Refugee scholars from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and the changing ideas of Europe

After 1933, half a million refugees left Nazi Germany, including roughly a third of the university professors after the racial laws of 1935. In Fascist Italy, the exodus of university scholars that began in the late 1920s escalated with the anti-Semitic laws of 1938. Some of the brightest minds of Europe migrated to Britain, the US and elsewhere, leading to a permanent shift in the future of scientific inquiry. The purpose of this paper is to explore a little-known consequence of this movement, the changes in the ideas of Europe. Based on archival work on some of the leading legal and philosophical scholars, such as Hannah Arendt, Karl Popper, Arnaldo Momigliano or Franz Neumann, the paper will discuss how the experiences of repression and escape contributed to changes in the ideas of justice, rationality and civilisation. What the paper attempts to demonstrate is that behind these often contradictory statements, it is possible to see a fundamental change or rift in the idea of Europe as a centre of culture and civilization, from one that was self-evident to a much more contested notion of culture.

KAIUS TUORI | University of Helsinki; Academy of Finland

Coordinamento scientifico:
Mikko Immanen (University of Helsinki – FBK-ISIG)

Ciclo di seminari: “Storie in costruzione. Nuovi orizzonti della storia contemporanea“

L’evento si terrà in lingua inglese.

La presentazione avverrà in presenza in Aula Piccola FBK fino ad esaurimento posti e in modalità online.

E’ obbligatoria la registrazione entro il giorno 23 febbraio 2026 alle ore 12.00.

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Immagine: Foto di Barbara Niggl Radloff, con licenza CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Relatori

• kaius Tuori - Relatore ospite

  University of Helsinki; Academy of Finland

  Kaius Tuori is Professor of European Intellectual History at the University of Helsinki, Finland and Director of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (2018–2025). A scholar of legal history involved in research projects on the understanding of tradition, culture, identity, memory, and the uses of the past, he is the author of Empire of Law: Nazi Germany, Exile Scholars and The Battle for the Future of Europe (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication (Oxford Univ. Press 2016), and Lawyers and Savages: Ancient History and Legal Realism in the Making of Legal AntCome referente scientifico del seminario indicare Mikko Immanen.

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