Walter Kuhn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Wehrmacht officer, see Walter Kuhn (soldier). For the American painter, see Walt Kuhn. For the American professional baseball player, see Walt Kuhn (baseball).

Walter Kuhn (27 September 1903 – 5 August 1983), was an Austrian[1]-born German folklorist (German: Volkskundler), historian and Ostforscher. Prior to World War II, Kuhn belonged to the German minority in Poland. His academic work specialized in German minorities outside Germany, particularly in the area of Ukraine, especially Volhynia. In 1936, Kuhn moved to Germany to take a professorship at the University of Breslau. In 1940, he joined the Nazi Party.[2] During the war, he was involved as an advisor in various Nazi plans of ethnic cleansing aimed at Jews, Poles and their replacement by German settlers from further east.

Kuhn continued his academic work post-war in West Germany, becoming a professor at the University of Hamburg and an expert in the German Ostsiedlung.[3] He retired in 1968, moving to Salzburg, where he died in 1983. Kuhn's post-war work was internationally recognized, but received some criticism from Polish scholars in particular.[4][5]

Although they were largely ignored or denied in the post-war period, Kuhn's close connections to National Socialism before and during World War II have come under increased scholarly scrutiny since the publication of Michael Burleigh's Germany Turns Eastward (1988).[6] Kuhn's pre-war work has been linked to anti-Semitism, anti-Slavism, and promoting a belief in German superiority.

Early life and pre-war career[]

Kuhn was born in 1903 in the town of Bielitz (Bielsko) in Austrian Silesia, in a German-speaking enclave surrounded by Polish speakers.[3] Kuhn's parents belonged to the Away from Rome!-movement and were both supporters of the unification of Austria with Germany.[7] As a boy, Kuhn distributed flowers to soldiers guarding against Polish youths who were celebrating the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which Michael Burleigh argues shows an early consciousness for national issues.[8] After the First World War, this territory was annexed to Poland, confronting Kuhn with the issue of German enclaves in Slavic territory while still young,[3] and Kuhn was, therefore, a Polish citizen in the interwar period.[9] Kuhn met several later scholarly collaborators on matters of German minorities in Eastern Europe after joining the Wandervogel movement in Bielitz in 1919.[10] While he initially studied electrical engineering in Graz till 1927, he later attended universities in Vienna and Tübingen.[8]

Kuhn began to study German settlement in Eastern Europe while he was a student, including undertaking several trips to Poland and Ukraine and making several publications.[3] In 1926 Kuhn went to Ukraine (Volhynia) with several other members from the Wandervogel movement funded by various German agencies where he studied German communities and praised "the strength and beauty of German Volkstum".[11] While the official purpose of the visit was to study German communities, Michael Burleigh writes that it served mostly to reinforce the participants' notions of German superiority towards Polish people.[12] Kuhn wrote five of the eight essays about the expedition that were subsequently published in the journal Deutsche Blätter in Polen.[13] Kuhn argued that more recent German enclaves in Eastern Europe, because they felt themselves to be superior to the surrounding Slavs, were less like to intermarry or become "de-Germanised", as opposed to older enclaves which were more prone to assimilation.[14] Kuhn viewed himself and his colleagues as "bearers of civilization" and his goal as "to transform the instinctive feeling of superiority and pride towards the surrounding peoples (…) into a true national consciousness".[12] Unlike the formerly Prussian members of the expedition, Kuhn argued that the Volhynian Germans were true Germans and should be allowed to develop on their own under the guidance of more mature linguistic islands, which Winson Chu takes to mean Kuhn's own hometown of Bielitz/Bliesko.[15] Kuhn also secretly worked for the organization Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland to verify the population numbers on the German minority in Poland given by the Polish government.[16] Kuhn, writing under the pseudonym Andreas Mückler, claimed in a publication of the Viennese Institut für Statistik der Minderheitsvölker that the Polish census of 1921 had omitted half of Poland's German population.[17]

Even before he had begun his doctoral studies, Kuhn was known as a scholar of linguistic enclaves.[18] Kuhn received his doctorate in 1931 from the University of Vienna, writing on German linguistic enclaves in Poland.[8] Kuhn's first attempt at achieving an academic position was a failure, and he returned to Bielitz,[19] but Kuhn received a job as an assistant to at the Deutsche Kulturbund in Katowice (Kattowitz) in 1932.[20] He received this job through the help of Otto Ulitz, leader of the German minority in Upper Silesia,[19] and Eduard Pant, a German-Polish politician and member of the Sejm.[9] While living in Poland, Kuhn was a sympathizer of the pro-National Socialist Jungdeutsche Partei.[19]

Alexander Pinwinkler writes that Kuhn's career benefited greatly from the Nazi's taking of power in 1933.[21] Kuhn engaged in many activities in nationalist-conservative and Nazi organizations and participated in numerous Nazi organized conferences.[22] Beginning in 1934, Kuhn's work was supported monetarily by  [de] (NOFG), a Nazi research organisation.[14] Kuhn served as a liaison between the leaders of the German minority in Poland, who secretly supported German revisionist politics towards Poland, and scholars in Germany, performed various ethnographic work and promoting the interests of the German minority to the Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland.[23][24]

