Celebrate in Times of War? The Academic Jubilees of the University of Kiel and the Vienna Institute of Technology in 1940

: University anniversaries and jubilees are a central aspect of university communication and they exemplify the interdependencies of both tradition and innovation, past and future. Consciously or unintentionally, jubilee festivities and celebrations serve to create sense internally, to reassure the university ′ s out-ward position and to intensify its communication with the surrounding society. This raises the question of whether and how institutions of higher education have celebrated such occasions in the past, especially in times of social upheaval and crisis – which undoubtedly included the period of the Second World War. This article adopts the perspective of an integrative university history and uses the example of two different types of higher education institutions to ask about the social and political function of their anniversaries. The festivities under scrutiny are the ones at the University of Kiel and at the Technical College Vienna (Technische Hochschule). Both institutions celebrated their anniversaries in 1940 despite – or perhaps precisely because of – the war situation. The focus is on the festive lectures and on the basic conditions for the celebrations as well as for the corresponding jubilee writings. The question is to what extent the actors involved endeavoured to view the historical stages of the university ’ s history from a National Socialist angle and whether they formulated tangible visions of their institution ′ s future.


Introduction
To this day, there is probablyhardlyany event thattriggers such ambivalent feelingsi nt he scientific-historical sub-discipline of university history as does the historical recollection of one'sown alma mater following the rhythm of anniversary numbers. Although quite af ew scholarlyc olleagues have receivedt he presumablyd ecisive impetus for their researchi nu niversity history through the "utilization context" of the university anniversary,m anya re extremelyc ritical of the short-liveda nniversary-linked boosts of interests.¹ Thisi sp rimarilyd ue to the moderne vent character of academic jubilee celebrations, wheret hey are conceiveda sm oreo famass event,m aking the scientific examination of one's own past asecondary matter and, moreover,preventing aperpetuation of university history independent of anniversaries.² To make matters worse, the opulent commemorative publications of the 19 th and 20 th centuries which appeared on the occasion of university anniversary celebrations werem ostlyb ased on ak ind of academic navel-gazing thati gnored all historical processes.³ The result wasoften anarrow view of one'sown university history,which was essentiallylimited to the production of reductionist commemorative publications, whose declared goal was to present universities positivelya si nstitutions of scholarship.⁴ In the past three decades, however, European and German university history writing has detached itself from this predominantlya nniversary-drivenf ounding and success story of one′so wn alma mater,which, as Notker Hammerstein noted in 1983, oftenhad hagiographic traits.⁵ It goes without saying that university anniversaries are not fundamentally objectionable, but rather awelcome occasion for scientific engagement concerning the research subject "university".P articularlyi nt he last two decades, the collected works and monographs published in the course of anniversaries have brought forth amultitudeofnew insights with regardtothe social,cultural, and scientific developments in higher education, without omitting the "critical times".⁶ Unfortunately, however,i tc an be observed time and again that many thingsa re made possible in the course of anniversaries -from smaller exhibitions and monographs to multi-volume collected works and digital professor's catalogs -but that after the celebration, the sourceofmoney for historicaleverydaywork until the next jubilee(usuallyevery 25 or 50 years) runs dry again.⁷ It is by no means the rule, but rather the absolute exception, that university history research groups are supported by permanent budgeting,orb yafirm anchoring in the budgetb eyond the festivities, as is the case in Mainz, for example.⁸ Thus, if research into the history of universities and colleges (which is essentiallyl ocation-based) is so closelyi ntertwined with the respectivef ounding anniversaries, it seems worthwhile to find out more about the expression of institutional self-understanding at the time of the anniversary,a nd then to take a critical look at reflected and unreflected self-attributions. In this way, the studyo fu niversitya nniversariese nables different perspectiveso ni nstitutional history,p ast presences, and the virulent expectations for the future. Likea ny other institution, the university is fundamentallyd ependent on communicating its "ideas of order and claims to validity" in the form of atime-specific symbolic presence -or,toput it another way, the representational character of an institution guarantees its duration and stability.