Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz

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Hieronymus Christoph Jan Eugen Franz Gottfried Maria Freiherr von Pölnitz , called Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz (born December 11, 1906 in Munich , † November 9, 1967 in Erlangen ) was a German economic and social historian and archivist .

family

Götz von Pölnitz came from the originally Saxon - Vogtland noble family Pölnitz , which also settled in Franconia from the 17th century. His ancestors included the Electorate of Saxony Chancellor Bernhard von Pölnitz , the Electorate of Brandenburg Major General Gerhard Bernhard von Pölnitz , the Electorate of Saxony envoy Hans Georg von Pöllnitz and Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz , a confidante of King Friedrich II .

He was the fourth of four children from the marriage of Maximilian von Pölnitz (1862-1936) and Gisela, née Countess von Gatterburg, baroness on Retz (1869-1914). One of his brothers was Sigmund Freiherr von Pölnitz , cathedral capitular in Bamberg.

Götz von Pölnitz married Gudila in 1935 , daughter of the historian Paul Fridolin Kehr .

Life

Pölnitz studied history, legal and economic history as well as canon law at the University of Munich and the University of Würzburg . In 1928 he was in Munich with the work of the German unity and freedom of movement in the Munich Student Union (1826 to 1850) to Dr. phil. PhD . In 1935 he completed his habilitation in middle and modern history and was initially a private lecturer at the University of Munich, and from 1935 at the University of Erlangen . Von Pölnitz, who was under Gestapo observation, was not given a professorship in Munich because of “political unreliability”, as the head of the party chancellery decided in 1942. In 1936, von Pölnitz became director of the Fugger archive in Augsburg, succeeding Jakob Strieder . At the same time he was a lecturer at the business school in Nuremberg. From 1942 to 1947 he lectured Middle and Modern History in Erlangen.

As a student, Pölnitz was an active member of the Catholic student association Rheno-Bavaria Munich in the KV and in June 1931, at the age of 24, he was the editor-in-chief of the Academic Monthly Gazette , the association journal of the KV. He headed this magazine until August 1935.

In May 1932, at the general assembly of the entire KV in Würzburg, he gave a detailed and critical lecture on National Socialism with the title Radical German National Socialism in the Light of a Catholic Worldview . This lecture was printed in full in the Academic Monthly Journal. Quotation from this (p. 371): "Such anti-Semitism is not only incompatible with the Christian commandment to love, it also sets itself in conscious opposition to the basic truths of our revelation belief, in which the Mosaic decal command is a foundation on which Christian moral teaching stands and falls ... "

Before 1933, Pölnitz had become a member of the nationalist Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten . The Stahlhelm was transferred to the SA in June 1933 as a result of the Nazi harmonization, but dissolved in 1935 because of the growing opposition to the nat.soz. Governance within of the S. became clear ... ". As a result, Pölnitz automatically became a member of the SA and Rottenführer.

Von Pölnitz also became a member of the NSDAP during the National Socialist era . As a private lecturer and historian, he gave training lectures according to his own statements in 1939 "at the courses of the Supreme SA leadership , at the Nazi women's association , at the Nazi national education center, at various SA storms and in the Austrian Aid League". In addition, he was an appraiser for the Hitler Youth and the Nazi student union .

However, the historian von Pölnitz did not make a scientific career during the Nazi era. Before Hitler came to power, von Pölnitz wrote several essays in which he sharply attacked National Socialism. In 1935 he was at the top of the list of appointments for the Chair of Medieval History in Munich, but was probably not given this professorship because of his work in the Association of Catholic German Student Associations (KV). When Walther Wüst , the rector of Munich University, wanted to mediate from Pölnitz to the Reich University of Strasbourg , the dean there, Ernst Anrich , replied that von Pölnitz was very burdened by his leading activity in the KV. In 1944 his personal file contained references such as “Relationship to the Stauffenberg district” and “a clear opponent of the blood idea”.

After the Second World War, von Pölnitz was unable to return to the universities because of his involvement in National Socialism , but from 1947 initially worked as administrator of the Prince-Counts Fugger Foundation in Augsburg . The historian Max Spindler (1894–1986) appointed him in 1949 as a scientific director in the newly founded Swabian Research Association , as he saw in von Pölnitz the most suitable person for this office. He held this office until 1970.

