Published on 21 October 2018
The warning “resist the beginnings!” can once again be heard more frequently. A fitting book on the topic was writing by Dr. Anja Waller with her publication “Erschreckend einwandfrei – Die NS-Zeit und ihre Folgen an der Universität Hohenheim” (With Little Resistance - The National-Socialist Period and its Consequences at the University of Hohenheim), in which she looks at the Nazi period and its consequences at the University of Hohenheim. In her three-year project, she did not make *the* sensational discovery, find a previously overlooked Nazi figurehead, or find evidence of one extraordinary crime. Instead, her focus was on daily life. And what she found hurts. The silence, the uneventfulness is what is horrifying. The book presentation will take place on 12 November during a memorial event on campus.
In 1933, the new rulers looked to Hohenheim and found a college that was prepared to support the inhumane Nazi ideology at all levels without open resistance and in many cases even with enthusiasm - in anticipation and beyond what was required.
That is not something that can be explained by a collective, spontaneous delusion. No, it was the result of a slow and creeping development. Presidents, scientists, employees, students - all of them were a part of this history and played their role in its development. In her 300-page publication, historian Dr. Anja Waller shows this in detail using historical sources.
Shortly before the National-Socialists seized power, around 100 students were enrolled in Hohenheim. Agriculture was the only subject offered. Almost all students were male and baptized as Christians. They experienced World War I as children and grew into adolescence under difficult economic conditions. Even well-to-do families often lost their possessions due to hyperinflation.
Still, across the Reich, in 1931 the number of students was at an all-time high. Now, however, the ongoing global financial crisis after the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 meant that job prospects for academics were horrible. And what’s more: The new rulers did not put much stock in intellectuals. If you wanted to make a career in the Third Reich, you didn’t need to have studied. In the following years, the number of students decreased dramatically.
Hohenheim’s Attractiveness Increased under National-Socialism
That was not the case at Hohenheim Agricultural College, however. Agricultural Science, which until then had not been a highly respected academic discipline, was suddenly popular due to the National-Socialists’ blood and soil ideology. The Nazi regime wanted to open up new space to settle in the East for the German people. For that, it needed trained experts. Its expectations of the Hohenheim Agricultural College were quite high in this regard. For prospective students, Hohenheim became more attractive.
Even during the war years, during which other universities had to cancel their courses, in Hohenheim it was possible to study agriculture for almost the entire time. This was due in part to the fact that Hohenheim was largely spared from destruction because of its remote location. Another factor was that the regime continued to believe in the growing importance of agricultural science. To complete examinations in Hohenheim, soldiers on the front were granted several weeks of home leave. Disabled veterans who wanted to continue to serve the Reich from their sickbed could be asked to be transferred to the military hospital in Hohenheim Palace so they could attend the agricultural lectures.
No Radical Change Necessary
Hohenheim Agricultural College’s reputation was upgraded when the National-Socialists seized power. In the short term there were even plans to transform Hohenheim into a National-Socialist model institute.
However, there can be no talk of a sudden change or even upheaval that had to fight back against resistance on campus in 1933, however. Not by the professors and not by the students. They all welcomed the new spirit, at least outwardly, and from the first moment were ready and willing to serve Nazi ideology.
For example, even in August 1933 the Hohenheim News wrote with pride about the fact that the riots occurring at other universities had not taken place in Hohenheim: “Our college’s student body settled quickly and with enthusiasm into the new state.”
Even before the National-Socialist Gleichschaltung (enforced standardization) policies took effect in 1935 and National-Socialist teaching content were required and monitored at all universities, in 1933 the Hohenheim student body demanded with a collection of signatures that a lecture on Human Genetics (Eugenics) and Racial Hygiene be introduced.
The Senate fulfilled the students’ request. Despite the offer of a Hohenheim zoology lecturer to familiarize himself with the new topic, the Senate decided to higher external lecturers with more expertise. A 6-part lecture series on the “impending harm to the German race” took place in the winter semester 1933/34.
Homogenous Cosmos in Hohenheim
National-Socialist ideology fell on fertile ground at almost all universities in the Reich. Still the completely silent transition at Hohenheim Agricultural College is remarkable - and also extraordinary.
Dr. Anja Waller believes the explanation is the College’s small size and the homogeneity of its student body and teaching staff.
