Reviewing the career of Prof Dr Karel Maria Swoboda (1889, Prague\u20131977, Rekawinkel)\u2014a leading art historian at the German University (known as the German Charles University between 1939 and 1945), the University of Vienna, and, during the Protectorate, the Trustee for Reich-owned Artistic Property\u2014is no easy task. Swoboda came from a Czech-German background and studied art history and Austrian historiography at the University of Vienna. There, he also established important contacts with future colleagues in Prague, such as the art historian Anton\u00edn Mat\u011bj\u010dek, who later became dean of the Faculty of Arts in Prague. Swoboda worked as an assistant at the University of Vienna, and in 1913, he married Kamilla, n\u00e9e R\u00e1blov\u00e1, a milliner of Jewish origin from Jind\u0159ich\u016fv Hradec. They had a son, Michael.<\/p>\n
In 1934, Swoboda was appointed head of the Department of Art History at the German University in Prague. The Czechoslovak government chose him over German candidates on the condition that he was not a member of the NSDAP. One of the German candidates was deemed unsuitable precisely because of his membership in the NSDAP. Mat\u011bj\u010dek\u2019s intercession with section chief Zden\u011bk Wirth, head of the 5th (Educational) Department of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment, certainly played a major role, as did Wirth\u2019s subsequent assessment, and perhaps also Swoboda\u2019s Czech-German heritage. He likely represented the lesser evil.<\/p>\n
However, as early as 1932, Swoboda had been active as a member of the committee of the so-called S\u00fcdostdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, based at the University of Vienna, an association of scientists and university professors funded by the German Reich authorities. Its members demonstrably supported National Socialist ideology in their publications from a cultural and political perspective. Swoboda had also been a member of the SdP since May 1938. He was forced to take a stance on these activities when party chairman Konrad Henlein, in his radio address on September 15, 1938, called on the Sudeten Germans to rise up in armed rebellion. The Ministry of Education responded immediately by calling on rectors, deans, and, subsequently, faculty members at Prague\u2019s German universities to sign a declaration condemning Henlein\u2019s treasonous actions and to renew their oath of loyalty to the republic. A group of professors, including Swoboda, temporarily fled to Vienna, while others went to Munich and other German cities to avoid signing the document. Many members of the Vienna group later held high-ranking positions in the so-called NS-Dozentenbund, an organisation affiliated with the NSDAP that brought together university educators and was established primarily to remove Jews and other \u201cenemies\u201d from universities.<\/p>\n
Swoboda apparently joined the Prague branch of the NS-Dozentenbund shortly after the establishment of the Protectorate for professional reasons, after which he was anonymously accused of concealing his non-Aryan marriage on his application. Furthermore, he was allegedly supported by Marxist and anti-German circles led by Wirth, who was then a retired section chief. In the subsequent investigation, the records of which are preserved at the Bundesarchiv Berlin, Swoboda defended himself by stating that, while Wirth may have initially supported him, Swoboda\u2019s nationalist sentiments had led to a mutual estrangement over the years. He further mentioned that his marriage to a Jewish woman had been unhappy from the start. He claimed to have personally experienced racial differences that prevented a healthy coexistence. The divorce was allegedly delayed by poverty, a growing child, and the delays of the opposing party. Swoboda also stated that although the marriage was not dissolved until 1938, resulting in severe financial losses for him, it had allegedly ceased to exist four years earlier, when he moved to Prague, and his wife remained in Vienna. The interrogation files also mention that because of this marriage, Swoboda was unable to join the NSDAP. However, it cannot be proven whether he submitted an application to join the party.<\/p>\n
After the annexation of Austria, Kamilla Swobodov\u00e1 fled to Prague. According to postwar accounts, Swoboda and his second wife, Hermine, tried to persuade her to emigrate, but to no avail. In May 1942, she was deported to Terez\u00edn and, two days later, to Lublin. Prisoners from this transport (Ay) were most likely partially put to work at Majdanek or exterminated in Sobibor. None of them survived. Her son, Michael, managed to emigrate to the United States and join the army.<\/p>\n
The aforementioned investigations from 1939 and 1940 ended well for Swoboda. In addition to his colleagues at the university, he was also supported by Hans Reinhold, the official responsible for museums, libraries, and historic preservation at the Office of the Reich Protector. He noted that the German takeover of influence in the Protectorate\u2019s cultural institutions was still in its early stages and that the presence of such a reliable expert as Swoboda, who was familiar with local conditions and at the same time understood the demands of the Reich, was extremely valuable to Reinhold\u2019s office. In 1940, Swoboda\u2019s appointment as a full professor at the German Charles University was confirmed by the Reich Ministry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sources<\/strong> Canz, Sigrid, \u201eKarl Maria Swoboda (1889\u20131977), Kunsthistoriker: Wissenschaftler zwischen Wien und Prag.\u201c In: Prager Professoren 1938\u20131948: Zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Ed. Monika Glettler a Alena M\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1. Klartext Verlag, 2001.<\/p>\n Janatkov\u00e1, Alena, \u201eKarl Maria Swoboda (1889\u20131977): Von einem kulturgeschichtlich-biologischen Perspektivismus her.\u201c In: \u00d6sterreichische Historiker: Lebensl\u00e4ufe und Karrieren 1900\u20131945. Band 2. Ed. Karel Hruza. B\u00f6hlau Verlag, 2012.<\/p>\n Janatkov\u00e1, Alena a V\u00edt Vlnas. Pra\u017esk\u00e1 n\u00e1rodn\u00ed galerie v protektor\u00e1tu \u010cechy a Morava. N\u00e1rodn\u00ed galerie v Praze, 2013.<\/p>\n M\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1, Alena, \u201eDeutsche Professoren aus den b\u00f6hmischen L\u00e4ndern: \u02b9Fl\u00fcchtlinge\u02b9 in der Zeit vor und nach den M\u00fcnchner Verhandlungen.\u201c In: Prager Professoren 1938\u20131948: Zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Ed. Monika Glettler a Alena M\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1. Klartext Verlag, 2001.<\/p>\n Yad Vashem, The Central Database of Shoah Victims \u02bc Names. Svobodova Kamila, 1885. https:\/\/collections.yadvashem.org\/en\/names\/4904019<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBundesarchiv Berlin, R 31\/652. Der Kurator der deutschen wissenschaftlichen Hochschulen in Prag. Professor Dr. Karl Maria Swoboda, 1939\u20131945. Dokumenty k p\u0159ijet\u00ed Karla Maria Swobody do \u0159\u00ed\u0161sk\u00e9 spr\u00e1vy, v\u010detn\u011b vy\u0161et\u0159ov\u00e1n\u00ed kv\u016fli jeho p\u0159ihl\u00e1\u0161ce do NS-Dozentenbundu.<\/p>\n