In 1952 he became an adjunct professor in Munich and in 1954 a full professor of medieval and modern history, economic history and cultural history at the Philosophical-Theological University in Dillingen . In 1961 he was appointed professor at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg , where he was university rector from 1963/64 . While he was the founding rector of the University of Regensburg in 1965, he was criticized for some of the writings he had published during the “Third Reich”, which led to his resignation. For this led Joseph-Ernst Fugger of Glött , because of his affiliation with the opposition Kreisau Circle from the People's Court was sentenced under Freisler, in a letter to the editor the world from November 27, 1965 the following:

"I know Professor Dr. Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz for decades and often met with him during the Third Reich. He has headed the Fugger archive since 1936. I knew him as a staunch opponent of National Socialism, who was exposed to great difficulties such as Gestapo interrogations, house searches and the like. That is why he, who had completed his habilitation in 1934, could only become a professor after the end of the 3rd Reich. Everyone who lived under the terror of the Third Reich knows that he had to camouflage himself. You can believe me, as a committed anti-Nazi, that I will never be Professor Dr. Götz would have employed Freiherr von Pölnitz if he had been a Nazi. "

In 1955 Pölnitz acquired the Böttingerhaus in Bamberg and became the savior of this unique baroque town house of the high esteemed official Johann Ignaz Michael Tobias Böttinger .

Pölnitz participated, among other things, in the publication of the writings of Joseph Görres , which was overseen by the Görres Society . In 1965 he became a member of the cultural advisory board of the Central Committee of German Catholics .

In 1957 he was appointed Knight of the Papal Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Grand Master Nicola Cardinal Canali and invested in Munich on April 30, 1957 by Lorenz Jaeger , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy . He belonged to the Bamberg Commandery. He was a Grand Officer and Grand Cross Knight al merito .

Götz von Pölnitz died of heart failure in Erlangen and was buried in the family cemetery he set up at Hundshaupten Castle.

Fonts (selection)

  • The German unity and freedom movement in the Munich student body (1826–1850) , Knorr Hirth 1935
  • Jakob Fugger: Kaiser, Church and Capital in the Upper German Renaissance, Volume 1 , Mohr Siebeck 1949
  • Venice , Callwey 1951
  • Castles, palaces and residences as socio-historical monuments of the Franconian area , university book printer 1965
  • Fugger's general bill of 1563 , Francke 1967
  • Jakob Fugger, sources and explanations , JCB Mohr
  • Die Fugger , Mohr Siebeck 1999, ISBN 3-16-147013-3

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c professors. From Pölnitz. These things . In: Der Spiegel 10, 1965, pp. 28-29; here: p. 29.
  2. ↑ Academic Monthly Gazette 1932 No. 9, p. 366 ff.
  3. ↑ Brockhaus 1956
  4. ↑ 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. 466.
  5. ^ Quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 466.
  6. ^ Quote from M. Schreiber: Walther Wüst - Dean and Rector of the University of Munich 1935–1945. Phil. Dissertation Munich 2008
  7. ^ Eduard Nübling: 30 years of the Swabian Research Association at the Commission for Bavarian State History. Address from 1979 and Wilhelm Volkert : Letters on the founding history of the Swabian Research Foundation at the Commission for Bavarian State History . In: there, p. 83 ff .; here: p. 141. Both in: Pankraz Fried (Hrsg.): 50 Years of the Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft (=  Studies on the History of Bavarian Swabia 26), Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 978-3-922518-26-6 .
  8. ↑ Swabian Research Association. Documentation In: Pankraz Fried (Hrsg.): Research on Swabian history. With reports from regional historical research in Augsburg (=  Augsburg contributions to the regional history of Bavarian Swabia 4), Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-7504-9 , p. 346 ff .; here: p. 349.
  9. ^ The Regensburg Unease after Die Zeit 49, 1965; Der Spiegel 10, 1965 (March 3, 1965), pp. 28/29.
personal data
SURNAME Pölnitz, Götz Freiherr von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pölnitz, Hieronymus Christoph Jan Eugen Franz Gottfried Maria Freiherr von (full name); Pölnitz, Götz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economic and social historian and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1967
Place of death gain