A Conundrum in the History of Scholarship: Why Did Gerhard von Rad Co-Nominate a Former Nazi (Karl Georg Kuhn) to Admission in the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften?

A neglected question in the history of scholarship is how and why Gerhard von Rad, the great Protestant theologian, nominated Karl Georg Kuhn to the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Kuhn, who pioneered the field of German Dead Sea Scrolls research, had been an Nazi party member. He never disavowed most of his anti-Semitic publications. This question points to issues in the history of scholarship that have not yet been addressed, including how academic networks operate to erase and whitewash the past.

Bernard M. Levinson holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at the University of Minnesota, with a cross appointment to the Law School. His research focuses on biblical and cuneiform law, textual reinterpretation in the Second Temple period, and the relation of the Bible to Western intellectual history and constitutional theory. He is the author of four books and six edited volumes. The interdisciplinary significance of his work has been recognized with appointments to the Institute for Advanced Study, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the National Humanities Center, and the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. 

Moderation: Professor Dr. Stefan Beyerle