Ernst Jäckh

Ernst Jäckh
Ernst Jäckh (right), March 14, 1909
Born	(1875-02-22)February 22, 1875 Urach,German Empire
Died	August 17, 1959(1959-08-17)(aged 84) New York City,United States
Nationality	German, British, USA
Other names	Ernest Jackh, Ernest Jaeckh, Ernst Jäckh
Education	Ph.D. Philology, 1902
Occupation(s)	Journalist, Orientalist, Political Scientist
Employer(s)	Neckar-Zeitung (Heilbronn), Deutscher Werkbund, Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient, Deutsche Hochschule für Politik, New Commonwealth Institute, Columbia University

Ernst Jäckh(February 22, 1875 – August 17, 1959) was a German journalist, diplomat, author, and academic who later lived inGreat Britainand the United States. He is most known for having advocated for first Germany, and then the United States, having better relations withTurkey.He was the founder and leader of theDeutsche Hochschule für PolitikinBerlinfrom 1920 to 1933.

Early life and education

Jäckh's birthplace at Röhrenbrunnen in Bad Urach

Jäckh was born inUrach,Germany.

His secondary education was at thetheological seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeurenand at technical school inStuttgart.He then was a student at theUniversity of Breslau,theUniversity of Geneva,theUniversity of Munich,andHeidelberg University.He studied philosophy, politics, and history,focusing in particular on Turkey and the Middle East.

Career in Germany

Ernst Jäckh and the Turkish study commission in Heilbronn, on July 8, 1911. Jäckh stands in the middle in the background (behind him the lamp attached to the wall), with the hat taken off in his right hand.

A journalist during his early years, Jäckh worked as an editor for the paperNeckar-Zeitung inHeilbronn.

Under the overall guidance of pastor and politicianFriedrich Naumann,Jäckh was a key organizer of theliberal movement in Germanyduring the early years of the twentieth century.

Starting in 1908, Jäckh promoted the German-Turkish Alliance and he founded theGerman Turkish Associationin 1912.His bookDer aufsteigende Halbmond,published in 1911, sought to explain contemporary Turkey to a German readership and further the prospects of alliance between the two countries.He became a professor of Turkish history at theUniversity of Berlinstarting in 1914.

Ernst Jäckh played an active role in German diplomatic efforts during theFirst World War,although was never officially part of theGerman Foreign Office.During the war, Jaeckh was engaged in putting out propaganda in favor of the German-Turkish alliance (and trying to instigate actions that would undercut the British in the Middle East), with historianFritz Fischercharacterizing him as "the most important propagandist of Germany's eastern policy."HistorianMargaret Lavinia Andersondescribes Jäckh as "a diminutive journalist with a supersized gift for self-promotion" who marketed the Ottoman Empire as "the land of tolerance" while Ottoman Armenians were beingsystematically murdered.

Jäckh suffered a personal loss when his only son, 18-year-old Hans, was killed in action in September 1918, on theChemin des Dames,during theSecond Battle of the Marne.The death, coupled with the demise of theGerman Empire,changed his thinking about the nature of international relations.

In 1920, theDeutsche Hochschule für Politikwas founded by Jäckh, who served as its president and initial director.During the 1920s, it was considered Berlin's best school for the study of political behavior.The Hochschule benefited from Jäckh's abilities to fit in with both liberal and conservative factions and act as a consensus builder.He gave lecture tours in America, made contacts there, and secured funding for the Hochschule's library and publications from theCarnegie Endowment for International Peaceand theRockefeller Foundation.As the decade went on, Jäckh promoted the idea of a "New Germany", one that was democratic and internationalist in perspective.

Jäckh, like other German academics, witnessed first-hand the demise of theWeimar Republicand the rise to power of theNazi Party.While some of the academics perceived immediately the reality of the Nazis, Jäckh did not.Long an advocate of a "New Germany", and with an internationalist perspective in which he saw himself as an unofficial ambassador for his country in international dealings, Jäckh continued this approach even after theMachtergreifungin January 1933.Indeed in public statements and a private letter to Hitler, he maintained that a continuity was possible between the liberalism of Naumann and the national socialism of the new regime.His attempts at accommodation with the Nazis were to little avail, however, as the Hochschule underwent a political purge, lost its independence, and was put under control of theReich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propagandalater during 1933.

