Today Leibniz University Hannover officially unveiled a memorial wall of names that commemorates the victims of Nazi-based injustices at the former Technische Hochschule Hannover from 1933 onwards. The names are listed at a central location next to the ServiceCenter in the atrium (Lichthof) of the main university building (Welfenschloss). The decision to put the names directly on the wall rather than on a plaque was made intentionally. The unveiling of the wall of names, like the renaming of three lecture halls, is a further step in Leibniz University Hannover’s process of reviewing and acknowledging a dark chapter of its predecessor institution during the Nazi period.
“The new wall of names in the Lichthof makes the victims of the Nazi period visible to the public and to all the university’s members,” said Prof. Volker Epping, president of Leibniz University Hannover. “This is an important signal for those impacted by the injustices and their descendants. As the successor institution to the Technische Hochschule Hannover, the university expressly acknowledges and condemns the Nazi-based restrictions implemented by the institution’s governing bodies beginning in 1933 and considers them acts of injustice that were null and void from the outset. My utmost thanks for the assessment of this dark chapter at our predecessor institution go to the Senate working group.”
In recent years, a working group established with the approval of the Senate has conducted an extensive review of the awarding and withdrawal of titles during the Nazi period. The names of those university members impacted were read aloud publicly as part of a commemorative ceremony at the university in November 2013. A plaque has also been added to the university’s gallery of rectors and presidents that indicates which rectors worked at the university and shared responsibility for the injustices during the period from 1933 to 1945.
On 18 November, the B 302 lecture hall, which belongs to the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, was renamed the Klaus Fröhlich Lecture Hall. The E001 lecture hall, which is the responsibility of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodetic Science, was renamed the Hugo Kulka Lecture Hall. Another lecture hall in the Faculty of Natural Sciences was renamed the Walter Dux Lecture Hall in June of this year.
Background information:
Walter Dux (1889–1987)
1912 Dipl.-Ing., doctorate in engineering in 1913 at the Technische Hochschule Hannover.
He made important contributions to the discovery of chain reactions with Prof. Dr. Max Bodenstein at the Hochschule’s Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. Racism-based repression drove him to emigrate to Great Britain in 1936. In 1939, his German citizenship was revoked and, as a result, his doctoral title was withdrawn through its removal from the university’s internal doctoral register. In 1963, the party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the doctoral degree took place at TH Hannover without any evident recognition of this injustice.
Klaus Fröhlich (1918–1945)
Physics student at TH Hannover, 1937–1939.
In 1938/39, Fröhlich was denied his intermediate examination (Vordiplom) certificate for racism-based reasons, although he had passed. This occurred despite his possession of a letter of admission for Harvard University and in the knowledge that the certificate or a letter of reference was necessary for him to continue his studies there. His emigration to the USA was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War. In mid-1943, he was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. He died in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.
Hugo Kulka (1883–1933)
Civil engineer, awarded doctorate in 1912, non-tenured professor for hydraulic engineering and bridge engineering from 1924 to 1933 at TH Hannover.
Kulka played a leading role in the construction of important buildings and structures, including the platform halls at the Leipzig Central Station and the Lidingö Bridge in Stockholm. In 1932, he was in first place on the appointment list for a professorship in structural engineering and statics; however, he was already considered a controversial figure in the university at this time because of his Jewish heritage. In 1933, he was expelled from the university and fled to The Hague. He died in October of the same year due to complications from an illness that went untreated during his escape from Germany.
