Victor Klemperer (9 October 188111 February 1960) was a German scholar who also became known as a
diarist. His journals, published in Germany in 1995, detailed his life under the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
, the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
, the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, and the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**G ...
.
Those covering the period of the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
have since become standard sources and have been extensively quoted by
Saul Friedländer
Saul Friedländer (; born October 11, 1932) is a Czech-Jewish-born historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
Biography
Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He was raised in France and lived thr ...
,
Michael Burleigh
Michael Burleigh (born 3 April 1955) is an English author and historian whose primary focus is on Nazi Germany and related subjects. He has also been active in bringing history to television.
Early life
Michael Burleigh was born on 3 April 1955. ...
,
Richard J. Evans, and
Max Hastings.
Early life
Klemperer was born in
Landsberg an der Warthe
Landsberg may refer to:
* Landsberg (surname)
* Margraviate of Landsberg, a march of the Holy Roman Empire
* Palatinate-Landsberg, a state of the Holy Roman Empire
Places
* Landsberg (district), Bavaria, Germany
* Landsberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germa ...
(now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland) to a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish family. His parents were Dr. Wilhelm Klemperer, a
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
, and Henriette née Frankel. Victor had three brothers and four sisters:
* Georg, 1865–1946, physician, director of the hospital Berlin-
Moabit
Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood ...
(who treated
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
)
* Felix, 1866–1932, physician, director of the hospital Berlin-Reinickendorf
* Margarete (Grete), 1867–1942, married Riesenfeld
* Hedwig, 1870–1893, married Machol
* Berthold, 1871–1931, lawyer
* Marta, 1873–1954, married Jelski
* Valeska (Wally), 1877–1936, married Sussmann
Victor was a cousin to the conductor
Otto Klemperer
Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...
, and first cousin once removed to Otto's son, the actor
Werner Klemperer. In 1903 Klemperer converted to Protestantism for the first time, shortly thereafter returning to Judaism.
Victor Klemperer attended several
gymnasia. He was a student of philosophy,
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
and
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, Germa ...
at universities in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
,
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
from 1902 to 1905, and later worked as a journalist and writer in Berlin, until he resumed his studies in Munich from 1912.
Though not a religious man, Victor Klemperer needed a religious identity, as Jew, Christian or dissident, to support his academic career. He chose Christianity as being most compatible with his much stronger conviction of being German, and became baptised again in Berlin in 1912.
He completed his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
(on
Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the princi ...
) in 1913 and was
habilitated
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
under the supervision of
Karl Vossler
Karl Vossler (6 September 1872, in Hohenheim – 19 September 1949, in Munich) was a German linguist and scholar, and a leading Romanist. Vossler was known for his interest in Italian thought, and as a follower of Benedetto Croce. He declared his ...
in 1914. From 1914 to 1915, Klemperer lectured at the
University of Naples
The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...
, after which he became a decorated
military volunteer in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. From 1920 he was Professor of Romance Languages at the
Technical University of Dresden.
Third Reich
Despite his conversion to
Protestantism
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
in 1912 and his strong identification with German culture, Klemperer's life started to worsen considerably after the
Nazis' seizure of power in 1933. Under the 1933 Nazi "First Racial Definition", a person was defined as a
Mischling if they had one Jewish parent or grandparent, regardless of religious belief.
Klemperer's diary, which he kept up throughout the Nazi era, provides an exceptional account of day-to-day life under the tyranny of the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. Two of the three volumes of his diaries that have been published in English translations, ''I Will Bear Witness'' and ''To the Bitter End'', concern this period. This diary also details the Nazis' perversion of the German language for propaganda purposes in entries that Klemperer used as the basis for his postwar book ''
LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii''.
Klemperer's diary chiefly chronicles the restricted daily life of Jews during the Nazi terror, including the onset of a succession of prohibitions concerning many aspects of everyday existence, such as finances, transportation, medical care, the maintenance and use of household help, food and diet, and the possession of appliances, newspapers, and other items. He also gives accounts of suicides, household searches, and the deportation of his friends, mostly to
Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...
. Throughout his experience, Klemperer maintained his sense of identity as a German, expressing even in 1942 that "''I'' am German, and still waiting for the Germans to come back; they have gone to ground somewhere". Although this is one of the phrases most evocative of Klemperer's despair over the corruption of German culture, his sense of who and what was truly "German" evolved considerably during the war. Especially in the final weeks of the war and immediately after Germany's surrender, when Klemperer was free to mix and talk with (or eavesdrop on) a wide variety of Germans, his observations of the "German" identity show how complex this question was, and why it was so central to his purpose in writing the LTI and his journals.
