the secret germany of ernst kantorowitcz
DESCRIPTION
The Secret Germany of Ernst KantorowitczTRANSCRIPT
DAS GEHEIME DEUTSCHLAND (THE SECRET GERMANY)
After his brief hiatus from lecturing in the summer of
1933 Kantorowicz took up lecturing again at Frankfurt in
the fall He began with another Antrittsvorlesung
(inaugural lecture) as though he were starting afresh at
the university The fact that after having refused to
lecture for only one semester Kantorowicz chose to begin
winter semester 193334 with a new Antrittsvorlesung
suggests that the Nazi regime of power forced him to assume
a new intellectual posture It is true that I only
abandoned teaching for one semester he stated but the
momentous events of the last months justify that the
resumption of my office as a teacher be grasped as an
opportunity to present myself to my listeners anew112
Politically and intellectually Kantorowicz was a different
man than he had been when he wrote Frederick the Second in
the mid-1920s
He had not changed however in his view that the
university podium be used not only to instruct his students
academically but to shap~ them politically Of his
Antrittsvorlesung he said More than an explanation this
seeks to be a confession and why does one carry around
the title of Professor if one does not want in decisive
112 From Kantorowiczs unpublished essay Das Geheime Deutschland at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York p 1 Henceforth in this chapter page citations will appear directly in the text
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moments to have the courage to bear witness (p 1) And
courage it must have taken for Kantorowicz in late 1933 to
deliver this confession before an audience that almost
certainly contained SA and SS students But a servile
avoidance of confrontation was not a characteristic trait of
Kantorowicz You must not hope of me that I would cover up
chasms and with a clever turn of phrase avoid difficulties
when only one thing can serve the Germany of today and the
Germany of tomorrow clarity and an unshakable faith in the
eternal figures of this land and their promise (p 1)
Kantorowicz extolled a secret Germany which embodied an
anti-Third Reich it was a counter-Empire existing on a
transcendental plane which carried the true mission of
Germany when the external official government of Hitler
represented a sham perversion of Germanys imperial mission
Quoting Schiller at the Historiker Tag in 1930 Kantorowicz
had averred a truer transcendental Germany as opposed to
what he saw as a decadent Weimar Republic Indem das
politische Reich wankt hat sich das geistige immer fester
und vollkommener gebildet (In so far as the political
Empire wavered thespiritual Reich grew stronger and
fuller)113 Now that the Weimar Republic had collapsed
Kantorowicz turned again to the spiritual Reich this time
as a foil to a more terrible Nazi regime
113 Kantorowicz Limits Possibilities and Duties p 31
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Though his letters of 1933 present a man of amazing
self-confidence and tenacity of purpose in his inner life
Kantorowicz must have felt betrayed and alone and somewhat
fearful for his own well-being His calls for a new Fuhrer
had helped bring forth a base demagogue in Hitler (although
Hitlers full monstrousness had not yet been revealed) his
intellectual and spiritual mentor George was dying in
Switzerland the Circle was shattered and his closest
friend Uxkull had succumbed to the Nazi temptation In
this state of extreme solitariness Kantorowicz looked to a
realm of ideals for allegiance and for refuge The Secret
Germany provided an intellectual safehouse against the
Nazis It could not be conquered by violence The rulers
of the Secret Germany are immune to all weapons he stated
(p 5) Bitterly antagonistic to a regime which he was
powerless to attack directly Kantorowicz turned within
himself within his ideals for solace an inner
emigration
Das geheime Deutschland according to Kantorowicz
is the secret union of the poets and sages the heroes and
the saints the sacrificers and the martyrs who brought
Germany forth and offered themselves to Germany bull the union
which -- although they may appear alien in the meantime
still alone forms the true face of Germany1f (p 4)
Kantorowicz was not the first to write of a secret Germany
Already in the nineteenth century Julius Langbehn had
tr
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spoken of Rembrandt Beethoven and Goethe as the true
Emperors of the Secret Germany114 In the first Yearbook
for the Spiritual Movement (1910) Karl Wolfskehl wrote of
the secret Germany as the carrier of certain German still-
dormant forces in which the future most lofty Being of the
nation is already embodied 115 Das geheime Deutschland
was an undercurrent a force which embodied the genuine
Germany yet was obscured by the visible and tangible
Germany
Kantorowicz saw das geheime Deutschland as a living
spirit which fused the essential forces (Urmachte) of
Germanys past These Urmachte manifested themselves in the
lives of great poets heroes and sages These poets heroes
and sages were Gestalten figures imbued with a divinity a
godlike spirit which led their thoughts and actions to the
very limits of human experience To list the leaders of das
geheime Deutschland would be to list the figures about whom
the George Circle wrote Plato Caesar Frederick Dante
Shakespeare Goethe Holderlin Jean Paul Nietzsche Under
these titans in a hierarchically-ordered realm were
kleinere Sternen (littler start) such as the writers
Platen or Stifter Finally there were the knights of the
114 See Grunewald pp 77-80 and Stern The Politics of ~ultural Despair
115 Karl Wolfskehl Die Blatter fur die Kunst und die neuste Literatur in Jahrbuch fur die Geistige Bewegung (1910) p 15
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realm -- members of the George Circle like Kantorowicz
himself who preserved the secret Germany and would fight to
assert when the time dictated das geheime Deutschland in
the practical political life of Germany116
Das geheime Deutschland was populated mostly by poets
The George Circle and German intellectuals of the era in
general were devoted to the notion that poets could best
instruct for life 117 Poets rather than statesmen were
Germanys great leaders they held Max Kommerell a George
disciple expressed this view most explicitly in Der Dichter
als Fuhrer (1928) Many intellectuals of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Lagarde Langbehn
Moeller van den Bruck Dilthey and even walther Rathenau
were inclined to regard feelings and intuitions the
province of the poet as reliable guides for political
conviction and political action
Das geheime Deutschland was for Ernst Kantorowicz not
an abstraction of the best actions and ideas of Germanys
glorious past It was not a utopian dream but was
116 Das geheime Deutschland was not as Peter Gay has asserted a club to which new members were elected This view confused das geheime Deutschland with the George Circle itself The Circle saw itself as part of das geheime Deutschland as prophets of this transcendental realm but they did not comprise it In any case members were not elected to das geheime Deutschland nor to the George Circle Mechanisms such as frowned upon by George York 1968) p 48
elections and formal See Peter Gay
membership Weimar Cul
were ture (New
117 Lepenies op cit p 256
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
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DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
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KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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moments to have the courage to bear witness (p 1) And
courage it must have taken for Kantorowicz in late 1933 to
deliver this confession before an audience that almost
certainly contained SA and SS students But a servile
avoidance of confrontation was not a characteristic trait of
Kantorowicz You must not hope of me that I would cover up
chasms and with a clever turn of phrase avoid difficulties
when only one thing can serve the Germany of today and the
Germany of tomorrow clarity and an unshakable faith in the
eternal figures of this land and their promise (p 1)
