Forum Conference Reports GHI News A TUMULTUOUS RELATIONSHIP: NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER AND GERMANY IN THE ERA OF THE TWO WORLD WARS1 Elisabeth Piller UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG The relationship between Germany and the United States in the fi rst half of the twentieth century was a tumultuous one, to say the least. In the era of the two world wars, transatlantic relations oscillated be- tween rivalry and partnership, confrontation and cooperation, resent- ment and reconciliation. The interactions of German and American 1 I would like to thank my academics encapsulated and shaped this volatile relationship: they colleagues at the Uni- versity of Manchester’s studied and taught at each other’s universities, served their respective Cultures of Diplomacy nations as cultural diplomats and propagandists, and helped shape Reading Group, including 2 Charlotte Faucher, Chris- national images in elite discourse and public opinion. Importantly, tian Goeschel, Mercedes the academic world also embodied the sea change in international Peñalba-Sotorrío and Tom Allcock, for commenting prestige and infl uence that characterized German-American relations carefully on an earlier draft at large. By the late nineteenth century, Germany still occupied a pre- of this paper; I would also like to thank Tomás Irish eminent place in international academia, and U.S. universities vied and Charlotte Lerg for for German contacts and connections. Half a century later, German sharing my Butler enthusiasm over the years universities were in spiritual and physical disarray, looking for sup- and Tomás for reading port to the United States, which had become an economic, political, and carefully comment- ing on this paper (and and academic superpower. many others this year). Finally, I want to express This article explores this tumultuous relationship through the life of my appreciation to Axel Jansen, Claudia Roesch one American academic, Nicholas Murray Butler. Butler, a philosophy and Richard Wetzell of the GHI Washington, who professor and president of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945, was provided useful pointers both a witness to and a key protagonist in German-American relations. on how to revise the piece and improve its fl ow and Although largely forgotten today, Butler was among the most promi- argument. nent Americans of his time. Driven by seemingly boundless energy 2 Anja Werner, The Transat- and equally boundless ambition, Butler rose from a middle-class lantic World of Higher background to become not only Columbia University’s longest-serving Education: Americans at German Universities, president but also a well-known champion of international coopera- 1776-1914 (New York, tion, serving as a director (since 1910) and president (since 1925) of the 2013). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and receiving the Nobel 3 Albert Marrin, Nicholas Peace prize in 1931. As an avid public speaker, interviewee and writer Murray Butler (Boston, 1976), 29. of opinion pieces (his bibliography includes more than 3,200 published items up to 1932 alone) Butler exerted considerable infl uence in the 4 Michael Rosenthal, Nicholas Miraculous: The 3 public sphere in the United States and beyond. So prominent was Amazing Career of the Butler in his day that the New York Times for decades published his Redoubtable Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler (New York, annual Christmas greetings.4 If Butler’s national standing was 2006), 10. PILLER | NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER AND GERMANY 71 impressive, his international stature was truly astounding. Over the course of his long and active life he accumulated honorary de- grees and state decorations from all over Europe. On his annual visits to the Old World, he wined and dined with kings and queens, scientifi c and intellectual luminaries, states- men and politicians. Wherever he went, But- ler was celebrated and honored as the cul- tural ambassador of the United States. As the Progressive journalist William Allen White wrote about Butler’s infl uence: “Probably no other citizen of this land [the United States] for the last forty years has known so many of the powerful fi gures of business, education and politics in Europe and the United States. ... He has made his private opinion public sentiment probably more defi nitely than any other living man in this country … .”5 And yet, surprisingly little is known about Butler’s role in international relations and German-American relations in particular. In contrast to his role in domestic aff airs (including Butler’s long involvement in educa- tional reform and the Republican party),6 his engagement with Germany has received only limited and piecemeal attention.7 Thus Charlotte Lerg recognizes Butler as a determined university diplomat who in the decade aft