Hans Rothfels facts for kids

Hans Rothfels (born April 12, 1891 – died June 22, 1976) was an important German historian. He was known for his conservative views and his focus on German history. At first, he supported a strong German state. However, his life changed dramatically when the Nazis came to power.

Because of his Jewish background, he faced severe persecution. He was forced to leave Germany and lived in the United Kingdom and the United States during World War II. After the war, he returned to West Germany. There, he became a very influential scholar and helped shape how history was taught.

Early Life and Studies

Hans Rothfels was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Kassel, Germany. In 1910, he converted to the Lutheran faith. He studied history and philosophy at Heidelberg University.

When World War I started in 1914, Rothfels joined the German Army as an officer. He was seriously wounded near Soissons and lost one of his legs. He spent time in the hospital until 1917.

In 1918, he earned his history degree from Heidelberg. His main work was about Carl von Clausewitz, a famous military thinker. Rothfels later published this work as a book in 1920. He also edited and published collections of letters from Clausewitz and Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was a key figure in German history, known as the "Iron Chancellor." Rothfels was the first historian allowed by the Bismarck family to publish these letters.

Teaching and Political Views

From 1924 to 1926, Rothfels taught at the University of Berlin. Then, from 1926 to 1934, he became a professor at the University of Königsberg. During this time, he was known for his strong nationalistic views on German history. He was critical of the Weimar Republic, which was Germany's government after World War I. He hoped for a new, stronger German state. He also often spoke out against the Treaty of Versailles, which set the terms of peace after World War I and changed Germany's borders.

Rothfels was very interested in the history of Otto von Bismarck and Clausewitz. Later, he also studied the German people who opposed Adolf Hitler.

Forced Exile from Germany

Even though Rothfels had conservative political views, he faced increasing danger because he was Jewish by birth. The Nazis were persecuting Jewish people more and more. Despite efforts by some influential people to help him, Rothfels was forced to leave his university job in 1934. A year later, he was forbidden to teach at all.

His attempts to gain "honorary Aryan status" (a special status from the Nazis) were unsuccessful. The situation became unbearable during the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938. During this violent event, his house was looted, and he was arrested and beaten by the SA (Nazi stormtroopers). He was even deprived of his crutches.

After this terrible experience, Rothfels, his wife, and their three children left Germany in 1938. They moved to the United Kingdom, where he quickly learned English.

Life in Exile and New Ideas

From 1938 to 1940, Rothfels taught at St. John's College at Oxford. During World War II, he was briefly held in an internment camp on the Isle of Man.

In 1940, he wrote an essay about the history of the Baltic region. Soon after, he moved to the United States, where he lived until 1951 and became a U.S. citizen. He taught at Brown University in Providence and the University of Chicago in Chicago. While in the U.S., he became friends with publisher Henry Regnery and got involved with the Republican Party.

Understanding Clausewitz's Theories

In 1943, Rothfels published an important essay on Clausewitz. This essay was praised as the first serious study of Clausewitz in English. Rothfels argued that Clausewitz's military ideas were very complex. He believed it was important to understand Clausewitz's personal life and experiences during the Napoleonic Wars to truly grasp his theories about war. Rothfels saw Clausewitz as a brilliant military thinker, even though some of his ideas might seem old-fashioned due to new military technology.

The German Opposition to Hitler

In 1948, Rothfels published his most famous book, The German Opposition To Hitler. This book celebrated the conservative Germans who tried to overthrow Hitler in the 20 July plot of 1944. Rothfels believed these conspirators represented the best of Germany and helped restore Germany's honor.

He argued that these individuals were motivated by strong ethical and moral beliefs, as well as deep patriotism. He highlighted how difficult it was to try and overthrow a government during wartime, showing their true dedication.

Rothfels saw Nazism as a form of totalitarianism. He believed that Nazism was not unique to Germany but was a result of broader problems in modern society, such as too much focus on material things and a loss of traditional values. He argued that the strongest opposition to Nazism came from those who held traditional German values.

This book was important because it focused on the anti-Nazis from the political Right. Rothfels wanted Germans to see these people as heroes, especially since many Germans after World War II had a negative view of them. He hoped his book would prevent new harmful myths about why Germany lost the war.

Return to Germany and Later Work

In 1951, Rothfels returned to West Germany and taught at the University of Tübingen. He dedicated the rest of his life to showing that German nationalism was not the same as Nazism.

He founded the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History). This institute focused on studying the Nazi period. Its journal, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, became a leading publication for studying Nazi Germany.

Rothfels was one of the few German historians in the 1950s who seriously examined the the Holocaust. This was a topic many other German historians avoided. He published important reports and articles about the persecution of Jewish people under Nazi rule. He aimed to show attempts by Germans to help Jews and portray opposition to racial discrimination as common.

Pioneering Contemporary History

Rothfels was a pioneer in the field of "contemporary history," which studies the very recent past. He believed that studying events that people had lived through required special care and objectivity from historians. He felt that historians should approach these topics neutrally, while still considering moral questions. For him, contemporary history generally covered events from 1914 onwards.

Debates and Other Projects

After returning to Germany, Rothfels strongly opposed any work that seemed to excuse the Nazis. In 1954, he and his student Gerhard Weinberg debated with other historians about whether Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was a "preventive war." Rothfels and Weinberg argued that it was not, and that Nazi racial ideas were the true cause. Their arguments were widely accepted.

In 1961, Rothfels also spoke out against an American historian who claimed that World War II started because of a conspiracy against Germany. He also helped publish Adolf Hitler's Zweites Buch, a book Hitler wrote but never published, which Weinberg had discovered.

Another area of interest for Rothfels was the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II. He worked on a large project documenting these expulsions. Many future famous historians were involved in this work.

Works

• Carl von Clausewitz: Politik und Krieg, Dümmlers Verlag, Berlin, 1920.
• Bismarck Und Der Staat; Ausgewählte Dokumente. Eingeleitet Von Hans Rothfels, Stuttgart, Kohlhammer Verlag, 1925.
• "Clausewitz" pages 93–113 from The Makers of Modern Strategy edited by Edward Mead Earle, Gordon A. Craig & Felix Gilbert, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1943.
• "The Baltic Provinces: Some Historic Aspects and Perspectives." Pages 117–146, Journal of Central European Affairs, Vol. IV, July 1944.
• "1848 – One Hundred Years After," Journal of Modern History, Vol. 20, No. 4 (December 1948)
• The German Opposition to Hitler, An Appraisal Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1948; published in Germany as Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler Scherpe, Krefeld, 1949, revised editions 1961 & 1963.
• Review of Die Entscheidung des Abendlandes by Rudolf Rocker" pages 839–841 from American Historical Review, Volume 56, Issue #4, July 1951.
• "Zeitgeschichte als Aufgabe" pages 1–8 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Volume 1, 1953.
• Bismarck-Briefe. Ausgewählt Und Eingeleitet Von Hans Rothfels, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1955.
• Das politische Vermächtnis des deutschen Widerstandes, Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Heimatdienst, 1956.
• "Die Roten Kämpfer Zur Geschichte einer linken Widerstandsgruppe" pages 438–460 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Volume 7, 1959.
• "Zur „Umsiedlung" der Juden im Generalgouvernment", pages 333–336 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Volume 7, 1959.
• Bismarck, der Osten und das Reich, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1960.
• Bismarck; Vorträge und Abhandlungen, Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer 1970.