4.3 Negotiations and his arrival in Tübingen

As usual, negotiations had taken place between Koschaker and the Faculty of Law before he accepted the call. Some of the events that took place just before and immediately after Koschaker’s arrival in Tübingen, including affair regarding Koschaker’s Emeritierung, were recently meticulously reconstructed by Neumann using the archival sources conserved at the University of Tübingen.^[406] The following period however, from 1942 to his Emeritierung in 1946, has often remained in the penombra, not only in Neumann’s work, but also in the literature on Koschaker in general.

The agreement reached by Koschaker with the Faculty of Law is dated 4^th September 1941, and a copy of it can be found at the archive of the University of Tübingen.^[407] The decree of the Ministry for Sciences and National Education was issued on 23^rd September of the same year and sent to the State Minister of Education in Stuttgart, Württemberg. Nonetheless, Koschaker began to be in touch with the University council (Universitätsrat) and with the dean, Moeller, well in advance, and during the summer of 1941 he discussed with them the problem of suitable accommodation in Tübingen. Finding a house in the city was hard at that time, given the effect that the war had on the housing market. The University was able to offer Koschaker an apartment on the first floor of one of the buildings reserved for its employees at Brunsstraße 31, where the professor for Pharmacy, Eugen Bamann, had lived until moving to Prague. Koschaker asked Hero Moeller for a guarantee that he would have Bamann’s apartment in a letter sent to Moeller on 27^th July 1941. He clearly explained that his decision to accept the chair at Tübingen depended on being given a firm reassurance about accommodation (“Ich möchte keinen Hehl daraus machen, dass von dieser Erklärung die Annahme der Berufung abhängt...”).^[408]

However, Koschaker tried to rent the apartment that had been Kreller’s, but the negotiation seemed to be particularly difficult, as he was unable to obtain any kind of guarantee from the landlord, Herr Schick, about the possibility of remaining in the apartment after the end of the war.

Koschaker’s negotiation for the apartment was not the only question that he dealt with prior to his appointment being fully agreed upon. Another fundamental aim was to have as his assistant Below, one of the few students in Berlin at that time who had decided to write a Ph.D. under his supervision. Koschaker clearly wished to keep on working with Below and was no doubt mindful of his fraught experiences at the University of Berlin, where he only had an assistant for a brief period after his appointment, who was never replaced. Koschaker wanted to immediately secure this position and to suggest an appropriate candidate.

In a copy of a letter sent by Koschaker from his home in Walchensee to Moeller, dean of the Law Faculty, on 26^th August 1941, we can see that Koschaker wished to facilitate Below’s transfer to Tübingen.^[413] The first part of the reproduced text related to an issue about teaching, namely the possibility of Koschaker holding classes on the BGB (the German Civil Code) and organising an exercise (literally Übung) on it for the students.^[414]

Koschaker dealt with Below’s position in the second part of the letter:

[...] mein Kandidat für die Assistentenstelle, Herr Below hat in Berlin seine Doktorarbeit eingereicht und soll im Winter ins mündliche Examen.

Koschaker desired to have Below in Tübingen for two reasons: first, because his pupil had begun his Ph.D. in Berlin under his supervision and it would have been unpleasant (“unangenehm”) not to have guided him until its conclusion. Second, Kochaker wanted him as his assistant. Some administrative obstacles stood in the way of Below finishing his Ph.D. at Tübingen, but it was possible to ask the State Ministry of Education and Culture (Kultminister) of Württemberg to relieve Below of his administrative duties in Berlin. Koschaker was therefore anxious to have Moeller’s opinion on the matter.

Moeller answered Koschaker’s letter two days later.^[415] Moeller’s long reply deals mainly with bureaucratic problems, but offers hints on organisational aspects, some of them obviously connected with the ongoing war. Moeller explained to Koschaker that the Faculty was divided into two departments, the Law department and the Economics department, each headed by a director, Wilhelm Merk being responsible for Law. Some of the inquiries made by Koschaker would need to be discussed by Merk, or by Merk and the dean, where they related to Koschaker’s questions on teaching. It is interesting to note that it was not possible for them to make decisions on the organisation of the courses and the classes before the beginning of the semester. Apparently, they did not know how many professors would be at the disposal of the Faculty, both because a couple of colleagues who had left Tübingen still had to be replaced, and because they had to take the needs of the Wehrmacht into consideration:

Bezüglich der Gestaltung des kommenden Wintersemesters werden wir wahrscheinlich kaum wesentlich vor Beginn desselben zu einer Entscheidung kommen können.

Wie der Plan über mehrere Semester ge[s]taltet werden kann, lässt sich ja jetzt auch schwer sagen. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass man | mehr oder weniger genötigt ist, sich von Semester zu Semester durchzuwinden. An die bekannten Studienrichtlinien sind wir unter diesen Umständen nicht gebunden.

Once again, one can see how the peculiar conditions of the time influenced the life at the University and the teaching, in particular, to such an extent that the Law Faculty was not bound to the national guidelines (Studienrichtlinien).

The question of Below finishing his doctoral studies in Tübingen still remained. Moeller repeated to Koschaker what they had already negotiated with regard to his chair in Tübingen (“Bezüglich des Assistenten Below stimme ich im Sinne unserer Berufungsverhandlungen zu”).

