14. The central foundation for every living consciousness of community, and for a new awakening of life out of a “we” (such as we find in the Church’s liturgy), is a very profound respect for the individual person, his eternal worth, and his inalienable rights, together with a clear insight into the terrible sin that lies in every instrumentalization of the person and his being, which occurs when the person is seen primarily as a mere means for the production of non-personal goods.
15. Every form of anti-personalism (which is seen most clearly in Bolshevism and National Socialism) is a logical consequence of liberalism’s failure to recognize the true essence and value of the person. But such anti-personalism goes far beyond what existed in liberalism, since it intensifies the individualistic error and disvalue. Anti-personalism is the great and terrible danger of our times. Irrespective of the guise under which it presents itself, this poison must not be allowed a role in the construction of genuine community.
16. No less important than the revitalization of the consciousness of community is a renewed understanding of the objective hierarchy of communities: first the Church as corpus Christi mysticum (Mystical Body of Christ), then mankind, then the nation, then the state, and so on. The due consideration of this objective hierarchy is more important than all the autonomy of the individual natural communities. The idolization of a community, which permits its autonomy to run rampant and is typical of all forms of nationalism and all idolatry of the state, demolishes the real spirit of community—that is, of genuine and objective community. Such idolatry is every bit as egocentric as the individualism of a single person.
Today it seems more necessary than ever to keep these various elements clearly in mind as we undertake a fundamental clarification of the errors of individualism and collectivism. There can be no doubt that the hallmark of the present epoch is an “anti-personalism”—one of the most terrible aberrations of the human spirit—and that it is not only non-Catholic, but (whether consciously or not) extremely anti-Catholic. This anti-personalism, which finds its dreadful and unambiguously consistent expression in Bolshevism and National Socialism, is also present in a hidden and implicit form in many other contemporary attitudes: in the cult of the unconscious, in the idol of the “new objectivity,” in nationalism’s deification of the nation, in the idolization of the state, and so on.
The more we grasp the whole greatness and depth of the human being as a spiritual person who is ordered to God and possesses an eternal destiny, and the more we overcome the great danger of our times—the objectification and effacing of personal being—the more we will be able to bring about the revitalization of the authentic spirit of community. The correct starting point for the victory of the true and Christian idea of corporative community lies here, in a reawakening to the entire fullness of personal being. But the path to this goal is also indicated by the perennial admonition in the words of the Gospel: “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
Dietrich von Hildebrand went on to have a second life in America. He taught at Fordham University in New York until 1960, but even in retirement his philosophical energies never abandoned him. He continued to write voluminously until his death on January 26, 1977. There is a rich vision of individual and communal flourishing that informs his work as a whole; a vision that is waiting to be discovered by a new generation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank our many collaborators whose dedication has made this book possible. We thank in a special way Mary Seifert, Michael Wenisch, and Fr. Brian McNeil, all of whom worked on the translation of the essays. Justin Keena did two complete meticulous reviews of the essays, which greatly improved their readability. Warmest thanks go to David Mills, who read and reviewed the entire manuscript and aided in crafting the editorial bridges that make the memoirs accessible to a general audience, and to William Doino, whose knowledge of Austrian and German history during the 1920s and 1930s is extraordinary and who helped craft explanatory notes on sensitive historical questions requiring great nuance.
We thank Christopher T. Haley for his review of the entire text, notably the introductory materials, which are greatly improved thanks to his fine sense for the craft of writing. John Connelly, Denis Kitzinger, and Rabbi Mark Gottlieb each provided crucial advice at critical moments. Enzo Tatasciore provided perspective and mirth when the work became overwhelming. Last but not least, a word of thanks, also, to Dylan Naegele, for transcribing some of von Hildebrand’s notes and for visiting the National Archives in Washington, DC, in search of Naziera documents.
