Editha Krenz was born on September 18, 1915, in Wronki (German: Wronke), in the then province of Poznan in present-day Poland. Her father, Stephan Krenz, was a teacher and married Helene Krenz, née Brose. At Easter 1935, Krenz graduated from the Aloisianum High School (“realgymnasiale Studienanstalt Aloisianum”) in Gelsenkirchen (today Grillo-Gymnasium). She then studied for two semesters at the Hannover Teachers College (“Hochschule für Lehrerinnenbildung”), which was run by Friedrich Dittmers and his deputy Martin Wähler, both members of the NSDAP. Krenz studied educational science, mathematics, physics, geography, and philosophy. In 1936 she transferred to the University of Göttingen, where she studied mathematics and physics for two semesters. She attended lectures of Helmut Hasse, Robert Wichard Pohl, and Jakob Christoph Georg Joos. At the beginning of the Second World War, Krenz moved to the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. She continued her studies in mathematics and physics and deepened her interests in geography and philosophy. Her teachers of that time were Paul Ferdinand Linke, Bruno Bauch and Hermann Johannsen. In the second semester of 1940, she changed to Berlin in order to visit classes of Eduard Spranger and Nicolai Hartmann. In the fall of 1940, she continued her studies in Vienna and completed her doctorate under Arnold Gehlen with the dissertation Der Zahlbegriff bei Frege. After a short historical overview, the author focuses on Frege’s criticisms of Kant’s synthetic a priori, by demanding that arithmetic is still analytic. The book ends with an outlook on the impact of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems on Frege’s logicism. The oral examination took place on April 11, 1942, in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics, and pedagogy. The examiners were Ottomar Wichmann (Pedagogy), Friedrich Kainz (Philosophy) and Karl Mayrhofer (Mathematics). In addition to “Main Issues of Worldview,” Wichmann’s exam covered the history of the Prussian school, the didactics of mathematics, and the general theory of education. Kainz’s exams in philosophy included “Development of ‘Logistik’ in Contrary to Traditional Logic,” “Logic of Language and Propositions,” “Raimundus Lullus,” “Characteristica universalis in Leibniz,” “Implication,” “Relation,” and “Theory of Negation”. In mathematics, Mayrhofer examined topics on complex integration, conformal mapping, and differential equations. Krenz received an “excellent” on all but one “good” in pedagogy. The dissertation was graded “satisfactory” by Gehlen.
Krenz’s examiners were all close to National Socialism. Ottomar Wichmann had been a member of the “Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund” since 1933 and, as a member of the “Stahlhelm”, had been transferred to the SA in 1934. In 1939, he held the chair of pedagogy at the University of Vienna, where he was appointed associate professor of philosophy with a focus on pedagogy in October 1939. He was dismissed from the University of Vienna in 1945. Friedrich Kainz, successor to Karl Bühler, who had been arrested by the Nazis, was appointed associate professor of philosophy with emphasis on aesthetics and the psychology of language at the University of Vienna in 1939. Karl Mayrhofer headed the mathematics department at the University of Vienna with Anton Huber from 1938 and retired in 1945 because of his activities for the NSDAP (since 1937). Arnold Gehlen, also a member of the NSDAP and known in postwar Germany as a conservative opponent of Theodor W. Adorno, dealt in his philosophical work with issues directly related to the Third Reich.
Given the paucity of information about Krenz, it was not possible to find out anything about her political views. The content of her dissertation does not allow any conclusions to be drawn. It is noted that her statements are factual and value-free, and that Jewish authors such as Friedrich Waismann, who was dismissed as a librarian in 1937 because of his origins, are treated the same as all other authors and their arguments. Presumably, the University of Vienna and Arnold Gehlen were one of the few opportunities for her to complete her doctoral studies in the early 1940s. According to the Rigorosen file (“Rigorosenakte”) in the archives of the University of Vienna, on April 23, 1942, Editha Krenz moved from 1170 Vienna, Lacknergasse 23/22, to Gelsenkirchen, Margaretenhof 35 (her parents’ house).[1] Here her traces are lost.[2]
[1] According to the Institute for the History of the City of Gelsenkirchen, the parents Stephan and Helene Krenz were registered at Margaretenhof 35, Gelsenkirchen until November 12, 1945, and then moved to the city center of Gelsenkirchen. After the death of her husband, Helene Krenz moved to Zwingenberg on July 6, 1953. Editha Krenz’s brother Stephan Krenz was registered at Margaretenhof 35, Gelsenkirchen between 1945 and 1949.
[2] Translation (with few modifications) from German of Krenz’s biography contained in: Anna-Sophie Heinemann and Andrea Reichenberger (2020), „Papst und Krenz: Zur Philosophie und Arithmetik Freges,“ in Matthias Wille (Ed.) Fregesche Variationen, Paderborn: Mentis, pp. 31‒57, here pp. 46‒48.
-Michele Vagnetti
References
Krenz, E.: Der Zahlbegriff bei Frege, Inauguraldiss. zur Erl. des Doktorgrades an der Universität Wien 1942.
Archival Records
Archiv der Universität Wien. Rigorosenakt Editha Krenz Nr. 15.621.
