Two medievalists in Nazi Germany
Two medievalists in Nazi Germany
The very different fates of Carl Erdmann and Percy Ernst Schramm
Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women. Apologies but there is no audio recording today, I have a bad cold!
Two medievalists in Nazi Germany: The very different fates of Carl Erdmann and Percy Ernst Schramm
In the mid-twentieth century, Germany was a hotbed of academic research into the political history of medieval Europe. Carl Erdmann and Percy Ernst Schramm were both writing major works on medieval history during the years that the Nazis were in power in Germany. The ethical choices they respectively made would send them down divergent paths. While Erdmann’s academic career and life were both tragically cut short as a result of his opposition to the Nazis, Schramm forged a glittering career for himself within the upper echelons of the Third Reich.
Schramm’s work is so often cited and praised in my particular field - the study of royal liturgical rites - that I was surprised to learn, through Wikipedia no less, that he was a card-carrying, Nuremberg-testifying, Hitler-praising Nazi. While Erdmann faced the most severe consequences for his opposition to fascism, Schramm seems to have escaped any lasting consequences for his complicity.