Life
Menghin was born in Meran, Tyrol. He qualified for inauguration as an academic lecturer in 1913, for his work Urgeschichte des Menschen (The Proto-History of Mankind). After the death of Moritz Hoernes he emerged as university professor of the Protohistorical Institute of the University of Vienna from 1917 until 1945, and furthermore he was from 1930 to 1933 professor at the University of Cairo.
From 1919 to 1926 Menghin was a member of Secret Nazi Society Deutsche Gemeinschaft (the German Fellowship), in which he got to know Arthur Seyß-Inquart.
In 1932 he participated in the First International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences in London in 1932 with Hugo Obermaier and others. In 1934 he published Geist und Blut.
For the academic year of 1935/36 he was appointed Rector of the University of Vienna. After numerous unsuccessful attempts there followed in 1936 his election as a regular Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From July 1936 to June 1937 he was a member of the governing council of the Viennese National (Vaterländische) Front.
On 11 March 1938 he became Education Minister in the so-called Anschluss-Cabinet of Seyß-Inquart. During his term with the Party down to the end of May, there occurred not only the decree of the Anschluss itself, but also the so-called "Cleansing" of the University of Vienna. This meant that a fixed ratio of 2% was brought in for Jewish students, and about 40% of the teaching body were dismissed on account of "jewish origins" proportionately on "political grounds". In August 1938 Menghin went back to the University of Vienna.
In Catholic circles he was considered a traitor from March 1938 onwards, and was discharged (excluded) from his Cartellverband (Catholic Union-group), the Rudolfina Wien (which like all Catholic unions had been banned), at a formal underground meeting held on 12 November 1938.
After the War he was included, as a member of the Seyß-Inquart regime, on the primary list of war criminals. He was however not indicted, but came to an American internment camp, where he made statements. 1948 was the year in which he went over to Argentina, where he became University Professor in Buenos Aires, and from 1957 also at the University of La Plata. Proceedings against him were dropped in 1956. In 1959 he became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He died, aged 85, on 29 November 1973 in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
“She only said, ‘My life is dreary,
He cometh not,’ she said;
She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!’”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Like plowing, housework makes the ground ready for the germination of family life. The kids will not invite a teacher home if beer cans litter the living room. The family isn’t likely to have breakfast together if somebody didn’t remember to buy eggs, milk, or muffins. Housework maintains an orderly setting in which family life can flourish.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)