Conflict Escalation as a Strategy: National Socialists, “Professor Hitler,” and the Technical University of Brunswick, 1930-1933

Abstract

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, German universities faced the rise of National Socialism among students and external stakeholders. University leaders were typically embedded in a traditional bourgeois milieu and ardent defenders of academic freedom, which led to aggressive confrontations with groups advocating the new ideology. This study examines the dynamics of the conflict at the Technical University of Brunswick (Braunschweig) between 1930 and 1933. Specifically, I explore how National Socialists strategically escalated conflicts and disrupted existing social structures to attain power within the organization. The conflict culminated in the (failed) attempt to appoint Adolf Hitler as a professor in February 1932 and the dismissal of key actors after January 1933. This study provides insights into the deliberate escalation of conflicts by populist movements, the vulnerability of apolitical spaces, and the importance of formal governance structures for handling ideological conflicts.