp Laufer91 to give you came at an opportune moment. Only since
very recently have we been able to send small packages from here to
Germany, which must be saved from ones own rations. But it entails
a lot of trouble for us, as my wife never has anyone to help her. One
has to make a special trip to the Food Office and confirm that one is
sending only rationed items, that is, for example, just tea and no cof-
fee. And then lots of packages seem to end up in hands other than the
ones they were intended for in Germany. We have had no confirma-
tion of receipt from anyone as yet. We have enough to eat here in
England but even here many things are in short supply, such as lard,
meat and eggs.
I have replied as well as I could to your question regarding source
materials on the history of German democracy and social democ-
racy on the enclosed sheets.92 I was more than a little surprised by
89
Meineckes letter to Mayer of 29 December 1946, printed in: Meinecke Werke,
vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 265f.
90
See above, p. 517.
91
Reference to Josef Laufer. Meinecke thanked Mayer for the gifts in a letter of 29
December 1946 (Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 265f.).
92
The sheets mentioned by Mayer are not among Meineckes papers. In his letter
of 29 December 1946, Meinecke had pointed out to Mayer that the Berlin Academy
had been promised major funding to produce publications. So weve put together a
working programme for important publications on 19th- and 20th-Century Germany.
Casting light on the democratic and socialist movements of this period would be a key
concern. Picking up on the plans once made by the Imperial Historical Commission
(Historische Reichskommission) in other words! What would you suggest as necessary
as well as feasible topics? Among other things, Meinecke was thinking of correspon-
dence drawn from the socialist and democratic milieu, based on specific unpublished
522 documents
the reason for this request. For I had a hard time imagining, should
the currency reform be implemented at some point, where the funds
for such extensive research might come from. But your question also
got me thinking about the fate of modern German historiography in
the period since I left the country. I saw the Historische Zeitschrift in
Oxford until 1940. Has it continued to be published or is it being pub-
lished again?93 Have any significant works appeared since 1933? And
the historians? I know that Marcks and Oncken, Sthlin and Hoetzsch,
Brandi and Rohden are no longer alive and that Gerhard Ritter,
Kaehler and Schnabel are still active. But are Goetz and Brandenburg
and Hansen still with us?94 And did the younger generation of profes-
sors, which no doubt includes students of yours, withstand the temp-
tation of Nazism? Does Hartung still work in Berlin and if so who
else? Brackmann? Holborn, Koebner and Rothfels e tutti quanti are
lost to Germany. Valentin died a few days ago, having just recently
sent me a marriage announcement. An obituary penned by Gooch
appeared in todays Times. I heard that Andreas was spat out by the
University of Heidelberg for coming to an opportunistic arrangement
with Nazism. Frank has no doubt disappeared.95 But who was left and
which new figures have emerged? That there is a lack of new blood, as
you lament, comes as no surprise to me. But are there at least some
teachers left who can train the new academics? Who holds the chairs
formerly occupied by you and Oncken?96
papers (Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 266). On the Imperial

Commissions plans, see above, p. 26.
93
The HZ was published again only from 1949, though the foreword is dated July
1947. The first volume, 169, was edited by Dehio alone. For volumes 170 to 182 (up
to 1956) Dehio and Kienast are listed as editors, and from vol. 183 (1957) Theodor
Schieder and Kienast appear on the title page as editors.
94
Erich Marks (18611938), Hermann Oncken (18691945), Karl Sthlin (1865
1939), Otto Hoetzsch (18761946), Karl Brandi (18681946), Peter Richard Rohden
(18911942), Gerhard Ritter (18881967), Siegfried August Kaehler (18851963),
Franz Schnabel (18881966), Walter Goetz (18671958), Erich Brandenburg (1868
1946), Joseph Hansen (18621943).
95
As president of the Imperial Institute for the History of the New Germany
(Reichsinstitut fr Geschichte des neuen Deutschland), which he founded, Walter
Frank (19051945) was the most exposed advocate of an emphatically National
Socialist historiography. He committed suicide the day after Germany surrendered.
96
Some of Mayers questions about the fate of German historians are answered
by Meinecke in his letter to Mayer of 24 March 1947 (Meinecke Werke, vol. 6:
Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 275f.).
I recently read an obituary of Levison in The Times. He enjoyed

