Albert Brackmann

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Albert Brackmann (full name Albert Theodor Johann Karl Ferdinand Brackmann ; born June 24, 1871 in Hanover , † March 17, 1952 in Berlin ) was a German historian and archivist .

Life

On his father's side, Brackmann came from a family of pastors and scientists, and on his mother's side from the industrial dynasty Egestorff . He began studying theology in Göttingen in the summer semester of 1889 , but later switched to history and studied at the universities of Tübingen , Leipzig and Göttingen . During his studies he became a member of the "student choir of Georgia Augusta" (today StMV Blaue Sänger Göttingen ). At the age of 27 he was on the staff of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . He specialized in the history of the emperors and the popes and in 1901 he became the publisher of the Germania Pontificia , the collection of papal documents intended for German recipients.

Brackmann was initially tutor to Baron von Alten in Hemmingen near Hanover and scientific assistant teacher at the Luisenstädtischen Gymnasium in Berlin and taught from 1902 in the position of senior teacher at a school in Hanover.

In 1905 he was an associate professor in Paul Kehr's "Institute for Historical Auxiliary Sciences" in Marburg , in 1913 professor of medieval history at the University of Königsberg , in 1920 again in Marburg and from 1922 as the successor to Dietrich Schäfer at the University of Berlin . In 1929 he was appointed General Director of the Prussian State Archives and First Director of the Secret State Archives, and in 1935 he was appointed acting head of the Reich Archives. He contributed to the establishment of the Institute for Archival Studies and Historical Studies , which opened in Berlin-Dahlem in May 1930, and served as its first director. He was also a member of the learned society of Göttingen , the Bavarian , German and Prussian Academy and co-editor of the historical journal . In 1934 he was elected a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia ; when it was re-established in 1945, it was not taken into account.

From 1919 to 1925 Brackmann was a member of the DVP , later the DNVP , from 1926 a member of the " Deutsche Ostmarkenverein " founded in 1894, which in 1933 merged with other East German national associations to become the Bund Deutscher Osten . Brackmann retired in 1936. Neither his reputation as a scholar nor his good relations with the Nazi regime forced him to "join the small circle of those who were thoroughly convinced - even if he was in close proximity to this trend".

Science in the service of politics

In today's historiography, Brackmann is considered to be the “highest ranking German historian” ( Wolfgang J. Mommsen ) or the “gray eminence of Eastern research ” (Mathias Beer) with regard to the Nazi state . A biographical encyclopedia entry from 1973/95 states that when he retired in 1936 he “continued to work in a crucial position”, which hides more than it reveals.

Brackmann's role in the Secret State Archives was particularly significant. In 1931 a so-called publication center for research on the East was set up. With the outbreak of the war against Poland and the German-Soviet War, it became of practical importance for the entire “ national politics ” in Eastern Europe. B. by the administration of the German People's List . Right from the start, the P-position was in close contact with the Reich Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Office . In 1939 Brackmann worked on a memorandum on the “Germanization of Posens and West Prussia”, which called for the immediate resettlement of 2.9 million Poles and Jews . How much Brackmann was interested in working with a "brain-burned anti-Semite" like Otto Reche (according to Michael Burleigh [1994], p. 73) was shown by the fact that he needed his work to assess how the Poles - the Germans - were dealt with Space and no “Polish lice in fur” - approved and invited him to further memoranda of the resettlement of Poles, Ukrainians and Sorbs and recommended it to the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

Immediately after the attack on Poland began, Brackmann produced a propaganda pamphlet entitled Crisis and Construction in Eastern Europe for the SS's “ Ahnenerbe ” publishing house . A picture of world history . The book was directed against all the findings presented by Polish research on the West based in Poznan , which were mirror images of all the results of research on the East and, in the form of Zygmunt Wojciechowski, had entered Roman Dmowski's national Polish channel . Brackmann wrote in emphasized wide print:

“What other people did for Eastern Europe what the Germans did there? What other people has come into such close contact with the people of Eastern Europe as the German? From this point of view it cannot be doubted who has a greater right to have a say in the reorganization of Eastern Europe: not the French or the English, but the Germans. "

In May 1940, the Wehrmacht bought 7,000 copies of Krisis und Aufbau in Eastern Europe during the western campaign to instruct their executives. After the end of the war, the font was placed on the list of literature to be sorted out in the Soviet occupation zone .