⁹ AccordingtoMarkus Drüding,university anniversaries are to be understood as forms of academic self-representation, which offer those celebrating them ag enuine opportunityt or eassuret hemselveso ft heir "own history"¹⁰ and, abovea ll, to position themselvesi nr elation to politics and society by articulating both contemporary experiences and expectations of the future.¹¹ Forthis reason alone, anniversaries tell us more about those who celebrate and about their time than about the occasion and its history.Thisisespeciallytrue in the context of the festivities or of the commemorative publications published in their wake when an inwardlya nd outwardlydirected, specificallyt ailoredi mageo ft he institution is produced.¹² Accordingly,u niversitya nniversaries( and theirw ritten results) must be understood as both acomponent and aresultofatime-specific cultureofr emembrance that reflectsahistoricallybound remembrance and forgetting.¹³ ForW infried Müller,t hey ultimatelyr epresent ideal objectivations of the interpretation of history and zeitgeist.¹⁴  At this point,i tcan be said that university anniversaries servetoalarge extent to consciouslyg ivem eaning to the university'sw ork internally. They also contributet os elf-assurance and in order to intensify communication between the university and the public.¹⁵ University anniversaries have thereforeq uite rightlyb een described as "expressions of life of the institution".¹⁶ This applies all the moret ot he academic celebrations of German universities duringt he time of the Nazi regime and especiallyduring the Second World War.¹⁷ The present contribution deals with this subject which, in the sense of an integrated universityh istory as proposed most recentlyb yA nton F. Guhl,¹⁸ compares two different types of universities in order to recognize the special and specific nature of anniversary celebrations duringW orld WarI I: the University of Kiel in northern Germanya nd the Vienna Institute of Technologyi nA ustria.
First of all, both universities celebratedthe anniversaries of their founding in 1940 (Kiel: 275y ears; Vienna: 125y ears), and thus in aperiod when the war had little impact on public life in the German Reich.¹⁹ At the same time, the Nazi regime had become considerably more radical than in the foregoing years of peace and had increasingly called on the universities to participateinthe wareffort -a demand that manyyoung as well as established humanities and natural sciences scholars voluntarilycomplied with, since manyconsidered war research to be a "patriotic duty".²⁰ Furthermore, previous university anniversaries had been can- celed, since both in 1865a nd in 1915,political events or war threatened to overshadow the celebrations -or scientists simply did not feel like celebrating.²¹ By 1940,the responsible actors in Vienna and Kiel were, therefore, keen to hold the anniversary celebrations despite the war events. Lastbut not least,the excellent availability of sources with regard to published commemorative and honorary lectures suggests this selection and comparison.
It is not the aim of this article to analyze the celebrations of the Kiel and the Vienna university anniversaries in 1940 in theirentirety.Rather,they will be understood as ak ind of time-specific cultureo fm emory,a so bjectivizations of the interpretation of history and the zeitgeist. It thereforeseems appropriate to examine these anniversaries as as pace of communication in which the universities formulated their claims of validity for the future vis-à-vis politics and society, but also articulatedhopes and wishes. Therefore, the focus lies essentiallyonanalyzingt he ceremonialand honorary lecturesa swell as the festive publications issued in the context of the celebrations, whereas traditionalelements of university anniversaries of the time such as torchlight processionsand festive parades, concerts and evening parties, honoraryg raduations and ceremonials ervices, honorary congratulations and sporting competitions are not considered.²² sons for this stepw as givenb yH ans-Helmut Dietze,who was al ecturer in constitutional and international lawatthe time. In contemporaryNazi jargon, he referred to the ideologyofthe Volksgemeinschaft when he wrote, for example, that "genuine celebrations" can onlyb e" borne and shaped by ac ommunity": While, particularlyi nt imes of war,t herei sn oo ccasion for lavish festivities,i ti sa lmost necessary for the sort of community that every German university must reasonablyr epresent itself and does,fromtime to time, accountfor its development and work in acelebratory manner.