the hospitality of the University of Durham. I fear that Frau Hintze,
whom I never heard anything about, met her end in Auschwitz,97 like
my wifes only brother, [. . .] who was a staunch Protestant. I lost two
close friends over the last few months: Prof. Jonas Cohn (formerly of
Freiburg), who often attended the conferences of university teachers
loyal to the constitution. He spent his exile among the Quakers in
Birmingham. And Prof. Groethuysen,98 the editor of Dilthey, whom
you met at our place in Lankwitz. He lived in Paris.
The more time that passes since the war, the clearer the difference
becomes between the English and the inhabitants of those countries
occupied for a time by the Nazis, as expressed in the public mood
with respect to the Germans. Here there is an ever increasing aware-
ness that it will be possible to resuscitate Europe only if Germany
plays its part. In as much as it was necessary in this field at all, it
has been in the sphere of music that contacts have been most obvi-
ously and successfully re-established. Brahms is still all the rage, and
Bach the undisputed king. Wagner is ignored as much as possible and
Mendelssohn is rated very poorly. Mozart and Beethoven remain as
they were, and one can listen to songs in German, especially by Schu-
bert and Schumann, almost every evening on the radio. There is no
contemporary visual art from Germany at all, but Drer, for example,
is still revered. Through his sister, who is a friend of ours, Sir Thomas
Barlow99 invited me to view his famous collection of Drers etchings
and woodcuts. Not content with any of the existing works on Drer,
this great industrialist is in the process of writing a book on Drers
graphic art himself. Of living German historians, the only one that
counts here is Friedrich Meinecke, and of the novelists and essay-
ists only Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig. A translation of Hlderlin
(selected texts) was published recently, with accompanying German
text. The visit from Schumacher,100 who is said to have made a very
favourable impression, was a political success for Germany.
97
See above, p. 91.
98
Bernhard Groethuysen (18801946), philosopher.
99
Sir Thomas Barlow (18831964), British industrialist. This important collection
of Drers graphic art was sold to the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne in
1956.
100
Reference to SPD leader Kurt Schumacher (18951952), whose appearance
in England Meinecke followed with interest. I almost see him as a continuation
524 documents
You are no doubt aware that the English and Americans are jointly
working on a major academic publication of German war documents.
The American team is headed by a Professor Raymond Sontag,101 the
English one by John W. Wheeler-Bennett.102 They have a number of
assistant editors in Berlin. I wonder whether they are in contact with
German historians.
Thats all for now. For some time Ive been very busy reading books
on the religion of the century before and after the appearance of Christ.
I write very little myself these days. What language would I use? My
memoirs will be published in German in Switzerland. [. . .]
The severe cold is back, putting our coal supplies to the test. We hope
you can get your room reasonably warm with the Russians help.
All the best to you and your dear wife!
In old loyalty
Your
Gustav Mayer
11. 17 July 1947: Gustav Mayer (London) to Friedrich Meinecke

NL Meinecke 26
My dear friend,
I wouldnt have taken so long to answer your vibrant and cheerful

letter of 24 March103 had I felt more communicative. But Ive been
sitting in my little flat all the time, with a view of nothing but the red
omnibuses rushing past and the petty bourgeois and proletarians liv-
ing across the street. Weve had few visitors, and going out oneself is
a pretty rare eventso one begins to mope and feel cut off and there
is nowhere one truly feels at home. In June my wifes only surviving
sister came with her husband, the former Heidelberg Prof. of Roman
of Naumann. (Letter to Mayer of 10 December 1946, in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6:

Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, p. 264).
101
Raymond James Sontag (18971972), diplomatic historian. Chief American edi-
tor of the Documents on German Foreign Policy 19181945 from 1946 to 1949. After
seventeen years at Princeton University, he taught at the University of California,
Berkeley from 1941.
102
Sir John Wheeler-Bennett (19021975), historian. Chief British editor of the
documents of the German foreign ministry, 19461948.
103
Printed in: Meinecke Werke, vol. 6: Ausgewhlter Briefwechsel, pp. 274276.
law Ernst Levy,104 who has to spout 20th-century history to the stu-
dents in Seattle on the Pacific, but has now been granted a years leave
to finish a two-volume work in Basle, which is to deal with the history
of Roman law as it came into contact with the young Germanic states
on the soil of the Empire.105 And then Gilbert paid us a visit, though
only briefly, and we asked him to pass on our warmest regards to you
and Frau Meinecke, and finally Koebner (formerly in Breslaunow
Jerusalem) came; he wants to work on the history of the term impe-
rialism in the British Museum and sends you his regards. These visits,
which were not the only ones, and the prospect of othersfrom my
sister and the Holborns for examplehad an invigorating effect, and
in a quite different way so has this summer holiday that we have quite
unexpectedly been able to take. We are friends with an English lady
who is the daughter of the private physician of Queen Victoria, who
died a few years ago at the age of almost 100. She has allowed us to
use her old cottage, with a domestic servant to reduce the strain on my
wife, who otherwise works so hard, in a quiet village in Berkshireits
large garden yields enough to feed us. And while my wife picks roses
and early fruit, some of which she has preserved, I am sitting in a
deckchair reading Schnabels history of Germany,106 only the first vol-
ume of which, unfortunately, I took with me when I left Germany. As
my wife is also reading me Der Stechlin107 in the evenings, I am once
again living in the Germany with which I too was familiar and which
I considered my home. Schnabels book came as a very pleasant sur-
prise to meboth as an accomplishment and in terms of its opinions
and sentiments. It really is a timely replacement for Treitschkes anti-
quated five-volume pamphlet;108 it may not be able to match the latter
104
Professor Dr. Ernst Levy (18811968). Leading historian of law. Married to
Marie Wolff, sister of Frau Mayer. He was professor of Roman law and civil law in
Heidelberg from 1928 to 1935. Dismissed in 1935, he emigrated to the United States,
where he worked as professor of law, history and political science at the University of
Washington in Seattle from 1937 until his retirement in 1952. Taught in Basle from
1952 onwards.
105
Ernst Levy, West Roman Vulgar Law. The Law of Property, Philadelphia 1951.
The book is dedicated to his wife.
106
Franz Schnabel, Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert, 4 vols, Freiburg 1929
1937.
107
Theodor Fontanes (18191898) late work Der Stechlin, which first appeared in
book form after his death in 1898.
108
Heinrich von Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert, 5 vols, Leipzig
18761894. Deals only with the period up to 1847.
526 documents
in terms of brio, but it compares favourably in light of its determina-

