Papers of Robert Ulich

Robert Ulich (1890-1977), German-American historian and philosopher, taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1935 to 1960 and served as the first James Bryant Conant Professor of Education. Born in Bavaria, he entered the University of Freiberg as a young man, then went on to study at several German universities before earning his PhD at the age of 25. In 1917, Ulich was appointed assistant director of Leipzig Public Libraries. In 1921 Ulich became the assistant counselor in charge of adult education at the Ministry of Education of Saxony. Two years later, he was made counselor in charge of Saxon University, a position he maintained for the next ten years. Also during this time, from 1928 to 1933, Ulich taught philosophy at the Dresden Institute of Technology. However, due to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, a group of Ulich’s colleagues at the Dresden Institute of Technology were fired for being “racially and politically undesirable in 1933,” causing Ulich to resign in protest from his professorship and from his position with the Ministry of Education of Saxony.

Soon after his resignation, Ulich was offered a one-year position as lecturer in comparative education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, allowing him to flee from a dangerous political climate in Germany. After one year of teaching, Ulich was appointed Professor of the History and Philosophy of Education, a position he held until his retirement in 1960. Throughout his career, he published several books, and was Associate Editor of the Harvard Educational Review from 1945 to 1950. In 1954, Ulich was appointed to the first James Bryant Conant Professorship at Harvard University. He retired from teaching in 1960 and returned to Germany in 1970; Ulich died in 1977.