Career in Britain

At this point in 1933, Jäckh left Germany for refuge in Britain, but he still traveled to Germany on a steady basis and maintained contact with the government and went to Nazi-related events.

He became international director of the newly foundedNew Commonwealth Society,which had been created in 1932 byDavid Davies, 1st Baron Daviesand which advocated the creation of an international tribunal and an international police force.Jäckh worked with the German branch of the society, which at first had close ties to the Nazi Party; but subsequently, the Nazis grew suspicious of both the branch and of Jäckh, reporting that Jäckh was a "highly murky personality" and that he was "married to a Jew" and thus could not be relied upon to represent German interests in international settings.

Jäckh was said to have become a British citizen and to have represented theBritish Foreign officeon trips he took to Turkey.When theSecond World Warstarted in 1939, Jäckh was named head of the Southeastern Division of theBritish Ministry of Information.

Career in the United States

In 1940, he migrated further to the United States where he became Professor of Public Law and Government atColumbia University,focusing on the politics of the regions of Germany, the Balkans, and the Middle East.He published the bookThe Rising Crescent: Turkey Yesterday, Today and Tomorrowin 1944;his aim was to explain modern Turkey to American readers and to foster improvement inTurkey–United States relations.The New York Times Book Reviewmade reference to "Dr. Jackh's distinguished reputation as an interpreter of Turkey's policies" and found "his frank special pleading for Turkey disarming and persuasive."

He served on the Columbia faculty until 1946.Jäckh then became a consultant at Columbia'sSchool of International Affairs,in particular for the school's Near and Middle East Institutewhich he had helped found.He lived inMorningside Heights, Manhattan.He was one of the key co-founders of theAmerican Turkish Societyin 1949.

Jäckh published his memoirs, entitledDer goldene Pflug: Lebensernte eines Weltbürgers,in 1954.He died in New York City on August 17, 1959, at the age of 84.

Legacy

As an academic, Jäckh has not been highly regarded in terms of scholarship or original thought.Author Sevil Özçalık states that "Jäckh's reputation was largely self-created throughout his career, which also favorably shaped other people's perception of him."

This reputation was maintained to the end of his life, with obituaries of him hailing his claimed opposition to the Nazi regime.But the progressive, democratic reputation that the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik had enjoyed for decades became diminished as a result of scholarly research performed in the latter part of the twentieth century, which showed that the Hochschule's relationship with the Nazi Party was not the one of pure opposition that had been portrayed.With these findings, Jäckh's reputation in connection to his role there suffered substantially as well.

Published works

Jäckh wrote some twenty-one books, including some under the name Ernest Jackh.His books include:

• Albanian War
• Der Austeigende Halbmonde
• Background of the Middle East
• Deutschland im Orient
• The War for Man's Soul(1943)
• The Rising Crescent(Farrar & Rinehart, 1944)

Sources

• Anderson, Margaret Lavinia(2011). "Who Still Talked about the Extermination of the Armenians?". InSuny, Ronald Grigor;Göçek, Fatma Müge;Naimark, Norman M.(eds.).A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire.Oxford University Press. pp. 199–220.ISBN978-0-19-979276-4.
• Eisfeld, Rainer(2014). "From the Berlin Political Studies Institute to Columbia and Yale: Ernest Jaeckh and Arnold Wolfers". In Rösch, Felix (ed.).Émigré Scholars and the Genesis of International Relations: A European Discipline in America?.Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 113–131.
• Kaplan, Fred(1983).The Wizards of Armageddon.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
• Korenblat, Steven D. (September 2006). "A School for the Republic? Cosmopolitans and Their Enemies at the Deutsche Hochschule Für Politik, 1920–1933".Central European History.39(3): 394–430.doi:10.1017/S0008938906000148.S2CID144221659.
• Özçalık, Sevil (2018).Promoting an Alliance, Furthering Nationalism: Ernst Jäckh and Ahmed Emin in the Time of the First World War.Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag.
• Weber, Peter (2019)."Ernst Jäckh and the National Internationalism of Interwar Germany".Central European History.52(3): 402–423.doi:10.1017/S0008938919000761.ISSN0008-9389.S2CID204373771.

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Ernst Jäckhin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW
• Ernst Jackh papers (MS 467). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Archives.
• Finding aid to Ernst Jäckh papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.