tion to be objectiveand European. A German historian of Schnabels
generation, who is immune to the absolutist nature of both national-
ism and the intoxication with power, which led to the collapse of the
lesser German empire, thats already quite something in itself; I hope
that he keeps up this approach in the following volumes, which he
must have written during the years of his own disgrace. I would like
to read them.109
Yes, my dear friend, you are right: things are looking dark on this
Earth, almost as if the increasingly sharp dividing line between the
two huge powers is set to become a limes. I dont believe therell be
another war in our lifetime. Me and Metternich you will still have to

bear said Francis II110 in his Viennese accent but he was wrong. But
our children? I often think that my son, the only one remaining to
me, may be better off in Kenya. But he and his wife, who live between
negroes and missionaries, often wonder whether the negroes might be
Europeanized or Americanized in such a way that they might gain an
understanding of the splitting of the atom and its applications sooner
than an understanding of humanitarian values, which take generations
to grow and are not simply imparted through baptism.
I would be pleased if the Historische Zeitschrift were to be revived,
with Dehio as your not entirely unworthy successor. In the Anglo-
Saxon world they are busily engaged in the ex post restauration of
German history; as imperative as I consider that to be, I do not believe
that the German historiansin as much as they can avoid succumb-
ing to resentmentshould allow themselves to be excluded from this
undertaking, which will take time. A great English industrialist (the
brother of the owner of our cottage) recently showed me his col-
109
The first four volumes of Schnabels Deutscher Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert
only cover the period up to around 1840. There existed parts or variants, in some
cases extensive, of a fifth volume, which was announced in the weekly magazine of
the German book trade under the title Das Erwachen des deutschen Volkstums in
November 1940 and which, again, did not tackle the revolution of 1848/49. As the
printing and distribution of the fifth volume was prohibited, Schnabel, to some extent
adapting to the Nazi regime, decided to rework the manuscript completely. However,
Schnabel abandoned the project in the summer of 1943. Neither a fifth nor any fur-
ther volumes appeared after the war. See Thomas Hertfelder, Franz Schnabel und
die deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft. Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Historismus und
Kulturkritik (19101945), 2 vols, Gttingen 1998, pp. 690729.
110
Francis II (17681835), governed from 1792. Laid down the crown of Holy
Roman Emperor in 1806 and became Francis I, Emperor of Austria.
lection of Drers woodcuts and etchings, which is unique in being

complete (!) and which he has built up111 over decades, stating sadly: I
dont want to see the German culture that I loved go to rack and ruin.
More than a few people here share this view. But only the Germans
themselves can prevent that!
Our very best wishes to you and your dear wife.
Yours ever loyal,

Gustav Mayer
12. 21 March 1948: Flora Mayer (London) to Friedrich and Antonie

Meinecke
NL Meinecke 26
Dear Herr Geheimrat and my dear Frau Meinecke,
Your kind words of sympathy arrived yesterday. Please accept my

heartfelt thanks. My husband and I thought about you a lot and often
spoke of you. He always greatly missed his conversations with you,
Herr Geheimrat. He had no opportunity for the exchange of ideas
over the last few years. We were too old and under too much inner
strain to learn a foreign language properly, so it was hard for him to
express himself freely. I only had him here with me in our house for
the last few weeks; before that he lay in hospital for weeks, for our liv-
ing conditions are very primitive. A couple of days before he passed
away, he said goodbye to me and our son in deeply moving terms.
Ulrich managed to fly back from Kenya in time with his wife and my
husband was heartened to see him again, as he had so dearly wished
to do. The next day he was already very weak; but he had the urgent
need to get up and go to you, Herr Geheimrat. I could do nothing to
talk him out of it and was quite at a loss. My husband said that he still
had so many things to discuss with you. At last I took a number of
your books from the shelf and laid them on his bed. We had pasted in
the wonderful pictures of your 70th birthday at the front. My husband
looked at them for a long time and was visibly happy. Then he said:
111
See above, p. 523.
528 documents
This is a very great scholar, very different from me. He passed away
on 21 February peacefully and without pain.
I shall be very lonely; we very much kept ourselves to ourselves over
the last few years and have had very few visitors. But I keep within
me the great treasure of the memories of our life together and thisI
hopewill give me the strength to build a new life under such difficult
circumstances.
Please excuse me for talking so much about myself. It feels so good
to do so with good old friends.
Please get in touch soon and let me know how things are with you.
You never say anything about your health, my dear Frau Meinecke; I
know that you were never very strong or robust.
I greet you in loyal remembrance,
Your
Flora Mayer
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
List of abbreviations
ADAV Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (German General Workers Association)

