National Socialist and Proto-Fascist Sympathies at the University of Freiburg I. Ü.: The Expulsion of Josef Spieler and the Replacement of the Chair of Curative Education by Eduard Montalta

Abstract

German-born Josef Spieler held a professorship in “Psychology, Education and Curative Education” at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland from 1933 to 1945. He was stripped of it in 1945 and had to leave Switzerland in 1947 because of National Socialist sympathies. Research has partially come to terms with these events and has also devoted attention, albeit hesitantly, to Swiss professors sympathising with Fascism. However, research has neglected a network surrounding Caritas that favoured Spieler's reintegration in Germany. In addition, the classification of Eduard Montalta, Josef Spieler's successor, is still disputed. This text challenges the interpretation of a sharp ideological discontinuity between Josef Spieler and Eduard Montalta that is asserted to this day.