Reemerging Interest in the Southeast

The Importance of the Danube Region

Within the framework of designing West Germany's foreign policy, the Southeast Europe Association (SOG) was founded in Munich on November 29, 1952. Southeast Europe, or in the words of the SOG, "the Danube," had "gained importance as a cultural, political and economic component" for Bonn's foreign policy activities "following the division of Germany and the establishment of the Oder-Neisse-line." This impelled the Federal Republic of Germany to seek to establish new networks. According to its own presentation, the Southeast Europe Association was founded to provide "Southeast European research and the reemerging interest in the Southeast a public forum, alongside the already existing Southeast Institute."[1] The politician Wilhelm Gülich became its first president in 1955. During the Nazi period, Gülich had been the library director of the Institute of World Economy at Kiel University and had maintained relationships with German scholars, who had specialized in foreign regions. Less incriminated with a Nazi past - and as a member of the SPD, he had joined after the war - he was considered presentable abroad.

Shot to the Neck

However, many old Nazis, in fact, were involved in the establishment of West German southeast Europe Institutions. One of the most striking examples is Fritz Valjavec. Valjavec, an NSDAP member since 1933, became a prominent activist in the 1930s in the field of the Nazi's southeast Europe policy, cloaked in a scientific veil. Since 1935, Valjavec worked for the Munich Southeast Institute, founded in 1930, supporting the SD's "study of the enemy" aimed at identifying objectionable groups within the population of the Southeast European occupied countries. It was no coincidence that in 1943, the Southeast Institute was placed under the auspices of Division VI G of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. In June 1941, the southeast Europe expert was assigned to the Special Commando 10b of Task Force D. According to a study, between the time the Task Force D invaded Czernowitz to August 1, it had "executed 682 of the approx. 1,200 Jews arrested in cooperation with Rumanian police."[2] According to one witness, on July 8, 1941, Valjavec participated in this mass execution in Czernowitz, personally executing 100 Jews with a shot "to the neck."[3] Whereas the Special 10b Commando continued its advance, Valjavec remained in the city "as the SD's political agent" until November 1941.[4]

Unchanged since 1944

Shortly after the end of the war, Valjavec was again able to influence political decisions. In 1945, he prevented the ultimate shutting down of the Southeast Institute, which could again begin its work in 1951 - in direct continuity with its predecessor institution. In 1955, Valjavec was named Director of the Southeast Institute. In 1951, he had participated in the founding of the Southeast German Cultural Work and, in 1952, initiated the founding of the Southeast Europe Association, whose activities he organized until 1955. He had officially served as its administrative director from 1955 until his death in 1960. Already in 1952, Valjavec had openly admitted that the continuity in personnel was linked to continuity in objectives. Since 1952, he could again publish "Südost-Forschungen," (Southeast Research), a specialized journal, he had founded in 1936, under the auspices of the Southeast Institute and published until 1944. In the editorial of the first new edition - numbered "Volume 11" - he disclosed that the majority of the articles had already been typeset in 1944 and now are "available, unchanged, to researchers of all nations."[5] In 1944, the Southeast Institute, with its publications, was still operating under the auspices of the Nazi's Reichssicherheitshauptamt.

On Behalf of the NSDAP, SD and the Foreign Ministry

There are numerous other examples alongside Valjavec's activities, showing a seamless continuity of Southeast European activities in West Germany, i. e. the career of the Southeast specialist, Franz Ronneberger, who, since 1934, had enjoyed "close scholarly, political and personal ties" [6] to Fritz Valjavec. Ronneberger, a member of the SA since March 1933, went to Vienna in early 1939 as a consultant of the Reich Governor, Authur Seyß-Inquart. From there, he established a large network of contact persons, throughout Southeast Europe, who, according to a comprehensive study of Ronneberger's activities, "alternatively could be classified as agents, correspondents or scholarly consultants." His Vienna office, according to the report "developed into a hub of information for the Nazi regime circles with an interest in southeast Europe." Ronneberger, who had incorporated various administrative functions, would, "depending on the situation," present himself as "a functionary of the foreign ministry, of the Reich's student leadership, of the Vienna Security Service (SD)," as "an NSDAP functionary or as a member of a semi-government institution" such as the Southeast Europe Association, which, at the time, had its headquarters in Vienna.[7] In 1947, the long-term and experienced Nazi specialist attributed to his "office" the "character of a southeast Europe research institute."

Remarkable Results

Habilitated still in 1944, Ronneberger was able to continue his activities within the framework the Southeast Europe activities of West Germany, for example, as a member of the scientific advisory board of the Southeast Europe Association. In 1961 he published his "Proposals for Inclusion of Southeast Europe Research in the Planning of the Establishment of German Universities" ("Südosteuropa-Studien Heft 1"), in which he explicitly referred to the "remarkable results" of his activities preceding 1945.[8] "The proposals of the Southeast Europe Association" had indeed received "attention" - particularly by the cultural administrations of the federal states und in institutions promoting science," reports the Association. They were also taken into consideration when the Chair of "Economy and Society of Southeastern Europe" was created at the University of Munich.[9]

German Arrogance

Reacting to the scandal surrounding the Southeast Europe Association's "Rudolf Vogel Medal" [10] and in light of Rudolf Vogel's as well as West German southeast Europe institutions' Nazi past, the historian Milan Kosanovic recently explained that this was typical for the way Germany was dealing with Southeast European countries, which "have generally lost importance."[11] "If that would have happened to France, Poland or another larger country," Kosanovic assumes, Germany "would have risked a diplomatic scandal." Kosanovic is right about German arrogance in relationship to smaller countries in Southeast Europe. However, he is wrong, when he assumes that German institutions would not make awards, named after Nazi criminals, who had committed their crimes in France or Poland. A few days from now, german-foreign-policy.com will report on a recent example.

For more information on this subject see A Distinguished Antifascist.

[1] 20 Jahre Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft München. Mitteilungen der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft Sonderheft 1, München 1972
[2] Andrej Angrick: Besatzungspolitik und Massenmord. Die Einsatzgruppe D in der südlichen Sowjetunion 1941-1943, Hamburg 2003
[3], [4] Klaus Popa: Fritz Valjavec, in: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (Hg.): Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften. Personen - Institutionen - Forschungsprogramme - Stiftungen, München 2008. S. auch unsere Rezension
[5] Gerhard Seewann: Das Südost-Institut 1930-1960, in: Mathias Beer, Gerhard Seewann (Hg.): Südostforschung im Schatten des Dritten Reiches, München 2004
[6], [7], [8] Peer Heinelt: "PR-Päpste". Die kontinuierlichen Karrieren von Carl Hundhausen, Albert Oeckl und Franz Ronneberger, Berlin 2003. S. auch unsere Rezension
[9] 20 Jahre Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft München. Mitteilungen der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft Sonderheft 1, München 1972
[10] see also A Distinguished Antifascist
[11] "Mit Frankreich hätte man so etwas nicht gemacht"; www.faz.net 12.02.2013