AfS Archiv fr Sozialgeschichte
AHR American Historical Review
Ct. Connecticut
EconHR Economic History Review
EHR English Historical Review
GG Geschichte und Gesellschaft
GWU Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
Ed. Editor, edited by
HZ Historische Zeitschrift
IWK Internationale Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deut-
schen Arbeiterbewegung
JMH Journal of Modern History
Mass. Massachusetts
Mo. Missouri
NL Nachlass (papers)
Nr. Nummer
Va. Virginia
VfZ Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte
VSWG Vierteljahresschrift fr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Vt. Vermont
Sources
Archive of Humboldt University, Berlin

Philosophy faculty doctoral records and habilitation records
Personal files
Archive of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Archiv
der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften)
Bavarian Economic Archive (Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv), Munich
F 5 Verlag R. Oldenbourg
Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) Koblenz
Hans Rosenberg papers, N 1376
Hans Rothfels papers, N 1213
Walter Goetz papers, N 1215
Gerhard Ritter papers, N 1166
Eckhard Kehr papers, small acquisitions 508
Federal Archive Berlin. Holdings of the Historical Commission for the Imperial
Archive (Bundesarchiv Berlin. Bestand Historische Kommission fr das Reichsarchiv)
R 1506/349
Gerhard A. Ritter private papers
Letters from Hans Rosenberg
Gttingen State and University Library (Niederschsische Staats- und Universitts-
bibliothek, Gttingen)
Cod. Ms. S. A. Kaehler 1 (Kaehler papers)
530 sources and bibliography
Institut fr Zeitgeschichte, Munich

Gerhard Masur papers, ED 216
Rudolf Braun private papers
Letters from Hans Rosenberg
Secret State Archive (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preuischer Kulturbesitz), Berlin-Dahlem
Friedrich Meinecke papers, VI HA
Otto Hintze papers, VI HA N.1
Albert Brackmann papers, VI HA
Washington University St. Louis, University Library
Dietrich Gerhard papers
Yale University Library, ms 579
Hajo Holborn Papers
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INDEX OF NAMES
Adenauer, Konrad 2 Brahms, Johannes 523

Adler, Georg 99 Brandenburg, Erich 522
Agnew, Spiro 441 Brandi, Karl 294f., 522
Anderson, Eugene 69f., 94, 160, Brandt, Willy 443
342350, 353356, 380 Braun, Rudolf 439442, 444447
Anderson, Pauline 347 Brentano, Lujo 409
Andreas, Willy 162, 238240, 242245, Breysig, Kurt 17
290, 522 Brning, Heinrich 519f.
Anschtz, Gerhard 238, 461 Bruni, Leonardo 5860, 292, 295, 314
Ansprenger, Franz 77 Bcher, Karl 300
Anthon, Carl G. 235 Blow, Bernhard Frst von 328
Arnim, Achim v. 515 Bsch, Otto 77
Attlee, Clement Richard 511, 514 Buoninsegna, Duccio di 290
Aubin, Hermann 70 Burckhardt, Jacob 17, 39, 47, 53, 67,
Aulard, Alphonse 84, 87, 460, 463 73, 130, 167, 191, 194, 220f., 268, 277,
280, 304, 314, 329, 390f., 397, 402
Bach, Johann Sebastian 523 Buttler, Kurt 482
Bachhofer, Ludwig 159
Baethgen, Ludwig 242 Calvin, Johannes 56, 61, 287
Bamberger, Ludwig 61, 325 Carlyle, Thomas 341
Barlow, Sir Thomas 523 Caspar, Erich 262
Baron, Hans 2022, 5661, 97, 107, Charlemagne 63
109f., 286319, 380, 421 Chigi, Agostino 55
Baron, Renate 309, 319 Christern, Hermann 242
Beard, Charles Austin 97, 160, 488f. Cicero, Marcus Tulius 302, 305, 312
Beard, Mary 89 Clausewitz, Carl von 23, 136
Bebel, August 518 Classen, Peter 236
Becker, Carl Lotus 428 Clay, Lucius D. 89
Beethoven, Ludwig van 523 Cohn, John 336, 523
Below, Georg von 57 Conant, James 111
Beneke, Joachim 510 Conze, Werner 25, 78, 437
Bergstrsser, Arnold 159 Correll 488
Berlin, Isaiah 6 Craig, Gordon A. 45, 54, 283
Berve Helmut 15 Curtius, Ernst Robert 216
Besson, Waldemar 31
Bezold, Friedrich von 325 Dante, Aligheri 64, 303, 326
Bismarck, Oto Frst von 12, 2326, Daru, Pierre Antoine 477
2931, 4143, 48, 72, 74, 101103, Dehio, Georg 510
166, 176, 218, 238f., 359, 388, 409, Dehio, Ludwig 110, 166, 204, 343, 483,
419, 493, 513f. 498, 506, 521, 526
Bloch, Marc 420 Delbrck, Hans 497
Bodin, Jean 341 Dilthey, Wilhelm 66f., 74, 219, 288,
Bolivar, Simon 38, 214, 216, 219221, 224 330332, 334, 340, 419, 421, 523
Bonjour, Edgar 79, 90 Dorn, Walter J. 89, 171, 264, 487f.
Boyen, Hermann von 4, 175 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Brackmann, Albert 15, 29, 86, 88, 146, Mikhaylovich 449
147f., 181, 251, 295, 320, 322324, Droysen, Johann Gustav 51, 218,
352, 458f., 460f., 462465, 498, 522 272276, 419
550 index of names
Drer, Albrecht 523, 527 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 8, 16,

