Hugo Hassinger

Hugo Rudolf Franz Hassinger (born November 8, 1877 in Vienna ; † March 13, 1952 there ) was a German geographer . He was one of the most important cultural geographers in Germany. His overall geographical view focused on the work of humans in the landscape.

Life

Hassinger studied geography, history and geology and received his doctorate in 1902 . In 1903 he completed his teaching exams and then worked as a high school teacher. In 1914 he was able to complete his habilitation in Vienna , then was an associate professor at the University of Vienna and later a full professor at the University of Basel , where in 1923 he was the founder of the Geographisch-Ethnologische Gesellschaft Basel .

Between 1927 and 1930 he taught at the University of Freiburg , where he wrote works that were influenced by racial ideology , such as “The Geographical Foundations of History”. In 1931 he returned to the University of Vienna as a full professor. In the same year he became a full member of the Academy of Sciences . As a professor in Vienna, he helped to found the “ Southeast German Research Association ”, the aim of which was to carry out preliminary scientific work for a “ Umvolung ”. As a result, Hassinger contributed directly to the National Socialist living space policy .

Furthermore, Hassinger was actively involved in the resumption of German imperialism . His work in Vienna provided the then scientific legitimation for concepts such as " Central Europe " and the "German People and Culture Soil". The resulting German imperialism of the NS regime in Germany claimed territories in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Slovenia.

His efforts in the area of mixed-language landscape on the Moravian Gate made him the country watchers and cultural geographers . In 1939 he took over the management of the university study group for spatial research at the universities in Vienna. The Southeast research was in the era of National Socialism promoted by the Nazi regime and Vienna expanded under Hassinger to the center. The Academy of Sciences and Hassinger played a central role in the preparations for the resettlement plans in Southeastern Europe ("Balkan and Southeast Commission"). Hassinger's German national attitude was also reflected in his ethnicity research , in which Hassinger stated around 1942 that “Vienna's German mission” consisted of gradually shifting the “level of the cultural gap between West and East”.

In 1942 Hassinger was also a member of the “Commission for the Publication of Writings on Racial Studies and Human Heredity”, in which Fritz Knoll and Eduard Pernkopf also sat. Hassinger was listed as a “ shop steward ” by the Nazi defense agencies, which can be equated with a political informant during the Nazi era .

Since Hassinger was never a member of the NSDAP , he was not banned from working after the Second World War . In 1946 he founded the “Commission for Spatial Research and Reconstruction” at the Academy of Sciences, an “Austrian Research Association for the Southeast and the Orient” founded at the Academy in 1947 was dissolved by the occupying powers in 1950 on the basis of a decree.

His sons Herbert Hassinger and Erich Hassinger were historians.

Works

• Inhibitions of national protection work. 1907.
• The Moravian Gate. 1914.
• Art historical atlas of Vienna. 1916.
• The geographic foundations of history. 1931.
• General geography of man. 1933-1937.
• Burgenland Atlas. 1940.
• Vienna's German broadcast in the Danube region. In: Communications from the Geographical Society in Vienna. 85, 1942.
• Austria's share in the exploration of the earth. A contribution to the cultural history of Austria. Holzhausen, Vienna 1949.

Further memberships

• President of the Geographical Society Vienna (1937–51)
• Corresponding member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (1938)
• Member of the Leopoldina (1940)

Honors

1954 in Vienna- Floridsdorf the Hassinger street named after him.

literature

• E. Rieger (Secretary): The Southeast German Research Association 1931–1935. With the protocol of the study trip of Viennese and Prague university teachers ... through the Waldviertel and neighboring South Bohemia from April 28th - 30th, 1935. SODFG, 1935.
• Christine Zippel: Hugo Hassinger. In: Ingo Haar (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Völkischen Wissenschaften. Individuals, institutions, research programs, foundations. Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-11778-7 , pp. 226-230.
• Petra Svatek: Hugo Hassinger (1877–1952). Folklore researcher, spatial planner, cartographer and historian . In: Karel Hruza (ed.): Austrian historians. CVs and careers 1900–1945 , Vol. 3, Vienna a. a .: Böhlau 2019, ISBN 978-3-205-20801-3 , pp. 123–156.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Street names in Vienna since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 214ff, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013.
2. ^ Hans Bobek :  Hassinger, Hugo Rudolf Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 49 f. ( Digitized version ).
3. ↑ Presentation and criticism by Petra Svatek (PDF; 853 kB) and Vienna as the gateway to the southeast. The contribution of Viennese humanities scholars to the study of Southeast Europe during National Socialism. (PDF; 183 kB), also by Petra Svatek, especially on the Southeast German Research Association
4. ↑ Bibliographical evidence: In the holdings of the Hamburg State and University Library . Hassinger played a role here together with Wilhelm Winkler (statistician) , Hans Hirsch (historian) and others. Sometimes the organization is assigned to "Süddeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft", so here (PDF; 643 kB), in Hungarian, and at Christian Ingrao : Hitler's Elite. The pioneers of the National Socialist mass murder. Translated by Enrico Heinemann and Ursel Schäfer. Propylaeen, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-549-07420-6 ; again Federal Agency for Civic Education BpB, Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-8389-0257-9 (first Paris 2010) ( Michael Fahlbusch is quoted ) p. 423 note 68