Kuhn became a professor for folklore and East-German folk-ways Volkskunde und ostdeutsches Volkstum) at the University of Breslau in 1936.[10] His naming to this post was somewhat controversial, as Kuhn was not seen as a representative folklorist and had not written a habilitation;[25] according to Alexander Pinwinkler and Ingo Haar, Kuhn achieving the professorship was mostly the work of nationally influential pro-Nazi historians Albert Brackmann and Hermann Aubin rather than the faculty in Breslau itself.[26] In a report likely from the summer of 1936, Heinrich Harmjanz described Kuhn as a "good comrade-in-arms" (guter Kamarad) who was "fixed and secure in the world view of the Third Reich" (fest und sicher in der Weltanschauung des dritten Reiches).[27] Throughout the thirties and into the war, Kuhn was seen as a "foreign-German National-Socialist" (auslandsdeutscher Nationalsozialist).[25] A secret protocol created for the Sicherheitsdienst by SS-Untersturmbahnführer Ernst Birke in 1937 noted that Kuhn's work supported the ideals of the German Youth Movement and ethnic politics, but that Kuhn was not interested in politics and would "see 'any closer connection to a certain political direction' as a disturbance of his work".[28] Birke hoped that Kuhn's reticence about politics could be loosened by his connections to the group around historian Hermann Aubin.[2]

In 1937, Kuhn took over duties as director of the Atlas der Deutschen Volkskunde.[10] In 1939, Kuhn became director of the Silesian Society for Folk Studies (Schlesische Gesellschaft für Volkskunde) and a representative of the NOFG at the Upper Education Office (Hauptschulungsamt) of the Nazi Party. He was also honored with the "Nikolaus-Kopernikus Prize" of the Johann-Wolfgang von Goethe-Stiftung, a prize for Volksdeutsche, for his academic publications.[29][30] By the start of World War II, Kuhn was a famous scholar.[31] His publications in "Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift in Polen" with other German scholars were aimed at proving German character of Western Poland and alleged superiority of German culture over Slavic and Polish cultures [32]

Antisemitism and Anti-slavism[]

In his work on linguistic enclaves Kuhn expressed both antisemitism and anti-Slavism.[33][34][35] Slavs and Jews were presented as hostile "others to German "volk-body" (Volkskörper) who were harmful to Germans. He proposed that "German colonist" antisemitism was based on "instinct" to pursue "righteousness and health", and Jews were portrayed as merchants that Germans should oppose through boycott. Kuhn also described Germans as superior to Slavs in Poland. The idea of German superiority was used by Kuhn to argue for "foreign traits" of Poles of Jews and description of non-German groups as objects rather than subjects in his research.[36]

Work for Nazi Germany intelligence services[]

in his work dedicated to activity of German minority in Poland writes that Kuhn was part of an irredentist training group set up by Nazi Germany on 23 February 1939 in Poznań under leadership of Richard Bloch that was housed in local German Consulate, the goal of the group was to organize evening lectures on techniques of intelligence-gathering work.[37] According to historian Kuhn was in constant contact with which worked on behalf of German Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany.[38]

Second World War[]

Politics[]

As Nazi Germany invaded Poland Kuhn praised "eternalized German achievements in the East" as means to produce "German Lebensraum'' and stated that it will bring "new German cultural forms to culturally less mature eastern people".[39] Following the annexation by Nazi Germany of his hometown of Bielitz (Bielsko), Kuhn applied to join the Nazi party on December 6, 1939. He was admitted on February 1, 1940.[22] However, in 1941 Kuhn refused to take a position at the Reich University of Posen (a new German university that replaced the older Polish University of Poznań) despite persistent attempts to get him to take the position.[2] Kuhn himself would later explain his refusal as due to the incompatibility of his research interests with the new position.[40]

Advisor for SS[]

Michael Burleigh describes Kuhn as one of Nazi hack academics but also one of the "finest (historical) minds" whose expertise was used for ethnic cleansing plans carried by Nazi Germany.[41] In 1939, Kuhn served as an advisor to the SS for the resettlement of ethnic Germans.[29] He returned to German communities in Ukraine to assist in determining their "racial qualities" connected to Nazi plans of resettlement; the SS considered his reports in determining which ethnic Germans would be repatriated to Germany.[11] Kuhn advised the resettlement of German villages as groups to areas of Poland that had similar climatic and soil characteristics to the areas they were taken from, but advised that villages that showed signs of in-breeding, sectarianism, or "spiritual sickness" should be broken up.[42] His other advice was to keep German settlers separated from their non-German farmhands.[43] In practice, the resettlement did not tend to follow Kuhn's suggestions, and regional and social differences between various groups of Polish Germans were ignored.[44]

On September 29, 1939 Kuhn authored a position paper titled "German settlement areas beyond the old Reich Borders" for the German-Soviet Border Commission in which he argued that Germany should annex various areas of Poland that had not belonged to the German Empire based on their ethnic makeup.[45][46] On October 11, 1939 the Prussian Privy State Archives published a memorandum titled "Germanization of Poznań and West Prussia" (German: Eindeutschung Posens und Westpreußens), authored by several German historians including Kuhn.[47] The memorandum called for the immediate "resettlement" (Umsiedlung) of 2.9 million Poles and Jews and their replacement with German settlers "with a healthy social organization" (mit einer gesunden sozialen Ordnung), who would maintain the "national struggle with Polishness" (de[r] völkisch[e] Kampf[...] mit dem Polentum).[47] The memorandum also called for the "removal of Jewry" (Herauslösung des Judentums) and of elites, and the "reduction" (Minderung) of the total population, in order that the territory could be settled as Lebensraum by the state.[47] Markus Krzoska characterizes this memorandum as an attempt by scholars such as Kuhn to ingratiate themselves with the Nazi hierarchy responsible for settlement in the occupied territories, as the Nazis relied on the expertise of Kuhn and other Ostforscher less and less as the war progressed.[48] According to Winston Chu, Kuhn was instrumental in making an ethnic argument for Nazi Germany annexing Lódź and other parts of Central Poland[49]

In the winter of 1940, Kuhn served as an advisor to the Immigration Headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst in Litzmannstadt (Lodz) for German settlers being resettled out of the Soviet-occupied parts of Poland and the General Government.[50] Prior to the resettlement of Germans in these villages and homes, Poles had been deported to the General Government.[51] Kuhn also advised on the "Germanization" of Slavic groups in Silesia: Kuhn argued that many German-speakers in Silesia were in fact Polish immigrants to the territory who had adopted German and replaced Germans who had moved to the West.[52]

