Tuesday
28 February 1933
Statement by Berlin University instructors in support of the Hitler regime
Only one month after Hitler took power, the Nazi Party increased its intervention in the affairs of German universities. In late February 1933, teachers at Berlin University received a letter appealing them to support the new government. It was sent by eight university teachers who regarded "the joining of national forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler as chancellor as the only way to overcome the country‘s economic and spiritual crisis."
But the signatories did not content themselves with merely expressing their views. They also called on their colleagues to sign the statement "in the belief that science and culture must be the pillars of any endeavor to raise Germany up." In supporting these principles, the undersigned embraced the politicization of the education system.
A few weeks later, on April 7, this politicization found radical expression in the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service," which led to the complete exclusion of Jewish professors from universities. Almost all were dismissed and their positions filled by non-Jewish scholars.
Michaela Roßberg