[…]Thus,the University of Kiel has,not despitethe war but just because of the war,t akent he opportunity,a fter 275y ears sincei ts founding, to deliverafull report that has,e speciallyi nr ecentt imes in which our German people has taken up the final fight for its own and the European future,n ot failed to make an impression.²³ Dietze'sunequivocalr easoning thus shows in aprototypicalway that university anniversaries are an objectivation of the spirit of the times: aself-creation of the institution university directed towards the present and related to the future. This becomes even clearer in another quote by the jurist,which is written in an equally martialt one: The weapons of spirit that have always been forgedatGerman universities have at all times influenced the fateoft he Reich. Especiallyt oday,they constitute to alarge extent the German war potential and if one wanted to foregot hem, the hegemonyo ft he empirew ould suffer losses that could not be compensated. War, indeed the liveso fp eople in general, is in ad ecisive wayaspiritual process […].²⁴ The author is undoubtedlyc oncerned here with the legitimacy of the university itself, referringprimarily to the current and future tasks of higher education and listing the role of universities during wartime as the prime argument.H ed oes not,h owever,a ttach anyg reater importance to the historicity of the University of Kiel. Instead, in an echo of the ceremonial speech of Kiel'sr ector Paul Ritterbusch,h er ather links his chain of argumentationt ot he "scientific clarification of burningc ontemporary problems",w hereby the universities only "open the wayf or the march into ag reater German future".²⁵ All in all, Dietze'sr emarks show numerous parallels to Ritterbusch'sp restige project,t he "Kriegseinsatz  Dietze, Hans-Helmut: Vond er 275-Jahrfeier der Universität Kiel. In: Kieler Blätter (1941). pp. 62 -64,p .6 2. This quotation and the ones that follow have been translated by the authors and the editors fromG erman to English.  Dietze, 275-Jahrfeier (cf. note 23), p. 62.  Dietze, 275-Jahrfeier (cf. note 23), p. 64. der Geisteswissenschaften" (war effort of the humanities).²⁶ It appears thatcelebrating the founding anniversary with its prominent guests provided as uitable stagefor the promotion of new political and scientific concepts. In this case, the two men from Kiel tried to integrate the universities in the "Third Reich" fully into the political and social discourse via war-related sciences.U ntil then, the Nazi regime had largely ignored the potentiallyw ar-decisive factor of science and, moreover,a cted to al arge extent in ar ather bewildered manneru ntil 1942/43.²⁷ In 1940,onlyi ndividual scientific, medical, and technical disciplines, if any, wereconsidered important to the war and receivedlittle financial support. Especiallyt he small and medium-sized universities, which suffered particularly from the conscription of their students to the front,f eared for their existence.
Ever since the Nazis had come to power,t he "spectre" of at emporary or permanent shutdown of individual universities, either in their entirety or with regardt os electedi nstitutions -such as theological faculties -had haunted universitya uthorities.²⁸ The sheer existenceo ft he onlyf ull university of Schleswig-Holstein was not considered secure as the efforts by various state and party offices to suspend the University of Kiel for the duration of the war for financial reasons posed athreat that should not be underestimated. The university had constantlycountered these state plans with ideological, cultural, and political arguments and thus ensured thatb oth teachinga nd research werel argely continued until late 1944.Auniversity anniversary can thereforeb eu nderstood as auseful or seemingly indispensable means for promotingthe social relevance  Forthe "Kriegseinsatz der Geisteswissenschaften" and its initiator,see fundamentallyHausmann, Frank-Rutger: "Deutsche Geisteswissenschaft" im ZweitenW eltkrieg. Die "Aktion Ritterbusch" (1940 -1945 of one'so wn institution in times of war,s ince they helped to mobilize ag reat deal of media and political interest -as is evident from the list of invited guests and speakers.²⁹ The University of Kiel usedthe anniversary as asuitableopportunitytopresent itself in the societal and national limelight and claimed thati ts own institution was of enormousi mportance to the Germanp eople and their future. The prevailing commitment to the Nazi state and the obligation to cooperate in the future, especiallyinthe context of the regime'sexpansivepolicies, were the central elements of the celebratory rhetoric. The instrumentalization of university history culminated in the ceremonial speech by rector Ritterbusch, who dealt with the development of the university since 1933 and who inseparablyl inked the fate of the nation and the fateo ft he university.³⁰ At the end of ac oncise list of significant events in the history of Kiel′su niversity,h ep ledgedt ot he "truth of the National Socialist movement",whose significancew as further emphasizedb yt he referencet oarenewal of German science.³¹ In his address,R itterbusch paintedapicture of auniversity that was eager to fight and whose duty was to participate in the victorious outcome of the war: Warhas certainlyinterruptedmanythings.Aboveall, it has often givenadifferent direction to the active forceso fo ur university.B ut the war has also proved to be the drivingf orce behind the intellectual life of our university.M oreover,ahighn umber of lecturers and assistants of our university is fulfillingtheir duty as soldiers.All the stronger must the efforts of those, who have not been grantedthe opportunity to servetheir fatherland in arms,beto stand up for their people with mental weapons.