Bernhard Rust

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Bernhard Rust (September 30, 1883 — May 8, 1945) was Minister of Science, Education and National Culture (Reichserziehungsminister) in Nazi Germany. A combination of school administrator and zealous Nazi, he issued decrees, often bizarre, at every level of the German educational system to immerse German youth in the National Socialist philosophy. In later years, he was the director of a national research center that oversaw the use of prisoners for medical experimentation. He committed suicide after the fall of Germany, but his death was not discovered until after the United Nations War Crimes Commission had indicted him for what was described as "human guinea pig" vivisection. ^[1]

Rust was born in Hannover, and obtained a doctorate in German philology and philosophy. After passing the state teaching examination in 1908. He became a high school teacher at Hannover's Ratsgymnasium, then served in the army during the First World War. He reached the rank of lieutenant and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery. ^[2]

Rust joined the NSDAP in 1922, and became the district leader for Hannover and Brunswick. In 1930, he was elected to the Reichstag. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Rust was appointed as the Prussian Minister for Cultural Affairs. On June 1, 1934, he was selected as Minister of Science, Education and National Culture (Reichsminister für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung), and set about to reshape the German educational system to conform to his ideals of National Socialism. Considered by many to be mentally unstable, Rust would spuriously create new regulations and then repeal them just as quickly. One noted example was in 1935, when he changed the traditional six-day school week to five days, with Saturday to be "Reich's Youth Day" when children in the Hitler Youth and the German Maidens would be out of school for study and testing. He then ordered the creation of a "rolling week", with a six days for study, followed by the "youth day" and a rest day, in 8-day periods. Thus, a rolling week starting on Monday would end with rest on the following Monday; the next rolling week would start on Tuesday and end 8 days later on the next Tuesday. When the 8-day week proved unworkable, Rust went back to the former system. ^[3].

It was Dr. Rust who, in 1933, issued a rule that students and teachers should greet each other with the Nazi salute "as a symbol of the new Germany". He added his opinion that it was "expected of every German" regardless of membership in the party. ^[4]. Rust was instrumental in purging German universities of Jews and other enemies of the State, most notably the University of Göttingen. Nazi Germany's future leaders received their instruction elsewhere, in an NPEA or "Napola" (NAtionalPOLitische erziehungsAnstalten), of which there were 30 in the nation, where they would receive training to become administrators of conquered provinces ^[5].

Dr. Rust once remarked, "The whole function of education is to create Nazis." Rust also believed that non-Aryan science (such as Albert Einstein's "Jewish physics") was flawed, and had what he felt to be a rational explanation. In an address to scientists, he said, "The problems of science do not present themselves in the same way to all men. The Negro or the Jew will view the same world in a different light from the German investigator." ^[6]. Erika Mann, the daughter of Thomas Mann, wrote an expose' of the Rust system in 1938, entitled School for Barbarians, followed in 1941 by Gregor Ziemer's Education for Death.

Rust reportedly committed suicide on 8 May 1945 when Germany surrendered to Allied forces.

[edit] References

^ "Nazi Doctors Face Vivisection Charges," El Paso Herald-Post, May 18, 1945, p2
^ Current Biography 1942, pp725-27
^ Current Biography 1942, pp725; "The Good Earth", TIMEmagazine, September 30, 1935
^ "Sub-Dictator", TIMEmagazine, August 21, 1933
^ "How Nazis are Trained", TIMEmagazine, August 25, 1941
^ Current Biography 1942, p727