Duggan, Stephen Pierce 257f. 64, 73, 206, 326, 328, 455, 504, 513,
Dulles, Allan Welsh 277 515
Goethert, Friedrich 430
Earle, Edward Mead 54 Goetz, Walter 56, 5861, 109, 148,
Ebert, Friedrich 11, 250 288, 289319, 522
Eltze, Brigitte geb. Stieve 220 Gooch, George Peabody 371, 511, 514,
Engel-Janosi, Fiedrich 325f. 517, 521f.
Engels, Friedrich 98103, 147, 218, Gordon Jr., Harold Jackson 50
505, 518 Grebing, Helga 77
Epstein, Fritz T. 166, 194, 197, 282 Grimme, Adolf 482
Epsteins 22, 207, 225, 394 Groener, Wilhelm 509, 519f.
Erasmus von Rotterdam, Desiderius Groethuysen, Bernhard 523
58, 247, 317 Groppler, Martin 396
Erler, Fritz 482 Grundmann, Herbert 307, 309
Ernst, Fritz 282 Guggenheimer, Helene 452
Erzberger, Matthias 250 Guggenheimer, Moritz 81, 452
Guicciardini, Francesco 55, 278280
Fay, Sidney B. 267, 376, 378, 428
Fehling, August Wilhelm 212214, 255 Haeften, Hans von 151, 498, 509
Fenske, Walter 275 Haeften, Hans-Bernd von 509
Ferguson, Wallace K. 317 Haeften, Werner von 509
Fiano, Francesco de 297 Hamerow, Theodore S. 50
Finke, Heinrich 321 Handlin, Oskar 422
Flomann 342 Hanfstaengel, Ernst 111
Fontane, Theodor 378, 389, 520, 525 Hampe, Karl 462
Ford, Franklin J. 45, 277, 284 Hansen, Joseph 321, 522
Ford, Guy Stanton 398, 428 Hardenberg, August Frst von 476
Fraenkel, Ernst 39, 232 Harms, Bernhard 492f.
Frank, Walter 14f. Harnack, Adolf von 6f., 251
Franz II, Emperor of Austria 526 Hartshorne, Edward Yanell 263
Frederic II, the Great, King of Hartung, Fritz 86, 93, 96, 104, 147,
Prussia 476 161, 187, 196, 295, 467, 498, 501, 522
Frederic III, Emperor of Germany 214, Hartwig, Hans 228
497, 512 Hassel, Ulrich von 278
Frederic Wilhelm IV, King of Haussherr, Hans 482
Prussia 420 Hayes, Carlton J. H. 158
Friedlaender, Ernst 393, 398 Haym, Rudolf 67f., 70, 74, 331334,
Friis, Aage 179, 204 338, 346, 349353, 357, 359, 361f.,
368, 419
Gans, Eduard 98 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 132,
Gentz, Friedrich 359 335, 359, 368, 419, 512f.
Gerhard, Adele 32, 186, 256 Hensel, Albert 154
Gerhard, Dietrich 7, 15, 1921, 3236, Herder, Johann Gottfried 74, 359, 420
39, 43, 74, 109f., 173207, 236, 237, Herkner, Heinrich 26, 82, 101, 141f.,
253258, 271, 294, 380, 421 145f., 456, 459, 480f.
Gerhard, Grete 207 Herz, John 44
Gervinus, Georg Gottfried 218, 272 Herzfeld, Hans 8, 40, 199, 225, 227f.,
Gideonse, Harry D. 382387 231, 235
Gilbert, Felix 7, 19, 21, 44, 5156, 60, Heuss, Theodor 169, 248f., 310
73f., 107110, 265, 272285, 376, 380, Hildebrand, Ruth 352
421, 471, 506, 512, 525 Hilldring, John H. 44
Gisevius, Bernd 278 Hindenburg, Paul 27, 519
index of names 551
Hintze, Hedwig 14f., 19, 22, 7991, 94, Koebner, Richard 516, 522, 525
448469, 523 Kondratieff, Nikolai Dimitriyevich 72
Hintze, Konrad 90, 467469 Koser, Reinhold 419
Hintze, Otto 7, 14, 22, 34, 55, 71, 74, Krabbo, Herbert 454f.
78, 79, 82f., 86, 89f., 110, 188, 285, Krauske, Otto Karl 164
419, 455, 464, 466, 475 Krautheimer, Richard 44
Hitler, Adolf 14, 27, 30, 43, 54, 98, Krieger, Leonhard 45, 284
168, 192, 276, 283, 375, 491, 505, 519 Kristeller, Paul Oskar 60, 107, 317
Hobohm, Martin 27, 151 Krushchev, Nikita 234
Hlderlin, Friedrich 513 Kuhn, Helmut u. Kthe 185
Hoetzsch, Otto 86, 498, 522 Kuttner, Stephan 107
Hoffmann, Frau 231f. Khlmann, Richard von 138, 306
Holl, Karl 41, 159, 251
Holborn, Annemarie 40, 271 Lamprecht, Karl 4, 287
Holborn, Friedrich 261, 264 Lancken Wakenitz, Oskar Freiherr von
Holborn, Hajo 19, 21, 4050, 51f., 74, der 500, 518
94, 107110, 113, 192, 207, 219, 236, Landes, David 71
237271, 282f., 294, 363, 380, 393, Langer, William 44, 371372
395, 421, 483, 511, 516, 522, 525 Laski, Harold Joseph 514
Holborn, Hanna 261, 264 Lassalle, Ferdinand 99, 103, 106, 146,
Holborn, Ludwig 40, 251 492f., 515, 517
Holtzmann, Walter 291 Laue, Theodor von 200, 277
Hue, Otto 518 Laufer, Joseph 521
Hughes, H. Stuart 45 Lebovics, Hermann 50
Humboldt, Wilhelm v. 139, 175f., 186, Lehmann, Max 475
359, 394, 397, 413, 515 Lenel, Edith 157
Hunt, Richard N. 50 Lenel, Walter 238, 311
Hus, Johannes 90 Lenz, Georg 352
Husserl, Edmund 335 Lennox, Fran 356, 510, 516
Leonardo da Vinci 450
Jaeger, Werner 308, 310 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 81, 338,
Jaspers, Karl 334 453f.
Jaurs, Jean 87f. Levy, Ernst 525
Jefferson, Thomas 222 Levison, Wilhelm 62, 321323, 328,
Jol, Curt 247 523
Johnston, Howard W. 416 Lewald, Theodor 27, 150152
Julius II., pope 55 Lexis, Wilhelm 514
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph 450
Kaehler, Siegfried A. 19, 2527, 74, Lieber, Ernst 93
134, 140149, 152156, 161, 217, 224, Liebknecht, Wilhelm 514
421, 522 Lindsay, Alexander Dunlop 412413
Kahl, Wilhelm 341 Livingstone, David 485
Kalkhoff, Paul 247 Lorenz, Ottokar 292
Kantorowicz, Ernst 107 Louis XIV, King of France 285
Kant, Immanuel 515 Louis XVI, King of France 86
Kaufmann, Erich 216, 220, 226228 Lovejoy, Arthur Onken 108
Kehr, Eckart 19, 21, 68, 74, 87, 9197, Luther, Martin 41, 43, 85, 209, 241
272, 297, 351, 421, 470489
Kehr, Hanna 353, 486489 MacArthur, Douglas 283
Kehr, Paul Fridolin 96, 291, 296f., Machiavelli, Niccol 54f., 62, 278, 281,
322f., 347 284, 455
Kirchheimer, Otto 44 Marcks, Erich 86, 102f., 144f., 162,
Kluck, Colonel general Alexander 133 241, 300, 336f., 463, 499, 501, 522
552 index of names
Marcuse, Herbert 44 Niebuhr, Barthold Georg 32f., 185f.,

