"I Got Through Those Times Well": Otto Brunner and National Socialism

Abstract:This contribution analyzes the structural and biographical conditions that made the career of the Austrian medievalist Otto Brunner (1898–1982) possible. Brunner proved to be a fervent adherent of the Nazi regime until the bitter end. His support for the regime manifested itself in several ways: his function as head of the Volksdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaften (Ethnic German Research Associations) between 1940 and 1944; his efforts to gain Nazi Party membership (ultimately successful in 1943); his close collaboration with Amt Rosenberg even as late as January 1945; his professional successes, including his reception of the prestigious Verdun Prize in 1943; and his publications, most importantly his manuscript "Der Schicksalsweg des deutschen Volkes" ("The German People's Road to Destiny") of 1944. Long considered lost, the manuscript did in fact survive, albeit only in the form of proofs. Brunner succeeded in jump-starting his professional career in the young Federal Republic in the 1950s through the help of long-standing personal networks. He continued his study, with only minor modifications, of the most important topics that had kept him busy during the Third Reich. Völkisch-nationalist ideas still pervaded his depiction of German history and medieval society. Structural peculiarities of the academic discipline of history, including a West German historical conservatism, led to a situation in which Brunner's interpretation of the Middle Ages came to be challenged only in the 1980s.