ABSTRACT
The historian Heinrich Srbik, president of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna from 1938 on, was one of the masterminds of the idea of a völkisch Europe. He organized the academy around an ideological concept of race, thereby corrupting the moral norms and values of academia. This representative of a “pan-German” conception of history believed that the “German people’s” historical mission would allow them to achieve hegemony in Europe. Together with the presidents of the Cartel of German Academies of Sciences (the forerunner of the German Reich Academy of Sciences), Srbik strove to give “German” science and academia a leading position on the continent. His hope that the “German scientific community” would give rise to a “New Europe” was shattered by the ensuing military reality.
