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The German Professor in the Third Reich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Gerhard Ritter
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Extract

As early as November 1943, in conversations with German refugees at Istanbul, I encountered again and again the question, asked with amazement: how was it possible in Hitler's Germany for me to publish such independent views on historical-political questions, as I had expressed in my writings and addresses, without suffering political persecution? After I was released from prison by the Russians at the end of April 1945, foreigners frequently asked me the same question. I shall attempt to give an answer, based simply on my own personal experience.

In November, 1944, I had been arrested by the Gestapo, not because of any statement I had made in my addresses, university lectures, or writings, but because of my friendship with Dr. Gördeler and my participation in conferences about a political-theological memoir dealing with the future reorganization of German and European politics. The Gestapo officials who arrested me all wore an SD (Security Service) on the sleeves of their uniforms.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1946 , pp. 242 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1946

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References

1 Dr. Gördeler was a Conservative opponent of the Nazis. If the attempted assassination of Hitler in July 1944 had been successful, the plotters intended to make Gördeler the new chancellor. Upon its failure he was executed.—The Editors.

2 The Security Service (SD) was a rather small force composed of absolutely reliable Nazis which Himmler had organized as a super-Gestapo for the protection of Hitler's regime.—The Editors.