Prelude to Gleichschaltung: The University of Heidelberg and the E.J. Gumbel Controversies,1924 and 1932

Abstract

This article examines the erosion of academic freedom at the University of Heidelberg on the eve of the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. This analysis focuses on the role of informal social norms and academic conventions in the decision to dismiss the radical pacifist and socialist E.J. Gumbel from the Heidelberg faculty in 1932. Despite Heidelberg’s reputation for intellectual tolerance and the public view of the University as a bulwark of liberalism, Gumbel’s colleagues, including pro-republican sympathisers, considered his activities an irresponsible violation of their own norms of appropriate behaviour. By incorporating an analysis of these norms in Gumbel’s dismissal we can enlarge our understanding of how the Heidelberg faculty, which tolerated a wide spectrum of political opinion within its ranks, fell into a pattern of responding to public assaults against academic freedom by expelling its most controversial member.