Our work began thanks to the Earhart Foundation, which funded the translation of the memoirs and essays with a generous grant in 2005. Additional funding from Earhart allowed John F. Crosby to write a study of the essays, of which a shortened version appeared in First Things (“The Witness of Dietrich von Hildebrand, 2006). Further major support came from Robert Luddy, the Cushman Foundation, Sean Fieler, Rita Benson LeBlanc, Peter Lawrence, and Charles Scribner III.
We must acknowledge a special group of benefactors who not only supported this volume but who have sustained the overall work of the Hildebrand Project. Without these generous men and women, there would be no Project, and this volume would not exist today. We thank Madeline Leblanc Cottrell, Rose-Marie Fox-Shanahan, Mary G. Georgopulos, Robert D. Hurt, Edward and Alice Ann Grayson, Nicholas and Jane Healy, Paul and Barbara Henkels, Roy and Elizabeth Heyne, Robert Kreppel, H. Kimberly Lukens, Patricia C. Lynch, Franco Madan, Jeffrey and Mary Petrino, Robert and Joan Smith, Jules and Katie van Schaijik, Alice von Hildebrand, and Gregory C. Woodward.
The Project could not have expanded in our earliest years were it not for Lee and Margaret Matherne, whose generous and faithful support enabled us to gain momentum. We thank Michael W. Doherty, who contributed the very first money we ever received. We express our deepest gratitude to Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, whose generosity is only outmatched by their friendship. And finally, words simply cannot express our immense gratitude to Robert Luddy, our dear friend, who for years has proven his faith in our mission with financial support both momentous and unceasing. To all our donors, our deepest thanks.
Perhaps no single group of friends has done more to make this book a reality than the Hildebrand Project’s board of trustees. Here we must particularly single out Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, a senior member of our board, who more than anyone encouraged our hope of securing a major national publisher and “presenting Dietrich von Hildebrand to the world.” We warmly thank Duncan C. Sahner, chairman of our board, who has advanced our work with wisdom and prudence. We owe an immense debt of gratitude to William Rooney who, with support from his colleagues at the firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, provided countless hours of pro bono legal services during the contract negotiations with Random House.
A special word of gratitude is due to our literary agent, Loretta A. Barrett, for helping open the door at Random House. and we warmly thank Gary Jansen, our editor at Random House, who has become a great friend. No writer could ever hope to have a more faithful champion than Gary when it comes to ensuring that a book really becomes what it is destined to be.
We are deeply in Alice von Hildebrand’s debt for her trust in allowing us to consult not only the original text of the memoirs but also the countless files and precious documents in her possession.
If I may speak individually in these final lines: This book has been a work of nine years. Through these years no single person has done more to support me than my beloved wife, Robin-Marie Crosby. She has faithfully fed the hungry and caffeinated the weary, but I am most deeply grateful for the way her love and her smile always manage to restore my hope, even in the most difficult of moments.
John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby
NOTES
Who Was This Man Who Fought Hitler?
1. Dietrich von Hildebrand, “Selbstdarstellung” in Philosophie in Selbstdarstellungen II. ed. von Ludwig J. Pongratz (Hamburg: Felix Mei
ner, 1975), 107. All excerpts from this text translated by John Henry Crosby.
2. Von Hildebrand, “Selbstdarstellung,” 77.
3. Balduin Schwarz, “Errinerungen an das Wirken Dietrich von Hildebrands in Deutschland und in Österreich,” in Memoiren und Aufsätze gegen den Nationalsozialismus, ed. Ernst Wenisch (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald Verlag, 1994), 362.
4. Quoted by Paul Stöcklein, “Dietrich von Hildebrand: Errinerungen an die Persönlichkeit und ihre Zeit (Vornehmlich 1933–1938),” in Wenisch, 368.
5. Stöcklein, “Dietrich von Hildebrand,” in Wenisch, 366–67.
6. Christiane Kuller and Maximilian Schreiber, Das Hildebrandhaus (Munich: Allitera Verlag, 2006), 21.
7. Die Metaphysik der Gemeinschaft (Augsburg: Haas & Grabherr, 1930), untranslated into English.
8. Reinheit und Jungfräulichkeit (Köln, München, Wien: Oratoriums Verlag, 1927), English translation: In Defense of Purity (London: Sheed & Ward, 1931).