Kantorowicz extolled a secret Germany which embodied an
anti-Third Reich it was a counter-Empire existing on a
transcendental plane which carried the true mission of
Germany when the external official government of Hitler
represented a sham perversion of Germanys imperial mission
Quoting Schiller at the Historiker Tag in 1930 Kantorowicz
had averred a truer transcendental Germany as opposed to
what he saw as a decadent Weimar Republic Indem das
politische Reich wankt hat sich das geistige immer fester
und vollkommener gebildet (In so far as the political
Empire wavered thespiritual Reich grew stronger and
fuller)113 Now that the Weimar Republic had collapsed
Kantorowicz turned again to the spiritual Reich this time
as a foil to a more terrible Nazi regime
113 Kantorowicz Limits Possibilities and Duties p 31
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Though his letters of 1933 present a man of amazing
self-confidence and tenacity of purpose in his inner life
Kantorowicz must have felt betrayed and alone and somewhat
fearful for his own well-being His calls for a new Fuhrer
had helped bring forth a base demagogue in Hitler (although
Hitlers full monstrousness had not yet been revealed) his
intellectual and spiritual mentor George was dying in
Switzerland the Circle was shattered and his closest
friend Uxkull had succumbed to the Nazi temptation In
this state of extreme solitariness Kantorowicz looked to a
realm of ideals for allegiance and for refuge The Secret
Germany provided an intellectual safehouse against the
Nazis It could not be conquered by violence The rulers
of the Secret Germany are immune to all weapons he stated
(p 5) Bitterly antagonistic to a regime which he was
powerless to attack directly Kantorowicz turned within
himself within his ideals for solace an inner
emigration
Das geheime Deutschland according to Kantorowicz
is the secret union of the poets and sages the heroes and
the saints the sacrificers and the martyrs who brought
Germany forth and offered themselves to Germany bull the union
which -- although they may appear alien in the meantime
still alone forms the true face of Germany1f (p 4)
Kantorowicz was not the first to write of a secret Germany
Already in the nineteenth century Julius Langbehn had
tr
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spoken of Rembrandt Beethoven and Goethe as the true
Emperors of the Secret Germany114 In the first Yearbook
for the Spiritual Movement (1910) Karl Wolfskehl wrote of
the secret Germany as the carrier of certain German still-
dormant forces in which the future most lofty Being of the
nation is already embodied 115 Das geheime Deutschland
was an undercurrent a force which embodied the genuine
Germany yet was obscured by the visible and tangible
Germany
Kantorowicz saw das geheime Deutschland as a living
spirit which fused the essential forces (Urmachte) of
Germanys past These Urmachte manifested themselves in the
lives of great poets heroes and sages These poets heroes
and sages were Gestalten figures imbued with a divinity a
godlike spirit which led their thoughts and actions to the
very limits of human experience To list the leaders of das
geheime Deutschland would be to list the figures about whom
the George Circle wrote Plato Caesar Frederick Dante
Shakespeare Goethe Holderlin Jean Paul Nietzsche Under
these titans in a hierarchically-ordered realm were
kleinere Sternen (littler start) such as the writers
Platen or Stifter Finally there were the knights of the
114 See Grunewald pp 77-80 and Stern The Politics of ~ultural Despair
115 Karl Wolfskehl Die Blatter fur die Kunst und die neuste Literatur in Jahrbuch fur die Geistige Bewegung (1910) p 15
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realm -- members of the George Circle like Kantorowicz
himself who preserved the secret Germany and would fight to
assert when the time dictated das geheime Deutschland in
the practical political life of Germany116
Das geheime Deutschland was populated mostly by poets
The George Circle and German intellectuals of the era in
general were devoted to the notion that poets could best
instruct for life 117 Poets rather than statesmen were
Germanys great leaders they held Max Kommerell a George
disciple expressed this view most explicitly in Der Dichter
als Fuhrer (1928) Many intellectuals of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Lagarde Langbehn
Moeller van den Bruck Dilthey and even walther Rathenau
were inclined to regard feelings and intuitions the
province of the poet as reliable guides for political
conviction and political action
Das geheime Deutschland was for Ernst Kantorowicz not
an abstraction of the best actions and ideas of Germanys
glorious past It was not a utopian dream but was
116 Das geheime Deutschland was not as Peter Gay has asserted a club to which new members were elected This view confused das geheime Deutschland with the George Circle itself The Circle saw itself as part of das geheime Deutschland as prophets of this transcendental realm but they did not comprise it In any case members were not elected to das geheime Deutschland nor to the George Circle Mechanisms such as frowned upon by George York 1968) p 48
elections and formal See Peter Gay
membership Weimar Cul
were ture (New
117 Lepenies op cit p 256
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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Though his letters of 1933 present a man of amazing
self-confidence and tenacity of purpose in his inner life
Kantorowicz must have felt betrayed and alone and somewhat
fearful for his own well-being His calls for a new Fuhrer
had helped bring forth a base demagogue in Hitler (although
Hitlers full monstrousness had not yet been revealed) his
intellectual and spiritual mentor George was dying in
Switzerland the Circle was shattered and his closest
friend Uxkull had succumbed to the Nazi temptation In
this state of extreme solitariness Kantorowicz looked to a
realm of ideals for allegiance and for refuge The Secret
Germany provided an intellectual safehouse against the
Nazis It could not be conquered by violence The rulers
of the Secret Germany are immune to all weapons he stated
(p 5) Bitterly antagonistic to a regime which he was
powerless to attack directly Kantorowicz turned within
himself within his ideals for solace an inner
emigration
Das geheime Deutschland according to Kantorowicz
is the secret union of the poets and sages the heroes and
the saints the sacrificers and the martyrs who brought
Germany forth and offered themselves to Germany bull the union
which -- although they may appear alien in the meantime
still alone forms the true face of Germany1f (p 4)
Kantorowicz was not the first to write of a secret Germany
Already in the nineteenth century Julius Langbehn had
tr
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spoken of Rembrandt Beethoven and Goethe as the true
Emperors of the Secret Germany114 In the first Yearbook
for the Spiritual Movement (1910) Karl Wolfskehl wrote of
the secret Germany as the carrier of certain German still-
dormant forces in which the future most lofty Being of the
nation is already embodied 115 Das geheime Deutschland
was an undercurrent a force which embodied the genuine
Germany yet was obscured by the visible and tangible
Germany
Kantorowicz saw das geheime Deutschland as a living
spirit which fused the essential forces (Urmachte) of
Germanys past These Urmachte manifested themselves in the
lives of great poets heroes and sages These poets heroes
and sages were Gestalten figures imbued with a divinity a
godlike spirit which led their thoughts and actions to the
very limits of human experience To list the leaders of das
geheime Deutschland would be to list the figures about whom
the George Circle wrote Plato Caesar Frederick Dante
Shakespeare Goethe Holderlin Jean Paul Nietzsche Under
these titans in a hierarchically-ordered realm were
kleinere Sternen (littler start) such as the writers
Platen or Stifter Finally there were the knights of the
114 See Grunewald pp 77-80 and Stern The Politics of ~ultural Despair
115 Karl Wolfskehl Die Blatter fur die Kunst und die neuste Literatur in Jahrbuch fur die Geistige Bewegung (1910) p 15
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realm -- members of the George Circle like Kantorowicz
himself who preserved the secret Germany and would fight to
