Michael Grüttner: Talar und Hakenkreuz

What prominent thought leaders such as Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt reveal about the universities in the Third Reich

In a comprehensive study, Berlin historian Michael Grüttner recapitulates the history of German universities under the swastika - the first comprehensive account of the subject.

For a long time, German universities saw themselves primarily as victims of National Socialist rule.

The universities that existed in Germany in 1933 were subjected to massive "purges". Many professors joined the party, some, like Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger tried to position themselves as pioneers of the Nazi regime.

Michael Grüttner describes the surprisingly silent takeover of power by the National Socialists and analyzes the regime's university policies, which affected the various disciplines in very different ways.

Michael Grüttner taught modern history in Hamburg, Berlin and Berkeley. Since his book "Students in the Third Reich" (1995), he has dealt intensively with the universities in the Third Reich and National Socialist academic policy. For the "Gebhardt", the most important handbook of German history, he wrote the volume on the Third Reich in the years 1933 - 1939 (2015).

Prof. Grüttner will present his book and his extensive research on the topic in conversation with Prof. Christoph Rass from the Department of Modern History and Historical Migration Research in the Zimeliensaal. We would like to thank the University Library and the University for their kind support.</p

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