304 The American Archivist/ Fall 1981 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/44/4/304/2746833/aarc_44_4_r702n30500165p83.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Ernst Posner: The Bridge Between the Old World and the New RODNEY A. ROSS ERNST MAXIMILIAN POSNER—how should mixed Jewish-Christian ancestry, Ernst I describe this immigrant to the United Posner was the third and last child of Dr. States who once held the unofficial title of and Mrs. Carl Posner. His father was an the Dean of American archivists? His internationally known urologist who held friend Julia Stickley remembers him as a medical degree and a Ph.D. in biology. slender and quick, and as one who loved In retrospect, of all the family professional to laugh.1 At a Washington, D.C., memo- role models for the younger Posner, the rial service for Posner, who died in Ger- one whose career most closely presaged many on 18 April 1980, various eulogizers his own was that of his paternal Uncle mentioned his self-discipline, his sharp Max, an archivist with the Prussian Privy and accurate memory, his absolute integ- State Archives who had died a decade rity. They talked of his gentleness, his prior to Ernst's birth.3 concern for others, his gallantry, and his After graduating from a Berlin gymna- basic humanity. James O'Neill referred to sium in 1910, young Ernst Posner entered Posner's scholarship as "painstaking, but 2 the University of Berlin, where he began not pedantic." The picture that emerged a program of studies focusing on philos- was of a man of tremendous intellectual ophy, history, and languages.4 The follow- curiosity and extraordinary erudition who ing year he interrupted his courses to ful- had natural aptitude for teaching. fill his peace-time military obligations. Born in Berlin on 9 August 1892, into When he returned to Berlin he took a a properous Prussian Lutheran family of seminar on U.S. constitutional history, "Interview with Mrs. Julia Ward Stickley, 17 March 1980. 2Cosmos Club address of James E. O'Neill, Washington, D.C., 19 May 1980. 3Unedited transcript of Ken Munden interview with Ernst Posner, 30 December 1966, p. 7, Records of Editors of the American Archivist, 1965-71 [Posner Festschrift], SAA archives, Madison, Wisconsin. Herafter cited as Munden-Posner tape. Other items from the series will be cited as Posner Festschrift. Some of the items in this series were used by Paul Lewinson in the preparation of his biographical essay on Posner, for Archives & the Public Interest: Selected Essays by Ernst Posner, Ken Munden, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1967). 4Folder #98: "Employment USA" (Application for Federal Employment), Ernst M. Posner Papers, RG 200, National Archives (hereafter cited as Posner Papers). Certain folders within the Posner Papers are closed to researchers until 1990, except by permission of the donor. In Spring 1980, the author received a letter from Eberhard Kessel, Professor of History, University of Mainz, dated 11 April 1980. On behalf of Ernst Posner, Kessel granted the author permission to examine the Posner Papers at the National Archives. Ernst Posner 305 taught by the renowned German historian as repository for the Prussian state. He Otto Hintze. As Posner said many years also rearranged the older archival groups, later, the readings he did for this seminar orfonds, dating from the days of the Prus- gave him the rudimentary knowledge of sian monarchy. It was Posner who assisted American history which would be so use- American scholars during their visits to Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/44/4/304/2746833/aarc_44_4_r702n30500165p83.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 ful in the decades to come.5 the Berlin archives, notably Eugene When World War I began, the seminar Anderson of the American University, ended. Posner, a non-commissioned offi- Merle Curti of Columbia University, cer in the reserve, rejoined the infantry. Teachers College, Samuel Flagg Bemis of He fought in the battles of Tannenberg Yale, and Walter Dorn of Ohio State. and the Masurian Lakes and was wounded In 1923 when the Privy State Archives 6 on the Polish frontier in November 1914. moved to a new building in Berlin-Dah- After a period of convalescence and gar- lem, Posner was assigned administrative rison duty, Posner, who was by then a responsibilities of Hausreferent, including lieutenant, returned to the line and saw building and grounds, equipment, and action in both Russia and France before personnel. At the same time, Posner, in being mustered out of the army in Decem- association with the Prussian Academy of ber 1918. The German government had Sciences, took over the editorship of the awarded him both first and second class German documents publication project of of the Iron Cross. So highly was he the era, the Ada Borussica, a study of eigh- regarded by his military comrades that teenth-century Prussian governmental