assert when the time dictated das geheime Deutschland in
the practical political life of Germany116
Das geheime Deutschland was populated mostly by poets
The George Circle and German intellectuals of the era in
general were devoted to the notion that poets could best
instruct for life 117 Poets rather than statesmen were
Germanys great leaders they held Max Kommerell a George
disciple expressed this view most explicitly in Der Dichter
als Fuhrer (1928) Many intellectuals of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Lagarde Langbehn
Moeller van den Bruck Dilthey and even walther Rathenau
were inclined to regard feelings and intuitions the
province of the poet as reliable guides for political
conviction and political action
Das geheime Deutschland was for Ernst Kantorowicz not
an abstraction of the best actions and ideas of Germanys
glorious past It was not a utopian dream but was
116 Das geheime Deutschland was not as Peter Gay has asserted a club to which new members were elected This view confused das geheime Deutschland with the George Circle itself The Circle saw itself as part of das geheime Deutschland as prophets of this transcendental realm but they did not comprise it In any case members were not elected to das geheime Deutschland nor to the George Circle Mechanisms such as frowned upon by George York 1968) p 48
elections and formal See Peter Gay
membership Weimar Cul
were ture (New
117 Lepenies op cit p 256
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-------------- ----------------------
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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spoken of Rembrandt Beethoven and Goethe as the true
Emperors of the Secret Germany114 In the first Yearbook
for the Spiritual Movement (1910) Karl Wolfskehl wrote of
the secret Germany as the carrier of certain German still-
dormant forces in which the future most lofty Being of the
nation is already embodied 115 Das geheime Deutschland
was an undercurrent a force which embodied the genuine
Germany yet was obscured by the visible and tangible
Germany
Kantorowicz saw das geheime Deutschland as a living
spirit which fused the essential forces (Urmachte) of
Germanys past These Urmachte manifested themselves in the
lives of great poets heroes and sages These poets heroes
and sages were Gestalten figures imbued with a divinity a
godlike spirit which led their thoughts and actions to the
very limits of human experience To list the leaders of das
geheime Deutschland would be to list the figures about whom
the George Circle wrote Plato Caesar Frederick Dante
Shakespeare Goethe Holderlin Jean Paul Nietzsche Under
these titans in a hierarchically-ordered realm were
kleinere Sternen (littler start) such as the writers
Platen or Stifter Finally there were the knights of the
114 See Grunewald pp 77-80 and Stern The Politics of ~ultural Despair
115 Karl Wolfskehl Die Blatter fur die Kunst und die neuste Literatur in Jahrbuch fur die Geistige Bewegung (1910) p 15
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realm -- members of the George Circle like Kantorowicz
himself who preserved the secret Germany and would fight to
assert when the time dictated das geheime Deutschland in
the practical political life of Germany116
Das geheime Deutschland was populated mostly by poets
The George Circle and German intellectuals of the era in
general were devoted to the notion that poets could best
instruct for life 117 Poets rather than statesmen were
Germanys great leaders they held Max Kommerell a George
disciple expressed this view most explicitly in Der Dichter
als Fuhrer (1928) Many intellectuals of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Lagarde Langbehn
Moeller van den Bruck Dilthey and even walther Rathenau
were inclined to regard feelings and intuitions the
province of the poet as reliable guides for political
conviction and political action
Das geheime Deutschland was for Ernst Kantorowicz not
an abstraction of the best actions and ideas of Germanys
glorious past It was not a utopian dream but was
116 Das geheime Deutschland was not as Peter Gay has asserted a club to which new members were elected This view confused das geheime Deutschland with the George Circle itself The Circle saw itself as part of das geheime Deutschland as prophets of this transcendental realm but they did not comprise it In any case members were not elected to das geheime Deutschland nor to the George Circle Mechanisms such as frowned upon by George York 1968) p 48
elections and formal See Peter Gay
membership Weimar Cul
were ture (New
117 Lepenies op cit p 256
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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realm -- members of the George Circle like Kantorowicz
himself who preserved the secret Germany and would fight to
assert when the time dictated das geheime Deutschland in
the practical political life of Germany116
Das geheime Deutschland was populated mostly by poets
The George Circle and German intellectuals of the era in
general were devoted to the notion that poets could best
instruct for life 117 Poets rather than statesmen were
Germanys great leaders they held Max Kommerell a George
disciple expressed this view most explicitly in Der Dichter
als Fuhrer (1928) Many intellectuals of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Lagarde Langbehn
Moeller van den Bruck Dilthey and even walther Rathenau
were inclined to regard feelings and intuitions the
province of the poet as reliable guides for political
conviction and political action
Das geheime Deutschland was for Ernst Kantorowicz not
an abstraction of the best actions and ideas of Germanys
glorious past It was not a utopian dream but was
116 Das geheime Deutschland was not as Peter Gay has asserted a club to which new members were elected This view confused das geheime Deutschland with the George Circle itself The Circle saw itself as part of das geheime Deutschland as prophets of this transcendental realm but they did not comprise it In any case members were not elected to das geheime Deutschland nor to the George Circle Mechanisms such as frowned upon by George York 1968) p 48
elections and formal See Peter Gay
membership Weimar Cul
were ture (New
117 Lepenies op cit p 256
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
to
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
citations from text
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-------------- ----------------------
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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gegenwartig totlich-faktisch und seiend (present
deadly-factual and existent) (p 4) Belief in das geheime
Deutschland required a quasi-religious leap of faith The
secret Germany had existed tangibly on earth only fleetingly
in history during Fredericks reign for instance
Kantorowicz wrote to George in the late fall of 1933 The
stauffer had raised yes -- for the only time in German
history -- the secret Germany of that time ie the
ROMAN to the official Germany118 But after Fredericks
death at the onset of the Interregnum it again retreated
a snowy peak went into hibernation and drifted into
obscurity But for Kantorowicz it remained the true
legitimate leadership of Germany
Kantorowiczs depiction of the secret or true Germany
clashed with the National Socialist vision of what Germany
should be The rulers of the secret Germany were imbued
with the light the clarity and the humanism of the
Mediterranean region the spirit of Hellas which exudes
beauty freedom and nobility Kantorowicz saw Germanys
great spirits in Greeks Romans and Italians His praise of
these Mediterranean spirits pitted him against the Blut und
Boden chauvinism of the Nazis While the new regime pursued
Deutschtum as a guiding cultural principle and tried to
purify intellectual life of non-German elements
118 Kantorowicz letter of November 26 1933 to George QUoted in Grunewald p 127
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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Kantorowicz told his students that the greatest rulers of
Germany are actually not indigenous to the nation (p 11)
The heroes of das geheime Deutschland were
uberdeutsch an untranslatable term meaning roughly moreshy