er 1900 built close ties to German universities Figure 1. Nicholas 1872-1932: A Check List Theory 37, no. 4 (1987): the World Wars, eds. Molly Murray Butler in Berlin, (New York, 1932); A num- 445-461. Cochran and Cornelia June 1926. Der Welt- ber of focused pieces: Navari (New York, 2017) Spiegel Nr. 27, 3 (Beilage Michael M. Sokal (2009), 7 Joseph Winn, “Nicholas 49-72; Andrew Williams, Berliner Tageblatt). “James McKeen Cattell, Murray Butler, the Carn- „Waiting for Monsieur Nicholas Murray Butler, egie Endowment for In- Bergson: Nicholas Murray and Academic Freedom ternational Peace, and the Butler, James T. Shotwell, at Columbia Universi- Search for Reconciliation and the French Sage,“ 5 Quoted in Marrin, Nicholas ty, 1902–1923,” History in Europe, 1919–1933,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 23, Murray Butler, 13. of Psychology 12, no. 2 Peace & Change, 31 (2006): no. 2 (2012): 236-253; Na- (2009): 87-122; Charles F. 555-584. David Clinton, dine Akhund and Stephane 6 Marrin, Nicholas Murray Hewlett, “John Dewey and “Nicholas Murray But- Tison, En guerre pour la Butler; Rosenthal, Nicholas Nicholas Murray Butler: ler and ‘The International paix. Correspondance Paul Miraculous; Milton Halsey Contrasting Conceptions Mind’ as the Pathway to d’Estournelles de Constant Thomas, Bibliography of of Peace Education in the Peace,” in Progressivism and et Nicholas Murray-Butler Nicholas Murray Butler, Twenties,” Educational US Foreign Policy between 1914-1919 (Paris, 2018); 72 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 67 | FALL 2020 Forum Conference Reports GHI News and offi cials (as well as Western Europe more generally) to advance 8 See Charlotte Lerg, Univer- sitätsdiplomatie. Wissen- 8 his own, Columbia University’s and America’s prestige in the world. schaft und Prestige in During the First World War, as Tomás Irish shows, Butler was at the den transatlantischen Beziehungen, 1890–1920 forefront of integrating American universities in the U.S. war eff ort (Göttingen, 2019). and forging a cultural alliance against Germany;9 from the mid-1920s 9 Tomás Irish, The University onward, however, as Katharina Rietzler and Michael Wala demon- at War, 1914-25 (London, strate, Butler once again used the resources of the Carnegie Endow- 2015), 96-97. ment for International Peace (CEIP) and Columbia University to 10 Katharina Rietzler, “Phi- champion reconciliation with Germany and rebuild ties with German lanthropy, Peace Research and Revisionist Politics: universities and offi cials.10 These ties he maintained even aft er 1933 Rockefeller and Carnegie and thereby, as Stephen Norwood argues, helped condone and Support for the Study of International Relations in legitimize Nazi Germany in the United States.11 While existing schol- Weimar Germany,” in Bey- ond the Nation: United Sta- arship thus conveys the intense and volatile nature of Butler’s rela- tes History in Transnational tionship with Germany, much of what we know remains episodic. Perspective, eds. Thomas Adam and Uwe Luebken. Above all, Butler’s engagement with Wilhelmine, Weimar and Supplement 5, Bulletin of Nazi Germany is usually treated separately, even though personal the German Historical In- stitute (2008): 61–79; Mi- and cultural relationships do not necessarily align with political chael Wala, “‘Gegen eine periodization. Vereinzelung Deutsch- lands’. Deutsche Kultur- politik und akademisch- By contrast, this paper argues that Butler’s relationship with Germany — er Austausch mit den and Germany’s relationship with Butler — is best understood through Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika in der Zwisch- a long-term analysis, covering the period from around 1900 to the late enkriegszeit,” in Deutsch- 1930s. What is more, this paper seeks to use Butler’s life as a lens to land und die USA in der internationalen Geschichte comprehend a complicated German-American relationship beyond des 20. Jahrhunderts, eds. its better-known military and political caesura. What makes Butler Manfred Berg and Philipp Gassert (Stuttgart, 2004), such an illuminating subject of historical study is his fi ve decade-long 303–315. involvement with international (academic) relations. Unlike other 11 Stephen H. Norwood, The university presidents of his time, who served much shorter tenures, Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Con- Butler allows for a long-term perspective on a crucial half-century fl ict on American Cam- of German-American relations. And only such a perspective can puses (New York, 2009); on Columbia in particu- explain, I believe, why Butler and other internationalists, staunch lar, Stephen H. Norwood, anti-militarists that they were, seemingly ended up condoning the ”Complicity and Confl ict: Columbia University’s Third Reich. Response to Fascism, 1933- 1937,” Modern Judaism, On the one hand, this paper treats Butler as representative