Hans Wahl (Germanist)

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Four Weimar Germanists: Max Hecker , Hans Wahl, Hans Gerhard Gräf and Julius Wahle (around 1918). Photo by Louis Held .

Hans Wahl (born July 28, 1885 in Burkersdorf bei Weida , Thuringia , † February 18, 1949 in Weimar ) was a German Goethe researcher and museum and archive director.

Life

Hans Wahl was the eldest son of pastor Ferdinand Wahl. After the death of his father, he came to Weimar (Thuringia) in 1894 with his mother and four younger siblings. He attended the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium Weimar and continued his education by studying German, history and philosophy. The study locations were Jena, Munich and Berlin. One of his teachers was the Germanist Erich Schmidt , who also suggested his dissertation History of the German Mercury . The work, completed in 1912, appeared in bookshops in 1914.

As early as 1913, the young Hans Wahl was entrusted with the publication of the "Correspondence between Duke-Grand Duke Carl August and Goethe" in the Goethe and Schiller Archives .

In 1918, Hans Wahl succeeded Wolfgang von Oettingen as director of the Goethe National Museum (GNM) at the Frauenplan in Weimar. In 1925, the Germanist received the title of professor.

In 1928, Wahl also took over the Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar. In addition, he was one of the founders of the völkisch and anti - Semitic fighting union for German culture .

Since 1932, in addition choice Second (since 1938: first) was vice president of the Goethe Society and was after the transfer of power to the Nazis in 1933 for the DC circuit responsibly. In particular, from 1936 he aimed to cooperate with the Reich Youth Leadership in order to win over the "Aryan youth" to society; He had known the Reich youth leader Baldur von Schirach since he was a child in Weimar. In October 1937 Wahl applied for membership in the NSDAP , which was granted in June 1938, and became councilor of the city of Weimar. In addition, he became chairman of the German Herder Foundation . Wahl secured Adolf Hitler's personal support for the renewed Goethe National Museum, which was completed in 1935 for the 50th anniversary of the Goethe Society and inaugurated in a state ceremony.

From 1936 to 1949 Wahl published the Goethe yearbook (then: Goethe: four-month publication of the Goethe Society; new edition of the yearbook ). The four-month publication was intended to establish Goethe as a national icon and, at the same time, to rehabilitate the Goethe Society under the regime, since many National Socialists viewed it as "Jewish". The magazine was also mobilized in the fight against Mathilde Ludendorff's anti-Goethe conspiracy theory . Essays by well-known National Socialists and ethnic groups such as Adolf Bartels , Heinz Kindermann , Walther Linden, Wilhelm Fehse and Rupprecht Matthaei were sought and accepted by Wahl, but President Julius Petersen also wrote articles that were friendly to the regime. After a last essay was published in 1937 by a Jewish author who was not prohibited from publishing, further contributions by Jews were prevented and the essays were edited in such a way that Goethe did not appear friendly to Jews; This was mainly expressed in the fact that Wahl downplayed the importance of the Jewish philosopher Baruch de Spinoza for Goethe. Wahl himself provided a kind of " Aryan proof " for Goethe by refuting the widespread notion that the poet was a Jew. Wahl sponsored the anti-Semitic book by the Goethe researcher Victor Hehn . He participated in various propaganda campaigns during the war. He maintained a good connection with the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , who had a personal interest in the well-being of the Goethe Society and provided for it a "world mission" in the sense of international cultural policy.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Wahl claimed that the regime had behaved "negatively" towards Goethe and the Goethe Society. He remained in his offices and also became a board member of the Society for the Study of Culture of the Soviet Union .

In 1946 it was probably Wahl that made the Thuringian Prime Minister and former State President Rudolf Paul aware of the impending loss of Friedrich Nietzsche's estate . In fact, Paul intervened to protect the holdings of the former Nietzsche Archives from being transported to the Soviet Union. From 1946 until his death in 1949 Wahl was provisional director of the Nietzsche Archives and made several suggestions to the Soviet authorities on how to continue using it and reopening it, but these were not implemented.

Grave site in Weimar

In the middle of the preparations for the Goethe year 1949 Wahl died on February 18, 1949 after a serious heart attack; he received a state funeral in the honorary grave field of the historical cemetery in Weimar.

Honors

First: Hans-Wahl-Straße - now: Above the cone gate. Photo from September 2016

The street at the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar was called Hans-Wahl-Straße until 2016 . However, the culture committee of the city of Weimar recommended in its meetings on June 22nd and August 31st 2015 the renaming of the Hans-Wahl-Straße. It was agreed to rename it to Above the cone gate . This renaming has now taken place.

Web links

Commons : Hans Wahl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 639.
  2. ^ A b W. Daniel Wilson : Our board is composed of Aryan. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 17, 2015, p. 14.
  3. ^ A b W. Daniel Wilson: The Faustian Pact. Goethe and the Goethe Society in the Third Reich. dtv, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-423-28166-9 .
  4. ↑ a b Paul Kahl: The Invention of the House of Poets. The Goethe National Museum in Weimar . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1635-5 .
  5. ↑ Goethe: Four months publication of the Goethe Society; new series of the yearbook at DigiZeitschriften
  6. ^ New debate on Hans-Wahl-Strasse in Weimar Thüringer Allgemeine on November 15, 2013
  7. ^ "Historical exorcism" in Weimar: Dispute over Hans Wahl in the street name
  8. ↑ Renaming of the Hans-Wahl-Straße ( memento of the original from January 25, 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. Message from the city of Weimar dated September 24, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stadt.weimar.de
  9. ↑ Hans-Wahl-Straße will be called Above the Kegeltore in future. Photo from September 2016
personal data
SURNAME Choice, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Goethe researcher, museum and archive director
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Burkersdorf , Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1949
Place of death Weimar , State of Thuringia , Soviet occupation zone