On the Failure of an Expert
Georg Leibbrandt during the National-Socialist Era
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Georg Leibbrandt belonged to those experts who owed their status primarily to their origins. Born an ethnic German in Ukraine, Leibbrandt subscribed early on to ethno-nationalist thinking and the struggle against the Bolsheviks. After 1933, he pursued a career in the National-Socialist regime. He saw it as his task to liberate the peoples of the Soviet Union from Bolshevik rule. His plans aimed at the dissolution of the Soviet Union. During the war and the occupation, he recommended betting on the national-Ukrainian cause. With that, he failed. He belongs to the National-Socialist functionary elite which later succumbed to the illusion that they themselves were victims of the regime. This instance of academic knowledge placed at the service of National-Socialist policies of conquest and annihilation is just one example of the tragic bond that science and politics formed during the 20th century.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2017, pp. 107–119)