than-German or beyond-German These heroes were vitally
tied to the development of Germany yet had a universal
significance The ancient Greeks Kantorowicz said
manifested the most primary forces in western Civilization shy
the Apollonian and the Dionysian In these two forces
the Greeks laid the foundation of das geheime Deutschland
From Rome Germany inherited her mission of Empire The
saints of Christendom joined the Greeks and Romans as
guiding forces of the German spirit
But whereas other nations emerged from the Middle Ages
with national saints such as Frances Saint Louis or
Hungarys Saint Stephen Kantorowicz explained the Middle
Ages left Germany no national saints Furthermore just as
the seeds of Dantes Humana Civilitas began to take root in
Germany Luther cut Germany off from the wellspring of
Western Civilization from Rome For Kantorowicz Luthers
split from Rome marked the advent of Germanys Sonderweg
(and Kantorowicz truly believed in a Sonderweg) the
beginning of a particularly German national consciousness
much to the detriment of her pan-European imperial mission
Luther not only cut Germanys umbilical cord to her Latin
mother he brought about the split of the Germans themselves
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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into two faiths Luthers revolt marked for Kantorowicz the
disintegration of the Reich concept and the beginning of
German tragedy CM Bowra recalls Kantorowicz maintaining
IIthat all the trouble began with Luther119
In Frederick the Second Kantorowicz had made explicit
the George Circles view that Germany was crude and barbaric
without the refining Latin touch On July 4 1933 in a
letter to George he repeated this notion that Germany
simply became ugly as it became un-mediterranean (als es
sich entmediterranisierte)120 Southern spirits rule das
geheime Deutschland Greeks Romans and Germans who either
lived before or rejected Luthers Nordic creed eg
Frederick or Holbein or post-Luther Germans who overcame
the isolation of the North and breathed divine Mediterranean
air -- Goethe Holderlin Wincklemann and Nietzsche for
example
A provincial German intolerance for the uberdeutsche
figures always existed said Kantorowicz liThe greatest
geniuses were always regarded as un-German because they
resisted all attempts to strike a cheap uniformity that
people at that time cons ideredlt German (p 1 4) Goethe
was once seen as foreign an enemy of our fatherland a
priest on a false altar1I (p 13) German history texts
119 Bowra Memories p 124
120 Kantorowicz letter of July 4 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 122
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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complained of Frederick the Second but he wasnt a
German Holderlin and Nietzsche were alien to the
provincial German spirit and vehemently approached their
countrymen
All these leaders of das geheime Deutschland were
uniquely German not some pan-European mischmasch as
Kantorowicz said but they transcended the narrow
chauvinistic face of Germanness -- they were German in a
higher universal sense Their Germanness manifested itself
in the very non-German universality of their characters As
Nietzsche asserted to become more German one must rid
himself of his Germanness121 By showing that these
uberdeutsche figures never conformed to the conventions of
their times that they were alwaysscorned as alien by their
unenlightened contemporaries Kantorowicz hoped to awaken in
his students minds the realization that the Nazis were not
German patriots but in fact antithetical to the true
Germany
Among Kantorowiczs listeners there were undoubtedly
some students who like him inwardly despised the Nazis -shy
students whose moral fiber would not permit them to be swept
up by the wave of chauvinistic jubilation which accompanied
the Nazi advent to power But in the National Socialist
state their inner conviction that the Nazis were criminal
121 Quoted in Kantorowiczs Das Geheime Deutschland p 17
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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could find no outward mode of expression These students
who refused to succumb to the Nazis and it was primarily to
them that Kantorowicz addressed Das geheime Deutschland
had to endure extreme loneliness for in a terroristic state
it was nearly impossible for them to form bonds with likeshy
minded students They had to cope with gnawing self-doubt
wondering if perhaps their hostility to the new regime
which promised a German renewal put into question their
loyalty to their fatherland They were under tremendous
pressure to conform as they witnessed both an ecstatic sense
of community and comradeship among the Nazi supporters and
the fearful consequences of non-conformity
To these students Kantorowicz hailed das geheime
Deutschland It was a transcendental outlet where these
students could pour their anti-Nazi sentiments a realm of
the mind where solitary resisters to Nazism could make
connections could find kindred spirits To the anti-Nazi
student of late 1933 who lived in utter political
isolation Kantorowicz sought to provide a sense of
allegiance an allegiance which the Nazi state police could
not penetrate and smash To these students Kantorowicz said
in effect You are not alone You are scorned by the
tangible Germany of today as were other great Germans by
the tangible Germany of their time But along with them you
form the true Germany no matter how ugly the official
Germany may become Hold out against the temptation of
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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National Socialism and know that rather than Nazi comrades
you have Frederick Dante Goethe and Nietzsche as your
brethren
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
DEUTSCHES PAPSTTUM
(THE GERMAN PAPACY)
All historians embrace to some degree the notion that
the past can illuminate the present Kantorowicz believed
this intensely He saw historical situations as repeating
themselves and believed in recurring epochs
(wiederkehrender Epochen) In 1933 he studied the
Interregnum period because he saw the period as analogous to
his own day -- since a constructive theme today could only
lead to confusion Im lecturing about the Destruction of
the Middle Ages even about the Interregnum he wrote to
George in 1933 122 Kantorowiczs choice of themes during
his early career seems a barometer of his personal concerns
and convictions
In his 1933 essay Deutsches Papsttum Kantorowicz
suggested that the two essential and antithetical strains in
the Germans -- the national and the universal -- are to be
found in their medieval church history Unlike other
European nations most obviously England Germany never
succeeded in building a national church Rather Protestant
Germanys schism from Rome resulted in the disintegration of
Germany herself According to Kantorowicz Germanys
attempts to establish a national church to cut itself off
from the universal Roman heritage led to disaster -- the
122 Kantorowicz letter of November 28 1933 to George Quoted in Grunewald p 127
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
n Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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ruin of the German Reich This for Kantorowicz was the
tragedy of German history -- at the height of her imperial
glory and power Germany sought a new self-definition a
purely German religion and in choosing the national strain
over the universal caused her own downfall Kantorowicz
saw this tragedy played out in the Middle Ages and saw it
repeated in his own time
In 1935 Southwest Radio in Germany broadcast a reading
of Deutsches Papsttum The circumstances of this
broadcast are remarkable The director of Southwest Radio
in Frankfurt Walter Beumelberg who was anti-Nazi offered
the 31 year-old Wolfgang Frommel a managing position at
Southwest Radio Wolfgang Frommel (a pseudonym for Lothar
Helbing) was a budding poet and journalist and belonged to
the wider circle around the poet Stefan George 123 Although
he was never in the George Circle Frommels friends
included many Circle members such as Kantorowicz Percy
Gothein Woldemar von Uxkull (who had by 1935 backed off
from his initial endorsement of the Nazis) Ernst Morwitz