Martin, Alfred von 300 194f., 477
Marx, Karl 97, 100, 104, 171, 456, 515 Niemller, Martin 164
Masur, Gerhard 15, 1921, 32f., 3640, Nietzsche, Friedrich 335
64, 73f., 110, 182f., 197199, 202, 207, Nixon, Richard 443
208236, 264f., 271, 294, 328, 380, Noack, Ulrich 220
387, 421 Nolte, Ernst 438
Mathiez, Albert 87 Norvin, William 32, 179, 195
Mayer, Arno J. 50 Novalis (Friedrich Freiherr von
Mayer, Flora 107, 516, 527f. Hardenberg) 453
Mayer, Gustav 18, 21, 26, 98107,
141f., 145f., 148, 492528 Oldenbourg, Wilhelm 135, 139, 351f.,
Mayer, Lina 157, 161, 164, 171 364f., 370
Mayer, Ulrich 507, 509 Olschki, Leonardo 313
Mayer-Kuhlenkampff, Ilse 169 Oncken, Hermann 15, 23, 96, 146f.,
Maximilian I., German Emporer 58 159, 217, 262, 325, 369, 485, 493, 498,
McClelland, Charles E. 50 501, 505, 522
Meinecke, Sabine 83, 182 Oppler, A. 482
Mendelssohn, Alfred 523
Mendelssohn, Moses 51 Papen, Franz von 14
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Albrecht 96 Pauck, Wilhelm 159
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix 51 Paul, Hermann 453
Merezhkovsky, Dimitry Sergeyevich 450 Payer, Friedrich von 248f.
Mertz von Quirnheim, Colonel Penck, Albrecht 501
Hermann Ritter 143, 248 Peter I, the Great, Czar of Russia 285
Mestwerdt, Paul 241 Petrarca, Francesco 299
Metternich-Winneburg, Clemens Frst Pflanze, Otto 50
von 170, 526 Philipp IV, the fair, King of
Meyer, Arnold Oskar 388 France 63
Meyer, Conrad Ferdinand 90 Philippson, Johanna 506, 520
Meyer, Henry Cord 50 Pinson, Koppel S. 22, 157158, 394,
Michelet, Jules 159160 512
Middeldorf, Ulrich 159 Pirenne, Henry 420
Miller, Perry 109 Posner, Ernst 235
Mirabeau, Honor Gabriel Riqueti, Preu, Hugo 12, 84, 461
Comte de 97, 490 Prokesch von Osten, Graf 325
Misch, Georg 501 Proudhon, Pierre Joseph 456
Montesquieu, Charles de Secondant, Puttkamer, Robert von 94
Baron de 149
Montgomery, Bernhard Law 518 Rachfahl, Felix 337
Mommsen, Hans 31 Radbruch, Gustav 247
Mommsen, Theodor E. 107 Radowitz, Joseph Maria von 41, 175,
Mommsen, Wilhelm 204, 249, 294 238, 274, 420
Mommsen, Wolfgang J. 204, 438 Rafferty, Max 441442
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 423 Ranke, Leopold von 5, 17, 36, 39, 47f.,
Mller, Adam 130 53, 73f., 94, 159160, 187, 194, 210,
Mller, Hermann 247 215, 220f., 228, 268, 272, 277, 280,
Mller, Karl Alexander von 16 284, 288, 329, 338, 340, 390, 397, 402,
Muncker, Franz 81, 452454 419f., 508
Muncy, Lisbeth Walker 232 Rath, Erich von 321
Murrow, Edward R. 257f. Rathenau, Walther 477
Reagan, Ronald 441442
Naumann, Friedrich 9, 106, 248, 517 Redlich, Josef 69, 348, 371
Neumann, Franz 44 Redslob, Erwin 113, 403, 407, 430
index of names 553
Reissner, Hans Gnther 21, 97f., 490f. Schreiber, Georg 144, 243
Reitzenstein, Richard 326 Schubert, Franz 523
Reuter, Ernst 117 Schulte, Aloys 144
Richter, Werner 293 Schulz, Gerhard 77, 440
Riedl, John 415 Schulze-Gvernitz, Gerhard von 9
Riezler, Kurt 249f. Schumacher, Hermann 96, 144, 501
Ritter, Gerhard 95, 193, 474479, 522 Schumacher, Kurt 523
Ritter, Gerhard A. 77, 435439 Schumann, Robert 523
Ritter, Moriz 419 Schweitzer, Johann Baptist von 99,
Rler, Constantin 333 492, 514
Rockefeller, John Davison 349f. Seidlmayer, M. 319
Rodbertus, John Karl 343, 517f. Sering, Max 98f., 490
Rohden, Peter Richard 247, 522 Simon, Sir Leon 507
Roloff, Gustav 140, 143f., 294 Solf, Wilhelm Heinrich 249f.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 44, 54, 112, Solmi, Arrigio 311f.
269, 282f. Sombart, Werner 501
Rosenberg, Hans 7, 19, 21, 63f., 6578, Sommer, Lotte 482
87, 94, 107, 109f., 112, 272f., 282, 284f., Sontag, Raymond James 524
324f., 328, 330447, 470f., 483489 Spahn, Martin 483
Rosenberg, Leni 22, 342345, 353357, Spengler, Oswald 160, 456
376f., 393395, 399f., 403405, Spranger, Eduard 330, 336, 340
433435, 442444 Spritzer, Ralph 381, 388, 392
Rosenberg, Thea 399 Srbik, Heinrich Ritter von 16, 85, 388,
Rosenberg, Walter 339 420, 429
Rothacker, Erich 237 Stadelmann, Rudolf 312, 352
Rothfels, Hans 1921, 2332, 36, 38f., Stahl, Friedrich Julius 37, 209f., 228
73f., 92, 96, 109f., 128172, 180, 192, Sthlin, Karl 86, 501, 522
198, 220, 227f., 229233, 235, 380, Stein, Freiherr vom 85, 94f., 471479,
397, 421, 513, 522 482
Rottenburg, von 474 Steinmetz, General Karl Friedrich 134
Ruppert, Karl 143 Stier, Hans Erich 468f.
Rust, Bernhard 104, 499501 Stresemann, Gustav 36
Stroux, Johannes 162
Salomon, Albert 94, 471 Struensee von Karlsbad, Karl
Salutati, Coluccio 297 Gustav 477
Sauer, Wolfgang 77 Struck, Walter 454
Schalk, F. 319
Scheler, Max 208, 330 Tangl, Michael 455
Schieder, Theodor 25, 75, 402 Tawney, Richard Henry 73
Schiffer, Eugen 138 Thimme, Hans 162
Schiller, Friedrich 504, 513, 515 Thoma, Richard 95, 238, 243, 472f.,
Schlabrendorff, Fabian von 278 479
Schlieffen, Alfred Graf von 137 Thorndike, Lynn 314
Schmidt, Erich 455 Tillich, Paul 261
Schmidt-Ott, Friedrich 96, 252 Tirpitz, Alfred Freiherr von 93
Schmitt, Bernadotte E. 97, 160 Tocqueville, Alexis de 35, 191
Schmoller, Gustav von 71, 99, 409, Toynbee, Arnold Joseph 160
456, 495, 515 Treitschke, Heinrich von 132, 334,
Schnabel, Franz 6, 522, 525f. 409, 513, 525
Schneider, Fedor 312 Triepel, Heinrich 498499
Schneider, Oswald 164, 192 Troeltsch, Ernst 36, 56f., 82, 98, 110,
Schopenhauer, Arthur 36, 359 286, 288f., 421, 456, 459, 464, 491
Schorske, Carl 45 Truman, Harry S. 54
Schramm, Percy Ernst 237 Turner, Frederick Jackson 35
554 index of names
Utermann, K. 485 Weitling, Wilhelm 519