³² Ritterbusch'ss olemn speech, which was primarilya ddressed to the assembled Nazi celebrities of Schleswig-Holstein and which was printed shortlyafter the anniversary,clearlyshows the extent to which university anniversaries represent an objectification of the spirit of the times, whose direct addressee is the respective present.B yc reatingp erformative and discursive affiliations -the German people -and demarcations -especiallyw ith regard to "all elements alien to race and politicallyu nacceptable"³³ -,t he universitya sa ni nstitution legitimizes itself for the years to come. Constitutive elements of this jubilee and historical staginga re thus the conceptso fs elf-assurance and the creation of meaning, from which it is possibletoderive what the institution of higher education claims to represent on the occasion of the jubilee celebration and what it strivestobein the future. Seen in this light,u niversity anniversaries basically mark as truggle for the interpretative sovereignty over one's "own history" and the assertion of claims to validity, which, as Winfried Müller alreadye mphasized, could stand in stark contradiction to historicalr eality.³⁴ When looking at the publishedc eremonial speeches, it is also noticeable that therea re almost no references to earlier achievements, important scholars, or to the position of the University of Kiel within the Germanu niversity landscape, as was typicalf or this text genre up to the WeimarR epublic.³⁵ Instead, oaths and expressions of political loyalty predominate, within which ac ertain insecurity on the part of the university representativesi sj ust as evident as are the vagueattemptsatanew self-legitimation, primarilyorientedtothe privations and requirementso ft he war.The addressees of this marked readiness to fight werep rimarily the party functionaries who sat in the audience.W ith Hinrich Lohse (Gauleiter of Schleswig-Holstein) and Bernhard Rust (Reichsminister of science, education and culture), two high-ranking representativeso ft he NSDAP also spokea tt he Kiel anniversary.T he Gauleiter of Schleswig-Holstein in particularp ropagated the completes ubordination of the universities to National Socialist ideology: Thus,wesee -also in the development of our own university -how the intellectual life and scientific endeavor, which universities were supposed to support and nurture, had changed. Instead of preservings cientific findings and dogmas, which earlier had resisted political hardships and storms,r oom was made for stronger forcesa nd powers which were to be soughtp articularlyw ithin the camp of Jewish influence. This Marxist-liberal judaization of Germanya nd of German universities was so strong that no poweri nG ermanyc ould break it anymore. Not until the Lance Corporal of the past world war,A dolf Hitler,h as, with his National Socialist movement and its inherent revolutionary force,s wept away this hauntinga nd wiped it out forever.³⁶ As in Ritterbusch'sw ork, the National Socialist assumption of power was glorified almostm ythicallyw ith the help of various rhetorical elements and stylized into the beginning of an ew erao fG ermans cience.T his clumsy and obvious demonstration of the University of Kiel′sintegration into the Nazi regime was ultimatelyconcluded by Reichsminister Rust,who, however,showed hardlyableto contributea ni ndividual note and essentiallyp raised the "outstanding achievements of the University of Kiel, especiallys ince 1936".³⁷ The anniversary as a whole, thus, remained related to the immediate present.Kiel′suniversity history was onlymarginallytouched upon, and in thoseinstances where history was addressed, it was referred to almoste xclusivelya sanegativec ounterpart. Another central medium of university self-representation is the Festschrift publishedi nt he context of Kiel′su niversity anniversary,w hich was written "on the home front,u nder English air raids and the booming defensive fire of the anti-aircraft guns".³⁸ Upon reading the 23 contributions, it becomes clear quickly thatthey are strongly influenced by ideologyand thatthe authors endeavored to view the historical stages of the university'shistory from aNational Socialist perspective.Aswas customary in earlier Festschriften,the essays naturally focus on the "great minds" of the university;i nsertions on student and city history,o nt he other hand, are usuallyc ursory.I nl ight of the political-ideological enslavement of the university'sh istory,h owever,i ti ss urprising that the editors do not make as weeping condemnation of Jewishu niversity teachers in their foreword: As was the case in other universities,Jews have also here forced their wayintothe teaching staff in the course of the nineteenth century,first onlyoccasionally, then in higher numbers. Form anyy ears,they have represented teaching and research in the areas of German and Germanic lawb ut also exercised their influencew ithin the natural sciences. Their names arem entioned in the articles on the history of science. It is up to futurei nvestigations to assess and synthesize the significanceofJ ewry for the University of Kiel and its individual faculties.³⁹ Apparently, the Universityo fK iel took its commemorative publication,l ike its anniversary,a saconcrete occasion to give as mall account of its owna chievements over the past 275y ears and to impose new obligations on itself for the future. The ideological contortions thatt he authorsw erep repared to make,s ome of which even distorted the university'sh istory,o nce again give an idea of the extent to which the celebrations in 1940 were marked by political self-mobiliza- tion and, aboveall, served to secure the continued existenceofthe universityin the face of war.