“At larger universities there was often a counterpart to the national-conservative tendencies. At the University of Tübingen or the Stuttgart Technical College, besides openly racist student associations there were also left-wing and republican groups. There was nothing like that in Hohenheim. With its location on the plains of Filderstadt, the College was also isolated from urban life in Stuttgart: In Hohenheim, there were no city events. There was almost no cultural program. And there was also no variety of scientific disciplines that could have given diverse intellectual input,” stated Waller.
Another reason there were no riots in Hohenheim in 1933 was probably because no students were forced to leave the college after the Nazis seized power - in contrast to other universities. “The reason is nothing to be proud of, though,” emphasized Waller: “Around 1933, there appear to simply have been no Jewish, left-wing, or republican students in Hohenheim, or at least they were not visible. For them, Hohenheim was probably unattractive as a refuge for conservative-nationalist thinking.”
Students as Allies of the Gleichschaltung Policies
From an early point in time, the Nazi regime viewed enthusiastic, young students as important allies in implementing Gleichschaltung policies at universities. With the founding of the Nazi Student Association in 1933, loyal students gained more power and participation rights at the universities, even in human resource matters.
When the local university group for the Nazi Student Association was founded in Hohenheim, replacing AStA, 16 students immediately joined. As there were only 117 students in Hohenheim, this meant a quota of 14%. Average participation across the Reich was 4%. All Hohenheim students also became members of the SA.
“Due to the College’s small size, it can be assumed that there was enormous social pressure among the Hohenheim students. Everyone knew everyone else and they were also constantly being watched. At large universities it might have been possible to fly under the radar in some respects. In Hohenheim, however, dissenters faced hefty resistance. This desired social control function was apparently fulfilled by the Hohenheim university group in an exemplary way according to the Nazi Student Association’s reports,” stated Waller.
Racism in Student Associations in the Weimar Republic
During the Weimar Republic, student life primarily meant life in student associations. Around 60% of students were part of corporations after the First World War. At no time before or after did student associations have as much popularity. Usually they were characterized by a national-conservative spirit, and many also had openly racist slogans. Decades before the German Reich was caught up in a wave of anti-Semitism in the 1920s, hatred of Jews was widespread in student associations.
To varying degrees, this also applied to the 14 student associations that existed in Hohenheim in 1928. The national student association “Wehrschaft Hohenstaufen” with the slogan “German and loyal, fearless and free!” distinguished itself with particularly extreme positions. All members had to sign a declaration “that they are to the best of their knowledge and belief of German heritage” because they did not want “the guests to rule over our people.”
Discipline and Ideology instead of Vibrant Student Life
It is therefore not surprising that the Nazi ideology was taken up especially enthusiastically by Hohenheim’s student associations. This was the case even though the Nazi regime specifically pushed for the dissolution and transition of the associations into the two new Hohenheim Nazi groups “Florian Greyer” and “Tannenberg,” finally forcing the matter in 1935.
Even in 1934 the life in student associations was strictly organized and filled with Nazi content. Political training sessions, SA service, an extensive sports program, lectures at the College, and camaraderie evenings left almost no time for regular life in the association. “The former days of boozing and tussling are over,” with afternoon coffee they read “several striking passages from Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ or other selected remarks” and put out the lights at curfew, stated an article in a student association newsletter about the new daily routine.
Not until the association houses were to be transferred to the ownership of the Nazi student associations did resistance arise. Especially the Corps Germania in Hohenheim made efforts to prevent the expropriation. In the end, however, their efforts failed. In 1942 - as the last house in Hohenheim - the Corps Germania’s association house was transferred to the association “Florian Greyer.”
Nazi Support Had No Consequences for Students
In 1945, National-Socialism left Hohenheim as silently as it had come in 1933. Hohenheim had successfully remained inconspicuous. The denazification process focused on other institutions. Only a few Hohenheim professors were made responsible for their active participation for the inhuman Nazi system - for example when conquering the Eastern territories and the systematic expropriation of the Jewish population living there.
Hohenheim students who had passionately served the National-Socialists also did not need to fear any far-reaching consequences after the war - and in some cases they were even able to benefit. An example of this is Otto Siegel, a student and founder of the NS Student Association group in Hohenheim. IN her publication, Anja Waller traces his biography.
“His political work made his path in science to the post of an institute director in occupied Ukraine easier. After the war, he was able to return as an extraordinary professor in Mainz. In the 1970s, he was given the Federal Cross of Merit,” stated Waller.
