Paul Schmitthenner (historian)

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Paul Ludwig Wilhelm Martin Schmitthenner (born December 2, 1884 in Neckarbischofsheim , † April 12, 1963 in Heidelberg ) was a German military historian. He was rector of Heidelberg University and Baden's minister of culture during the Nazi era .

Life

Paul Schmitthenner was one of four sons of the pastor and local poet Adolf Schmitthenner and his wife Aline, née Wagner. After graduating from the Kurfürst-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Heidelberg in 1904 , he served as a career officer, most recently as a general staff officer. After the end of the First World War he was retired as a major and studied history in Heidelberg. He was at Karl Hampe 1922. Dr. phil. is doing her doctorate with the thesis The Claims of the Nobility and People of the City of Rome for the Forgiveness of the Imperial Crown during the Interregnum . Schmitthenner joined the DNVP and was from 1925 to 1933 as a DNVP member of the state parliament of the Republic of Baden . In 1928 he completed his habilitation in Heidelberg (history of the war).

At the beginning of October 1933, Schmitthenner joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,626,083). In May 1933 he was appointed as a personal professor of history at the University of Heidelberg, without the involvement of the Philosophical Faculty, “with special consideration of the history of war and military science” and at the same time a member of the Baden state government. In mid-October 1934, Schmitthenner became a member of the SS , where he rose to SS-Brigadführer in 1944. For the party he worked from 1935 as a Gauredner, foreign speaker and imperial speaker . On November 1, 1938, he became rector of the University of Heidelberg, having received a chair the year before. In May 1940 he was entrusted with the business of the Baden Minister of Culture and Education by a Führer decree and was also the representative for cultural issues in Alsace. As rector in 1943 and 1944, he had the parents of the Minister of Armaments Albert Speer named honorary citizens of the university, because they made Speer what he is today through spiritual heritage and spiritual formation.

At the end of April 1945, Schmitthenner was dismissed from the university office by the military government. After the end of the war, Schmitthenner was interned until 1948. In the Soviet occupation zone , Schmitthenner's speeches were placed on the list of literature to be sorted out, all published by the Heidelberg publishing house Carl Winter in the series War Lectures of the University of Heidelberg, including:

  • "Speech to celebrate matriculation" ( speeches in the 1st trimester 1940 on January 30, 1940 , 1940),
  • "Speeches on the occasion of the presentation of the certificate of the appointment of State Secretary Friedrich Landfried as Honorary Senator of Heidelberg University" (held on June 14, 1941, published 1941),
  • "Speech to celebrate matriculation" ( Speeches on the occasion of the university's annual celebration on November 22, 1940 , 1941)
  • "Speech on the occasion of the appointment of Carl Krauch as Dr. rer, nat. hc der Universität Heidelberg "(held on November 8, 1941, published 1942)

Likewise his writings:

  • European history and mercenaries (Junker and Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1933),
  • World history from the Peace of Frankfurt to the present ( Velhagen & Klasing , Bielefeld 1933),
  • From the First to the Third Reich (Wagner, Freiburg 1935),
  • War and the State in World History ( Teubner , Leipzig 1936),
  • Politics and warfare in modern history (Hanseat. Verl. Anst., Hamburg 1937),
  • Folk military science ( Beltz , Langensalza 1937),
  • German soldierhood (Schaffstein, Cologne 1940),
  • Defense policy innovations in the current war ( Kohlhammer , Stuttgart 1941)
  • Resilient and free. The German Army from the Beginning to the Present (Beltz, Langensalza 1943).

In the German Democratic Republic this list was followed by his writings War and Warfare in the Course of World History (Athenaion, Potsdam 1929) and Prince Eugene of Savoy (Wagner, Freiburg 1936). His grave is in the Heidelberg Bergfriedhof.

literature

  • Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 152.
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
  • Leena Ruuskanen: The Heidelberg Bergfriedhof. Cultural history and grave culture. Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3924973458
  • Eike Wolgast : Ludwig Wilhelm Martin Paul Schmitthenner. In: Badische Biographien , New Series, Volume 3. Stuttgart 1990, pp. 239–243.
  • Ulrike Lennartz: A “Prussian” from Baden. Paul Schmitthenner, Minister of State of Baden . In: Michael Kißener , Joachim Scholtyseck (ed.): The leaders of the province. Nazi biographies from Baden and Württemberg . Konstanz 1997, pp. 623-653.
  • Viktor Fichtenau: Prof. Dr. Paul Schmitthenner: "University as a place of military-political education" , in: Täter Helfer Free Rider, Vol. 7: Nazi victims from North Baden + North Black Forest , ed. v. Wolfgang Proske , Gerstetten 2017, pp. 257–271.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon for National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 152.
  2. ↑ Folker Reichert: Learned life. Karl Hampe, the Middle Ages and the history of the Germans. Göttingen 2009, p. 280.
  3. ^ Badische Biographien, Volume 3, 1990, SW. 239
  4. ↑ in the occupation administration called "Department of Education" with the task of permanently eliminating French cultural influence in the country. According to: Robert Ernst (politician) , report, Bernard & Graefe 1954, p. 243
  5. ↑ quoted from Klee, Personenlexikon , p. 549.
  6. ↑ a b http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-s.html
  7. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-s.html
personal data
SURNAME Schmitthenner, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmitthenner, Paul Ludwig Wilhelm Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military historian, university professor, Baden Minister of Culture
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Neckarbischofsheim
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1963
Place of death Heidelberg