Vienna1 940: "Thisc elebration marks[ … ]t he beginning of an ew period in the historyo fo ur university" The Viennese celebrations on November6-8, 1940,picked up almostseamlessly wheret he Kiel jubilee had left off. Moreover,t he two anniversaries resembled each otheri nt he diction of theirc eremonial speeches. The speeches held in Vienna also focused on the inner cohesion of the institution on the one hand, and on the other hand on the presentation and self-assurance of its members vis-à-vis representativesf rom society,p olitics, the military,a nd the economy. At Bernhard Rust'sexpress wish and despite the war,the anniversary celebration turned out to be more elaborate than originallyplanned. Rust justified this with the "special significance of the university for southeastern Europe."⁴⁰ While the academic celebrations in Kiel could onlyb oast with the attendanceo fR ust (the Reichsminister of science, education and culture) and Lohse (Gauleiter of Schleswig-Holstein), the 125 th anniversary of the Vienna Institute of Technology, since 1872 at echnical college( Technische Hochschule, TH)⁴¹,was,toacertain extent, politically ennobled by the presenceo ft he high-rankingS S-or Wehrmacht officials Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Baldur vonS chirach, and by four Reichsminister: In addition to Rust,F ritz Todt,J ohann LudwigG rafS chwerin vonK rosigk, and Julius Dorpmüller took part.⁴² The ceremonials peech was held by the universi- Cf. on this and on the followingquotationM ikoletzky,J uliane: Die TH in Wien im Nationalsozialismus -Hochschulalltagund Hochschulpolitik /The TH in Vienna in the National Socialist Period -Routines and Politics at the TH. In: Juliane Mikoletzky and Paulus Ebner:D ie Geschichted er TechnischenH ochschule in Wien 1914-1955.B d. 2: Nationalsozialismus -Krieg -Rekonstruktion( 1938-1955 /T he TechnischeH ochschule in Vienna 1914-1955. Vol. 2: NationalSocialism -War -Reconstruction (1938-1955. Wien etc. 2016 (Technik für Menschen. 200J ahre Technische Universität Wien 1). pp. 89 -111, p. 103.  The Imperial and Royal Polytechnical InstituteofV ienna had been appointed a "Technische Hochschule" (abbreviated as TH) in 1872 and was renamed as technical university ("Technische Universität")i n1 975.  The participation of politicianswas, of course, not aspecific featureofuniversity anniversaries duringt he Nazi regime, but had, according to Thomas P. Becker,a lreadyb een established on the eveofthe First World War, see Becker,Jubiläen (cf. note 7), pp. 103,107;see also Drüding, Jubelfeiern (cf. note 11). ty′sr ector,t he architect Fritz Haas, who first spoke about the history of the acclaimed institution and then linked the rise of German technologyw ith the person of Adolf Hitler: But it [German technology] was onlyable to fulfil its political task after the Führer had given the life of the entireG erman people an ew meaninga nd had thus replaced the puree conomic purpose of German technologyw ith an enhanced political mission. Liket his,G erman technologyhas become one of the most powerful means,not onlytounify the German people but also to realize the new world order; atask for which we,who hot-heartedlylive the fight and work of this big time, arec alled to cooperate.⁴³ Although Haas -probablyout of consideration for the international guests -did not refer directlyt ot he Second World War, it must have been clear to the audience what wasmeant by "this great time" and the establishment of a "new world order".⁴⁴ Fort he benefit of technology and the Germanp eople, the rector thus legitimized the criminal expansion of the National Socialists throughout Europe. At the same time, he placed his institution and the technicalsciences at the service of the regime without hesitation, when he spoke, for example, of training the academic "youth to be creative and energeticm en" whose raison d'être was to "be the guarantor of the future of our people".Incontrast to his Kiel colleague, however,H aas did not formulate anyfixed goals or tasksfor the technical universities; instead he even left theirf uture development open: Here we stand in in these historicregalia with golden chains,i nfront of the uniforms and browns hirts of the [National Socialist] fighters,a nd with it,wee xpress symbolicallyt he legacy we have to pass on. The possession and management of this legacy obliges us to most faithfullyp rotect and constantlyi ncrease it.
