The National Socialist German Lecturers League (''Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund'', also called ''NS-Dozentenbund'' , or abbreviated ''NSDDB''), was a party organization under the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
(the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Party).
Origin and purpose
The NSDDB emerged in 1935 from the
National Socialist Teachers League and was established on the basis of an order of the
Deputy Führer
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...
;
its purpose being, the exertion of influence on the universities and the political control of
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
. Massive influence was applied especially on appointments to staff positions.
[Hentschel, 1996, Appendix C; see the entry for the NSDDB] District leaders had a decisive role in the acceptance of an ''
Habilitationsschrift'', which was a prerequisite to attaining the rank of ''
Privatdozent
''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...
'' necessary to becoming a university lecturer.
[Hentschel, 1996, Introduction p. xxxvi ff.] The expulsion of the Jewish scientists from the universities was substantially carried out by the activists of the Lecturers League.
Leadership
In 1938 about a quarter of the
German higher education faculty was associated with the Lecturers League. The share of Lecturer League members was particularly high in the
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
faculties. The leadership ranks in the Lecturers League were strikingly often members (or graduates) of the medical faculty.
Like all Nazi organizations, the NSDDB was set up according to the "
leadership principle
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
". From the emergence of the institution until June 1944, the "Reich Lecturers Leader" was the
surgeon
In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...
,
Walter "Bubi" Schultze. For misconduct to the detriment of a
party member he was relieved of his office in 1944 by the
Nazi Party Court and replaced by "Reich Students Leader",
Gustav Adolf Scheel. Scheel was likewise a physician.
Schultze made clear how he intended to carry out his authority, after taking office in 1935. First, he caused all party members among the higher education teachers to register. For senior positions, he let it be known, it was not enough only to wear a party badge on the lapel, one must also be capable of "forcing the opposition to the wall". Besides the partisan feelings, the recognizable determination and talent to educate the youth in the Nazi spirit, the "
race question" should be above all a decisive factor in higher education. With his inauguration speech for the
Reichsuniversität Straßburg, in November 1941, Schultze declared the highest aim of the college to be: "to eradicate" everything "un-German" from "our people's world of thought".
Effectiveness
To anchor the national socialist ideology among the lecturers, four NS-Lecturer League scientific academies had already been set up. They were located at the Universities of
Giessen
Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...
,
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
,
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
and
Tübingen.
The NSDDB's so-called "training camp" was a special kind of scientific education that was supposed to take the place of old-style conventions, and aimed at bringing the participants
into line with the Nazi ideology.
The effectiveness of the Lecturers League was limited, for one thing, by the "office-holder confusion" typical of Nazism: the imprecise differentiation of the jurisdiction and competence of a position.
The NSDDB most frequently clashed with the
Amt Rosenberg
Amt Rosenberg (ARo, Rosenberg Office) was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. It was established in 1934 under the name of ''Dienststelle Rosenberg'' (''DRbg'', Rosenberg Depar ...
, which laid equal claim on higher education policy as its domain. Deputy-Führer Hess was an ally of the NSDDB in these conflicts.
Another factor limiting the effectiveness of the NSDDB was the often low regard for its leaders at the universities. Many had a reputation of wanting to compensate for their lack of scientific standing and expertise by means of excessive partisan zeal.
Many educators and lecturers evaded the pressure to alter their work; so that overall, the League was largely ineffective.
However, in the strongholds of Nazi teaching and research, such as Jena, Kiel and
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
, the League was more potent.
Literature
*
*
Helmut Heiber Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth.
From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood").
Helmut may refer ...
: ''Universität unterm Hakenkreuz''. Saur, München et al. 1991–1994, T. I: ; T. II, 1+2: .
*
* Hentschel, Klaus, editor and Ann M. Hentschel, editorial assistant and Translator Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Birkhäuser, 1996)
*
*
References
,
{{Authority control
Education in Nazi Germany
Education trade unions
1935 establishments in Germany
1944 disestablishments in Germany
Nazi Party organizations
Organizations established in 1935
Fascist trade unions