Just “one of so many”? The pathologist Theodor Fahr (1877–1945) and his ambivalent relationship to National Socialism

Abstract

Theodor Fahr is well known as a pioneer in renal pathology and the eponym of “Fahr’s disease”. While his professional merits are undisputed, his relationship to National Socialism remains unclear. On the one hand, he signed the public “oath of allegiance” of German professors to Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, he appeared as a mentor to his Jewish colleague Paul Kimmelstiel. In 1945, Fahr committed suicide after being dismissed by the Allied military government for political reasons. However, he left behind memoirs in which he outlined himself as a determined opponent of National Socialism.It is precisely these ambiguities that form the starting point of this study. The aim is to reconstruct Fahr’s personal and professional career and to outline his political stance in the Third Reich. In addition, it will be clarified how Fahr’s life and work were received after 1945 and whether (or how) his relationship to National Socialism was addressed.This study is based on different types of sources: Various archival documents on Fahr and Kimmelstiel are compared and contrasted with Fahr’s unpublished autobiography and the available secondary literature on Fahr and his work.The analysis shows that Fahr’s relationship to National Socialism became more distanced over time. However, he did not emerge as a critic of Nazi ideology during the Third Reich – even though he claimed in his memoirs that he had consistently despised Hitler. While Fahr is not to be considered an ardent National Socialist, he held to the stereotype of the “unscrupulous” Jew.The study concludes that Fahr was a politically ambivalent character with a distinctly anti-Semitic disposition, which he tried to soften by emphasizing his relationships with individual Jewish colleagues such as Kimmelstiel.