and Ernst Gundolf the younger brother of Friedrich Gundolf
(Friedrich Gundolf had died in1931) Frommel accepted the
broadcasting job provided that he would not be required to
join any party organization
123 See Arvid Brodersen Deutsche Freundschaften in bastrum Peregrini 173-4 (1987) p 27
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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At Southwest Radio Frommel organized the Mitternachtshy
sendugnen (Midnight Broadcasts) in which German
intellectuals such as Arnold Bergsrasser Max Kommerell
Walter F otto Kurt Riezler Karl Reinhardt Carlo Schmidt
and Woldemar von Uxkull read lectures on historical or
literary topics 124 Jewish intellectuals such as Hans
Joachim Shoeps Herlint von den Steinen Bergstrasser and
Kantorowicz could not read on the German radio so their
essays were read over the air under pseudonyms
Kantorowiczs Deutsches Papsttum was broadcast on February
22 1935 under the pseudonym of Gerd Hermann
Frommel had begun the Midnight Broadcasts in August
1933 as a series entitled Vom Schicksal des Deutschen
Geistes (Of the Fate of the German Spirit) He assumed
that the broadcasts taking place on Friday evenings from
midnight until one oclock would escape censorship because
of both the late hour and the esoteric subjects of the
lectures -- The Decline of Sparta Frederician
Pessimism or the German Papacy for example
Ironically it was the mention of these broadcasts in a
Basel newspaper which tipped off the Gestapo that the
broadcasts were often criticisms of the Nazi regime shrouded
in an academicians lecture 125 Frommel even succeeded in
124 Grunewald p 131
125 See the notes to Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 68
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
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publishing the lectures in the collection Vom Schicksal des
Deutschen Geistes in the publishing house Der Runde in
Berlin in 1935 126 Kantorowiczs lecture like others in
the Midnight Broadcast series was carefully phrased in
order to levy criticisms behind the veil of humanistic
studies of the German chauvinism propagated by Hitlers
regime
Kantorowicz who was always at ease in using works of
art as historical evidence begins his essay with a
description of the tombs of the German Emperor Henry II
(973-1024) and the German Pope Clement II (-1047) in
the Bamberg Cathedral These tombs symbolize for
Kantorowicz the universality of the medieval empire an
empire which embraced all peoples and races
The grave of a holy Emperor and a German Pope symbolizes the medieval world-order in its fullness an order which united in its walls the Frankish horseman and the Galilean Sibyl the noble figures of a triumphant ecclesia and the synagogue laden with sadness It is ancient but
126 Frommel had a fascinating career He worked as a radio broadcaster from 1933 until 1937 first at Southwest Radio then at the Reichssender in Berlin Disgusted with the Nazi regime he moved to Amsterdam in 1937 where his house became a safe haven for Jews during the war He was in contact with the men behind the July 20th plot to kill Hitler After the war Fromme I along with Wilhelm Fraenger and Carl August Klein (who had co-edited the Blatter fur die Eynst together with George as early as 1892) founded the journal Castrum Peregrini The journal devotes itself primarily to Georgeana -- writings by and concerning George and Circle -- and to wider humanistic subjects
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
citations from text
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it is at the same time a new cult-place the Delphi for the few Germans who know of Apollo127
Those few Germans who know Apollo are the members of the
Circle who renounced Hitler members of das geheime
Deutschland those Germans who preserved Germanys true
universal mission in that most xenophobic time 1933
For Kantorowicz the spirit and the intellect not
blood and race determine ones nationality and culture
This view is born out in his very vocabulary He writes of
Entdeutschung Verromerung Verdeutschunq
Mediterranisierung German or Roman characteristics can be
acquired they are not racially determined Kantorowicz
implied Frederick the Second for example was for
Kantorowicz (and in his own mind) a Mediterranean ruler a
Roman although his blood was German and Norman Likewise
Kantorowicz considered himself a German his Jewish ancestry
notwithstanding
The medieval empire was intextricably linked to the
papacy The Emperor and the Pope represent the dual rulers
of the Gods universal kingdom Kantorowicz held The Papal
See may be occupied by men of all nations but it always
remains a Roman papacy For Kantorowicz Roman was only a
more picturesque word for universal the total ecumenism
that encompasses the populated world (p 8) When Clemens
127 Kantorowicz Deutsches Papsttum in Castrum Peregrini 12 (1953) p 7 Henceforth in this chapter page
this article will appear directly in the
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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II ascended the Papal Throne in 1047 the Germans became
Trager der weltreichsidee (carriers of the world-empire
idea) Clemens signalled the Romanizing of the Germans
the becoming-universal of the Germans1I (p 9) One need
only to have read the following sentence of Kantorowiczs
with proper nuances to reveal his implicit criticism of the
chauvinistic Germany of his day IIOnce before even Germany
was Roman that is to say universal and world-
embracing (p 7) Kantorowicz maintained that as Germanys
grandeur increased Germany became universal and truly
imperial precisely when it dispensed with its narrow view of
Germanness and embraced non-German cultures in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism He wished his listeners to infer that
Hi tIer by purging Germany of its non-Germanl elements was
not leading the nation to imperial greatness but to
provincial diminution
Pope Clemens II represented for Kantorowicz the tension
between the national and the universal orientation of the
Germans He was elected as universal Pope but oddly
remained a German imperial prince (deutsche Reichsfurst)
during his brief pontificate German provincialism stood in
conflict with the universal pull of the Roman Papacy_
Kantorowiczs condemnation of German provincialism is not
limited to his treatment of Clemens II he goes beyond his
historical topic to make a general criticism of the Germans
No German papacy was possible -- and this because the Germans themselves only in their rarest
b
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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moments or in their most extraordinary offspring are at once German and universal at once German and European Manifested not for the last time are the two constantly recurring German strains -shyand you may call them what you will -- their demonic quality and confirm the rulethat in German history there is always a virtue which at the last moment stands in opposition to imminent tragedy (p 20)
The leaders of das geheime Deutschland -- Frederick
Goethe Wincklemann Nietzsche George -- are those rare
offspring who are both German and universal German and
European Kantorowiczs belief in the demonic in the
Germans had its antecedents in his portrayal of Frederick
and in the writings of Nietzsche Here he sought to point
obliquely at the National Socialists as demonic Yet he
held out the hope for resistance A virtue which
Kantorowicz did not name would at the last moment seek to
save Germany from herself As in IIDas Geheime Deutschland
Kantorowicz sought to strengthen and reassure potential
resisters to Hitler that they were not traitors to the
fatherland but in fact the most virtuous of Germans
Kantorowicz recounted how after Clemens IIs death the
Emperor looked to the left bank of the Rhine to Burgundy
for a new Pope He chose Bishop Bruno of Toul who ascended
the Papal Throne as Leo IX Leo IX represented a German
Pope for Kantorowicz but of a different kind than Clemens
II Leo was europaisch aufgeschlossener (more open to
Europe) (p 16) he had no position of German prince and
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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-106shy
placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-107shy