In 1933, the
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Hitler Service (german: Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-es ...
was passed removing all non-Aryan professors from their profession, with the exception of those who had fought in World War I. This exception allowed Klemperer to continue in his position a little longer, although without the right to use the University library or other faculty privileges. However Klemperer was gradually forced out of his job and forced to retire. Although he was allowed to keep part of his pension, the money quickly ran out and he and his wife had to take cleaning jobs (this is unsubstantiated in his diaries).
Victor Klemperer's wife was not Jewish. She was an "Aryan" German, and her marriage to Klemperer allowed him to survive this period, as many intermarried Jews were able to. The Nazi Government could not effectively force people to divorce, so many intermarried Jewish and non-Jewish Germans stayed married, despite scrutiny by others. Intermarriage helped Victor Klemperer to survive, but brought down his wife's societal status.
The couple lost their right to drive and had to sell their car, and their housekeeper had to resign due to the law against Jews employing
Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...
women. Eventually the Klemperers were forced to put down their household cat, a tomcat named Muschel, because of a restriction as to Jews' ownership of pets. A Nazi law obliged every Jewish female or male to add Sarah or Israel, respectively, as a middle name on all official documents, allowing Jews to be identified as such whenever required to give their full name. (Klemperer dropped the "Israel" as soon as he could safely do so.) His wife, not Jewish, did not have to do this.
That same year, and subsequently, Klemperer was so dismayed with the spread of antisemitism, even among those who professed to be against the Nazis, that he from time to time entertained the possibility of fleeing to the US. A later diary entry—for April 10, 1940—records other problems with emigration: "Meeting with the emigration adviser of the Jewish Community, result less than zero: You really must get out—we see no possibility. American-Jewish committees support only observant Jews." But in the end his connection to his fatherland was too strong, even after
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
in November 1938, and the outbreak of war. During the pogrom later in November 1938 their house was searched by Nazis who found Klemperer's saber from World War I—he was arrested briefly and released. By this time he had come to concede that "No one can take my Germanness away from me, but my nationalism and patriotism are gone forever." This release can be attached to the fact that he had a German wife. Although the day after his arrest he wrote to his brother Georg asking for assistance in leaving Germany, in the end he did not do so.
Since his wife, Eva, was "
Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...
", Klemperer avoided deportation, often narrowly, but in 1940, he and his wife were rehoused under miserable conditions in a "Jews' House" (''Judenhaus'') with other "mixed couples". Here, and especially when he ventured out, or at factories where he was forced to work, he was routinely questioned, mistreated, and humiliated by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
,
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
members and Dresden citizens. Only because of his "Aryan" German wife were the couple able to procure food enough to subsist. In the diary, the much-feared Gestapo is seen carrying out daily, humiliating, and brutal house searches, delivering beatings, hurling insults, and robbing inhabitants of coveted foodstuffs and other household items. In addition, the diary relates the profound uncertainty all Germans—Jews and non-Jews—experienced because of the paucity of reliable information about the war's progress, largely due to the propaganda so central to the Reich's conduct of the war and of the
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
. Klemperer and his fellow Jews became aware only gradually of the nature of atrocities and scale of "extermination" at camps such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, even as they watched friends and neighbors deported and their risk of deportation mounted.
Margaret MacMillan
Margaret Olwen MacMillan, (born 1943) is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryerson Univer ...
. 2015
''History's People: Personalities and the Past''
House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
History
Anansi ...
pp. 327–43
Flight
On 13 February 1945, Klemperer witnessed the delivery of notices of deportation to some of the last remaining members of the Jewish community in Dresden, and feared that the authorities would soon also send him to his death. On the following three nights the
Allies heavily bombed Dresden for the first time, causing massive damage and a
firestorm
A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...
; during the chaos that followed, Klemperer removed his
yellow star (punishable by death if discovered) on 19 February, joined a refugee column, and escaped into American-controlled territory. He and his wife survived, and Klemperer's diary narrates their return, largely on foot through
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
and Eastern Germany, to their house in
Dölzschen, on the outskirts of
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
.
[Victor Klemperer. 1999. pp. 507, 574, 629] They managed to reclaim the house, which the Nazis had "
aryanised".
Post-war
After the war, Klemperer joined the communist
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...
, and was reinstated in a university post at
Leipzig University
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...
. His former friend, historian , who had severed connections with Klemperer upon his dismissal from the University of Dresden, welcomed him back as if nothing had happened.
He became a significant cultural figure in
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...
, lecturing at the universities of
Greifswald
Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
and
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hal ...
. He was a delegate of the
Cultural Association of the GDR
The Cultural Association of the GDR (german: Kulturbund der DDR, KB) was a federation of local clubs in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It formed part of the Socialist Unity Party-led National Front, and sent representatives to the Volksk ...
in the GDR's Parliament (''
Volkskammer
__NOTOC__
The Volkskammer (, ''People's Chamber'') was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as East Germany).