9. John Noonan, Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965), 494–95.
10. Gaudium et spes, sec. 47–52.
11. Dietrich von Hildebrand, “The Jews and the Christian West,” in Logos (2006), 145–72. An excerpt appears in this volume, 270ff.
12. John Connelly, From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–65 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012). Connelly argues that von Hildebrand is one of the forerunners of the Church’s teaching on the Jews promulgated at Vatican II. See especially chapter 4.
13. Stöcklein, “Dietrich von Hildebrand,” in Wenisch, 366.
A Note on the Text
1. Memoiren und Aufsätze gegen den Nationalsozialismus (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1994).
1921
1. The encyclical in question is Au milieu de Sollicitudes (On the Church and State in France), 1892.
2. Von Hildebrand was active in the Association, serving as chairman of the “Committee for Cordial German-American Relations” and as a member of the “Society of the Friends of Argentina in Germany.”
1932
1. Die Metaphysik der Gemeinschaft (Augsburg: Haas & Grabherr, 1930), untranslated into English.
2. This text, published in German as Der Sinn philosophischen Fragens und Erkennens (Bonn: Peter Hanstein, 1950), was later incorporated by von Hildebrand into his major work in epistemology, What Is Philosophy? (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1960).
1933
1. Liturgie und Persönlichkeit (Salzburg: Anton Pustet, 1933). English translation: Liturgy and Personality (New York-Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1943).
2. Satan at Work (St. Paul, Minn.: The Remnant Press, no date), 41.
3. Robert Leiber, SJ, “Pius XII,” in The Storm Over the Deputy, ed. Eric Bentley (New York: Grove Press, 1964), 190–91.
4. “Österreichs Grosse Deutsche Stunde” (Austria’s Great German Hour), in Die Reichspost, no. 231 (August 20, 1933).
5. Sittliche Grundhaltungen (Mainz: Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 1933). English translation: Fundamental Moral Attitudes (New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1950). Later incorporated into The Art of Living (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1965).
6. Zeitliches im Lichte des Ewigen (Regensburg: Josef Habbel, 1932). Incorporated into the significantly enlarged collection of essays, Die Menschheit am Scheideweg (Humanity at the Crossroads) (Regensburg: Josef Habbel, 1955). Only some essays in Menschheit have been translated into English.
1934
1. The three essays published in the Ständestaat were: “Das Chaos der Zeit und die Rangordnung der Werte” (no. 5, January 1, 1934); “Der Kampt um die Person” (no. 6, January 14, 1934); and “Der Sklavenaufstand gegen den Geist” (no. 7, January 21, 1934), reprinted in Wenisch.
2. In fact, von Hildebrand is referring here not to his essay “Ceterum Censeo …!” (no. 45, October 14, 1934), but to “Die letzte Maske fällt!!” (The Last Mask has Fallen) (. 31, July 8, 1934), which concludes with the words, “ceterum censeo.”
3. “Die neue Welt des Christentum” in von Hildebrand, Die Menscheit am Scheidegweg, 481–95, untranslated into English.
4. Liturgie und Persönlichkeit (Salzburg: Anton Pustet, 1933). English translation: Liturgy and Personality (New York-Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1943).
5. Engelbert Dollfuss: Ein katholischer Staatsmann (A Catholic Statesman) (Salzburg: Anton Pustet, 1934), untranslated into English.
1935
1. “Wer ist ein Emigrant?” in Ständestaat (no. 47, November 24, 1935), reprinted in Wenisch, 295ff.
2. “Wahres Deutschtum” in Ständestaat (no. 48, December 1, 1935), reprinted in Wenisch, 304ff.
1936
1. Anton Stonner, Germanentum und Christentum. Bilder aus der deutschen Frühzeit zur Erkenntnis deutschen Wesens (Regensburg, 1934).
