Introduction

Jewish scholars still internally visible at the end of 1937

A list of recipients for the announcement of Professor Stengel's entry into office, 02.12.1937

After 1933, the MGH owed their continued existence to the NS regime and became directly dependent on the favour of the dictatorship. This relationship was institutionalised through the co-option of the MGH together with the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rome and their restructuring as a so-called „Reichsinstitut“ in 1935. With the reforms, the Nazi leadership expected the MGH now to put their renown as an old and well respected institution of national historiography in the service of the „Führer“-state, providing it with historical legitimation by evoking lines of continuity with German imperial history since Charlemagne and reconstructing an autonomous, Germanic legal tradition.

At first glance, it seems therefore surprising that, in spite of the increasing exclusion and disenfranchisement of Jewish citizens after the enactment of the "Nuremberg Laws" in September 1935, the MGH continued to employ Jewish scholars with the knowing acquiescence of the Reichswissenschaftsministerium (Reich ministry of science). The explanation for this apparent contradiction is quite simple: the Jewish scholars were unreplaceable. Wilhelm Levison , for example, was an acknowledged expert for the Latin sources of the Merovingian Age. Together with his Jewish colleagues Ernst Perels and Josef Juncker, also university professors, Levison therefore continued to produce editions for the MGH even after their universities had forced them into retirement. The fact that they were allowed to continue working is thus no indication that the MGH provided a safe haven for non-Aryans. Rather, it shows that Wilhelm Engel, who directed the Reichsinstitut in 1936 and 1937, was first and foremost interested in getting the work done and wished to avoid problems that would endanger long-term MGH projects. As regards Engel's personal convictions, he not only freely joined the NSDAP but also became a member of the SS in May 1933. As a student he had already been a member of the „Deutschvölkisches Schutz- und Trutzbund“, one of the largest anti-Semitic organisations in the Weimar Republic.

Thus, under these conditions, Levison and his Jewish colleagues were included as members of staff in the list of addressees for the MGH internal memorandum dated to December 2 1937 announcing the succession of the history professor Edmund Ernst Stengel to the direction of the Reichsinstitut. Like Engel, Stengel publicly espoused his enthusiasm for Hitler and the NS state in 1933. Although he did not join the NSDAP until 1942, he exercised his office in close collusion with the regime and sought the support of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.

After the pogroms of the "Reichskristallnacht" on November 9 1938, the conditions of life and work for the Jewish scholars at the Reichsinstitut deteriorated. Shortly before, at the NSDAP convention in Nuremberg in September 1938, Adolf Hitler had clearly expressed his view that, in order to create a pure ethnic community (Volksgemeinschaft), it would be necessary to remove – or better to extinguish – the Jews from society. The names of Jewish editors were now by no means to appear in MGH publications and were not even to be included on internal lists. Henceforth began a policy of silence that continued until the end of the NS regime. Nonetheless, Levison and Perels quietly worked on for the MGH; the former even continued to do so after emigrating to England in April 1939 for reasons of his attachment to his native land and his work. He thus became an anonymous correction-editor for the publishing house Böhlau Verlag. In the Reichsinstitut, he and Perels became unnamed persons.

Transcription

2.12.37
Liste der Empfänger der Übernahme der Geschäfte durch Professor Stengel

Ehrenmitglieder:
Geheimrat Kehr
Geheimrat Heymann
Geheimrat Leidinger
Geheimrat Schröder
Geheimrat Schultze
Hofrat Redlich

Mitarbeiter in Berlin:
Dr. Lohmann Dr. Menzel
Dr. Erdmann Herr Fickermann
Dr. Weigle Professor Perels
Dr. Ertl Professor Strecker
Dr. v. Gladiß Dr. Jordan
Dr. Roethe Dr. Ohnsorge
Frl. Dr. Hüttebräuker
Dr. Bulst

Auswärtige Mitarbeiter:
Geheimrat Krusch Professor Heimpel
Professor Levison Professor Schramm
Professor Hofmeister Dr. Buchner
Professor Schmeidler Prof. Junker
Professor Zatschek
Professor Hirsch
Dr. Aßmann
Dr. Pivec
Professor Beyerle
Professor von Schwerin
Professor Voltelini
Dr. Klebel

Mitarbeiter in Rom
Professor Bock (Professor Tellenbach)
Dr. Hagemann (Professor Fink)
Dr. Kämpf
Dr. Loschelder
Dr. Opitz
Dr. Abert

An die Akademien in
Berlin
München
Heidelberg
Göttingen
Leipzig

Ferner an die Herren:
Professor W. Frank
Professor Mentzel
Direktor Zipfel
Professor Platzhoff
Professor Kötzschke
Professor Hoppe
Professor R. Holtzmann
Professor Th. Mayer
Geheimrat Brandi