[ … ]B ut we also see the possibilities which we areg iven in the midst of this time of ah ard,b ut light-shiningr eality,where so manyt hings struggle for an ew form, to find also our new form, which corresponds to the new sense of aN ational Socialist university.⁴⁵ With his remarks,H aas certainlyd id not question the future of his institution, onlyi ts concrete form, as can be observed from the fact thatt hroughout his speech, he repeatedlyendeavored to emphasize the nationalvalue of technology. AccordingtoHaas, even Hitler had attested Germantechnologyaleadingrole in the "unification processo ft he Germanp eople and in securing its existence".⁴⁶ Similar to Ritterbusch'ss peech in Kiel, ac lear tendency towardst he stagingo f the anniversary and the respective history is observable in the Vienna case as well, which was immanent to its TechnicalI nstituted uringt he Second World War. The conspicuouslystrong discrepancy between acritical and reflective preoccupation with the institution'sh istory and the outright and loud expressions of loyalty to National Socialism suggests that the anniversary celebration was, as in the example of Kiel, primarilyp laced under the sign of the present and afuture self-reassurance. In addition, the "national" (or nationalistic) consciousness of Viennese university professors should be emphasized to representatives from politics and society.
Much like in Kiel, the Reichsminister of science and education Rust did not miss the opportunity to speak to the Vienna audience and outline his guiding ideas on German science under National Socialism.T hese, however,r emained highlyabstract and imprecise. The technical universities in general and the Viennese institution in particularhardlyfound theirway into Rust′sspeech, which for the biggerp art revolved around the "reality of life" of science, the wording of which largely correspondedt ot he ceremonial speech he had giveni nK iel.⁴⁷ After Rust,F ritz Todt took the floor to conveyt he wish of the NSDAP that the TH Wien would continue to educate "not onlyo utstanding engineers,b ut abovea ll […]N ational Socialist engineers",i nw hose work the world view of Adolf Hitler was expressed.⁴⁸ Indirectly, the Reichminister for armamentsa nd ammunition, who had ad octorate in civil engineeringa nd had studied at the Technical CollegeM unich, hereby assured his academic audience of the continued existenceo ft he Vienna Institute of Technology. Haas and the other present members of the universityw erec ertainlyr elieved to hear that, with Fritz Todt, they had won aw eighty advocate.
While the first part of the anniversary celebration was primarily reserved for politics, the second part belonged almostexclusively to technical sciences -except for the opening address by Vice MayorofV ienna Hanns Blaschke, who was also an SS-Standartenführer and alumnus of the celebratinginstitution. Blaschke dealt with the "deep dissension" in the German people and the influenceo f " French 'laissez faire'" on technology, which he described with the buzzword  Anon.: "Des Führers Wiener Lehrjahre -eine bleibende Verpflichtung".D ie Reichsminister Rust,Dr. Todt,Dorpmüllerund Reichsleiter vonSchirach bei der 125-Jahr-Feier der Wiener Technischen Hochschule. In: Völkischer Beobachter 53:313 (1940). pp. 1-2, p. 2.  Anon.: "Des Führers" (cf. note 47), p. 2. "machine storm" and called the "scourge of humanity".⁴⁹ In agreement with his previous speakers,heelevated National Socialism to aform of salvation, supposedlys uccessful in reconcilingt he German people with technical progress.I n summary,i tc an be noted that in his lecture, Blaschke established at ightly woven web between the development of technology in the Nazi regime and the "liberation of the people",whereby he attested the Technical CollegeinVienna am odel functioni nt his process.⁵⁰ The six subsequent honorary lecturesthen focused on the technical sciences and werea imed specificallya ta na cademicallya nd technicallye ducated audience, without referring to contemporary political issues on al argers cale although even in these lectures,the political zeitgeist was reflected, at least in places.⁵¹ The acclaimed institution is also onlyo ccasionallym entioned in the publishedlectures.Thisisprobablyrelated to the fact that the speakers were primarilyinterested in explaining their own fields of research to the audience.However,s ince the speakers wereall Viennese graduates, the relevanceo ftheir own alma matertothe present and future society was at least indirectlyemphasized.
