Akademik

(1885-1947)

   historian; one of the few academics to em-brace the Republic. He was born of Huguenot lineage in Frankfurt; his father was a Gymnasium headmaster and his mother a gifted pianist. Raised in a milieu steeped in culture, he was soon attracted to history. He completed Gymnasium in 1903 and took a doctorate in 1906 at Heidelberg; he later described his Doktorvater, Erich Marcks,* as his "permanent counselor and friend." His the-sis, Politisches, geistiges, und wirtschaftliches Leben in Frankfurt-am-Main vor dem Beginn der Revolution 1848^49 (Political, intellectual, and economic life in Frankfurt on the eve of the 1848-49 revolution), revealed his brilliance as a scholar. After extended research in France and England, he published an ac-claimed work in 1908 on the 1848 revolution. His interest in the Frankfurt Parliament's first president, a liberal prince who had long advocated German unity, led in 1910 to Fürst Karl Leiningen und das deutsche Einheitsproblem (Prince Karl Leiningen and the problem of German unity). The book brought immediate appointment as Privatdozent at Freiburg.

   Freiburg was home in 1910 to Georg von Below,* a fact with dire conse-quences. Promoted to ausserordentlicher Professor in 1916 (he was deemed unfit for the army), Valentin was soon embroiled with the Pan-German League. Deeply patriotic, he nonetheless opposed annexationism and in a 1915 pamphlet demanded the postwar restoration of Belgium. Although Valentin was briefly rescued from Below's wrath when the Foreign Office's Ernst Jackh enlisted his services, he was soon attacked by the League; Below, Freiburg's new rector, resolved to discredit him. In October 1916 Alfred von Tirpitz* secured his re-moval from the Foreign Office, and in May 1917 Below forced his dismissal at Freiburg. Hans Delbrück* and several liberal newspapers* ineffectually came to his defense.

   Germany's defeat salvaged Valentin's future. He joined the DDP and lectured at Berlin's Handelshochschule and Jackh's Hochschule fur Politik.* In 1920 he joined the staff of the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam, a position that gave him freedom to continue research into the 1848 revolution. He was solidly republican; his critics dubbed him Weimar's "spokesman." He fought the Dolchstosslegende,* blamed the military for Germany's defeat, and espoused entry into the League of Nations. During 1926-1932 he served as coeditor of the pacifist Die Frie-denswarte (he spurned the label "pacifist," calling himself an "antimilitarist"). To rebut commentary that Germany needed a new Frederick the Great, he pub-lished Friedrich der Grosse in 1927 to strip the monarch of his legend. But such scholarship, including works on Bismarck and foreign policy, remained subordinate to his interest in the Frankfurt Parliament. His magnum opus, Ges-chichte der deutschen Revolution von 1848^49 (History of the German Revo-lution of 1848-49), appeared in 1930-1931. The two-volume study was the first to comprehensively examine the revolution's social causes.

   Valentin's major work appeared as Germany's democratic spirit was evapo-rating. In June 1933 Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick* dismissed him from the Reichsarchiv and removed his civil-service status. Within weeks he accepted a temporary appointment at the University of London. In 1939 he relocated to the United States, where he worked for the Office of Strategic Services. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II he published a two-volume Weltgeschichte (World history); The German People appeared in 1946.

   REFERENCES:Richard Bauer, "Veit Valentin"; Great Historians of the Modern Age; Lehmann and Sheehan, Interrupted Past.