Hermann Loeffler

Hermann Löffler (born February 13, 1908 in Ottweiler ; † October 20, 1978 in Heidelberg ) was a German historian and history teacher .

Life

Hermann Löffler was the son of the seminar teacher Hermann Löffler senior and his wife Julie Löffler, née Arend. After completing his school career, Löffler studied history, German, comparative religious studies and philosophy in Frankfurt, Bonn, Munich, Vienna, Montpellier, Toulouse, Barcelona and Belgium . He finished his studies at the University of Frankfurt in 1932 with the first state examination. After his legal clerkship in Saarland , he worked at a Catholic women's secondary school in Saarland from 1935 and briefly at a Berlin grammar school in 1936. In 1940 he did his doctorate under Günther Franz at the University of Jena on the share of the Jewish press in the collapse of Germany in 1918 . His habilitation on the Catholic politician and social reformer Franz Joseph von Buß , which he completed in 1942 at the University of Strasbourg , shows the connection between “ research on opponents ” and academic theses at the time of National Socialism . In 1945 he was appointed adjunct professor in Strasbourg.

In 1928 he joined the NSDAP and in 1932 the SA . After the Saar referendum , he switched from the SA to the SS in April 1935 and became head of training and, in August 1936, head of history, and in 1937 head of department for the SS Race and Settlement Office. In August 1938 he was transferred to the SS Research Association of German Ahnenerbe , where he headed the Department of Middle and Modern History. In this function, at the suggestion of Franz Alfred Six, in the winter of 1938/1939 he wrote a memorandum on the development and tasks of historical science in Germany , in which he examined the German historians for their agreement with the National Socialist regime. He saw future tasks in studies of the relationship between state and church as well as Judaism in German history. From March 1940, and thus at the time of his doctorate in Jena, he worked for the security service of the Reichsführer SS in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). From October 1, 1941, he worked as a research assistant and, after his habilitation, from September 16, 1942 as a lecturer at the history seminar in Strasbourg. From summer 1943 to early 1944, he served as Sturmbannfuehrer the task force Agram the task force E employed. With his former Strasbourg historian colleagues Ernst Anrich (no participation) and Günther Franz, he was invited to plan new press and publication strategies to "hold out". On March 6, 1945, chaired by Hans Ernst Schneider , they met in the Wannsee Villa of the SD u. a. Löffler, Franz, Fritz Schwalm and their SS superior Hans Rößner .

After the end of the war, Löffler was denazified as a fellow traveler . He then took over work for the Federal Ministry for All-German Issues and became advertising manager for the Scientific Book Association founded by Ernst Anrich . He finally worked as a so-called 131er in adult education centers and schools. In 1952 he was initially employed as a school teacher in Rhineland-Palatinate ( Oppenheim ). From 1954 he was accepted as a teacher in Baden-Württemberg . a. he was a teacher at the Zeppelin-Gymnasium Stuttgart . From 1962 to 1973 he worked as a professor of history and its didactics at the Heidelberg University of Education . Günther Franz wrote the report on the recruitment. After that he was a lecturer at the PH Heidelberg until 1975. He kept quiet about his career in the SS. He only wrote reviews for Das Historisch-Politische Buch , edited by Günther Franz, and biographical articles, not research papers. Although qualified as a history teacher, he taught exclusively as a specialist historian.

literature

Wolfgang Behringer : Bauern-Franz and Rassen-Günther. The political history of the agricultural historian Günther Franz (1902–1992). In: Winfried Schulze , Otto Gerhard Oexle : German historians in National Socialism (= Fischer. 14606). 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-596-14606-2 , pp. 114-141, esp. Pp. 120 ff., ( (Online) (PDF file; 10.26 MB)).
Anette Hettinger: History teacher training in a diachronic comparison. The example of Baden-Württemberg. In: Wolfgang Hasberg , Manfred Seidenfuß (Hrsg.): Modernization in transition. History didactics and history lessons after 1945 (= history didactics in the past and present. 6). Lit, Berlin et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1086-3 , pp. 187-216.
Joachim Lerchenmueller: History in the planning of the security service of the SS. The SD historian Hermann Löffler and his memorandum "Development and Tasks of History in Germany" (= Archive for Social History . Supplement. 21). Dietz, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-8012-4116-5 .
Uwe Uffelmann : The subject of history at the Heidelberg University of Education 1962-2004. In: Uwe Uffelmann, Manfred Seidenfuß (Hrsg.): Understanding and mediating. Armin Reese on her 65th birthday. Schulz-Kirchner, Idstein 2004, ISBN 3-8248-0463-8 , pp. 7–20, ( (online version) (PDF file; 1.07 MB)).

Web links

Literature by and about Hermann Löffler in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ Lerchenmueller: The history of science in the planning of the security service of the SS. 2001, p. 53.
↑ Cf. Lerchenmueller: Die Geschichtswwissenschaft in the planning of the security service of the SS. 2001, p. 99: "The SD-junior scientists based themselves on material that the SD in the course of its intelligence work, in the persecution of political opponents and in cultural robbery actions collected, evaluated it for ideological research - and earned a doctorate or habilitation with the results at German universities, the latter being the prerequisite for infiltrating the historical departments with SS personnel over time and thus further the ideological orientation of historical studies to advance.
^ Hermann-Joseph Löhr: History 1941–1945 at the Reich University of Strasbourg. A border mark of German intellectual life against the Romance West? 2006, p. 2 and 14, (PDF; 104 kB); There also the false statement that Löffler had completed a master’s degree.
↑ See Behringer: Bauern-Franz and Rassen-Günther. In: Schulze, Oexle: German Historians in National Socialism. 2nd Edition. 2000, pp. 114-141, here p. 128.

personal data
SURNAME	Löffler, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German historian
DATE OF BIRTH	February 13, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ottweiler
DATE OF DEATH	October 20, 1978
Place of death	Heidelberg

[1] Lerchenmueller: The history of science in the planning of the security service of the SS. 2001, p. 53.

[2] Cf. Lerchenmueller: Die Geschichtswwissenschaft in the planning of the security service of the SS. 2001, p. 99: "The SD-junior scientists based themselves on material that the SD in the course of its intelligence work, in the persecution of political opponents and in cultural robbery actions collected, evaluated it for ideological research - and earned a doctorate or habilitation with the results at German universities, the latter being the prerequisite for infiltrating the historical departments with SS personnel over time and thus further the ideological orientation of historical studies to advance.

[3] Hermann-Joseph Löhr: History 1941–1945 at the Reich University of Strasbourg. A border mark of German intellectual life against the Romance West? 2006, p. 2 and 14, (PDF; 104 kB); There also the false statement that Löffler had completed a master’s degree.

[4] See Behringer: Bauern-Franz and Rassen-Günther. In: Schulze, Oexle: German Historians in National Socialism. 2nd Edition. 2000, pp. 114-141, here p. 128.