Word: hanfstaengl
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...Stephen Norwood, and corroborated by contemporary accounts in The Crimson and records of the Harvard Student Union. Harvard sought to accord an honorary position to an alumnus who happened to be a top-ranking Nazi propagandist and close friend of Hitler, Ernst F.S. “Putzi” Hanfstaengl ’09, at his class reunion in 1934, after which he thanked Harvard in writing for its “extremely cordial reception.” Later that year, Nazi naval officers, on a visit to Boston harbor, were treated to a banquet benefiting Phillips Brooks House...
...scholarly bridge,” like financial or political ties, can only grant a kind of legitimacy to those with whom the bridge is built. President Lawrence H. Summers today likes to claim that Harvard is not a political institution. But to refuse to distinguish between a Hanfstaengl and other alumni, or between a University of Heidelberg and other universities, as President Conant did, is undeniably a political decision. The fact is that Harvard’s actions—and its inaction—can have political repercussions affecting people around the world...
...Harvard was certainly not alone in its stance towards the Nazis, there were other universities that did not share its anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi attitudes. Williams College, for instance, was moving to terminate its relations with German universities. The same year that President Conant had tea with Ernst Hanfstaengl, the Chancellor of New York University called on “teachers, scientists and men of letters” to “resist with all their power” the academic policies of the Nazis...
...media pressure, Hanfstaengl eventually declined the marshal position, but his visit to Cambridge in June 1934 was marked by protest. Escorted by a security detail of four state troopers, he attended receptions at the homes of prominent alumni, including a tea party at Conant’s residence...
...June 13, 1934 editorial, Crimson editors spoke out in favor of Hanfstaengl’s appearance, arguing that “if Herr Hanfstaengl is to be received at all, it should be with the marks of honor appropriate to his high position in the government of a friendly country...a great world power...