Letter from <persName ref="http://d-nb.info/gnd/119212900">Siegfried Landshut</persName> to <persName ref="http://d-nb.info/gnd/116669977">Heinrich Landahl</persName>, <date when="1948-08-29">August 29, 1948</date> Erwin Fink Institute for the History of the German Jewsredaktion@juedische-geschichte-online.net
Beim Schlump 83, 20144 Hamburg

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Siegfried Landshut's letter to Heinrich Landahl, the Hamburg school senator, who was also politically responsible for Hamburg University, can be understood as a disguised letter of application. After a brief reference to the personal acquaintance between the letter's author and addressee, Landshut describes his current availability on the job market, the persecution-related reasons for not habilitating in 1933, his basic academic orientation along with the most important works from his oeuvre and names reference persons.

At the time the letter was written, Landshut had just finished his work with the German prisoners of war in Egypt and was about to leave for England, for which he gave a new correspondence address in the letter. The letter therefore dates from a time of professional upheaval and a lack of career prospects.

The core of the letter is his self-image as a scientist. The part referring to a claim for compensation is very short and is not even explicitly mentioned. However, this partial sentence, according to which Landshut's habilitation had been “interrupted by political events in 1933,” was underlined in red by the Hamburg school senator or another person from the Hamburg school administration and thus marked as particularly significant. This statement made it necessary for the administration to act in Landshut's favor.

 Der Fall Siegfried Landshutjgo:article-297Siegfried LandshutHamburgAugust 29, 1948Staatsarchiv HamburgStaatsarchiv Hamburg 261-6 I Siegfried Landshut, p. 26-27 EnglishSource:Textdeu
Phone: M. E. Middle East Exchange (49600) Extensions 1669-1673 Dr. S. Siegfried Landshut GERMAN PW Prisoner of War DIRECTORATE, ( M.E. Middle East ) FJCJDI., The Foreign office G. H. Q. General Head Quarters , M. E. L. F. Middle East Land Force August 29, 48 Dear Dr. Landahl,

Ministerial Director Dr. AuerbachMaybe: Walter Auerbach. and Mr. Gerstung, Hannover, have, as I understand from a letter I received today, turned to you on my matter. I am therefore taking the liberty of writing directly to you. You may no longer remember me, but we have met on various occasions, for example, at parents’ meetings at the Lichtwark School and I believe on one occasion, you even were at my house in Badestrasse. .

As early as 1946, I had made an attempt to get in touch with the University of Hamburg; however, I did not receive a reply, which may have been due to the poor postal connections to the Middle East at that time. Nor did I have any intention of prematurely leaving my work here, the spiritual care of 100,000 German prisoners of war. Today, I would very much like to be able to resume academic activity in Germany.

My habilitation at the University of Hamburg was interrupted by political events in 1933. After my habilitation thesis was accepted, I was no longer able to present the lecture to the faculty. However, I had already held seminars and lectures as Prof. Heimann's assistant. I had been a permanent member of the teaching staff at the Hamburg Adult Education Center Volkshochschule since 1927. My habilitation thesis was an economic-sociological study of what economy meant in the whole of social life, before and after the industrial revolution. My narrower field of work, however, is political sociology along the lines of what Max Weber understood by this. I have published a guide to this field here, ‘Central College.’

As I am currently packed and ready to go, just aheadof my departure to England, I unfortunately do not have the detailed list of my publications at hand. Thus, I will only mention my work on “Einige Grundbegriffeder Politik” in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik. (1925); my book Kritik der Soziologie (Duncker and Humblot, 1929); my two-volume edition of Marx's early writings with the previously unknown manuscript on philosophy and national economy, which I had found, as well as my introduction (Alfred Kroener, 1932); and my short biography of Marx (Collins Luebeckthe work is published in the series Colemanns kleine Biographien, Lübeck, 1932). Since then, apart from a larger monograph on Gemeinschaftssiedlungen (communes) in America and Palestine, I have published a number of articles, some in English, some in French, on individual questions of the relationship between society and the constitution, in particular a discussion of the ‘Reflexions on Government’ by Ernest Baker Barker , as well as an essay on the idea of re-education from the perspective of freedom.

Prof. Leibholz, who has returned to Germany from England Prof. Fritz Schalk in Cologne (Romance philologist), and probably also Prof. Landgrebe in Kiel know me and are in a position to provide references. Also Prof. Roepke in Geneva, Prof. Alexander Ruestow in Istanbul.

As I am leaving Egypt in a short time, I would be grateful if you could send any potential message to my address in England (c/o J. Grant, 25 Westbourne Avenue, Hull, Yorksh. Yorkshire ) or if you could also let me know there whether I can be of assistance with further information or documents.

Yours very sincerelyS. Landshut