Kuhn undertook a final trip with a number of students in 1942, to Volhynia, which he had been unable to visit in the 1930s.[29]

Military service[]

In 1943 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and was captured by the British in 1944.[29] He remained a prisoner until 1947; according to Kuhn, this was because as the British sent him to a re-education camp.[40]

Postwar career in West Germany[]

Kuhn was released from British captivity in 1947.[29] Kuhn's wife had fled from Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) to Magdeburg, but had not brought any of Kuhn's manuscripts, notes, or books with her.[40] Kuhn briefly considered emigrating to Chicago in the United States due to financial troubles before Hermann Aubin arranged for him to take a temporary teaching position at the University of Hamburg that same year.[53] Although before World War II Kuhn had belonged to a network of German folklorists from Bielitz (Bielsko), he was the only one of them to be able to continue his academic career after the war.[54] The German linguistic enclaves that Kuhn had studied before the war had been destroyed by the resettlement policy of the Nazis and the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II, so Kuhn changed his focus to the history of German settlement in the region (Ostsiedlung).[3][29] Kuhn's pre-war work came under critical fire, especially from the folklorist Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann, who accused him of ethnocentrism and of deliberately polarizing the differences between Germans and Poles.[55] Kuhn's activities advising the SS during the war were not brought up, however.[55] Kuhn himself never acknowledged any wrongdoing, instead bemoaning the loss of his wartime work and framing himself as a victim.[56]

In 1955, Kuhn became professor for the history of German settlement and folklore at the University of Hamburg,[55] a position that was specifically created for him by Hermann Aubin.[57] While Kuhn initially focused on German settlement in the modern period, following publications in the mid 1950s, he came to focus more on medieval German settlement, particularly in Silesia and Poland.[3] Kuhn went on to advise many dissertations, including after his retirement in 1968,[3][58] and frequently functioned as a reviewer of Polish-language scholarly works.[59] He was also involved in various scholarly organisations and received various honors.[55] He was the head of the  [de] from 1952 until 1964.[60] Kuhn retired to Salzburg, where he continued to publish numerous scholarly works.[3] Norbert Angermann identifies him as "the most significant historian of the German Ostsieldung" ("bedeutendster Historiker der deutschen Ostsiedlung") in the period before his death in 1983.[3] Kuhn's connections to National Socialism before and during World War II would not become a topic of discussion until 1988, when Michael Burleigh published Germany Turns Eastward (1988).[6]

Scholarly appraisals and reception[]

Pre-war work[]

Writing in 2010, the Polish scholar Dariusz Chrobak characterizes Kuhn as a "pioneer" who founded the study of German linguistic enclaves.[61] Referring to the acceptance of Kuhn and Alfred Karasek as scholars after the war, Winson Chu writes "[t]hat their works remained respectable in the post-1945 period is in part due to the fact that they focused less on the highly politicized and revisionist goals of the interwar period than on broader völkisch und ethnographic concepts."[62] Wilhelm Fielitz argues that Kuhn's pre-war work shows Social Darwinist, ethnocentric tendencies, although he also used modern field-work techniques.[63] Alexander Pinwnkler writes that Kuhn's work approached the Nazi concept of a utopian "racially pure" state.[64] Matthias Weber, Hans Hennig Hahn, and Kurt Dröge write that Kuhn's work on linguistic enclaves was particularly apt to support concepts of imperialistic aggression.[65] His works from this period are described by Zdzisław Gębołyś as belonging to genre that was one-sided favouring the German point of view, were tendentious and often used simplifications.[66] While former Nazi  [de] argued that no one could find any nationalism in Kuhn's writings from this time and defended Kuhn's focus on German linguistic enclaves as part of the spirit of the time,[67] Christian Lübke noted a strong similarity the vocabulary of Nazi propaganda and the vocabulary of Kuhn and other contemporary German scholars engaged in studying Eastern Europe: as a specific example, Lübke notes that Kuhn published an article in 1939 in which he wrote about the "vital force inherent in German culture in the East" at a moment in which according to him Germans were engaged in "ethnic struggle".[68] Norbert Angermann, however, argues that Kuhn's pre-war work was not influenced by the racial theories of the Nazis.[3]

Kuhn's focus on linguistic enclaves had mostly been replaced by inter-ethnic studies by 1970, largely through the work of folklorist Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann and historian Walter Schlesinger.[65][69]  [de], a former of student of Kuhn from Hamburg,[60] writes that Kuhn's pre-war work remains useful in its collection of facts, but less so in their systematic comprehension of the situation of linguistic enclaves.[70] Although works such as Kuhn's continue to provide the fullest accounts of German minority populations in areas such as Volhynia, Heinke Kalinke writes that their use today "requires especially careful source criticism and contextualization in academic history" ("bedarf [...] besonders sorgfältiger Quellenkritik und wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Kontextualisierung").[69]

Post-war work[]

Contemporary reviews[]

Kuhn's post-war work was mostly positively reviewed in his lifetime, but received some criticism, particularly from scholars in Poland.[4] Kuhn's first post-war publication, Siedlungsgeschichte Oberschlesiens (1954) received positive reviews by and . Rhode described Kuhn's engagement and scholarly knowledge as "masterful" ("meisterhaft") and praised his knowledge of Polish scholarship.[71] Leighly stated that Kuhn's work "is likely to remain for a long time the best source of information on both the history and geography of settlement in Upper Silesia."[72] A more critical review came from , who while acknowledging Kun's "outstanding job of research", his "great thoroughness" and diligence,[73] stated that Kuhn's work "is written in protest against the expulsion of the Germans from Upper Silesia,"[73] and that Kuhn makes "nonchalant comments on the Hitler era."[74] Borsody criticized Kuhn's thesis that Germans brought Silesia into Western Civilization for Kuhn's failure to separate the history of Germans in Silesia from the Third Reich, or to condemn its atrocities.[75]

