Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on ethnologists from Austria and Germany who fled the Nazi regime. It asks how networks enabled (forced) emigration, facilitated scholarly work in exile and shaped long-term scholarly trajectories and the discipline in general after the end of the Nazi era.

Paper long abstract:

Numerous ethnologists tried to escape the Nazi regime in the 1930s/40s by fleeing to another country. Based on archival research and interviews, this paper will follow the cases of Paul Leser (1899-1984), Otto Maenchen-Helfen (1894-1969) and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel (1877-1935) to scrutinize how professional and personal networks facilitated emigration and refuge and enabled scholarly work in exile.

I will, first, address the role of aid committees that supported scholars who were forced to flee Germany and Austria and the different circumstances under which academics applied to these committees for support. Secondly, I ask how flight, exile and emigration changed these scholars’ professional (and personal) networks. The three mentioned case studies suggest that, whereas in Germany and Austria, scholars of a similar academic “school” or a shared regional focus were in closer contact, in exile the respective academic orientation lost importance and gave way to very personal sensitivities and sympathies. Shared rejection of the Nazi regime, the common fate and mutual help and advocacy became much more important than scholarly orientation.

Finally, I consider the personal and professional situation of ethnologists after the end of the Nazi era. What prospects were there for a “return” to one’s home country or for staying abroad, and what role did professional and personal networks, both pre- and post-emigration, play in this? (How) did the scholars’ forced emigration impact the development of ethnology in post-war Austria and Germany?