Friedrich Metz

This article describes the German geographer Friedrich Metz. For other namesake see Friedrich Metz (disambiguation) .

Friedrich Metz (born March 8, 1890 in Karlsruhe , † December 24, 1969 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German geographer and regional historian.

Life

Friedrich Metz grew up in Bruchsal . He studied geography, history and economics as well as German language and literature at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig . The geographers Alfred Hettner and Josef Partsch as well as the national economist Eberhard Gothein had a particular influence on Metz as academic teachers. Metz also studied the works of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl and Friedrich Ratzel , which influenced his thinking. Metz was born in Heidelberg in 1913 with a thesis on the settlement geography of the KraichgauPhD with Alfred Hettner. During the First World War he served on the western and eastern fronts, partly in associations of Austria-Hungary. He then worked in the settlement department of the Ministry of Labor and as a government councilor at the State Statistical Office in Karlsruhe.

He completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and was then a professor at the universities in Leipzig and Innsbruck . In Leipzig, Metz was also secretary of the "Foundation for German Folk and Cultural Soil Research ". In 1933 he joined the Austrian NSDAP . After the NSDAP was banned, he was dismissed as a professor at the University of Innsbruck in 1934 because of his Nazi activities and returned to the German Reich , where he was given a chair at the University of Erlangen . From 1935 he was professor at the University of Freiburg and from 1936 to 1938 rector of the university. After conflicts with the NSDStB and the district leadership of the NSDAP , he had to resign from the rectorate in March 1938. In addition, he became head of the " Border and German Abroad " department in the Reich Working Group for German Folk Research of the DFG . From 1938 Metz was also head of the Alemannic Institute . From 1936 to 1943, Metz headed the university study group for spatial research at the University of Freiburg.

Metz served as a middleman for the Hamburg patron Alfred Toepfer , who was close to the regime, for the southwest German border area. As the head of the Alemannic Institute, which was integrated into the news network of the Reich Security Main Office of the SS against Switzerland, he propagated "völkisch" research on the "Alemannic area" from the Upper Rhine to Vorarlberg and the Monte Rosa massif . Metz was also President of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Foundation Toepfers, then in Freiburg, which awarded the Volksdeutsche Prizes of the Goethe Foundation from 1935 to 1945. He was responsible for establishing contacts with the Swiss National Socialists on behalf of "Mr. Hoffmann from Hamburg".

After the end of the Second World War , Metz was suspended from work as a professor at the University of Freiburg because of its proximity to National Socialism at the initiative of the French administration. The denazification and rehabilitation of Metz went through several stages: First, Metz was completely exonerated by the university cleaning commission in January 1946 and his reinstatement was requested. Nevertheless, the French military government confirmed his suspension in October 1946 and guaranteed him a partial pension. The Freiburg Spruchkammer classified Metz as "exonerated" (June 3, 1948), whereupon the French military government lodged an objection on October 9, 1948, justifying this with his commitment to National Socialism in Austria and his support for Hitler's expansionism. Metz no longer saw the judgment of the Freiburg Spruchkammer dated March 30, 1951 as exonerated, but discontinued the proceedings because of proven “innocence”, which enabled him to be reappointed to his chair. Metz's National Socialist past was discussed in the following years both at the University of Freiburg and in public, and his reappointment was even debated in the Baden state parliament. In 1953 Metz was finally given back his chair for geography at the University of Freiburg, where he became head of the newly founded Institute of Geography. In addition, in 1951 he took over the management of the Alemannic Institute again and was also chairman of the newly founded Freiburg Geographical Society from 1951 , of which he was chairman from 1936 to 1945. The Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings made him an honorary member in 1957. In 1958, Metz retired.

Metz had two sons. Rudolf Metz (1923–1991) was a private lecturer in mineralogy and geology at the University of Karlsruhe and has written several books, among other things, on the geology and regional studies of the northern Black Forest and the Hotzenwald. Gerhard Metz (1927–2013) was a private lecturer at the University of Freiburg and chief physician at the Emmendingen district hospital.

Fonts

• The Kraichgau. 2. completely redesigned Edition G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1922
• Problems of the German West, a series of essays. On behalf of the Association of German History Teachers. Berlin 1929
• Baden as the Upper Rhine region . E. Runge, [Berlin-Neutempelhof] 1935
• The Upper Rhine and Alsace. 2. verb. Edition. Verlag Grenz und Abroad, Berlin 1941
• Rhine Swabia. FH Kerle, Heidelberg 1948
• Country borders in the southwest. With 117 cards. Research on German regional studies, 60th publisher of the Office for Regional Studies, Remagen 1951
• Front Austria. A historical geography. / Ed. Alemannisches Institut under the direction of Friedrich Metz. Rombach, Freiburg 1958; 2., ext. and verb. Edition 1967; 3rd edition 1977
• as editor: Vorarlberg. Landscape, culture, industry. [2. extended edition] J. Thorbecke, Konstanz 1961

literature

• Ursula von den Driesch:  Metz, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 248 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Bernd Grün: The rector as a leader? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 , Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 347–476 and pp. 660–685.
• Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 119.
• Mario Seiler: Ambiguous boundaries and the idea of ​​order. The borderland discourse at the University of Freiburg in the age of the two world wars (= Rombach Science ). Rombach, Freiburg 2015 ISBN 978-3-7930-9815-7
• Jörg Stadelbauer: Fighter for the structure, location and profile of the Alemannic Institute: Friedrich Metz (1938–1945; 1952–1962) , in: The Alemannic Institute. 75 Years of Cross-Border Communication and Research (1931–2006) , ed. from the Alemannic Institute Freiburg im Breisgau. Freiburg and Munich 2007, pp. 143–154 ( full text ; PDF; 1.6 MB)
• Friedrich Metz , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 34/1954 of August 16, 1954, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely accessible)

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Metz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 405.
2. ↑ History of the Alemannic Institute ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ After 1945 Toepfer moved the headquarters to Salzburg, where he hoped to find enough Nazi-oriented supporters.
4. ↑ Hoffmann is Toepfer's pseudonym that is always used here; "HH" was the abbreviated first name for the Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
5. ↑ Bernd Grün: The rector as a guide? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 . Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 665-666 .
6. ↑ Bernd Grün: The rector as a guide? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 . Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 666 .
7. ↑ Bernd Grün: The rector as a guide? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 . Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 660-661 .
8. ↑ Bernd Grün: The rector as a guide? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 . Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 668 .
9. ↑ Bernd Grün: The rector as a guide? The University of Freiburg i. Br. From 1933 to 1945 . Freiburg / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-495-49607-7 , pp. 668-674 .
10. ^ With Ursula von den Driesch:  Metz, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 248 ( digitized version ). erroneously says Heidelberg.
11. ↑ On the Geographical Society Freiburg (PDF; 749 kB)
12. ↑ Harald Derschka : The association for the history of Lake Constance and its surroundings. A look back at one hundred and fifty years of club history 1868–2018. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 136, 2018, pp. 1–303, here: p. 229.

predecessor	Office	successor
Eduard Kern	Rector of the University of Freiburg 1936 - 1938	Otto Mangold