Hans Witte

Hans Witte, 1890

Johannes Nathanael Christian (called Hans) Witte (born April 30, 1867 in Doberan ; † December 17, 1945 in Neustrelitz ) was a German archivist and historian . He headed the main archive, the state library and the state museum in Neustrelitz. His main research interests were nationality research and Mecklenburg regional history.

life and work

Hans Witte was born as the son of the Protestant theologian and pastor Traugott Witte (1834-1902), who had only recently been active in Mecklenburg, and his wife, the Silesian pastor's daughter Elisabeth Reinsch (1838-1925). He spent his childhood mainly in Dreibergen near Bützow , where his father had been in charge of the rectory since 1869. After graduating from the Güstrow cathedral school in Michaelis in 1887, Witte studied in Leipzig , Berlin and Strasbourg , where he received his doctorate in 1890 with a thesis on German. During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Strasbourg . In 1892 he became a scientific assistant at the district archive in Metz , in 1898 an assistant at the main archive in Schwerin , in 1899 archivist and in 1909 archivist. After falling out of favor in Schwerin because of individual depictions in his cultural images from Mecklenburg , Witte took over the management of the main archive and (state) library in Neustrelitz on September 1, 1913, as the successor to Gustav von Buchwald . 1914–1918 he was a soldier in Belgium .

After the establishment of the former part of Mecklenburg-Strelitz as a sovereign Free State, Witte tried to develop an independent national consciousness in its population, including the teaching staff of this region in particular. He pushed the split in the Mecklenburg homeland movement and promoted the intensification of local and regional history with and in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1921 Witte was the main initiator and co-founder of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz State Museum in Neustrelitz, which was formed on the basis of the grand ducal collections. On Witte's initiative, the Mecklenburg-Strelitz Association for History and Local Lore was founded in 1925 , with which he split off Mecklenburg-Strelitz from the traditional Mecklenburg Heimatbund and swore on a course of confrontation with the former Mecklenburg-Schwerin region. Nevertheless, Witte's association developed a considerable life of its own for about a decade and an unprecedented and never achieved regional effect before it finally failed due to Witte's separation policy under the impression of the reunification of the two Mecklenburg Free States.

Witte turned to National Socialist ideas early on and in Neustrelitz developed into a leading representative of the Nazi movement. He was a tireless agitator of his nationalist convictions and published numerous essays in which he dealt with “demarcation between Germans and Slavs”, for example in 1929 in the journal Volk und Rasse .

After reaching the age limit, Witte retired as archive director in the summer of 1932. His successor in office in Neustrelitz was Carl August Endler .

Yegorov conviction

In the opinion of Johannes Papritz , head of the Berlin-Dahlem Publications Office , the thesis of the Russian historian Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Jegorow that the internal colonization of Mecklenburg was carried out by Slavs was harmful to “German interests”. Papritz intervened in July 1931 and brought about the condemnation of the second volume of Jegorov's book Die Kolonisierung Mecklenburgs im 13th Century by Witte, who had praised the first volume in a review. In 1932 a third volume appeared as a subsequent delivery, in which Witte Yegorov's book described as "state-ordered political work"; the Reich Ministry of the Interior paid Witte a fee for this and assumed additional costs.

Publications (selection)

On the history of Germanness in Lorraine. The expansion of the German-speaking area in the Metzer bishopric at the end of the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 17th century. Diss. Strasbourg, Metz 1890
On the history of Germanness in Alsace and the Vosges region. Stuttgart 1894
Wismar under the pledge agreement, 1803-1903. Festschrift for the centenary of the reunification of Wismar with Mecklenburg. Wismar 1903 ( digitized version )
Wendish remnants of the population in Mecklenburg. Stuttgart 1905
Mecklenburg history based on Ernst Boll . 2 volumes. Wismar 1909 a. 1913
Cultural images from Mecklenburg. 2 volumes. Leipzig 1911 [2. Edition: Leipzig 1912]
Settlement of the East and Hanseatic League. Munich 1914
A critical afterword. Breslau 1932 [= Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Jegorow: The colonization of Mecklenburg in the 13th century ; Vol. 3]

literature

Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar 4 (1931), sv
Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it? Our contemporaries. 10th edition, sv
Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 10965 .

Web links

Literature about Hans Witte in the state bibliography MV
Works by Hans Witte in the state bibliography MV

Individual evidence

↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 249.
^ Hans Witte: From Mecklenburg history and from the Mecklenburg people. In: Volk und Rasse 4 (1929), pp. 1–13
^ Ingo Haar : Historians in National Socialism. German history and the “national struggle” in the east. Göttingen 2000, p. 114
↑ Dmitry Nik. Jegorov (Egorov): The colonization of Mecklenburg in the 13th century. 2 volumes, Breslau 1930. Hans Witte: Jegorovs colonization of Mecklenburg. in: German booklets for folk and cultural soil research. Volume 1, 1930/31, pp. 94-116. Hans Witte: Yegorov's second volume on the process of colonization in Mecklenburg. In: German booklets for folk and cultural soil research. Volume 1, 1930/31, pp. 241-253. Hans Witte: Jegorov's colonization of Mecklenburg in the 13th century. A critical afterword. Breslau 1932. Overview: Ingo Haar: Historian in National Socialism. German history and the “national struggle” in the east. Göttingen 2000, p. 114 f., Also Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg: The Eastern European Institute in Breslau 1930–1940. Science, propaganda and national enemy images in the work of an interdisciplinary center for Eastern European research in Germany. In: Michael Garleff (ed.): Between confrontation and compromise. Oldenburg Symposium “Interethnic Relations in East Central Europe as a Historiographical Problem of the 1930s / 1940s”. Munich 1995, p. 52 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Witte, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Witte, Johannes Nathanael Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH	April 30, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH	Doberan
DATE OF DEATH	December 17, 1945
Place of death	Neustrelitz

[1] Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 249.

[2] Hans Witte: From Mecklenburg history and from the Mecklenburg people. In: Volk und Rasse 4 (1929), pp. 1–13

[3] Ingo Haar : Historians in National Socialism. German history and the “national struggle” in the east. Göttingen 2000, p. 114

[4] Dmitry Nik. Jegorov (Egorov): The colonization of Mecklenburg in the 13th century. 2 volumes, Breslau 1930. Hans Witte: Jegorovs colonization of Mecklenburg. in: German booklets for folk and cultural soil research. Volume 1, 1930/31, pp. 94-116. Hans Witte: Yegorov's second volume on the process of colonization in Mecklenburg. In: German booklets for folk and cultural soil research. Volume 1, 1930/31, pp. 241-253. Hans Witte: Jegorov's colonization of Mecklenburg in the 13th century. A critical afterword. Breslau 1932. Overview: Ingo Haar: Historian in National Socialism. German history and the “national struggle” in the east. Göttingen 2000, p. 114 f., Also Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg: The Eastern European Institute in Breslau 1930–1940. Science, propaganda and national enemy images in the work of an interdisciplinary center for Eastern European research in Germany. In: Michael Garleff (ed.): Between confrontation and compromise. Oldenburg Symposium “Interethnic Relations in East Central Europe as a Historiographical Problem of the 1930s / 1940s”. Munich 1995, p. 52 f.