Franz Schnabel (18 December 1887, Mannheim – 25 February 1966, Munich) was a German historian. He wrote about German history, particularly the "cultural crisis" of the 19th century in Germany as well as humanism after the end of the Third Reich. He opposed Nazism during the Second World War.
Early life Schnabel was born in Mannheim as the son of the merchant Karl Schnabel and his wife Maria Anna, née Guillemin. Schnabel's parents - the father, a Protestant, the mother a Catholic - had married in 1885 and raised their three children n the Roman Catholic Church faith: the second born Franz had an older and a younger sister. Schnabel grew in the milieu of liberalism in Baden. The bourgeoisie of his native city and, looking back, the close relationship to France that existed through his mother's family, had a formative influence on his personal development: "Thanks to my mother's relatives I came to Normandy and Paris as a boy. But whoever treads French soil in his youth will always take with him a sense of the great contours of world history".Aus dem Nachlass zitiert bei Heinrich Lutz: Einleitung. In Franz Schnabel: Abhandlungen und Vorträge 1914–1965. Edited by Heinrich Lutz. Freiburg/Basel/Vienna 1970, , here Anm. 8. Schnabel attended the from which he graduated in 1906. He then studied history, German studies, French and Latin at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. In 1910, he passed the Staatsexamen for the teaching profession at grammar schools and was awarded his doctorate in the same year under Hermann Oncken with the thesis The Unification of Political Catholicism in Germany in 1848.Thomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel. In Katharina Weigand (ed.): Münchner Historiker zwischen Politik und Wissenschaft. 150 Jahre Historisches Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Munich 2010, , here .
Career Early career In 1911, Schnabel entered the Baden teaching profession as a teacher's candidate, but took leave of absence at the beginning of 1914 to work on a History of the Baden Estates on behalf of the . The project could not be realised due to the outbreak of the First World War: Schnabel was drafted in April 1915, served on the Western Front throughout the war and was not released from the army until February 1919. He immediately returned to the Baden school system and taught Latin, French, and history at Karlsruhe schools: 1919/20 at the , Germany's first grammar school for girls, and 1920 to 1922 at the Goethe-Gymnasium Karlsruhe, a secondary school for boys.Angela Borgstedt: Bildungskonzeption und Bildungspraxis bei Franz Schnabel. In Peter Steinbach/Angela Borgstedt (ed.): Franz Schnabel. Der Historiker des freiheitlichen Verfassungsstaates. Berlin 2009, , here . Parallel to his teaching, Schnabel, encouraged by the teacher Oncken, pursued his scientific career and habilitated as early as 1920 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology with the paper Geschichte der Ministerverantwortlichkeit in Baden, supervised by Hermann Wätjen. As early as 1922, he was appointed to the historical chair at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, which he held until his dismissal in 1936. In addition to his professorship, Schnabel served as director of the from 1924 to 1927.Friedrich Hermann Schubert: Franz Schnabel und die Geschichtswissenschaft des 20. Jahrhunderts. In Historische Zeitschrift 205 (1967), , here .
Schnabel's years at the Karlsruhe chair were characterised by extraordinary productivity. Following his habilitation thesis, he continued his research on early constitutionalism in Baden and in 1927, published two concise biographies of the Baden politicians, compiled from archival material Sigismund von Reitzenstein and Ludwig von Liebenstein.Franz Schnabel: Sigismund von Reitzenstein. Der Begründer des badischen Staates. Heidelberg 1927 und Ludwig von Liebenstein. Ein Geschichtsbild aus den Anfängen des süddeutschen Verfassungslebens. Karlsruhe 1927. Already in 1920, Schnabel had taken over the elaboration of a source study, which was to achieve for modern history what Wilhelm Wattenbach had achieved for the Middle Ages; the work, published in 1931 and still relevant today, made the sources of the Reformation period accessible until 1550, but was not continued by Schnabelt.Franz Schnabel: Deutschlands geschichtliche Quellen und Darstellungen in der Neuzeit. 1. Teil: Das Zeitalter der Reformation, 1500–1550. Leipzig/Berlin 1931. In the same year 1931, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Schnabel published a brief biography of the Prussian reformer, who was accused by Gerhard Ritter of instrumentalizing Stein for current political purposes; Schnabel and Ritter discussed this question controversially.Ritters Kritik und Schnabels Replik in Neue Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft und Jugendbildung 8 (1932), ; Beak's response was reprinted in Peter Steinbach/Angela Borgstedt (ed.): Franz Schnabel. Der Historiker des freiheitlichen Verfassungsstaates. Berlin 2009, . In the Weimar years, Schnabel also emerged as a textbook author: his textbook Geschichte der neuesten Zeit, first published in 1923 by B. G. Teubner Verlag, was also published as an independent work for other circles,Als Schulbuch: Geschichte der neuesten Zeit (Teubners geschichtliches Unterrichtswerk für höhere Lehranstalten. Grundriß der Geschichte für die Oberstufe, Teil III.) Leipzig/Berlin 1923; selb edited: 1789–1919. Eine Einführung in die Geschichte der neuesten Zeit. Leipzig/Berlin 1923. had several editions and was still relevant for students after 1945.Eberhard Weis: Einleitung. In Franz Schnabel: Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Vol. 1: Die Grundlagen. Munich 1987, , here . Above all, however, Schnabel's main work since the mid-1920s was the Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, which appeared in four volumes in 1929, 1933, 1934, and 1937. In this unfinished work, which did not go beyond the year 1840, Schnabel attempted to analyse the political history as well as the social, cultural, economic, and technological history of the 19th century in their interaction and to interpret them as prerequisites for the "cultural crisis" of the 20th century. A fifth volume entitled Das Erwachen des deutschen Volkstums was completed by Schnabel as a manuscript, but could not be published because of the Nazi censorship.
