Two types of university historians were forced from their teaching and research positions, and into exile, by the National Socialist regime: first, non-Jews of a left-liberal or Marxist persuasion, and second, Jews. A third, mixed, type was derivative: Leftist Jews were at risk both for their racial background and for their ideology. This combination was historically grounded. Characteristically, left-wing politics had accompanied the emancipation of Jews in Germany since the Enlightenment and had in fact marked the noticeably greater access of Jewish candidates to university posts in the comparatively tolerant climate of the Weimar republic.

The emigration of leftist and Jewish academics was preceded by official legislation, but in certain cases it received a significant boost from semiprivately organized, and sometimes altogether spontaneous, harrassment. Proscriptive legislation against Jews and Marxists proceeded in three major steps. First came the Law for the Restoration of the German Civil Service, which, on April 7, 1933, deprived both politically unreliable and non-“Aryan” university personnel of their civil-service status, canceling their tenure privileges and dismissing them, with few, albeit notable, exceptions.