Kuhn's two-volume Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit (1955 and 1957) received extremely positive reviews from Rhode, Hans Mortensen, and Hans Linde. Rhode opined that Kuhn's monograph would become the standard work on the subject,[76] while Mortensen said that science owed Kuhn a special thanks for his work,[77] and hoped for a third volume.[78] Linde stated "[i]t is not likely that this exposition will ever be superseded"[79] and that "the evidence is here presented in a dispassionate and objective manner which excludes any kind of polemic."[80]  [de] praised Kuhn's synthesis and the work's maps while nevertheless criticizing Kuhn's attempt to connect German settlement with that of other Western Europeans.[81][82] Former Nazi Rhode claimed that despite many criticisms of this same work, the Polish historian Gerard Labuda stated he had to bow his head to Kuhn's achievement.[83]  [fr], while acknowledging several interesting aspects of the work, criticized Kuhn's tendency toward conclusions that are "flattering to national self-esteem",[84] and Kuhn's decision to selectively cite Polish and Baltic historians without engaging critically with them.[85]  [fr] similarly, while calling the book important, criticized that it seemed to have been written "to the greater glory of Germany."[86] and described Kuhn as one of "nationalist Ostforscher" who "nourish old myths and falsifications" with Kuhn engaging in myth-making about supposed "cultural mission" of German colonization in the east.[87]

Reviewing Die Deutschen und ihre östlichen Nachbarn: ein Handbuch (1967), co-edited by Kuhn,  [de] found the book factually accurate, but criticized the book for its failure to critically analyze the concepts behind contemporary German scholarship on Eastern Europe.[88] Zernack described Kuhn's own essays in the volume as "respectable" (solide).[89]

In his review of Die deutschrechtlichen Städte in Schlesien und Polen in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts (1968),  [de] praised Kuhn for showing that Poles and German and other immigrants were together responsible for the founding of cities in medieval Poland, rather than attributing the development to one group or the other. Kossmann expressed his hope that Kuhn's work could lead to greater cooperation between German and Polish scholars.[90] However, the author[who?] of a review of Kuhn's atlas ""Die mittelalterliche deutsche Ostsiedlung", in Putzger[clarification needed] stated that it is a typical example of biased interpratation of historical events for use of political propaganda with the aim of giving Germans "moral right" to take over and Germanize territories of other nations, including Poland.[91]

Both and  [de] gave Kuhn's essay collection Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur mittelalterlichen Ostsiedlung (1973) very positive reviews.[92][93] In his review of Kuhn's history of Bielitz (1981), called the work the "crowning achievement of [Kuhn's] rich life's work".[94] Kuhn's posthumously published essay collection Neue Beiträge zur schlesischen Siedlungsgeschichte (1984) received positive reviews from Heinrich Appelt and  [de], both of whom were pleased that the collection included Kuhn's biographical writings.[95][1]

Retrospective reviews[]

Writing retrospectively, Norbert Angermann writes that Kuhn always strove to be objective in his work, despite his emotional attachment to the subject.[3]  [de], writing at Kuhn's death in 1983, praises Kuhn for writing knowledgeable and incisive reviews of Polish scholars in particular,[59] while referring to Kuhn as "the most important and most knowledgable representative" of scholarship on German minorities in Eastern Europe.[83]  [de], Kuhn's former student at Hamburg,[60] writes that Kuhn's work on the Ostsiedlung is "of lasting value" (von bleibendem Wert), and he notes the positive reception of Kuhn's work in countries besides Germany, including, "with certain, to some extent justified qualifications" (mit gewissen, z.T. berechtigten Einschränkungen) in Poland.[96] Weczerka nevertheless criticizes Kuhn's fixation on Deutschtum ("German national traditions") to the exclusion of the people surrounding German settlers and enclaves and notes that not everyone could agree to some of Kuhn's conclusions.[4] As a specific example, Weczerka notes that one of Kuhn's maps in the Atlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung (1958, edited by Wilfried Krallert) depicted the Masurians, Kashubians, Sorbs, and Upper Silesians as "groups that according to language and feeling of belonging have become German" (Nach Sprache und Zugehörigkeitsgefühl deutsch gewordene Gruppen).[97] Holocaust scholars Debórah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt refer to Kuhn as representative of "first-rate German historians". They state that Kuhn is the writer of "excellent histories of the medieval development of Upper Silesia in general and of Auschwitz in particular", yet that he nevertheless mentions Auschwitz concentration camp only twice in his entire oeuvre.[98]

Historian Marek Cetwiński writes that Kuhn till end of his life remained a "propagandist", who treated history as a servant.[99] Michal Lis writes that Kuhn and other Ostforschung scholars in post-war West Germany continued to propagate historical and sociological myths aimed at undermining and questioning the Polish identity of the population of Upper Silesia.[100] Andrew Demshuk writes: "As professor for Siedlungsgeschichte (history of settlement) at the University of Hamburg, [Kuhn] dedicated his work to all who remained "faithful" (now to Heimat rather than Hitler) and wrote tales of German suffering through the ages under Slavic oppression."[101] Dariusz Przybytek names an atlas Atlas zur Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung by Kuhn and Willifried Krallert about German Ostsiedlung as having a "propagandic character" [102] Zygmunt Szultka writes that Kuhn made unbelievable errors in his work such as estimating growth of German population in Pomerania to be 10% per year in the time period of 1200-1300, which according to Szultka aren't even worthy of debate[103] Historian Kazimierz Jasinski names Kuhn as "Silesian regionalist" historian, full of anti-Polish prejudice[104] Stefan Guth writes that study of post-war works about Ostsiedlung by Kuhn leave no doubt that he remained loyal to his concentration on Germanness (Deutschtum) in his post-war works just as in the '30s.[105]