In contrast to most historians of his time, Schnabel had a positive attitude towards the Weimar Republic, which he expressed in public, in lectures, and in his scientific work, but without becoming involved in party politics. His campaign reached a climax in October 1932, when he spoke out in the Hochland magazine against the Preußenschlag of the Papen government. His text Neudeutsche Reichsreform began with the dramatic words: "Even if the discussion should be closed and in the future will only be dictated in the German fatherland, it remains the duty of the spiritual leading class to raise its voice as long as this is possible".Der Text wurde wiederabgedruckt in: Franz Schnabel: Abhandlungen und Vorträge 1914–1965. Edited by Heinrich Lutz. Freiburg/Basel/Vienna 1970, , quote . Despite his clear commitment to the rule of law and federalism, a phase can be discerned after his accession to power, in which Schnabel took part in efforts to build a bridge between Catholicism and National Socialism, for example by taking up the concept of the Ständestaates or the Reich concept.Thomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel. In Katharina Weigand (ed.): Münchner Historiker zwischen Politik und Wissenschaft. 150 Jahre Historisches Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Munich 2010, , here .
This phase ended in 1935 at the latest, when Schnabel was indirectly affected by Walter Frank's actions against his teacher, Hermann Oncken: In his article against Oncken, Frank casually referred to Schnabel as a "clerical historian" and insinuated regime hostility. On 15 July 1936, Schnabel was released in Karlsruhe.Thomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel. In Katharina Weigand (ed.): Münchner Historiker zwischen Politik und Wissenschaft. 150 Jahre Historisches Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Munich 2010, , here . He immediately moved to Heidelberg, where he lived as a private scholar until 1945. In these years, Schnabel published mainly articles on cultural history in the daily press, especially in the Frankfurter ZeitungThomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel and German Historical Studies. Historiography between historicism and cultural criticism (1910-1945). Vol. 2, Göttingen 1998, (chronological listing of Schnabel's contributions in the daily and weekly press). In addition he published essaysExamples Franz Schnabel: "The Legitimacy of the Nation. In Hochland, 48th year (1940/41) . and numerous reviews in the magazine Hochland, until it had to be discontinued in 1941, as well as in other journals.Thomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel und die deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft. Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Historismus und Kulturkritik (1910–1945). Vol. 2, Göttingen 1998, (Liste sämtlicher Beiträge Schnabels in Zeitschriften und Sammelwerken) and (Liste among others sämtlicher Rezensionen Schnabels). In 1944, Schnabel would almost still have been called up for military service, despite his 57 years in the meantime, but was released through the intervention of the friendly ex-general .Peter Herde: Zwei gescheiterte Berufungen, in Helmut Knüppel, Manfred Osten, Uwe Rosenbaum, Julius Schoeps, Peter Steinbach: Verbindungen zwischen Bildung, Wissenschaft, Kultur, Geschichte und Politik, . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 2007
In September 1945, Schnabel was appointed state director for education and culture in the district of Baden, the northern part of the newly formed state Württemberg-Baden. He owed this appointment to his acquaintance with Heinrich Köhler, who was the district president at that time. In October 1945, Schnabel was also reinstated as professor in Karlsruhe. However, he now aspired to a professorship at a university, preferably in Heidelberg. An opportunity arose in 1946 when Willy Andreas had to vacate his chair under pressure from the American occupying power. Schnabel pursued his appointment, against which the philosophical faculty in Heidelberg massively resisted. In the background were Schnabel's statements from 1945, in which he had reproached the University of Heidelberg in particular for having attracted the future Nazi elites even before 1933. Against the attempt of the state government to enforce its cult official Schnabel in Heidelberg, the university gave an expert opinion that was devastating for SchnabelText des Gutachtens in: Peter Steinbach/Angela Borgstedt (ed.): Franz Schnabel. Der Historiker des freiheitlichen Verfassungsstaates. Berlin 2009, . and was able to prevent the appeal. Schnabel drew the consequences from his broken relationship with the university and resigned as state director.Zum gesamten Vorgang: Thomas Hertfelder: Franz Schnabel. In Katharina Weigand (ed.): Münchner Historiker zwischen Politik und Wissenschaft. 150 Jahre Historisches Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Munich 2010, , here .
Later career