Hans Heinrich und Hildegard Schaeder

Abstract

Summary The siblings Hildegard and Hans Heinrich Schaeder, raised in a Protestant professorial family, experienced the era of National Socialism in very different ways. Prior to 1933, Hans Heinrich was already an established professor with corresponding financial security. His sister, however, was denied a post-doctoral qualification by the National Socialists. Hans Heinrich increasingly committed his research into the service of the new rulers from 1933 onward, in order to propagate his own anti-communist world view. He continues to be held in high regard among professional circles today, in spite of his racist research. During the Nazi era, Hildegard worked for the ›Publikationsstelle Dahlem‹, a facility for the scientific legitimization of German proprietary claims to the former eastern territories. At the same time, as part of her commitment to the Confessing Church, she campaigned for and supported persecuted Jews. This led to her internment in the Concentration Camp at Ravensbrück. Her religious beliefs as a Christian led her to offer support, in the knowledge that this would lead to persecution and imprisonment. In spite of these effectively disparate courses of action during the period between 1933 and 1945, there are nevertheless parallels to be found in the thought structure of these two Schaeders. The article draws connections between both biographies and analyzes the individual worldviews of the siblings against the backdrop of political changes between 1933 and 1945 and the social influences of that time.