With Heinrich Himmler personally, Brackmann connected his high esteem of the Ottonians in the form of Heinrich I and Otto I. On his 70th birthday, the top management of the Nazi state paid him attention: Göring , Frick , Ribbentrop with Adolf Hitler at the head, the presented him with the highest scientific award in the Reich, the “ Eagle Shield of the German Empire ”. Brackmann's assertion that the publication office rose to become a “central office for scientific advice” for the Nazi regime was considered realistic in 2007.

In summary, Michael Burleigh presents Brackmann in his meaning as follows: "Provided one pandered to his sense of self-importance, Brackmann had a utility to the regime far greater than the mere nuisance value of Walter Frank ." (German: Provided one joined Brackmanns Assessment of his own importance, he had a far greater value for the regime than the mere nuisance value of Walter Frank ) The two institutions he dominated, the Publication Center and the North and East German Research Association, the “think tanks for East Research”, apply he was involved in the subdivision of Europe, in organized art theft and in the preparation for genocide. After Burleigh, at the end of his long life, Brackmann was able to look back on his devastated fatherland, assuming that the succession in his empire would be in good hands with his academic clientele and his students such as Hermann Aubin , Walter Kuhn and Erich Keyser . In the year Brackmann died, Hermann Aubin and Erich Keyser published the first volume of the “Zeitschrift für Ostforschung”.

Brackmann's retirement in 1936 was not voluntary (he wanted to continue working as archive director beyond the official retirement age), but was forced through an intrigue by the National Socialist historian Walter Frank . After the war, Brackmann successfully used this to prove to the denazification commission an alleged opposition to the National Socialist regime, which enabled him to pave the way for numerous former archive colleagues to return to the state archives by means of positive certificates of repute, so-called persil notes, in their hearing procedures.

Brackmann died in Berlin-Dahlem in 1952 .

Fonts (in selection)