The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house w ...
'') from 1950 to 1958, and frequently mentions in his later diary his frustration at its lack of power and its largely ceremonial role.
Klemperer's diary was published in 1995 as ''Tagebücher'' (Berlin,
Aufbau
''Aufbau'' is a term which was used in publications from 1919 to 1947 in the German language. The term can be translated as "structure", "construction" or as "rebuilding", "reconstruction". Peter Galison advocated its use as a "keyword", in the s ...
). It was an immediate literary sensation and rapidly became a bestseller in Germany. An English translation of the years spanning the Nazi seizure of power through Klemperer's death has appeared in three volumes: ''I Will Bear Witness'' (1933 to 1941), ''To The Bitter End'' (1942 to 1945) and ''The Lesser Evil'' (1945 to 1959).
He also published ''
The Language of the Third Reich'', a study on the language of
Nazi propaganda
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...
.
In 1995, Victor Klemperer was posthumously awarded the
Geschwister-Scholl-Preis
The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which is awarded annually by the Bavarian chapter of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and the city of Munich. Every year, a book is honoured, which "shows intellectual independence and ...
for his work, ''Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten. Tagebücher 1933–1945''.
Documentary
In 2000,
Herbert Gantschacher
Herbert Gantschacher (born December 2, 1956, at Waiern in Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Carinthia, Austria) is an Austrian director and producer and writer.
Education
1976 Gantschacher graduated on the second school in Klagenfurt. From 1977 to 198 ...
wrote, together with Katharina and Jürgen Rostock, the documentary play ''Chronicle 1933–1945'' using original documents from the biographies of
Robert Ley
Robert Ley (; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician and labour union leader during the Nazi era; Ley headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, including ''Gaul ...
and Victor Klemperer. The first performance took place in 2000 in the documentation centre at the planned "
Strength Through Joy
NC Gemeinschaft (KdF; ) was a German state-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany. Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p. 197, It was part of the German Labour Front (german: link=no, Deutsche Arbeitsfront), the national labour or ...
" beach resort
Prora
The Colossus of Prora, commonly known as simply "Prora", is a building complex in the municipality of Binz on the island of Rügen, Germany. It was built by Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1939 as part of the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durc ...
on the island of
Rügen
Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...
in Germany.
In 2003,
Stan Neumann directed a documentary based on Klemperer's diaries, ''La langue ne ment pas'' (''Language does not lie''), which considers the importance of Klemperer's observations and the role of the witness in extreme situations.
See also
*
List of Holocaust diarists
Diarists who wrote diaries concerning the Holocaust (1941-1945).
* Mary Berg
* Hélène Berr - a French diarist
* Willy Cohn
* Adam Czerniaków
* Arnold Daghani
* Petr Ginz
* Zalman Gradowski
* Etty Hillesum - Dutch Jewish diarist and Hol ...
*
List of diarists
This is an international list of diarists who have Wikipedia pages and whose journals have been published.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
Z
Diaries of disputed authenticity
*The ...
*
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime
The Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime/Federation of Antifascists ( German: ''Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten'') (VVN-BdA) is a German political confederation founded in 1947 ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
Bartov, Omer, "The Last German", in ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', 1998-12-28, pp. 34+
**scholarly overview of Klemperer's diaries by a professor at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
*Klemperer, Victor, ''I Shall Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1933–41'', translated by
Martin Chalmers
Martin Chalmers (11 November 1948 – 22 October 2014) was a British translator, particularly of works in German. He was awarded the Schlegel-Tieck Prize by the Society of Authors. He was married to the German author, Esther Kinsky.
Translations ...
, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998
*Klemperer, Victor, ''To the Bitter End: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1942–1945'', translated by Martin Chalmers, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999
*Klemperer, Victor, ''The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1945–1959'', translated by Martin Chalmers, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003
"Victor Klemperer, Early life"at the Aufbau-Verlag website
"Victor Klemperer Kolleg, Berlin"
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klemperer, Victor
1881 births
1960 deaths
People from Gorzów Wielkopolski
People from the Province of Brandenburg
19th-century German Jews
Jewish philosophers
German Protestants
Converts to Protestantism from Judaism
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians
Members of the 1st Volkskammer
Members of the 2nd Volkskammer
Cultural Association of the GDR members
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members
German diarists
German philologists
German literary theorists
Propaganda theorists
German male non-fiction writers
Französisches Gymnasium Berlin alumni
University of Greifswald faculty
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg faculty
Humboldt University of Berlin faculty
German Army personnel of World War I
Holocaust survivors
Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin
Holocaust diarists
19th-century Prussian people
Leipzig University faculty
20th-century philologists