Von halben Sachen und Wahrheiten. Die Botanikerin Lore Kutschera, der Nationalsozialismus und der große blindeFleck

Abstract

“I don’t want to have and do anything half in my life. We all don’t want to be anything half. So, as botanists, we have to deal with the whole.“ Few quotations have been used more frequently in the research literature than this one to portray the Carinthian botanist and agricultural scientist Lore Kutschera (1917–2008). It therefore seems particularly ironic that previous accounts of her life have avoided any political contextualization. It is astonishing how persistently the historiographical gap around Kutschera’s political past as a National Socialist has persisted to the present day. This article therefore focuses on this biographical gap: Kutschera’s youth and student years, her political work and commitment for the NSDAP, her specific precarious situation in the postwar period, which was significantly shaped by her falling out with her former boss and mentor, the botanist Erwin Aichinger. As will be seen, specifically female limitations, but also possibilities, accompanied her path.