1937
1. Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote a review of Hudal’s book, “Zu Bischof Hudals neuem Buch” (on Bishop Hudal’s new book), in Ständestaat, no. 46 (November 15, 1936).
Escape from Vienna
1. In Rudolf Ebneth, Die Österreichische Wochenschrift “Der christliche Ständestaat” (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1976).
2. Ebneth, 263–64.
3. From a copy of the dispatch retrieved from the National Archives in Washington, DC.
4. The FBI located this memorandum in response to a request for documents mentioning Dietrich von Hildebrand made under the Freedom of Information Act.
5. Ebneth, see especially 217ff.
6. The Soul of a Lion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001).
7. Ebneth, 253.
8. Hellmut Laun, So bin ich Gott begegnet (Eichstätt: Franz-Sales-Verlag, 2004), 121ff. The English translation, How I Met God (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), is based on an earlier edition of the German which does not contain as much detail on von Hildebrand. Excerpts translated by John Henry Crosby and John F. Crosby.
9. Letter of Michael Braunfels to Alice von Hildebrand, May 26, 1986. Translated by John Henry Crosby.
PHOTO INSERT CREDITS
All photos and documents are reproduced with permission:
1.1. Alice von Hildebrand
1.2. Marc Sangnier with students. By permission of the Institut Marc Sangnier
1.3. “Hitler-Putsch, München, Marienplatz” [Beer Hall Putsch], Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-1486, licensed under CC-BY-SA
1.4. “Reichskabinett Adolf Hitler” [Hitler’s first cabinet], Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-15348, licensed under CC-BY-SA
1.5. Alice von Hildebrand
1.6. Alice von Hildebrand
1.7. Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in Geneva 1933, French National Library, public domain
1.8. Alice von Hildebrand
1.9. Questionnaire on Aryan status, Universitätsarchiv München, (UAM), E-II-1733, by permission of the Universitätsarchiv
1.10. Klaus Dohrn. By permission of Dr. Matthias Brandi-Dohrn
1.11. “Konkordatsunterzeichnung in Rom” [Signing of the Concordat in Rome], Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R24391, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0
1.12. Kurt von Schuschnigg in 1936, copyright holder has granted blanket permission for any use
1.13. Franz von Papen, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S00017, licensed under CC-BY-SA
1.14. Alice von Hildebrand
1.15. Bishop Alois Hudal, public domain
1.16. Moritz Schlick in 1930, public domain
1.17. Franz von Papen to Adolf Hitler, April 30, 1937, composite image based on original with English translation; classified documents of the German embassy in Vienna, 4949 H Bd. 3; National Archives, Microfilm Publication T120, Roll No. 2500, frames E272603-605
1.18. Alice von Hildebrand
1.19. Hellmut Laun. By permission of Andreas Laun
1.20. “Anschluss Österreich” [Hitler’s arrival in Vienna], Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-028-14, licensed under CC-BY-SA
1.21. Alice von Hildebrand
/> 1.22. Alice von Hildebrand
1.23. Alice von Hildebrand
1.24. Alice von Hildebrand
1.25. Alice von Hildebrand
ABOUT THE HILDEBRAND PROJECT
The Hildebrand Project is the world’s leading organization dedicated to the presentation and exploration of the thought and witness of Dietrich von Hildebrand. An original philosopher, ardent Christian, fierce foe of Nazism, and fervent champion of beauty, von Hildebrand defends the timeless truths of our Western patrimony while at the same time eagerly receiving and enriching the insights of modernity.
At the heart of our mission is the promotion of the religious, political, and especially the philosophical writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand and other personalist thinkers, such as Karol Wojtyla and Max Scheler. We believe that these authors offer fresh insights into perennial questions about human flourishing and the moral life, the nature of love, the demands of moral witness, Christian faith and practice, and the transformative power of beauty. We seek to bring these ideas into dialogue with contemporary currents of thought, infusing them into the intellectual, artistic, and spiritual bloodstream of our culture.
My Battle Against Hitler Page 37