Rejection of further guest lectures of Walter Arthur Berendsohn by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hamburg, May 20, 1950
author: König
source date: May 20, 1950
edition published: 1948
language: eng
availability: State Archive Hamburg 361-6 I 0121 Walter Berendsohn. With kind permission

The Dean of the Faculty of Arts Hamburg 13, May 20, 1950. of the University of Hamburg Edmund Siemers-Allee – University Telephone 44 84 53[^1][^2] Enclosures To the School Authority, Higher Education Department

[^1: handwritten note: Received Senator Landahl[...] received on 22/5.]

[^2: Stamp: Hochschulabteilung [...] 20 MAY 1950]

At its meeting on May 17, 1950, the Faculty of Arts came to the decision to refrain from inviting Professor Berendsohn again.

For this decision, the two following reasons were essential:

1. After listening to the judgment of competent faculty members, who listened to the lectures given here by Professor Berendsohn in 1948 and who are familiar with his scholarly production, the Faculty has come to the conclusion that a renewed invitation to give guest lectures cannot be considered as particularly desirable. This judgment of the Faculty agrees with the evaluation of Berendsohn’s work provided by competent colleagues abroad.

2. Although the Faculty is quite aware of the fact that Professor Berendsohn deserves special treatment in this matter as well because he represents a case of restitution, the Faculty, to its great regret, does not see itself in a position to allow this fact to influence its decision, since it has evidence in its hands that Professor Berendsohn, in a private letter dating from April 1949, had suspected the political attitude of the German universities and thus the Hamburg Faculty of political bias against his person.

The Faculty’s negative decision was passed unanimously.

signed König Notarized: [...]