Selected publications by Kuhn[]

Scholarly monographs[]

  • Kuhn, Walter (1930). Die jungen deutschen Sprachinseln in Galizien; ein Beitrag zur Methode der Sprachinselforschung. Mit einem Vorworte von Eduard Winter. Münster: Aschendorff.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1934). Deutsche Sprachinselforschung : Geschichte, Aufgaben, Verfahren. Plauen im Vogtland: Wolff.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1954). Siedlungsgeschichte Oberschlesiens. Würzburg: Oberschlesischer Heimatverlag.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1955–57). Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit, 2 Bde. Cologne, Graz: Böhlau.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1968). Die deutschrechtlichen Städte in Schlesien und Polen in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts. Marburg an der Lahn: J. G. Herder-Institut.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1971). Beiträge zur schlesischen Siedlungsgeschichte. Munich: Delp.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1973). Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur mittelalterlichen Ostsiedlung. Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1981). Geschichte der deutschen Sprachinsel Bielitz (Schlesien). Würzburg: Holzner Verlag.
  • Kuhn, Walter (1984). Neue Beiträge zur schlesischen Siedlungsgeschichte : eine Aufsatzsammlung. Sigmaringen: J. Thorbecke.

As editor[]

  • Kuhn, Walter; Aschenbrenner, Viktor; Lemberg, Eugen, eds. (1967). Die Deutschen und ihre östlichen Nachbarn: ein Handbuch. Frankfurt am Main: M. Diesterweg.

Scholarly articles[]

Autobiographical writing[]

  • Kuhn, Walter (1982). "Eine Jugend für die Sprachinselforschung. Erinnerungen". Jahrbuch der schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau. 23: 225–278.

Works cited[]

  • Angermann, Norbert. "Walter Kuhn". Die ostdeutsche Bibliographie.
  • Burleigh, Michael (1988). Germany turns eastwards : a study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521351200.
  • Burleigh, Michael (2000). The Third Reich: A New History. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. ISBN 0333644875.
  • Burleigh, Michael (1992). "Scholarship, State and Nation, 1918-45". In Breuilly, John (ed.). The State oF Germany: The National Idea in the Making, Unmaking and Remaking of a Modern Nation-State. London and New York: Longman. pp. 128–140. ISBN 0-582-07864-4.
  • Chrobak, Dariusz (2010). "Das Phänomen der Sprachinsel. Geschichte der ehemaligen deutschen Sprachinseln in Oberschlesien und Galizien". Studia Śląskie. 69.
  • Chu, Winson (2012). The German minority in interwar Poland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107008304.
  • Demshuk, Andrew (2012). The lost German East : forced migration and the politics of memory, 1945-1970. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107020733.
  • Dwork, Debórah; van Pelt, Robert Jan (1996). Auschwitz, 1270 to the present. New York: Norton. ISBN 0393039331.
  • Fielitz, Wilhelm (2008). "Walter Kuhn". In Haar, Ingo; Fahlbusch, Michael (eds.). Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften : Personen, Institutionen, Forschungsprogramme, Stiftungen. Munich: K.G. Saur. pp. 387–390. ISBN 9783598117787.
  • Haar, Ingo (2000). Historiker im Nationalsozialismus : deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft und der "Volkstumskampf" im Osten. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 352535942X.
  • Haar, Ingo (2005). "German Ostforschung and Anti-Semitism". In Haar, Ingo; Fahlbusch, Michael (eds.). German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp. 1–27. ISBN 1-57181-435-3.
  • Kalinke, Heinke (2015). "Sprachinselforschung". Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa. Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg und Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (BKGE).
  • Krzoska, Markus (2003). "Deutsche Ostforschung - polnische Westforschung: Prolegomena zu einem Vergleich". Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung/Journal of East-Central European Studies. 52 (3): 399–419.
  • Lübke, Christian (2017). "Germany's Growth to the East: from the Polabian Marches to Germania Slavica". In Loud, Graham A.; Staub, Martial (eds.). The making of medieval history. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: York Medieval Press. pp. 167–184. ISBN 978-1903153703.
  • Michelsen, Jakob (2008). "Ilse Schwidetzky". In Haar, Ingo; Fahlbusch, Michael (eds.). Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften : Personen, Institutionen, Forschungsprogramme, Stiftungen. Munich: K.G. Saur. pp. 751–762. ISBN 9783598117787.
  • Michelsen, Jakob (2003). "Von Breslau nach Hamburg: Ostforscher am Historischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg nach 1945". In Hering, Rainer; Nicolaysen, Rainer (eds.). Lebendige Sozialgeschichte: Gedenkschrift für Peter Borowsky. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. pp. 659–681. ISBN 3-531-13717-4.
  • Mühle, Eduard (2005). Für Volk und deutschen Osten. Der Historiker Hermann Aubin und die deutsche Ostforschung. Düsseldorf: Droste. ISBN 377001619X.
  • Petersohn, Jürgen (1977). "Review: Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur mittelalterlichen Ostsiedlung(Ostmitteleuropa in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, 16) by Walter Kuhn". Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. 4 (1): 109–110. JSTOR 43566423.
  • Pinwinkler, Alexander (2009). "Walter Kuhn (1903-1983) und der Bielitzer "Wandervogel e. V.". Historisch-volkskundliche "Sprachinselforschung" zwischen nationalistischem Pathos und politischer Indienstnahme". Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. 105: 29–52.
  • Rhode, Gotthold (1983). "Walter Kuhn (1903-1983): Ein Leben für die Sprachinselforschung und die Siedlungsforschung". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. N.F. 31 (4): 629–632. JSTOR 41046753.
  • Schleier, Hans (1999). "German historiography under National Socialism: dreams of a powerful nation-state and German Volkstum come true". In Berger, Stefan; Donovan, Mark; Passmore, Kevin (eds.). Writing National Histories: Western Europe since 1800. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 176–188. ISBN 0-415-16426-5.
  • Weber, Matthias; Hahn, Hans Hennig; Dröge, Kurt (1999). "Ostmitteleuropaforschung statt "deutsche Ostforschung"". Einblicke: Das Forschungsmagazin der Universität Oldenburg. 30.
  • Weczerka, Hugo (2001). "Walter Kuhn (1903-1983): Eine biographische Würdigung". In Kessler, Wolfgang (ed.). Fünfzig Jahre Forschung zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Polen : die Historisch-Landeskundliche Kommission für Posen und das Deutschtum in Polen und die Kommission für die Geschichte der Deutschen in Polen 1950-2000. Herne: Stiftung Martin-Opitz-Bibliothek. pp. 75–82.
  • Wolff, Larry (1994). Inventing Eastern Europe : the map of civilization on the mind of the enlightenment. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804723141.