of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-108shy
German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-------------- ----------------------
-106shy
placed the universal dictates of the Roman Papacy before
national concerns
Thus the two strains of medieval German church history
were revealed in Clemens II and Leo IX the national
German-oriented church and the universal Roman church The
Germans according to Kantorowicz already in the twelfth
century conceived of establishing a new German Rome in Mainz
or Trier a German Catholic Church independent of Rome
Indeed Barbarossa who spoke of such a church may in this
sense be seen as a precursor to Luther But by breaking off
from Rome Germany would have deprived herself of the very
light which had nourished her As Pope Pius II wrote to the
Chancellor of Mainz the Roman Church drove the barbarism
from you so that even the Greeks seem barbarians while you
must be regarded as complete Latins If you wanted to be
truthful you would admit that Rome and the apostolic seat
brought you the saving religion and taught you to abandon
pagan-worship and to pray to the true God the God of
Israel That is worth more than gold and silver (p 20)
There is a delicious irony in Kantorowicz a Jew extolling
through the voice of Pius II the God of Israel to the
Germans in 1933
Kantorowicz believed that Germany would sink into
barbarism without the refining Latin touch In Deutsches
Papsttum Kantorowicz cited other Germans who foresaw
disaster in a German break from Rome The mystic Hildegard
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-107shy
of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-108shy
German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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of Bingen amidst the tremendous rise of Barbarossas power
grimly foretold of the dissolution of the Imperium And
amidst the nationalistic rejoicing following the German
triumph in 1871 two Germans Burckhardt and Nietzsche
living in Basel a German town deeply influenced by the
Latin culture saw in the German victory the beginning of a
German disaster
Kantorowicz suggested that German nationalism was
partly a product of German arrogance deriving from Ge~manys
great power and at the same time of a German feeling of
inferiority One motive for the Germans desire to break
from Rome in Barbarossas time was according to
Kantorowicz the fact that the Germans despite their
power felt scorned by the Guelfs1I (p 22) This line
hauntingly suggests the strange dilemma that Germany found
herself in after 1871 -- despite their strength Germans
were universally scorned or more exactly perceived
themselves as scorned
Kantorowicz saw the German experience in the twentieth
century mirrored in her experience in the High and Late
Middle Ages As German imperial power reached its pinnacle
in the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties the pull towards a
more narrowly German church sowed the seeds of disaster
Kantorowicz drew implicitly a parallel with Germany after
1871 when Germany ascended to predominance in Europe But
Bismarcks was not the true European empire the Romanoshy
I Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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German empire but a Nordic empire born of German civil
war as Kantorowicz wrote in Frederick the Second It was a
Deutsches Reich Preussischen Nation rather than the
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation for which Kantorowicz
yearned Divorced from its Latin roots this German empire
groped for a national religion all the while drawing back
from Germanys universal heritage and moving towards a
narrowly Germanic creed
Hitlers bastard religion mingling racism and a warped
idea of Deutschtum was antithetical to everything universal
in the Germans which Kantorowicz sought to extol It was
against this chauvinistic quasi-religion National
Socialism that Kantorowicz leveled his attack in Deutsches
Papsttum But Hildegard of Bingens gloomy prophecy of the
disintegration of the Empire trenchant in her own time was
refulfilled in this wiederkehrende Epoche for like Luther
Hitler in the end achieved no national religion but in
1945 the division of Germany
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
KANTOROWICZS LAST YEARS IN EUROPE 1934-1938
Just one month after Kantorowicz had given his lecture
on The Secret Germany Nazi students organized an
effective boycott of his classes He gave his last lecture
on December 11 1933 128 That winter Kantorowicz who was
still entitled to an academic leave of absence left for
Oxford In many ways this marked Kantorowiczs real
emigration although he did not permanently leave Germany
until late in 1938 The role he had desired for himself in
German society that of a scholar vitally involved in the
political fate of the nation a shaper of a new generation
of Germans who would lead the nation to greatness would
never be realized The ensuing months during which Hitler
consolidated his hold on power confirmed for Kantorowicz
that the Germany he had grown up in was gone forever the
Germany he had envisioned in Frederick the Second an
illusion
English culture was foreign to him apart from his
contact as a child with his English governess whom he had
disliked he had had little exposure to English ways But
he rather quickly developed an affection for Oxford and for
the British Sir Maurice Bowra a lecturer in classics at
New College Oxford where during winter 1933-34 Kantorowicz
gave a series of lectures on the secularization of the
Middle Ages became Kantorowiczs closest friend at Oxford
128 Grunewald p 128
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
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and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-110shy
His accounts of Kantorowicz during the 1930s add a very
personal facet to a portrait of this man
He was not like any Germans I had met and above all not pompous or dictatorial He talked English fluently with many mistakes and bold improvisations on the principle that most French words can be used in English if they are pronounced suitably Thus he would speak of my brother-in-law the medicine or of physicists as physicians Though he was a professor at Frankfurt he was not in the least professorial had an excellent sense of humor and picked up the atmosphere with extraordinary speed I was much taken by him and when we went away together he talked about poetry with real perception When Tom Boase of Hertford took him and myself to Stratford to see Julius Caesar Ernst was fascinated by it and during the harangues in1~~e forum muttered Dr Goebbels Dr Goebbels
The Nazis abuse of Stefan Georges art and his notions
of a New Reich had not shaken Kantorowiczs affection for
the master He always maintained that he who thought the
beautiful idea could not be held responsible for its abuse
by others 130 Of Kantorowicz at Oxford Bowra writes
At Oxford Ernst still reflected Georges teaching He was liable to talk about a thing called secret Germany which though meaningful enough in German lacked real substance in English More importantly he had a real love for Greek poetry and Greek art and for some parts of English poetry about which he wished to know more Modern movements hardly touched him and he saw nothing in Rilke whose large vogue in England had already begun George had also taught him something about France but outside the Middle Ages and some poets of the nineteenth century it did not appeal to him perhaps because his knowledge of the language was faulty He shared other of Georges tastes for good food and good drink for everything
129 Bowra Memories p 286
130 This was related to me by William Chaney
pound SampL = gt Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grunewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-111shy
Italian for the cinema but not for the theatre for bold ideas which made familiar facts less dull and for pungent gossip Like George he liked male society but unlike him was much attached to a few women friends and on this ~~tnt the Master had not been too pleased with him
Kantorowicz returned to Germany in July 1934 Though
he adapted well to life in England he did not feel
compelled in 1934 to take up permanent residence there He
undoubtedly knew that his teaching days at Frankfurt were
