Paul Kluke

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Paul Otto Alfred Kluke (born July 31, 1908 in Dabendorf near Zossen / Krs. Teltow ; † April 18, 1990 in Wiesbaden ) was a German historian and professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Life

Kluke, the son of a landowner , attended the Askanisches Gymnasium in Berlin until 1926 and then studied history, German and English in Berlin and Würzburg . With his dissertation, which he completed in Berlin in 1931 and was supervised by Hermann Oncken , he became a specialist in the history of Great Britain with the Army Development and Army Policy of England from the Boer War to the World War . In addition to Oncken, his academic teachers also included Friedrich Meinecke and Fritz Hartung .

From 1932 Kluke worked for the Historical Reich Commission (HRK). During the National Socialist era, the commission was quickly geared towards research into the “post-war period” (after the First World War ). The “Working Group for Research on Post- War History” began its work on May 15, 1933. Kluke received a topic that was charged under National Socialism as a struggle between loyal to the Reich and Francophile 'Reich traitors': It was presented with a 'collection of sources on the complex of the' return march of the Western Army ', the' French agitation in the Rhineland 'and the' Separatism 'commissioned ”and received a grant from the Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft to work on the project, which was formulated as the“ Position of the Reich Authorities on Rhenish Separatism ” . Ingo Haar describes the politicization of scientific research in Kluke's case:

“His research project enabled him to question all separatist leaders and to put together a 'collection of all files relating to the French Ruhreinfall'. As a historian he was able to operate under the guise of science without arousing the suspicion that the proceeds of his research were being misused. The Reich Ministry of the Interior had secretly given Kluke the 'special order' to support Josef Bürckel , the head of the referendum campaign for the reintegration of the Rhineland [would be correct: Saar area]. In October 1934, Kluke was assigned to the public prosecutor's office and the state police in Trier as a 'clerk', where he compiled 'material on the activities of the Saarseparatists and French penetration activities' for the purpose of prosecution. "

The mixing of (National Socialist) policies to “re-integrate” the Saar area , which was to be merged with the Rhine Palatinate to form the Saar Palatinate Gau , with historical research also met with resistance within the HRK. Kluke was the first HRK employee whose chairman Friedrich Meinecke suspected that his scientific work was being misused for political purposes. The introduction of the method of questioning contemporary witnesses, which is unusual for historians, sparked the conflict: “Apparently, Kluke's method of processing material - he had gone over to questioning individual separatist leaders in the Saar mines - contained such political explosives that Schreiber had to call on the commission to temporarily suspend the questions about Rhenish separatism that had been dealt with by Kluke and to completely refrain from questioning individual leaders. ”The commission was disbanded in 1935, also due to the resistance of the HRK to its political exploitation by the Nazi regime. Paul Kluke continued to work for the Prussian archive administration under Albert Brackmann , who supported the politicization , until 1945 .

After the Second World War, Kluke looked after the files of the Foreign Office in Berlin from 1946–1948 . From 1949 he taught at the Free University of Berlin . There he was with Hans Herzfeld in 1950 with the topic The Rhenish Autonomy Movement 1918-1919. Rhine State Plans habilitated . The habilitation thesis remained unprinted and has only been available as a photocopy in a few libraries since 1980 under the title Rheinstaatsplans in the time when the Weimar Constitution was drawn up .

Kluke was Secretary General of the Munich Institute for Contemporary History from 1952 to 1959 . From 1958 he taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Frankfurt, where he was appointed to the Chair of Medieval and Modern History in 1963. In 1974 Kluke retired. From 1976 to 1977 he was founding director of the German Historical Institute in London .

Kluke's students include Lothar Kettenacker and Hellmut Seier . His estate is in the Frankfurt University Library .

Fonts

  • Army structure and policy of England. From the Boer War to the World War (= historical magazine . Supplements. 27, ISSN  2190-1341 ). Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1932, JSTOR (at the same time: Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, dissertation, 1932).
  • Rhine state plans at the time the Weimar Constitution was drawn up. 1950 [1980] (Berlin, Free University, habilitation paper, March 1, 1950).
  • Our century in picture. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1964 (various editions).
  • Recent history. German foreign policy in the age of the nation state (= Funk-Kolleg for the understanding of modern society. 5, ZDB -ID 541229-8 = Fischer 979). Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1969.
  • The Foundation University Frankfurt am Main 1914–1932. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-7829-0128-2 .
  • Studies on the history of England and German-British relations. Festschrift for Paul Kluke. Edited by Lothar Kettenacker , Manfred Schlenke and Hellmut Seier . Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-1983-3 .

literature

  • Ingo Haar : Historian under National Socialism. German history and the "Volkstumskampf" in the East (= critical studies on history . Volume 143). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-35942-X (also: Halle, Wittenberg, University, dissertation, 1998).
  • Dieter Rebentisch (Ed.): Paul Kluke for his 60th birthday presented by Frankfurt students and employees. Frankfurt am Main 1968 (typescript, not on sale).
  • Hellmut Seier : Paul Kluke 1908–1990. In: Historical magazine . Vol. 252, 1991, pp. 212-215.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism . Göttingen 2000, p. 178.
  2. ^ Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism . Göttingen 2000, p. 131.
  3. ↑ a b c Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism . Göttingen 2000, p. 178.
  4. ↑ See article on Josef Bürckel and on the voting campaign .
  5. ^ Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism . Göttingen 2000, p. 177 f.
  6. ^ Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism . Göttingen 2000, p. 229.
personal data
SURNAME Kluke, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kluke, Paul Otto Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and political publicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Dabendorf (Zossen)
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1990
Place of death Wiesbaden