Recensions and reviews of Kuhn's work[]

  • Appelt, Heinrich (1985). "Review: Walter Kuhn: Neue Beiträge zur schlesischen Siedlungsgeschichte. Eine Aufsatzsammlung". Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung. 93 (3–4): 493. doi:10.7767/miog.1985.93.34.493.
  • Borsody, Stephen (1956). "Review: Siedlungsgeschichte Oberschlesiens. by Walter Kuhn". The American Slavic and East European Review. 15 (4): 563–564. doi:10.2307/3001322. JSTOR 3001322.
  • Bosl, Karl (1982). "Review: Walther Kuhn: Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur mittelalterlichen Ostsiedlung". Bohemia: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Kultur der böhmischen Länder. 23 (1): 190–193.
  • Dreyfus, François-Georges (1959). "Review: Walter Kuhn, Geschichte der Deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit". Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 14 (4): 806–807. doi:10.1017/S0395264900091186.
  • Hilsch, Peter (1987). "Review: Neue Beiträge zur schlesischen Siedlungsgeschichte. Eine Aufsatzsammlung (Quellen und Darstellungen zur schlesischen Geschichte, Bd. 23) byWalter Kuhn". Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. 14 (1): 118–119. JSTOR 43567602.
  • Kossmann, O. (1969). "Review: Die deutschrechtlichen Städte in Schlesien und Polen in der erstenHälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts by Walter Kuhn". Osteuropa. 19 (9): 900. JSTOR 44902897.
  • Leighly, John (1956). "Review: Siedlungsgeschichte Oberschlesiens by Walter Kuhn". Geographical Review. 46 (3): 436–437. doi:10.2307/211896. JSTOR 211896.
  • Linde, Hans (1958). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit, Vol. I, Das 15. bis17. Jahrhundert (allgemeiner Teil.) by Walter Kuhn; Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlungin der Neuzeit, Vol. II, Das 15. bis 17. Jahrhunder (land-schaftlicher Teil) by Walter Kuhn". The Economic History Review. N.S. 11 (2): 349–350. doi:10.2307/2592381. JSTOR 2592381.
  • Livet, Georges (1957). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit t. I : Das 15. bis 17.Jahrhundert (Allgemeiner Teil). (Ostmitteleuropa in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, t. I)by Walter Kuhn". Revue historique. 218 (1): 143–145. JSTOR 40948895.
  • Livet, Georges (1966). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit. T. 2,(Landschftlicher Teil) by Walter Kuhn". Revue historique. 235 (1): 195–196. JSTOR 40950757.
  • Mortensen, Hans (1961). "Review: Walter Kuhn, Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit Bd 2". Zeitschrift für Ostforschung. 10 (3): 529–530.
  • Mortensen, Hans (1956). "Zur Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit". Zeitschrift für Ostforschung. 5 (2): 263–267.
  • Rhode, Gotthold (1956). "Review: Siedlungsgeschichte Oberschlesiens. Veröffentlichungen derOberschlesischen Studienhilfe. 4 by WALTER KUHN; Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlungin der Neuzeit. Bd I. Das 15. bis 17. Jahrhundert (Allgemeiner Teil). Ostmitteleuropa inVergangenheit und Gegenwart by WALTER KUHN and J. G. Herder-Forschungsrat". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. N.F. 4 (2): 176–181. JSTOR 41041386.
  • Rhode, Gotthold (1958). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit. Bd II.(Landschaftlicher Teil). Ostmitteleuropa in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart by WALTERKUHN and J. G. Herder-Forschungsrat". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. 6 (2): 292–296. JSTOR 41041525.
  • Schlenger, Herbert (1957). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit. 1. Band: Das 15.bis 17. Jahrhundert (Allgemeiner Teil) by Walter Kuhn". Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. 44 (3): 273–276. JSTOR 20728105.
  • Schlenger, Herbert (1959). "Review: Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit. II. Bd.Kartenmappe zu Bd. I by Walter Kuhn". Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. 46 (4): 562–563. JSTOR 20728365.
  • Stökl, Günther (1982). "Review: Mutterkirche vieler Länder. Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche imHerzogtum Teschen 1545-1918/20. Studien und Texte zur Kirchengeschichte undGeschichte. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für protestantische Kirchengeschichte, 1.Reihe. Band IV/1-2 by Oskar Wagner and Peter F. Barton; Geschichte der deutschenSprachinsel Bielitz (Schlesien). Quellen und Darstellungen zur schlesischen Geschichte. Band21 by Walter Kuhn, Ludwig Petry and Josef Joachim Menzel". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. N.F. 30 (4): 618–623. JSTOR 41046576.