over Yet he applied to have his academic leave extended
until the end of summer semester 1935 in order that he
pursue his scholarship in Oxford London and Rome 132 His
request was granted but the following month on August 20
1934 the Nazi authorities issued a law requiring all
university professors to take an oath of loyalty to Adolf
Hitler Kantorowicz abhorred the thought and used the
occasion to retire from the university He wrote to the
university rector
Since for the foreseeable future I will be prevented from lecturing and therefore unable to perform the duties of my office in the desired manner and since this state of uncertainty which a leave of absence would only extend cannot be in the interests of the philosophical faculty I now ask to join the ranks of the retired professors of the University of Frankfurt and to become a professor emeritus1~3fore the beginning of winter semester 193435
131 Bowra Memories p 290
132 Grlinewald p 141
133 Kantorowicz letter of October 14 1934 Quoted in Grunewald p 139
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-112shy
Kantorowicz succeeded in having himself named professor
emeritus and regularly received a small pension as such
Astonishingly he continued to receive this pension even
after he went into exile 134
Barring the fall of Hitlers regime Kantorowicz knew
that it would be difficult to do any work in Germany but
the hostility he met from a Nazified general populace took
him by surprise Kantorowicz was an unmistakably Jewish
name and Kantorowicz had a very Jewish face thus he likely
met malice from Germans merely because of his looks or from
strangers to whom he had to provide for whatever reason
his name Bowra who visited Kantorowicz in Germany several
times during the 1930s writes He suffered deeply from
finding out that as a Jew he was thought different from
other Germans and once or twice he had awkward scenes in
restaurants when the waiters were offensive to him and the
only thing to do was leave at once 135 For a proud uppershy
class man like Kantorowicz such personal insults to his
honor stung more than the anti-Semitic laws issued by the
government
Kantorowicz stayed in Heidelberg after his return to
Germany with the Baroness Lucy Wangenheim the half-sister
of his old friend Woldemar von Uxkull-Gyllenband In late
1934 or early 1935 Kantorowicz moved to Berlin for as
134 Grunewald pp 139-40
135 Bowra Memories p 294
---~------~~--~~-----~~~
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-113shy
this stormbird himself once said When there is a storm
one must go to the eye of it 136 In Berlin Kantorowicz
read a great deal and was still permitted to work at the
Monumenta Germanaie Historica since the director of this
institution Paul Kehr was a close friend of his As a
Jew however he could not hope to publish in Germany and
perhaps for this reason as well as because of restrictions
placed on him by other research institutions in Germany his
work on the Interregnum fell by the wayside Bowra writes
of these years in Berlin He was beginning to move away
from the doctrines which he had learned from Stefan George
and regarded his own ultra-patriotic activities in 1919 as
an aberration He was even capable of doubts about his old
hero Frederick II but decided that brutality based on
metaphysics was better than brutality for its own sake 137
Perhaps 1934 marks a watershed in Ernst Kantorowiczs
life more so than his receipt of Woldemar von Uxkulls proshy
Nazi speech as Edgar Salin has suggested Out of necessity
Kantorowicz was forced to assume a low profile to retreat
into his private life to abandon the activism which had
characterized his earlier career As was earlier the case
Kantorowiczs scholarly work at this time reflected his
contemporary concerns His article Die Widerkehr Gelehrte
Anchorese in Mittelatter (liThe Return of Learned Anchorites
136 This was related to me by William Chaney
137 Bowra p 294
IJI1HLJiJJJQik 4JeUJd M1LUkkXLlijiU4ik St~k au
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-114shy
in the Middle Ages) written in the mid-1930s dealt with
the medieval revival of the tradition of the secluded
scholarly life Kantorowicz saw a parallel between the
retreat of the sages into solitude during the High Middle
Ages and his own inner emigration during the 1930s
Loneliness is alien to the wise -- but certainly not always external retreat from the world He who lives isolated is according to Aristotle less than a man an animal or more than a man a god It would have been hubris in Aristotles time to separate oneself from other men And the ability to find men among men not to seek isolation served the most radiant and godly of the Hellenistic sages 1we~ das Tiefste gedacht liebt das Lebendigste
With a few exceptions the opportunity to meet the most vital thinkers in the Palastra or Agora was denied the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages the true life had retreated to other worlds and the sage who philosophized at symposia and joked through the night would not longer have been considered a sage The sage was r~g devout ascetic who renounced the world
Like the secluded scholars of the Middle Ages Kantorowicz
had abandoned the public stage Rather he was forced to the
very fringes of society to a solitary life of the mind
History comforted him in his loneliness As he had in Das
Geheime Deutschland Kantorowicz saw a kinship between his
From Holderlins poem Socrates und Alcibiades Holderlin an eighteenth-century German poet profoundly shaped by the example of Ancient Greece was deeply admired by the George Circle Stefan George has rightly received much of the credit for reviving in this century an interest in Holderlins poetry
138 Ernst Kantorowicz Die Wiederkehr gelehrter Anchorese in Mittelalter in Ernst Kantorowicz Selected Studies (Locust Valley NY 1965) p 339
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-115shy
contemporary trials and tribulations and those suffered by
his heroes of the past By examining the inner emigration
of Abelard and Petrarch he sought to understand his own
experience and to make it more bearable
By 1937 Kantorowicz was exploring the possibilities of
leaving Germany He succeeded in having a long article on
Frederick IIs closest advisor IIPetrus di Vinea in England
(1938) published in Vienna and he also gave several
lectures in Austria that year Kantorowicz had made use of
his opportunity to travel during the years 1934-37 by going
to archives and libraries in Brussels Paris Venice and
Mantua to collect documents for a study of the Dukes of
Burgundy His friend Count Albrecht von Bernstorff had
secured some financial support for Kantorowicz to do his
research on the Burgundians
But by 1938 it must have been obvious to Kantorowicz
that his career could go nowhere in Nazi Germany and the
Nazi authorities that year revoked his freedom to travel
abroad Since 1938 things altered now I can neither
travel abroad nor can I use the archives of this country
So for the moment I have also put aside the work on the
Dukes of Burgundy Kantorowicz wrote in his curriculum
vitae of July 29 1938 which was written in English and
sent to universities in America including Smith Yale
Columbia Cornell Johns Hopkins Harvard and the
University of California-Berkeley The slight chance of
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-116shy
publishing books or papers in the German language has
vanished almost completely since Vienna where I published a
paper on Petrus di Vinea in England as late as January
1938 became German by the Anschluss Unfortunately
therefore I have no possibilities of working productively
at present 139
Kantorowiczs friend and colleague Theodor Mommsen
whom he had met at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica had
already emigrated to the United states in 1937 During 1937
and 1938 Mommsen wrote to Kantorowicz in Berlin several
times describing his experience as an emigr~ and suggesting
possibilities for Kantorowiczs emigration The letters
provide insight into Kantorowiczs personal concerns and
those of the German emigre scholar in general Mommsen
wrote I feel well and think Ill be able to maintain good
spirits for the time to come That doesnt mean at home
I doubt the possibility of a second homeland11140 America
had long embodied for the George Circle the ills of the
