Josef Pfitzner und Hans Hirsch

A native of the Silesian part of the Habsburg Monarchy, historian Josef Pfitzner (1901-1945) was a controversial figure. He studied history at the German University in Prague in the early 1920s, where he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Austrian historian Hans Hirsch (1878-1940). In 1930, Pfitzner became a professor of Eastern European history in Prague. At that time he still maintained good contacts with some Czech colleagues, such as the eminent historian Josef Pekař. He published a number of works of some international standing, for example on the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas (1930) and Bakunin (1932). On the other hand, Pfitzner, who was already a German nationalist, radicalized himself further after 1935 and became involved first with the Sudeten German Party and later with the Nazi party. At that time he published several propagandistic works about the Sudeten Germans. After the German occupation of Czecho-Slovakia and the formation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, Pfitzner became deputy mayor of the city of Prague and helped enforce Nazi policies against Jews and Czechs. After the war, Pfitzner was arrested in Prague, tried and sentenced to death.

The aim of this project is to introduce, edit and comment on the previously unpublished correspondence (266 documents) between Hans Hirsch and his student Josef Pfitzner from the years 1922-1939. The correspondence provides information about the German Prague historical milieu of the interwar period and the life and work of Pfitzner, who was active there. The intensive correspondence offers previously unknown insights into the scholarly activities and political attitudes of these two humanities scholars.

The edition will be published in cooperation with the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where the co-editor Alena Míšková worked on the project.