Political College

The Political College , also known as the Political College for national-political school and educational work , was a teaching and research institute founded in Berlin in 1920 , in which young conservative circles, the June Club and the German National People's Party were involved.

The college was active in the field of political education and was designed as a German national counterpart to the German University of Politics, which is close to the German Democratic Party and supports the Weimar Constitution . For this purpose, it organized so-called national political courses and seminars, in which the participants were taught national-conservative ideas.

Origin and history of the Political College

The Political College emerged as part of the intellectual counterculture of German national character, which began to form shortly after the formation of the Weimar Republic with the support of the old financial elite of the previous empire. The idea of setting up a university-like institution to carry out national-conservative educational work had arisen as early as 1919 in the circle of the June Club and was championed in particular by Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm and Arthur Moeller van den Bruck . The idea, which at first only took shape slowly, quickly matured into concrete plans in 1920 after a liberal-democratic counterpart had been founded with the School of Politics initiated by Ernst Jäckh , which encouraged people to intensify their own efforts in order to compete not to fall behind with ideas.

Thanks to the support of powerful donors such as Hugo Stinnes and Albert Vögler mediated by Eduard Stadtler and Martin Spahn , the college was finally founded on November 1st, 1920.

In the further years of its existence, the college was financed primarily from large-scale industry and agriculture, who controlled the use of their funds by a board of directors. In addition to Spahn as the representative of the college management, this Board of Directors also included Paul Reusch , Ernst Borsig and Albert Vögler for industry, Joachim von Oppen-Dannewalde and Carl Graf von Behr for the Reichslandbund, Wilhelm von Gayl for the national associations, and Reinhold Quaatz for the DVP and Alfred Hugenberg and Friedrich von Winterfeld for the DNVP. With regard to the financing of the college work, Hugenberg was of particular importance, since the funds passed on to the college by its patrons in industry were first passed on to Hugenberg, who then distributed them to the college through his office. Joachim Petzold According to this had the tendency of the college means that this is "[...] becoming ever more hostile waters Hugenberg in the course of its development," the yes "at the source of money sitting."

Since 1925, the Political College began to decline rapidly: According to Pezinna, the background was that it was completely "burned out" in terms of personnel at the time: With the death of Moeller van den Bruck in May 1925, the institute became "a literary figurehead and a symbol" lost, while with the departure of Boehm, who also left the college in 1925 after quarrels with Spahn, in order to set up his own institute for border and foreign studies , the most highly respected researcher of the college left, in whose wake other employees such as Heinz Brauweiler emigrated. In addition, the former June club around Heinrich von Gleichen, who moved out of the shared building in Motzstrasse in 1925 and founded a new club with the men's club, distanced itself from the Political College that year, so that the college was out of the ring movement the young conservative intellectuals, who had originally grouped around the June club, left and were henceforth largely isolated. The private financing of the college ended in September 1927. Significantly, in that year a working group had to be entered into with the old antipode, the Hochschule für Politik, in which from then on, at the instigation of the German national finance minister von Keudell, it was financed from Reich funds. This purpose-related connection came to an end in May 1930 when the School of Politics terminated the working group after the college, contrary to what had been promised, stuck to its events directed against the Weimar state. In the last few years of its existence, the college was again supported by industry, but only led a shadowy existence at the universities due to its lost support. The final end took place in the spring of 1933, when, in the words of a biographer of Martin Spahn, “came in silently”.

Structure and organization of the college

The headquarters of the college was in the so-called Schutzbundhaus at Motzstrasse 22 in Berlin, where the Schutzbund for Border and German Abroad and the June Club were also based. The head of the Political College was taken over by the historian and politician Martin Spahn , who together with Rudolf von Broecker and Heinrich von Gleichen formed the institute's board of directors. Well-known employees of the teaching and training staff were Max Hildebert Boehm , Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and Walter Reusch . Moeller van den Bruck was particularly important as a figure for integrating the young conservative forces within the college with the old conservatives.

Since the originally planned broader expansion of the college could not be financed, Spahn and his employees initially created six workplaces, each dedicated to a specific focus topic and designed as cells from which "as it were [...] the organism of the Political College" should form. As think tanks, each job examined “a present-day distress of our nation”, ie a current political problem. Within this division of labor, Spahn himself took over, for example, the "Office for Foreign Policy", while Max Hildebert Boehm was in charge of the "Office for Nationality Problems". Boehm's workplace developed a strong public image: the results of her research included in particular Boehm's major works Europa Irredenta (1923) and Die deutschen Grenzlande (1925).

To complement the work of the college, the so-called University for National Politics was set up in 1922 and began teaching in autumn 1922. After this got into trouble in the second half of the 1920s, it was absorbed into the Political College in 1929.

literature

"The Political College", in: Berthold Petzinna: Education for the German lifestyle. Origin and development of the young, conservative "Ring" group. 1918-1933 , Berlin 2000, pp. 143-168 and pp. 215-219.

Individual evidence

^ Joachim Petzold: Conservative theorists of German fascism. Young conservative ideologues in the Weimar Republic as intellectual pioneers of the fascist dictatorship. 2., revised. u. supplementary edition, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1982, p. 131.
↑ Gabriele Clemens: Martin Spahn and Right Catholicism in the Weimar Republic (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series B: Research. Vol. 37). Grünewald, Mainz 1983, p. 168.

[1] Joachim Petzold: Conservative theorists of German fascism. Young conservative ideologues in the Weimar Republic as intellectual pioneers of the fascist dictatorship. 2., revised. u. supplementary edition, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1982, p. 131.

[2] Gabriele Clemens: Martin Spahn and Right Catholicism in the Weimar Republic (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series B: Research. Vol. 37). Grünewald, Mainz 1983, p. 168.