  • Zernack, Klaus (1969). "Review: Die Deutschen und ihre östlichen Nachbarn. Ein Handbuch by ViktorAschenbrenner, Ernst Birke, Walter Kuhn and Eugen Lemberg". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. N.F. 17 (1): 99–102. JSTOR 41044200.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Appelt 1985, p. 493.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mühle 2005, p. 265.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Angermann.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Weczerka 2001, pp. 81-82.
  5. ^ "Kuhns siedlungshistorische Erkenntnisse haben nicht nur in Deutschland Anerkennung gefunden, sondern - mit gewissen, z.T. berechtigten Einschränkungen auch in Polen. Man war sogar in westlichen Ländern wie Irland und Kanada aus komparativen Gründen an Kuhns "Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit" interessiert, und Charles Higounet aus Bordeaux, der als Gastprofessor in Hamburg weilte und sich mit Walter Kuhn anfreundete, dankte im Vorwort seines Buches "Die deutsche Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter (1986) Kuhn für die Vermittlung neuer Einsichten."Weczerka 2001, pp. 81-82
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Pinwinkler 2009, pp. 32-33.
  7. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, p. 34.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c Burleigh 1988, p. 105.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Weczerka 2001, p. 78.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c Fielitz 2008, p. 387.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Wolff 1994, p. 336.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Burleigh 1988, p. 107.
  13. ^ Chu 2012, p. 109.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Burleigh 1988, p. 106.
  15. ^ Chu 2012, pp. 108-110.
  16. ^ Haar 2000, p. 272.
  17. ^ Weczerka 2001, pp. 77-78.
  18. ^ Fielitzh 2008, p. 387.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mühle 2005, p. 263.
  20. ^ Burleigh 1988, pp. 105-106.
  21. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, p. 40.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b Pinwinkler 2009, p. 42.
  23. ^ Haar 2000, pp. 272-274.
  24. ^ Walter Kuhn fungierte dabei neben Kurt Luck, AlfredLattermann und Viktor Kauder als Kontaktmann zwischen Hans Steinacher auf der einen und Otto Ulitz auf der anderen Seite. Ulitz war der Lieter des "Deutschen Volksbundes" in Kattowitz, der die geheime revisionpolitik der Reichsregierung in Polen koordinierte Ingo Haar Historiker im Nationalsozialismus Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft und der "Volkstumskampf" im Osten Göttingen Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 2000 page 272
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b Mühle 2005, p. 264.
  26. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, pp. 37-38.
  27. ^ Haar 2000, p. 275.
  28. ^ Mühle 2005, pp. 264-265.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Fielitz 2008, p. 388.
  30. ^ Michelsen 2003, p. 671.
  31. ^ Schleier 1999, p. 186.
  32. ^ Victor Kander i Walter Kuhn, którzy publikowali na łamach wydawanego w Poznaniu "Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift in Polen". Publikacje te miały na celu udokumentowanie niemieckiego charakteru zachodnich II Rzeczpospolitej oraz wyzszosci kultury germansko-niemieckiej nad slowiansko polska Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis: Antiquitas Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe p. 241 Oddział Wrocławski, 1993 Dariusz Matelski, NSDAP w Wielkopolsce w latach 1935-1939
  33. ^ So führte Kuhn in seinem ersten monographischen Werk über die >Sprachinseln< antislawische und antisemitische differenzkonstruktionen zusammen Hundert Jahre sudetendeutsche Geschichte: Eine völkische Bewegung in drei Staaten (Die Deutschen und das östliche Europa. Studien und Quellen, Peter Lang Hans Henning Hahn page 321 November 2007
  34. ^ Ursprünge, Arten und Folgen des Konstrukts "Bevölkerung" vor, im und nach dem "Dritten Reich" Zur Geschichte der deutschen Bevölkerungswissenschaft 2009 page 119
  35. ^ Lebendige Sozialgeschichte page 671 Rainer Hering, Rainer Nicolaysen, Peter Borowsky Bei der Beschreibung der verschiedenen Volksgruppen in Polen bediente sich Kuhn auch antisemitischer Klischees
  36. ^ Hundert Jahre sudetendeutsche Geschichte: Eine völkische Bewegung in drei Staaten (Die Deutschen und das östliche Europa. Studien und Quellen, Peter Lang Hans Henning Hahn page 321 November 2007
  37. ^ Mniejszość niemiecka w Wielkopolsce w latach 1919-1939 page 330 Dariusz Matelski - Wydawnictwo Naukowe Universytetu Adama Mickiewicz. UAM, 1997 Centralą irredenty niemieckiej w województwie poznańskim był lokal Niemieckiego Konsulatu Generalnego w Poznaniu, w którym 23 II 1939 r. powołano tzw. grupę szkoleniową pod kierownictwem Richarda Blocha (tworzyli ją ponadto Helmut Haberhorn, Walther Kuhn i Herbert Czarnecki. Jej zadaniem było organizowanie tzw. "Schulungsabend", na których omawiano m. in. "technikę pracy informacyjno-wywiadowczej Center of German irredentist movement in Posnan voivodeship was housed in German Consulate in Poznań, in which on 23 II 1939 a training group under the leadership of Richard Block was founded (it was formed also by Helmut, Haberhorn, Walther Kuhn and Herbert Czarnecki). Its goal was to organize so-called "Schulungsabend", during which "techniques of intelligence and information gathering work" were discussed
