Gleichschaltung of universities - from Martin Heidegger speech in May 1933
The total state: the Gleichschaltung of the universities - from Martin Heidegger speech in May 1933.
Source: J. Remak (ed.), The Nazi Years: A Documentary History, (Prentice - Hall, 1969), pp.58-59.
... The much praised "academic freedom" shall be driven out of Germany's universities, for this freedom, being merely negative, was not genuine. What it meant primarily was unconcern, was a capricious exercise of intentions and inclinations, was non-commitment. The concept of a German student's freedom is now being returned to its true meaning. It is from this true meaning that the future bonds and obligations of the German student shall devolve. The first bond is that with the national community. It imposes an obligation to take part, in thought and deed, in the endeavours, the desires, and the skills of all classes and all members of the nation. This bond shall henceforth be firmly established, and rooted in the student's existence, by the Labour Service. The second bond is that with the honour and fate of the nation in the midst of other nations. It demands a readiness - secured by skill and education, and firmed by discipline - to put one's very life in the scales. This bond shall embrace and penetrate all student existence as Military Service. The third student bond is that the spiritual mission of the German people. This nation determines its fate whilst living historical existence under the evident sign of the superiority of the political forces that shape the human condition, and whilst ever struggling anew for the attainment of its spiritual world. Thus exposed to the extreme precariousness of its own existence, this nation wishes to be a spiritual nation. It demands of itself, and for itself in its leaders and guardians, the hardest clarity of the highest, widest, richest knowledge. ... These three bonds - bonds that reach from the people to the fate of the nation in its spiritual mission - all emanate equally from the German soul. The three services to which they give life - Labour Service, Military Service, Knowledge Service - are equally essential and of equal rank. ...