Westphal, Otto 145
Vagts, Alfred 160, 488 Westphalen, Ferdinand Otto Wilhelm
Valentin, Veit 27, 150, 492f., 522 von 513
Valeri, Nino 318 Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John 524
Varnhagen van Ense, Karl August 512 Wieruszowski, Helene 21, 6165, 107,
Victoria, Queen of England 525 109f., 320329, 379f., 389, 401
Viktoria (wife of Frederic III.) 512 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich
Vigener, Fritz 181 von 98, 491
Wilhelm II, German Emperor 318
Wachsmuth, Andreas Bruno 206 Wilson, Woodrow 250
Wagner, Adolf 99, 409 Winkler, Heinrich August 31
Wagner, Richard 453, 523 Winter, Georg 485
Wahl, Adalbert 158 Woerner, Roman 452
Waldersee, Alfred Graf von 518 Wolfers, Arnold Oskar 261, 265
Ware, Caroline Farrar 374 Wolfson, Philipp J. 166
Washington, George 55 Wundt, Wilhelm 456
Wattenbach, Wilhelm 292
Watz, Karl 482 Ziebura, Gilbert 77
Weber, August 514 Ziekursch, Johannes 67, 75, 208, 212,
Weber, Max 72, 97f., 475, 481, 491 356, 371, 430, 475
Webster, Sir Charles Kingsley 371 Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, Nikolaus
Wechssler, Eduard 461 Ludwig Graf von 259
Wehler, Hans-Ulrich 94, 433f. Zunkel, Friedrich 77
Weisbach, Werner 505 Zweig, Stefan 523
Letters and documents from the emigre historians, as well as letters to these historians
and references to them in the introduction, are indicated in italics. Passages that
contain biographical information about these and other persons are likewise italicized.
The names of Friedrich Meinecke and his wife, Antonie Meinecke, have not been
indexed.

