From the NS archive: Intellectuals in exile
18 February 1939: What the leaders of the Nazi movement cannot tolerate is intellectual independence.
By Herbert Read
In this article, published six years after Hitler gained power in Germany, and seven months before the start of the Second World War, the notable art historian, philosopher and literary critic Herbert Read argued that there is, “in the whole history of culture, no significant renaissance or spontaneous outburst of art or learning which does not owe its origin to the reception of some forcibly dispersed race or class”. The 1,400 teachers and research workers (many of them Jewish) displaced from German universities since May 1933, then, may well have been on their way to forming a great new artistic movement, but where were they to go to? Read highlighted the work of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, a council formed to find permanent posts for these academics in Britain, the US and beyond, and the Arden Society, which offered displaced artists, writers and poets a community in their new homes. After all, “The arts were the only medium through which nations could come to a mutual understanding of each other's peculiar characteristics”, as the Archbishop of York, president of both societies, had pointed out.