In his history of the Vienna Institute of Technology, which was published two years after the anniversary and whose printing costs werec overed by the Reichsforschungsrat (Reich Research Council) "in the middle of the greatest war",A lfred Lechner portrayed the university from an "all-German point of view".⁵² In his shorts urvey,the author vowed "to describet ot he reader the development and flourishing of the Vienna Institute of Technology, its fate in turbulent times, but also in quiet times, and to report on the struggle and failures of its founders and later leaders, on the merits and the roughedges of the personalities who worked at it".⁵³ In designinghis study,however,Lechner did not aim for alocal historicalperspective.Rather,his cause was to portray the origins and development of the institution from an "all-German point of view".Asachild of his time, he also deployed common prejudices or transfigurations, such as the "heroic struggle" of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World WarI ,which failed onlyb ecause the "home front […]h ad collapsed",a lthough the "front […]h ad stood firm".⁵⁴ Pervaded by an anti-democratic spirit,the author drawshis history of the Technical University against the background of liberala nd international currents which had allegedlyc aused an "intellectual and moral low" in the 1920s, followed by aphase of "oppression and arbitrariness" for the nationalistic university teachers and students from 1934 onwards.⁵⁵ Thus, the jubilee was once again associated with the interpretation thatitwas solelythanks to National Socialism that the Technical University and the technical sciencescould have been savedf rom their impendingdemise.⁵⁶ The final point of the thoroughly political chronicle is the celebration of the 125 th anniversary of the university,which took place "in the midst of awar forced upon the Germanpeople" and which, according to Lechner, "marked the end of the past,but alsothe beginning of anew period in the history of our university".⁵⁷ After readingt he Festschrift,t here is no doubt thatthis new eracan be observed both in the "construction" and the "defense of the Reich",whereby Lechner performatively and discursively derivedthe university'ss elf-assurance and foundation of meaning for the present and the future.

Conclusion
In view of these numerous manifest and indirect expressions of loyalty to National Socialism, it is astonishingt hat the Prussian finance minister made the pejorative statement in 1942t hat the "jubilee addiction of universities and the opportunism with which they are pursued" should be put to an end.⁵⁸ Because the framework conditions for anniversary celebrations had shifted radically since 1933,aconsiderable degree of self-mobilization of the universities for the goals of the Nazi regime was almostinevitable. At the same time, universities such as those in Kiel and Vienna made use of this form of self-mobilization, since it served to provide both internal and external meaning.A fter all, the celebrations did not takep lace in av acuum,b ut rather addressed the respective present and thus formed ap olitical sounding board which,e speciallyi nt imes of war,h elpedt oc onvince an academicallyeducated audience of the supposed achievements of National Socialism with regard to the developmento fG erman universities, to justify the privations of the war,a nd to give new impetus to the desire for the "international standing of German science".⁵⁹ At this point,o f course, it should be noted that universities and technicalu niversities benefited differentlyf rom the Nazi regime'sa llocation of resources.⁶⁰ Financial resources wereg iven primarily to institutions involved in warp reparation and warfare. This was easier for the technical universities with their emphasis on the natural sciences and especiallytechnical sciences than for the humanities,culturalstudies, or political science faculties.N evertheless,the distribution of resources was not necessarilya na utomatic processw ith ag uaranteed outcome, which is why the technical universities and theirprofessors had to constantlycompetefor the regime'sf avor and resources.
When it comes to summing up the anniversaries in Kiel and Vienna from the perspective of an integratedu niversityhistory,i ti si mportant to note thatmany organizational, social and functional aspects of the celebrations weres imilar in nature. At the same time, however,d ifferences can be identified with regard to the concrete objectiveso ft he two anniversaries: Whereas the Kiel actorsw ere concerned with ac ompleteu surpation of the sciencesb yN ational Socialism, both in the context of the Second World Wara nd for the period afterwards, those responsible in Vienna formulated their ideas for the future far more vaguely and avoided tangible demands or conceptions. Or to put it in the words of Markus Drüding:Anniversary celebrations in principle remained media of academic self-representation,b ut at the same time took on ac haracter of political forums.⁶¹ It was in these political forums that the raison d'être of universities in the then present and future National Socialist state was negotiated and various components of anniversary celebrations werei nstrumentalized for the purpose