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German Refugee Historians and

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Friedrich Meinecke. English.

Friedrich Meinecke. Akademischer Lehrer und emigrierte Schler. Briefe und

ISBN 978 90 04 18404 6

Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by

printed in the netherlands

Foreword to the English Edition ...................................................... vii

Introduction: Friedrich Meinecke and his migr students ........ 1

List of Documents .............................................................................. 117

X. Eckart Kehr ................................................................................. 470

Sources and bibliography .................................................................. 529

never founded a school in the narrow sense of the termdid not in

library of Washington University in St. Louis. On the relationship

notes. Nils Gttler helped compile the index of names. I am grateful

Friedrich Meineckes life spans a full century. He was born in October

vibrant metropolis of Berlin, the economic and political centre of the

I. Meinecke as historian and political contemporary

Meinecke was a great academic teacher, and it is hard to overstate his

law; its inadequate investigation of the interaction between interests

era.14 In fact, however, as a scholar-politician, Meinecke played noth-

the forces of economic and social history, his partial disengagement

that however much he criticized the dysfunctional parliamentary and

His constitutional views differed in important ways from the basic

parliamentary system, Meinecke himself never called democracy or

the effective leadership of the HZ and prevent publications by Jewish

letters43in which, for instance, he welcomed the union with Austria

German Idealism and, following the discrediting of the German nation

democracy and liberty. This is another reason why we should be wary

II. Meinecke as academic teacher

Meineckes successes as an academic teacher can be traced back in

Germany and in the United States and Western Europe. As Meinecke

and Hedwig Hintze, who received her doctorate under Meineckes

III. Meineckes migr students

state, he spoke in favour of the reordering of the East, explicitly

provided stimulus to the study of popular history (Volksgeschichte),

Rothfels was a passionate German patriot. In everything he did he

to November 1918.77 In the second round of the presidential election

Following the Nazi seizure of power, there were intensive efforts to

productivity is severely hampered by physical and mental impediments . . . and despite

Albrecht Brackmann.83 Only in 1939shortly before the outbreak of

of the conservative forces within the resistance and the Kreisauer

South America) as a good thing and their failure as reflecting a flaw

of expulsion (Dokumentation der Vertreibung), member of the

to Masur, so powerfully portrayed the tragic inner conflict between

From 1925 to 1927, as assistant to the editor, Gerhard was responsible

non-European world in the 18th century.104 Particularly by bringing

United States. Dietrich Gerhard presented his conception in an essay

Rothfels, whose historical writings essentially remained geared towards

The post-doctoral thesis finally accepted by the University of Berlin in

had begun to formulate the goal of writing an intellectual history of

more since.126 Two months later he thanked Meinecke for sending

ideas of the time, humanism, an embryonic national consciousness,

the identification of Luthers theology with political conservatism and

leaving Germany, that he saw this as a kind of educational and study

American historians such as Carl Schorske, Gordon A. Craig, Leonard

Germany, but to practically any country the world over.150 He and a

end.152 After the war, on 23 September 1946, he told Meinecke that he

initially feared that influenced by the present disaster, the essay

to achieve ethical goals. A radical historical critique was one of the

here was to achieve a more in-depth analysis of the roots of National

He emigrated to England in 1933 before moving on to the United States