twentieth century -- materialism greed and standardization
It was the most modern country in the world and for the
Circle the ugliest Mommsen perhaps bore this in mind when
139 Kantorowiczs curriculum vitae of July 29 1938
140 Letter of Theodor Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 937 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-117shy
he wrote to Kantorowicz I dont know if I should advise
someone like you to a permanent emigration141
Kantorowicz continued to live in Berlin and as Bowra
writes seemed to take little notice of the storms around
him 142 Mommsen was trying to line up lecture engagements
in America for Kantorowicz If Kantorowicz could give
lectures and establish a reputation for himself in the
United states his chances of finding a teaching post at an
American university would improve Mommsen was clearly
aware however that Kantorowicz might well desire to remain
and weather the storm of the Nazi years He wrote from
Yale If you write to me that you dont want to leave
casually as long as you still have the possibility of work
and the bare necessities in Europe I naturally understand
that143 Mommsen recognized that America was indeed
different from anything that Kantorowicz had experienced in
Europe He gently apprised Kantorowicz of what he might
expect offering his views of the advantages and drawbacks
of life in America
People here are more open or simply more curious that makes things much easier There is no firm Bildungsideal this and the lack of (or different sort of) a feeling of tradition might bother a European at first but at the same time it helps him The basic character of this country
141 Ibid
142 Bowra Memories p 303
143 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938 Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-118shy
and its people is democratic what that means first became clear to me when I moved here l might emphasize the standardization of all things in daily life -- from apartments to food to clothing etc especially even in recreation What is especially missed here are the little joys of life like 9~~ finds in older more individual cultures
Later Mommsen wrote
This country is not only a democracy in the political sense rather its entire societal structure and ideal of education is democratic so democratic that its hard to imagine from the outside But at the same time one can lead his own life and is fully respected I think that you would be comfortable living here permanently -shymore so than many Germans who come over here with a terrible academicians attitude (Bonzen) and have made up their minds to show t9~ people here for once what German science is 5
Kantorowicz was truly elitist and strove for aristocratic
norms of life and one might superficially conclude that he
would find the extremely democratic American way of life
disagreeable But Kantorowicz was so cosmopolitan in his
nature and noble in his bearing that his adaptation to life
in the United states would be relatively easy
By late that summer he had evidently decided to
emigrate since he applied for a travelling pass at the
Berlin police headquarters To his dismay Kantorowicz
discovered that the police had decided to withhold his
passport making him a virtual prisoner within Nazi Germany
Anxious to arrive in either Britain or America in time to
144 Mommsen to Kantorowicz July 13 1937
145 Mommsen to Kantorowicz May 8 1938
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-119shy
deliver lectures during the winter of 1938-39 Kantorowicz
wrote in frustration to the Berlin police authorities
demanding his passport
Against my person there can hardly be dark and suspicious thoughts since I as a professor emeritus still have the status of an official and since I as a soldier at the front and fighter against Spartacus and the Republic of Councils in 1919 still receive my full salary Apart from this political activity has not interested me -shytherefore that which is granted to others relativet~6expeditiouSly should not be withheld from me
The window of escape was quickly closing for
Kantorowicz the Nazi terror against Jews intensifying
when the Kristallnacht a pogrom orchestrated by the SS
broke out o~ November 9 1938 Kantorowicz found himself in
imminent danger Fortunately the heroic actions of his
friend Count von Bernstorff protected him from arrest and
physical harm Bernstorff knew that something was in the
offing and brought Kantorowicz to his Mecklenburg estate
Kantorowicz later described the course of events
On November 8 Albrech Bernstorff and Helmut Kupper were to dine at my apartment Early in the morning of the 8th I got a call from Bernstorff while I was in the bathroom we would have to put off the dinner at my place instead I was to put together my bare necessities and go to Bernstorffs in order eventually to leave for Stintenburg (Bernstorffs estate) I understood the gist although I only later found out about the events of that night the synagogues were burned Jewish stores plundered and individual Jews were randomly arrested Bernstorff had wanted to save me from arrest or worse
146 Kantorowicz to the Berlin Polizeiprasidium October 16 1938 Located at the Leo Baeck Archive
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-120shy
Thankfully I moved in with him in order to stay hidden fOf4~ week or more until the danger to me subsided
Kantorowicz was temporarily safe but still without a
passport and trapped within Nazi Germany Two contradictory
stories account for how Kantorowicz finally obtained his
passport and escaped from Germany The first was related by
Kantorowicz to William Chaney a student of his in Berkeley
during the 1940s
The story he told me was that when he could not get his passport he was helped by ~he son (a very nasty boy but useful on occasion) of Count Wolf von Helldorf the Nazi Chief of Police in Berlin The son saw his father about it and Count von Helldorf asked ~~e Gestapo if they were holding up EKas passport No they replied after checking but because we arent wed be very interested to find out who is They discovered it was Dr Erhard Milch~rthe Nazit~fplusmnhhrplusmns-middot i2dnlsterium When asked why he said Its exactly people like this who make the worst propaganda against us when they get out The Gestapo chief -- not Himmler EKa said to me but the person directly under him+ -- then shouted over the phone Its exactly people like you who make the worst propaganda against us by not letting people out Kantorowicz will have his passport in 24 hours or else EKa got his passport in 24 hours and got out I assume it was Helldorf or
147 Ernst Kantorowicz Der Gastfreund in Albrecht Bernstorff zum Gedachtnis Quoted in Grunewald p 147
The young He]dorf had been a student in one of Kantorowiczs seminars in Frankfurt
Eka -- The German pronunciation of his initials ~K was what friends in America called Kantorowicz
+ Hermann Muller was head of the Gestapo in 1938
E Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz
-121shy
HeI19~8fs son who reported the exact words to EKa
Sir CM Bowra who met Kantorowicz upon his arrival in
England recounts a different sequence of events According
to Bowra the publisher Helmut Kupper hatched an ingenious
plot contrived to get Kantorowicz out of the country
One of Ernsts closest friends was a gentle modest young man (Helmut Kupper) who had been a member of the George Circle and married a woman rather older than himself Though her husband was entirely anti-Nazi she herself not only was a friend of Frau Goring but was having an affair with one of Gorings adjutants Here lay a hope The husband went to the adjutant and said that hitherto he had never complained about his wifes relations with him but now he asked for something in return When the adjutant asked what it was he was told that it was a passport for Professor Ernst Kantorowicz He agreed at once an94~ passport was produced within a few hours
Grunewald accepts Bowras account in his study of
Kantorowicz 150 Kantorowicz never mentioned this story to
William Chaney although he did once remark that Frau Goring
helped him to get out of Germany indirectly151
148 This was related to me in writing by William Chaney in April 1988
149middot Bowra Memories p 304
150 See Grunewald p 148
151 Related to me by William Chaney in April 1988
Vanden Heuvel 1989 Kantorowicz