The case of Walter A. Berendsohn, founder of the study of German Exilliteratur (German exile literature), points to the reservations that existed at the university and in the city regarding the re-employment of academics expelled by the National Socialists.
In this letter, the Personnel Office of the City of Hamburg recognized Walter A. Berendsohn’s claim for restitution and outlined the procedure to be followed prior to the existence of a reliable legal regulation. A central element was the acceptance of a position at his former place of employment, which would inevitably have required a return to Hamburg.
Walter A. Berendsohn, living in Swedish exile, sought to be reinstated at the University of Hamburg from which he had been dismissed for racial reasons in 1933. In 1954, the legal counsel of the University produced the following opinion, outlining the steps necessary for his reinstatement to the Faculty and therefore the University. The basis was the restoration of his venia legendi and doctoral degree, which had been revoked due to persecution by the National Socialists.
Giving guest lectures at their old place of work was a common step for those persecuted by the National Socialists in their remigration process. The focus was on mutual (re-)rapprochement and proof of academic ability. After Walter A. Berendsohn had already given guest lectures in Hamburg in 1948, the faculty did not want to accept any further guest lectures from him. On the one hand, the scientific value was not given, on the other hand, he is said to have made negative comments about the political attitude of German universities.
Walter Berendsohn was stripped of his academic teaching license (the venia legendi authorization to teach at a university on completion of post-doctoral thesis) and of his doctoral degree after his emigration during the period of National Socialist persecution. In the postwar period, the University of Hamburg confirmed the continued validity of his venia legendi authorization to teach at a university on completion of post-doctoral thesis and he was officially readmitted to the teaching staff of the University. Berendsohn now sought to hold courses again. The Faculty, however, regarded the reinstatement of the exiled professor merely as a symbolic act of reparation. The correspondence reproduced here documents these differing perspectives. In the aftermath, neither a resumption of teaching activities nor a remigration of the scholar to Hamburg took place.
According to the new version of the Federal Law for Restitution in the Civil Service of 1955, the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Hamburg had to submit a statement as to whether Walter Arthur Berendsohn would have been appointed as an associate professor without the racial persecution under National Socialism. This would have resulted in financial claims. The faculty passed a devastating judgment on the academic quality of the scientist concerned, which was not shared by subsequent generations. Berendsohn was later awarded an honorary doctorate by the faculty in recognition of his scientific achievements and a research position at the university was posthumously named after him.
As a late act of reparation and in recognition of his academic achievements, Walter Arthur Berendsohn received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Hamburg in 1982 at a very advanced age. This step represented a symbolic act of reparation for the injustice he had suffered under National Socialism and the lack of recognition of his academic achievements by the post-war university, which had made it impossible for him to return to Germany.
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Dennis Hormuth has been head of the University Archive Hamburg since 2020. Previously, he was director and research associate at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe of the Leibniz Association. His research interests include Baltic history and the early modern period.
Dennis Hormuth, The case of Walter A. Berendsohn. Continuation of marginalization at the University of Hamburg (translated by Erwin Fink), in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, September 03, 2025. <https://keydocuments.net/article/jgo:article-299> [October 29, 2025].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non commercial - No Derivatives 4.0 International License. As long as the material is unedited and you give appropriate credit according to the Recommended Citation, you may reuse and redistribute it in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes.
