Publications

Displaced Students: Intersectional Stories of Persecution of Student Victims of National Socialism at Christian Albrecht University in Kiel

The publication “Displaced Students: Intersectional Histories of Persecution of Student Victims of National Socialism at Kiel University” is a student research project authored by Konstantin Braas and Fabian Zurstraßen and listed in the AStA publication catalogue. It documents the individual histories of students at Kiel University who, under National Socialism, were persecuted on the basis of racial, political, or other discriminatory criteria and expelled from the academic community. The AStA’s Department for Political Education is dedicated to strengthening democratic values and critically engaging with discrimination in both past and present. Examining the university’s history during the National Socialist period—particularly from the perspectives of displaced students—is a central component of this political education. It raises awareness of how authoritarian ideologies can threaten the lives and freedoms of students and scholars and highlights that universities are by no means detached from societal developments, but often stand at their very center. The project thus aims to contribute to a culture of remembrance at Kiel University and to promote awareness of structural discrimination. For Kiel University and its organized student body, critically addressing the institution’s National Socialist past should be regarded as part of its historical responsibility, contributing to the examination of institutional continuities and the strengthening of academic values.

Example case related to AStA:

The siblings Thomas, Renate, Eva-Maria, and Reinhard Rosenberg studied at Kiel University in the early 1930s and were subjected to repeated persecution both because of their Jewish background and their communist political engagement. In July 1933, the university administration initiated investigations against the siblings after they had been denounced by fellow students from the National Socialist German Students’ League. The Kiel student body (KSt)—the institutional predecessor of today’s AStA—also supported the National Socialist regime, among other things through the denunciation of politically undesirable students and the initiation of the book burning at Wilhelmplatz. As a result of these repressive measures, the Rosenberg siblings were forced to flee; several of them emigrated into exile, and their academic and life trajectories at Kiel University were destroyed. This case exemplifies that student self-governance under National Socialism was not merely passive, but actively involved in exclusion and persecution. For this very reason, the AStA’s present-day engagement with this history is of particular importance: it underscores that student representation bears a democratic responsibility and must consciously position itself against discrimination, authoritarianism, and political repression.