  38. ^ Szczególnie intensywną działalność rozwijał Walter Kuhn, zamieszkały do 1936 r. w Bielsku. Kuhn pozostawal w stalym kontakcie z Deutsches Ausland Institut w Stuttgarcie.Instytut ten, wykonujac zlecenia SD zbieral i opracowywal przy pomocy naukowcow, rekrutujacych sie z ze srodowisk mniejszosci,rekrutujących się ze środowisk mniejszości niemieckiej za granicami Rzeszy, materiały mające poważne znaczenie dla wywiadu. SS, czarna gwardia Hitlera - page 229 Ksiazka i Wiedza Karol Grünberg - 1984 especially intensive activity was carried out by Walter Kuhnw who lived in Bielsk till 1936. Kuhn remained in constant contact with Deutsches Ausland Institut w Stuttgart.This institute was following orders by SD and gathered and compiled with help of scholars, recruited from German minorities located beyond Reich borders, materials that had significant importance for intelligence.
  39. ^ Demshuk 2012, p. 71.
  40. ^ Jump up to: a b c Weczerka 2001, p. 79.
  41. ^ Burleigh 2000, p. 44.
  42. ^ Burleigh 1988, pp. 177-178.
  43. ^ Heimat, Region, and Empire: Spatial Identities Under National Socialism Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann, Maiken Umbach page 150
  44. ^ Chu 2012, pp. 258-259.
  45. ^ Haar 2005, p. 14.
  46. ^ Burleigh 1988, p. 176.
  47. ^ Jump up to: a b c Haar 2000, p. 11.
  48. ^ Krzoska 2003, p. 415.
  49. ^ German Political Organizations and Regional Particularisms in Interwar Poland (1918-1939) Winson W. Chu University of California, Berkeley, 2006 page 405
  50. ^ Michelsen 2003, pp. 671-672.
  51. ^ Burleigh 1992, p. 138.
  52. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, p. 44.
  53. ^ Burleigh 1988, pp. 247-248.
  54. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, pp. 50-51.
  55. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Fielitz 2008, p. 389.
  56. ^ Demshuk 2012, pp. 71-72.
  57. ^ Michelsen 2003, p. 676.
  58. ^ Weczerka 2001, pp. 79-80.
  59. ^ Jump up to: a b Rhode 1983, p. 632.
  60. ^ Jump up to: a b c Weczerka 2001, p. 75.
  61. ^ Chrobak 2010, p. 257.
  62. ^ Chu 2012, p. 174.
  63. ^ Fielitz 2008, pp. 387-388.
  64. ^ Pinwinkler 2009, p. 18.
  65. ^ Jump up to: a b Weber, Hahn & Dröge 1999.
  66. ^ Biblioteki mniejszości niemieckiej w II Rzeczypospolitej Zdzisław Gębołyś, Uniwersytet Śląski, Katowice 2014, page 33
  67. ^ Rhode 1983, p. 630.
  68. ^ Lübke 2017, p. 175.
  69. ^ Jump up to: a b Kalinke 2015.
  70. ^ Weczerka 2001, pp. 80-81.
  71. ^ Rhode 1956, pp. 178-179.
  72. ^ Leighly 1956, p. 437.
  73. ^ Jump up to: a b Borsody 1956, p. 563.
  74. ^ Borsody 1956, pp. 564-564.
  75. ^ Borsody 1956, p. 564.
  76. ^ Rhode 1958, p. 296.
  77. ^ Mortensen 1956, p. 265.
  78. ^ Mortensen 1961, p. 530.
  79. ^ Linde 1958, p. 349.
  80. ^ Linde 1958, p. 350.
  81. ^ Schlenger 1957, pp. 273-276.
  82. ^ Schlenger 1959, pp. 562-563.
  83. ^ Jump up to: a b Rhode 1983, p. 631.
  84. ^ Livet 1957, p. 145.
  85. ^ Livet 1966, pp. 195-196.
  86. ^ Dreyfus 1959, p. 807.
  87. ^ Józef Kokot, Andrzej Brożek Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1966 page 16
  88. ^ Zernack 1969, p. 99, 102.
  89. ^ Zernack 1969, p. 101.
  90. ^ Kossmann 1969, p. 700.
  91. ^ Kwartalnik historyczny, Tom 84,Wydania 1-2 page 425 Towarzystwo Historyczne, 1977
  92. ^ Petersohn 1977, pp. 109-110.
  93. ^ Bosl 1982, pp. 190193.
  94. ^ Stökl 1982, p. 622.
  95. ^ Hilsch 1987, pp. 118-119.
  96. ^ Weczerka 2001, p. 81.
  97. ^ Weczerka 2001, p. 82.
  98. ^ Dwork & van Pelt 1996, p. 356.
  99. ^ Ideologia i poznanie: społeczne funkcje mediewistyki śląskiej po 1945 roku Marek Cetwiński Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna w Częstochowie, 1993, page 24
  100. ^ Polityka Republiki Federalnej Niemiec wobec polskiej ludności rodzimej na Ṡląsku w latach 1949-1990/91 Michał Lis Wydawnictwo Instytutu Śląskiego w Opolu, 1992 page 20
  101. ^ Demshuk 2012, p. 72.
  102. ^ Kartografia historyczna Ślaka XVIII-XX wieku page 102 Dariusz Przybytek Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2002
  103. ^ Kaszubi na Pomorzu Zachodnim na przestrzeni wieków Zygmunt Szultka Pomerania 49 page 29 October 2015
  104. ^ Rodowód Piastów śląskich: Piastowie wrocławscy, legnicko-brzescy, świdniccy, ziębiccy, głogowscy, żagańscy, oleśniccy, opolscy, cieszyńscy i oświęcimscy Kazimierz Jasiński Wydawnictwo Avalon, 2007, page 15
  105. ^ Geschichte als Politik: Der deutsch-polnische Historikerdialog im 20. Jahrhundert Stefan Guth München 2015 page 271
Retrieved from ""