when the Nazis ordered an association of administration. Posner also wrote learned fellow former officers to vote his expul- articles and lectured at the Institute for 7 sion, the group disbanded instead. Archival Science and Advanced Historical Upon leaving the army Posner resumed Studies, established by the Privy Archives his studies at the University of Berlin, in 1930. So successful was he in this scho- where he received his doctorate in Feb- lastic setting that, in a 1937 letter of rec- ruary 1920. In June of that year he passed ommendation, Albert Brackmann, Direc- another set of exams which qualified him tor-General of the Privy State Archives, to teach in a gymnasium. He now held the characterized him as the institute's ablest two certificates needed for an entry proto- and most popular lecturer." archivist position with the Prussian State That such a letter would be needed by Archives, which he joined in the fall. A an archivist of Posner's standing was a year later he gained an appointment as a result of Hitler's accession to power in journeyman archivist. Germany. What mattered most to the Thus began the German phase of Pos- Nazis, vis-a-vis their relationship with Pos- ner's professional career as practicing ner, was that he was not genetically a full- archivist, administrator, author, editor, fledged "Aryan." Initially, the Nazi take- and teacher. For the fifteen years that over resulted in Posner's voluntarily giving Posner was associated with the Privy State up his administrative responsibilities with Archives he performed a variety of archi- the Privy Archives.9 As a result of the pas- val tasks. He had charge of arrangement sage of the Nuremberg laws of 1935, how- and description for newly retired govern- ever, he found himself involuntarily pen- ment records accessioned by the archives sioned off from his government archival 5"Addendum to Dr. Posner's oral history statement," National Archives Oral History Project: Statement of Dr. Ernst Posner, 19 October 1973, p. 10, National Archives, RG 64. Hereafter cited as Posner/Oral History. "Munden-Posner tape, p. 9. 'Letter of Eugene N. Anderson to Ken Munden, 14 October 1966, Posner Festschrift. "Posner's translation of a letter of Albert Brackmann, 21 January 1937, included in a vita attached to a letter of Solon J. Buck to Ernst Posner, 19 September 1939, Solon J. Buck Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 18: "Ph-Po." Hereafter cited as Buck Papers. "Munden-Posner tape, p. 28. 306 The American Archivist / Fall 1981 position. His teaching responsibilities were val administration.12 The following month terminated; the editorship of the Ada Ernst Posner left Germany for a tempo- Borussica was taken from him. Although rary haven in Stockholm. Still he lacked many of his former archival colleagues a visa for permanent entry to the United continued to see him socially, he became States. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/44/4/304/2746833/aarc_44_4_r702n30500165p83.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 10 a professional outcast in his native land. For four months Posner remained in By 1937 Posner had decided that he Sweden. Although the head of the Swed- and his wife Kathe should emigrate to the ish Royal Archives, fearful of antagonizing United States. In order to search out job the Nazis, prevented Posner from getting prospects, Posner made a two-month trip a position with that institution, the staff of to this country in the Spring of 1938. the archives arranged for him to collect Through his friends, the Eugene Ander- the proceeds from a three-lecture series.13 sons of American University in Washing- It was as part of this series that Posner ton, he met the two men who would serve presented the German-language original as his most influential early patrons, of "Archival Administration in the United Waldo Gifford Leland of the American States." Council of Learned Societies and Solon J. Buck of the National Archives. Shortly thereafter, the American Consul General in Stockholm finally granted At the National Archives Posner deliv- American visas to Posner and his wife ered a Good Friday 1938 lecture, in Eng- Kathe, who was still in Berlin. Were it not lish, on German archival administration. for Posner's fluency in the American But the National Archives was in no posi- idiom, plus the concerted efforts and tion to offer employment to an alien. pledges of financial assistance by Eugene Unfortunately, no one else in this land of and Polly Anderson and Merle and Mar- opportunity seemed to be, either. Posner garet Curti, the visas might never have traveled to Cambridge and New Haven been forthcoming. where he sounded out officials at Harvard and Yale on job possibilities." In New Ernst and Kathe Posner made their York he spoke with persons associated ways separately to London, where they with the Rockefeller Foundation and with embarked on their voyage to the New the Oberlander Trust.