Wilhelm Ebel (7 June 1908 – 22 June 1980)
[ Ebel, Wilhelm]
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...
was a scholar of
Early Germanic law
Germanic law is a scholarly term used to describe a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the ''Leges Barbarorum'', 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges) of the early Germanic peoples. These were compared with statements i ...
, known for editing and translating a number of law codes. During the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
, he was a committed Nazi, with military, administrative, and research service in the
SS. His academic career was interrupted by imprisonment after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Life and career
Ebel was born in Garsuche,
East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
(now an outlying district of
Jelcz-Laskowice
Jelcz-Laskowice () is a town in Oława County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately north of Oława, and south-east of the regional capital Wrocław, within its metropolitan area. As of 2019, the town has a ...
, in Poland). His father's family were Russian migrants; his mother's family hailed from Switzerland. He did his ''
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'' in 1927 in Rößel (now
Reszel
Reszel (; Prussian: ''Resel'' or ''Resl'') is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northeastern Poland. As of 2012 the population was 4,896. A small medieval town situated in the historical Warmia region, Reszel possesses many archite ...
, also in Poland), and studied law, history, and
philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
at the
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...
and
Heidelberg University
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...
. Ebel completed his
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...
at the
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...
in 1935 and after working as a
docent
The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...
at the Universities of
Marburg
Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...
,
Königsberg
Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...
and
Rostock
Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
, received his first professorial appointment at Rostock in 1938. He spent most of his career at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...
,
[ where he began work in April 1939 and in October of the same year succeeded Herbert Oskar Meyer as the professor of German legal history, civil and mercantile law, agricultural and privatization law.
]
Nazi Party
Ebel joined the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
shortly after they came to power, on 1 May 1933. He was a local party official while in Bonn. Following his Habilitation, he joined the Association of Nazi Docents, where he was local leader. Beginning in 1935, he was active in the Sicherheitsdienst
' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
, and in Rostock he worked for the Gau administration and represented the party on the law faculty. He worked as a scholar for both the Amt Rosenberg
Amt Rosenberg (ARo, Rosenberg Office) was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. It was established in 1934 under the name of ''Dienststelle Rosenberg'' (''DRbg'', Rosenberg Depar ...
and, beginning in October 1938, the Ahnenerbe
The (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a pseudoscientific organization founded by the ''Schutzstaffel'' in Nazi Germany in 1935. Established by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler in July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promoting racial the ...
division of the SS.
After the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the Waffen-SS
The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
and served with the ''Totenkopf'' division in the Battle of France
The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
, returning to Göttingen in August 1940. The following year, he joined the Allgemeine SS
The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the '' Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autu ...
, where he was promoted to Untersturmführer
(, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of '' Sturmführer'', which had existed since the founding of the SA in 192 ...
. After another brief period of military service, he was assigned to the ''Führungshauptamt'' of the SS and then became division head for Indo-European and German legal history at the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt. From November 1941 onwards, he was chief of race and settlement for the Waffen-SS. In October 1942 he became Ahnenerbe division leader for "Legal history of Germans in the East". In 1943 he was promoted to Hauptsturmführer
__NOTOC__
(, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...
, after which he again returned to Göttingen.
Post-war
Ebel became a prisoner of war of the Allies in May 1945, lost his status as a civil servant under an act of the British occupation authorities on 10 July that year, and was then interned for more than two years until 1948. After that he worked for the Gothaer insurance company. In March 1949, he was able to have his classification reduced to that of ''Mitläufer
A (, German for "fellow traveller"; plural , feminine ) is a person tied to or passively sympathising with certain social movements, often to those that are prevalent, controversial or radical. In English, the term was most commonly used after Wo ...
'' (fellow traveler), and in September 1950 to have his privileges as a civil servant restored, but he had meanwhile been succeeded in his professorship by Hans Thieme. In April 1952, he was given a teaching position at the university. In March 1954, after Thieme had left to take up a chair at the University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...
, he once more became a full professor. (He had unsuccessfully requested the faculty to appoint him to a different chair that was open.) He took early retirement at 56 for health reasons in April 1965, but headed the university archives until 1978. Until his retirement from that position, he successfully prevented research into the Nazi period at the university.
Research
Ebel's primary specializations were constitutional history and the history of law, in particular early Germanic law. He was a member of the Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für mittelalterliche Geschichte, an association of medievalists, and beginning in 1959 of the Historische Kommission für Niedersachsen und Westfalen (Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Westphalia). He edited and translated a number of early Germanic law codes including the Asega-bôk
The ('Book of the Judges') was part of the legal code for the Rustringian Frisians. The oldest known manuscript version, the ''First Riustring Manuscript'' (now in Oldenburg) is, besides the oldest extant text in Frisian, one of the oldest remai ...
, the legal code for the Rustringian Frisians and one of the oldest surviving continental Germanic law codes. Despite his commitment to Nazism, his publications included a 1936 refutation of the notion that the employment contract derived from the relationship of Germanic followers with their lord.
Honors
Ebel was awarded the gold medal of honor of the city of Lübeck
Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...
in 1967, of the city of Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...
in 1973, and of Kiel University
Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public University, public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ...
also in 1973, and the Brothers Grimm Prize of the University of Marburg
Brothers Grimm Prize of the University of Marburg is a literary prize of Hesse.
Winners
* 1943 Karl Helm
* 1950 Georg Baeseke
* 1952 Erik Rooth
* 1954 Hermann Teuchert
* 1957 Gesenius G. Kloeke
* 1959 Luis Hammerich
* 1961 Emil Öhmann
* 19 ...
the same year.
Selected works
* ''Geschichte der Gesetzgebung in Deutschland''. Göttinger rechtswissenschaftliche Studien 24. 2nd ed. 1958 repr. with additions, ed. Friedrich Ebel. Göttingen: Schwartz, 1988.
*
Curiosa iuris Germanici
'. Kleine Vandenhoeck-Reihe 283/284. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968.
* ''Probleme der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte''. Göttinger rechtswissenschaftliche Studien 100. Göttingen: Schwartz, 1978.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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Further reading
* ''Studien zu den germanischen Volksrechten: Gedächtnisschrift für Wilhelm Ebel. Vorträge gehalten auf dem Fest-Symposion anlässlich des 70. Geburtstages von Wilhelm Ebel am 16. Juni 1978 in Göttingen''. Ed. Götz Landwehr. Rechtshistorische Reihe 1. Frankfurt: Lang, 1982.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebel, Wilhelm
1908 births
1980 deaths
German legal historians
Germanic studies scholars
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom
20th-century German historians
Ahnenerbe members
Waffen-SS personnel