In order to be accepted as a Ph.D. student at the Rechtswissenschaftliche Abteilung (department of Law), Below had to send a formal application to director Merk. The place for him, therefore, both as a doctoral student and as Koschaker’s personal assistant had to be ensured one more time.

Other matters discussed in Moeller’s letter concerned such things as Koschaker’s room in the Juristisches Seminar, where the contact person was Professor Hans Erich Feine,^[416] and other small practicalities.

As explained by Moeller, it was also necessary to have Merk’s opinion on Below’s situation and this opinion eventually appeared on 17^th September 1941.^[417] The director of the Law department suggested that it was preferable for Below to conclude his Ph.D. in Berlin, since it was the University where he had begun his doctoral studies, especially if Koschaker wished to examine him. Merk’s opinion was backed by Koschaker in a letter that he sent to him on 20^th September 1941.^[418] Koschaker agreed with the director that it was more convenient for Below to finish his doctoral studies in Berlin:

Schönsten Dank für Ihr freundliches Schreiben v.

Eventually, Below could apply for the post as assistant, and this was confirmed in another letter from Moeller to Koschaker dated 25^th September 1941.^{[419] [420]}

The different kinds of negotiations led to the above-mentioned agreement of September 4^th, 1941, a copy of which being conserved in the archives of the University of Tübingen, whereas the original document was sent to the Ministry for Sciences and National Education (Reichsminister für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung)³ A quick look at the document is sufficient to retrace Koschaker’s main conditions for accepting the Professorship at Tübingen. The text of the agreement (Vereinbarung) contains fifteen points regarding the working conditions on which Koschaker and the Law Faculty agreed. First, Koschaker would be appointed full Professor and Director of the Juristisches Seminar in Tübingen. Other points concerned the salary, the reimbursement of costs involved in moving to Tübingen and authorisations to attend conferences or borrow books from foreign libraries. More interesting, however, are points nine to fourteen. Point nine allocated to the Juristisches Seminar the sum of 10000 RM, 500 RM being given in advance to Koschaker for studies connected to Roman law.^[421] In point ten an extra sum of 1000 RM would be bestowed upon the Near Eastern Institute (Orientalisches Seminar), while the possibility of enlarging the library would be benevolently (“wohlwollend”) evaluated in the future.

The dean, Moeller, seemed inclined to respect the conditions of the agreement from the beginning, as the case regarding Below had shown and as a letter that he had sent to the director of the University library on 27^th November 1941 demonstrates. This document relates to the person in charge of bringing the books that Koschaker needed to his apartment. The so-called Bibliotheksdiener would be paid directly by the director of the Law department, as agreed.^[424]

Returning again to the points of the agreement between Koschaker and the Law Faculty, it is significant that he was promised money both for his Roman law studies and for his research into the laws of antiquity. After the arduous years in Berlin, when he eventually decided to ask the minister to close the Seminar für Rechtsgeschichte des Alten Orients (a request that was not accepted however), he now saw an opportunity to again devote part of his time to the study of cuneiform law and, above all, to acquire some money to further his research. In the quiet small provincial city of Tübingen, Koschaker expected he would find the concentration and calm needed for him to work effectively.

For all these reasons, he welcomed the change of university and the decision to move to Southern Germany. His first impression was very positive and we can appreciate his satisfaction about the decision to move to Tübingen from a letter he sent to Moeller on 11^th September 1941, a short time before he left Berlin.^[425] Koschaker first thanked the Law Faculty for having chosen him, since he was already 62 years old at the time, and then added:

[...] nehme ich an, dass ich mein Amt in Tübingen am 1. Oktober antrete. Damit ist es nun sicher geworden, dass ich zum Herbste d.J. in Ihren Kreis trete. Ich habe der Fakultät vor allem zu danken, dass sie den Mut gehabt hat, einen Mann in schon recht vorgerückten Jahren überhaupt vorzuschlagen. In der Tat kann ich Ihnen für mich keinen neuen Frühling in Aussicht stellen. Aber wenn ich manchen Ärger und manche Enttäuschung der letzten Jahre überwunden habe - und ich hoffe, dass mir dies in dem sympatischen Milieu Ihrer altberühmten süddeutschen Universität rasch gelingen wird -, so hoffe ich noch auf einen Alten-Weiber- Sommer und dieser kann unter Umständen recht warm sein. Jedenfalls wird es mein Bemühen sein, mein Bestes zu dem Ansehen Ihrer Universität beizutragen [.].

Koschaker talked of the final years of his time in Berlin, referring to his irritation (or properly anger: “Ärger”) and disappointment (“Enttäuschung”) that, he hoped, he would be able to overcome once he was in Tübingen. This university, by contrast, provided the pleasant milieu of an old and renowned Southern German university.^[426] He was, as he said, no longer in the springtime of his life, but he hoped to enjoy an “Alten-Weiber” summer and the actual conditions seemed to promise that this summer would be warm.^[427] Although he was no longer young, he could nonetheless hope to spend a pleasant period in Tübingen, the working conditions seeming to be so promising.