4.1 Introduction

If the period Koschaker spent in Berlin has often been considered the turning point of his career and, according to some scholars, the time he made a stance against the regime, the following years in Tübingen (1941-1946) have been depicted as a time in which he shunned any sort of notoriety and devoted himself to his research.

Compared with the years he spent in Berlin, the period in Tübingen represented an altogether different way of life. Whereas in the capital city he had an illustrious position at the university with both scientific and “political” notoriety, where he was a member of Germany’s two most eminent academies - the Akademie für Deutsches Recht and the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften -, in Tübingen Koschaker sought a peaceful “retreat” from the battlefield.

Koschaker attempted to find a hideaway after the bitterness of Berlin. The documents covering his years in the capital clearly show that he encountered numerous setbacks and administrative difficulties at the university troubling him both personally and limiting his opportunities to pursue his research goals.^[384] Koschaker wished to regain a peaceful life in a small provincial city. Fond of nature and the mountains, he had found it hard to adapt to the hectic life of the capital,^[385] and he desired therefore a lifestyle that would be more conducive to his health, which had become increasingly poor.^[386] Thus, he spent part of the time from the end of 1941 to 1947 at his house in the small village of Walchensee, in Oberbayern, by the lake of the same name, far away from the city life.

As with the happy years he spent in Leipzig, his experience in Tübingen began well too. However, again Koschaker’s disappointment quickly increased, eventually turning to sorrow and frustration. Koschaker was still in Tübingen at the end of the war and there he became professor emeritus in 1946.

Koschaker’s five years in Tübingen were also a period of deep scientific reflection, leading to the publication of his masterpiece Europa und das römische Recht in 1947, only a year after he became an emeritus professor. However, Koschaker did not publish many works during his time in Tübingen, perhaps because he wanted to concentrate on his studies on the laws of antiquity which he could not complete in Berlin, given the difficult situation he had to face at the Seminar für Rechtsgeschichte des Alten Orients.

Between 1946 and his death on 1^st June 1951, Koschaker’s reputation and satisfaction grew thanks also to the invitations he received to act as guest professor in many German universities and, above all, in Ankara, in Turkey. Since 1933, Schwarz, a Jewish Romanist and friend of Koschaker, had found refuge in Istanbul after being dismissed from the University of Frankfurt am Main.^[387] His influence proved decisive in convincing Koschaker to accept the offer of a visiting professorship in Ankara.

A recent study has shed more light on Koschaker’s experience in Tübingen,^[388] but there is still much to be said about this period of his life. The aim of this chapter is principally to offer a full account of Koschaker’s latter years, covering both the time that he spent in Walchensee and his experiences in other universities. One of the main questions concerning this period relates to the continuity, or discontinuity, compared to his time in Berlin. Another important aim of this chapter is scientific in nature, and seeks to make an analysis of Koschaker’s approach towards the teaching of Roman law after his frustrating time in Berlin. In what ways did this experience influence his publication Europa und das römische Recht, and after 1947, how was his thinking affected by his time in Ankara? Finally, this chapter begins the discussion of Koschaker’s scholarly development in his later years, followed by a more in-depth investigation in Chapter 5.