Hildegard Hickmann

Born:	09-20-1917
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Hildegard HICKMANN, born on September 20^th, 1917 in Vienna (entitled residency ("heimtberechtigt) for Vienna, citizenship: Austria), daughter of  Ing. Emil Hickmann (1884-1968, major general) and Nevis Mathilde Hickmann, née Fischer (1888-1971), lived in Vienna's 7^th district, Lerchenfelderstrasse 15. In the fall term of 1937/38 she was enrolled in the 3^rd year of her studies at the Philosophical School and attended lectures in History and Romance Studies. She came from a Christian-socialist officer's family - her father had been appointed major general under Austrofascism in 1935, head of the Personnel Department (Section II), and since October 1937 head of the Heavy Weapons Department in the War Technical Office (Section II) of the Federal Ministry of National Defense, and was retired after the "Anschluss" in November 1938 and moved into industry. After the National Socialist seizure of power she was able to continue her studies until mid of 1940 undisturbed, but she was barred from further study and all examinations in 1940 for "political" reasons and finally expelled from the university in 1942. In February 1940, she had made a number of critical remarks about National Socialists at the history department to Dr. Otto Schott (Nazi department head of the historians at the Philosophical School): "Many National Socialists strut around here in the hinterland with their uniforms, while my father and my brother have to stake their lives for an idea they hate," "You will still experience your miracles in political terms," and "Why don't they hold elections? By the way, I am impressed by the officers who wrote their "no" on the ballot in 1938." Schott then reported her to the Student Union and the Rectorate, and disciplinary proceedings began that dragged on for more than two years, partly because an initial proceeding under the circular of the Reicherziehungsministerium Berlin of January 10, 1940, WA 401/39g RV, was rejected by the latter and referred to the regular disciplinary proceedings. Ultimately, on February 27^th, 1942, the Judicial Administration Committee ("Rechtspflegeausschuss") of the University of Vienna (consisting of NS-Dozentenbundfuehrer Prof. Arthur Marchet (1892-1980), who chaired the committee as Prorector on behalf of the Rector, deputy NS-Dozentenbundfuehrer Prof. Alexander Pichler (1906-1961), and NS-Studentenbundfuehrer Friedrich Kornauth) decided that Hildegard should be disciplined again. They found Hildegard Hickmann guilty of the derogatory remarks of 1940 and imposed removal from the university as punishment, since she had "damaged the reputation of the German student body by her derogatory criticism of National Socialism in the context of a National Socialist teaching institution" (according to 4d of the Punishment Regulations for Students, Listeners and Student Associations at German Universities). Hildegard Hickmann - who in the meantime had completed her studies and had pushed ahead with her dissertation on the imperial field marshal Friedrich Amos Count Veterani (1630-1695) and was working at the time as a "physical nurse in the Lainzer hospital" - had to leave the university in 1942 without being able to finish her stadies and to graduate. After the end of National Socialism, Hildegard Hickmann probably contacted the University of Vienna again with an inquiry as to whether her expulsion from the university was still valid. Her letter is no more in the holdings of the archive, but the rectorate stated to the dean's office of the Philosophical School that, according to StGBl. 75 of 1945, all orders issued by the authorities of the German Reich had expired for the Republic of Austria as of May 28^th, 1945, thus also the order on which her expulsion was based, and that nothing prevented her from continuing her studies at the University of Vienna. However, it is not yet proven whether Hildegard Hickmann enrolled or graduate after 1949 - there is no graduation of a Hildegard Hickmann in the records, but maybe she married and graduated later with a different name. Little is known about her further life and career.

Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna / National PHIL 1935-1940, Rectorate GZ 817 ex 1941/42 (=p.185.1175), GZ 939 ex 1948/49, PHIL GZ 24 ex 1941/42 ONr. 4, University Secretariat GZ US 72 ex 1942/43 ONr. 6; DÖW 6813.

Herbert Posch