Klemens von Klemperer

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Klemens Wilhelm von Klemperer (November 2, 1916 - December 23, 2012) was a historian of modern Europe and professor at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. He was a prominent member of a generation of historians who fled Nazi Germany and established themselves as leading scholars in the United States.[1][2] His teaching and writings focused on 20th century Germany and Central Europe, in particular the Nazi regime and the resistance to Hitler. In 1997, he received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class[3] in recognition of his contribution to Austrian culture. He delivered a lecture in June 1998 at Westminster Abbey to mark the unveiling of a sculpture of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the "Martyrs' Gallery".[4]

Contents

Biography [edit]

Born in Berlin to a family of prominent bankers and industrialists, von Klemperer was a son of Frieda (Kuffner) and Herbert von Klemperer, and a grandson of Gustav Klemperer von Klemenau.[5] He graduated from the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1934. He attended Balliol College Oxford, then moved to the University of Vienna, where he studied history of law under Heinrich Mitteis. After the Anschluss in March 1938, he became one of the leaders of the anti-Nazi student movement in Vienna.[6] Von Klemperer befriended the brothers Otto and Fritz Molden, future leaders of the O5 resistance movement, joining them in the Parthenen mountain hut gathering of July 1938.[7] However, in November 1938, mounting political disturbances and his family's Jewish background forced him to flee to the United States. In the waning months of his life in Austria, he served as executor for the manuscripts in the estate of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian playwright, poet, and great uncle by marriage to the Kuffner branch of his Viennese family.[8][9]

After first arriving in New York, von Klemperer enrolled at Harvard University as one of 14 students accepted into the refugee scholar program supported by Franklin D. Roosevelt.[10] These studies were interrupted from 1942 to 1946 by service in the US Army in Eisenhower's G2 intelligence unit of SHAEF, stationed in London,[11] Versailles, and Berlin.[12] He received his PhD from Harvard in 1949, and went on to teach at Smith College, where he became L. Clark Seelye professor of history in 1979. He was made a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, England in 1973, of Trinity College, Oxford in 1980, and of the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin in 1985-6.[13] He was made a Five College Professor in 1990. Von Klemperer served on the board of the Volkswagen Foundation in 2000-2005, and of the Forschungsgemeinschaft 20. Juli[14] from 2000-2012. He continued his active scholarship well into his 90's, publishing his last book, a memoir, in 2009.

Towards the end of his life, von Klemperer regained his Austrian citizenship, which had been effectively taken away from him during the Nazi years. He retained his US citizenship. In 2008, a significant work of art, which had been seized from his father Herbert von Klemperer in 1938, was returned to his family through a legal process of restitution. The painting, a portrait of a bagpiper by Hendrick ter Brugghen, one of the Utrecht Carravagisti, had been forcibly sold to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Köln where it hung for the next 70 years. In 2009, the restituted painting was sold by the von Klemperer family at Sotheby's for a record price, and now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.[15]

Personal [edit]

Von Klemperer was married to Elizabeth Gallaher von Klemperer,[16] professor emeritus at Smith College. He had two children, James von Klemperer (architect)[17] and Catharine Utzschneider (athlete),[18] and four grandchildren: Elizabeth M von Klemperer, Caroline von Klemperer, William Utzschneider, and Anne Utzschneider. He died on December 23, 2012 at the age of 96.[19]

Selected work [edit]

  • Germany's New Conservatism (Princeton, NJ, 1957).
  • Ignaz Seipel: Christian Statesman in a Time of Crisis (Princeton, NJ, 1972).
  • Kurt von Schuschnigg. Neue Österreichische Biographies, Vol 22 (Vienna, 1987).
  • A Noble Combat: The Letters of Shiela Grant Duff and Adam von Trott zu Solz, 1932-1938 (Oxford, 1988).
  • German Resistance Against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad 1938-1945 (Oxford, 1992).
  • "More on the German Resistance," Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Summer 1993.
  • German Incertitudes: The Stones in the Cathedral (Westport, CT, 2002).
  • Voyage Through the 20th Century: A Historian's Recollections and Reflections (New York/Oxford, 2009).[20]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Mitchell, Allan, Fleeing Nazi Germany: Five Historians Migrate to America.Trafford, Bloomington Indiana, 2006.
  2. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (January 7, 2013). "Klemens von Klemperer Dies at 96; Wrote of Nazi Era". The New York Times. Retrieved January 7, 2013. 
  3. ^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 1141. Retrieved 24 November 2012. 
  4. ^ Acamedia - News for the Smith College Community, October 8, 1998.
  5. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prohel/names/misc/engelman.html
  6. ^ Molden, Otto, Der Ruf des Gewissens: Der Österreichische Freiheitskampf, 1938-1945. Vienna, 1958.
  7. ^ Stourzh, Gerald (January 25, 2013). "Klemens von Klemperer: Er war der Jugendfreund von Fepolinski und Waschlapski". "Die Presse. Retrieved January 26, 2013. 
  8. ^ von Klemperer, Klemens, Voyage Through the 20th Century: A Historian's Recollections and Reflections. New York/Oxford, 2009, p23.
  9. ^ Stourzh, Gerald (January 25, 2013). "Klemens von Klemperer: Er war der Jugendfreund von Fepolinski und Waschlapski". "Die Presse. Retrieved January 26, 2013. 
  10. ^ Holton, Gerald. "The Grand Wake for Harvard Indifference: How Harvard and Radcliffe Students Aided Young Refugees from the Nazis". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved September/October 2006. 
  11. ^ "Klemens von Klemperer". The Daily Telegraph. January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2013. 
  12. ^ Mitchell, Allan, Fleeing..., p. 21.
  13. ^ "Former Fellows alphabetically". Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. 
  14. ^ "Kontaktadresse". Forschungsgemeinschaft-20-juli.de. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 
  15. ^ Vogel, Carol (February 6, 2009). "National Gallery Buys Dutch Master Painting". "The New York Times. Retrieved February 6, 2009. 
  16. ^ "Smith College: English Language & Literature". Smith.edu. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 
  17. ^ "Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates: Principals". Kpf.com. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 
  18. ^ "Move! by Dr. Cathy Utzschneider". Movegoals.com. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 
  19. ^ "Mr. Klemens Wilhelm von Klemperer Obituary: View Klemens von Klemperer's Obituary by Daily Hampshire Gazette". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2012-12-31. 
  20. ^ Voyage through the twentieth century: a historian's recollections and ... - Klemens Von Klemperer - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 
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