  • 1898: Documented history of the Halberstadt cathedral chapter in the Middle Ages. A contribution to the constitutional and administrative history of the German cathedral chapters. (Dissertation).
  • 1926: Otto the Great's Ostpolitik , in: Historische Zeitschrift .
  • 1931: The beginnings of the Slav mission and the renovatio imperii of the year 800 , in: Session reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .
  • 1932: The 'Roman idea of ​​renewal' and its significance for imperial politics during the imperial era .
  • 1933: The political development of Eastern Europe from 10th to 15th Century , in: Albert Brackmann (Ed.): Germany and Poland. Contributions to their historical relationships .
  • 1934: The beginnings of the Polish state , in: Session reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .
  • 1935: Reich Policy and Ostpolitik in the early Middle Ages , in: Session reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .
  • 1936: Zantoch: A castle in the east of Germany .
  • 1937: The political significance of Mauritius worship in the early Middle Ages in: Session reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .
  • 1937: Magdeburg as the capital of the German East in the early Middle Ages (for the 1000th anniversary of the Moritzkloster in Magdeburg). H. Schmidt & C. Günther, Pantheon-Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Leipzig.
  • 1938: The beginnings of the occidental cultural movement in Eastern Europe and their supporters , in: Yearbook for the history of Eastern Europe .
  • 1939: Emperor Otto III. and the state transformation of Poland and Hungary , in: Treatises of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .
  • 1939: Crisis and development in Eastern Europe. A picture of world history .
  • 1940: The beginnings of the Polish state in Polish representation , in: Festschrift for Ernst Heymann .
  • 1941: Albert Brackmann. Collected Essays. On his 70th birthday on June 24, 1941 by friends, colleagues and students presented as a festive gift (with directory Die Schriften Albert Brackmanns , pp. 531–541; second edition of this commemorative publication extended by the article from 1947 in 1967 by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft ).
  • 1943: On the history of Henry I's holy lance. In: German Archive for the History of the Middle Ages .
  • 1947: Gregory VII and the church reform movement in Germany , in: Studi Gregoriani , Vol. II, pp. 7-30.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ In the AHV directory of the "Student Choral Society of Georgia Augusta" stated differently as Albert Karl Louis Theodor Ferdinand Johann Brackmann
  2. ↑ a b Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): Brackmann, Albert (Theodor Johann Karl Ferdinand) , in ders .: German Biographical Encyclopedia , second, revised and expanded edition, Volume 1: Aachen - Braniß , Munich: KG Saur Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-598-25031-2 and 978-3-598-25031-6, p. 869; limited preview in Google Book search
  3. ^ Association of Alter SVer (VASV): Address book. Membership directory of all old men. As of October 1, 1937. Hanover 1937, p. 71.
  4. ^ Entry on Albert Brackmann in the AHV directory of the "Student Choral Society of Georgia Augusta"
  5. ↑ Torsten Musial: State Archives in the Third Reich. On the history of the state archives in Germany 1933-1945 . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1996, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 47.
  7. ↑ Michael Burleigh: Science and lifeworld: General Director Brackmann and the National Socialist East Research. In: Workshop history 8, results, Hamburg 1994, p. 74. Online see web links.
  8. ↑ Wolfgang J. Mommsen: From “Volkstumskampf” to National Socialist extermination policy in Europe. On the role of German historians under National Socialism. In: Winfried Schulze, Otto Gerhard Oexle (Hrsg.): German historians in National Socialism. Frankfurt am Main 1999, pp. 183-214, here: p. 183.
  9. ^ Bosl / Franz / Hofmann: Biographical dictionary on German history. Vol. 1, Augsburg 1995, p. 338. Article by Günther Franz.
  10. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt / M. 2005, p. 69.
  11. ↑ Michael Burleigh: Science and lifeworld: General Director Brackmann and the National Socialist East Research. In: Werkstatt Geschichte 8 ,results, Hamburg 1994, pp. 72–74.
  12. ^ In parallel with the same subtitle, Wilhelm Ziegler wrote about France in 1939 for the same publisher: What will happen to France? A picture of world history , Berlin-Dahlem 1939.
  13. ^ Albert Brackmann: Crisis and construction in Eastern Europe. A picture of world history , Berlin-Dahlem (Ahnenerbe-Stiftung Verlag) 1939, p. 50.
  14. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-b.html .
  15. ^ Michael Burleigh: Germany Turns Eastwards. A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich. London 2002, p. 132.
  16. ^ Thomas Schöbel: Albert Brackmann and the Berlin-Dahlem Publication Office . In: Jessica Hoffmann, Anja Megel, Robert Parzer, Helena Seidel (eds.): Dahlemer Memories. Berlin 2007, pp. 229–243, here: p. 234.
  17. ^ Michael Burleigh: Germany Turns Eastwards. A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich. London 2002, p. 137.
  18. ^ Thomas Schöbel: Albert Brackmann and the Berlin-Dahlem Publication Office . In: Jessica Hoffmann, Anja Megel, Robert Parzer, Helena Seidel (eds.): Dahlemer Memories. Berlin 2007, pp. 229–243, here: pp. 237 and 242.
  19. ↑ Michael Burleigh: Science and lifeworld: General Director Brackmann and the National Socialist East Research. In: Workshop history 8, results, Hamburg 1994, p. 74.
  20. ^ Astrid M. Eckert: The Struggle for the Files. The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War. Cambridge 2012, p. 115.
personal data
SURNAME Brackmann, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brackmann, Albert Theodor Johann Karl Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1952
Place of death Berlin-Dahlem