Jean And Gustav Hubener Fonds-Biographical Sketch

Title: Jean and Gustav Hübener Fonds. -- 1908-1975; predominant 1930-1950. -- 3.31 m. of textual material; 222 b&w photographs, 15 col. photographs, 5 negatives.

Biographical Sketch: Jean Isabel (Hamilton) Hübener.

Jean Isabel Hamilton was born on August 15, 1904 in Jarrahdale, Australia.  She was one of six children, including four brothers: Len, Harry, Herb and Jack, and a sister Gladys Thelma. She received her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Australia in 1927 with first class Honours in Languages.   Upon graduating, Hamilton was awarded the Orient Travelling Scholarship, and the Winthrop Hackett Scholarship. Also, she was the first Australian to receive the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Scholarship, which covered her expenses at any German University for 3-4 years.  Hamilton chose to attend the University of Bonn, where she studied Philosophy, French, German, Art History and Music.  This lead to a PhD magna cum laude in 1931,  in the field of Mediaeval German and French.  The subject of her dissertation was The role of the landscape in German and French mediaeval courtly epics.  Her work has been regarded as a standard in its field.

Upon graduating, Hamilton spent some time in Australia, and then returned to the University of Bonn in 1932, where she accepted a teaching position in the English Department. When the Hitler government came into power, however, Hamilton decided that she could not acquiesce in the educational methods laid down by its representatives.  Consequently, Hamilton combined private tutoring and translation of scientific and other documents with research on the literature of the British Dominions. She did this in collaboration with  Dr. Frederick Gustav Hübener, who was the Head of the English Department at the University of Bonn at that time.

In 1937, after Dr. Hübener was prevented by the Hitler government from accepting an invitation to lecture at Harvard University, he decided to go abroad as a voluntary exile rather than remain in Germany.  Hamilton decided to go with him, and they both accepted positions at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.  Hübener took a position as Head of the German Department, and Hamilton became a special guest lecturer in the same department.  On September 22, 1938, Gustav Hübener and Jean Hamilton were married in Toronto.

On September 30th, 1940, Gustav Hübener died suddenly of leukemia.  Consequently, Jean Hübener took over as Head of the German Department, and remained in this position throughout the war years. In 1946, Dr. Hübener became a special lecturer in English and German at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and remained as such until 1949.  At this point, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct research for a book which she planned to write concerning intellectual resistance to the Nazis.  This research took Dr. Hübener to Boston, where she remained until University of New Brunswick President Albert Trueman persuaded her to come to UNB in 1951.

Upon her arrival at UNB, Dr. Hübener was appointed as a Professor of German.  Largely due to her efforts, a separate Department of German was established at UNB the next year, for which Dr. Hübener became the first Department Head.  She presided over the department until her retirement in 1967.  Dr. Hübener was named Professor Emerita at the UNB 1975 Encaenia.

After a long illness, Jean Isabel Hamilton Hübener passed away on January 15, 1981, and was survived by her stepdaughter, Mrs. Irene Scott of Bethesda, her sister Gladys Thelma, and three brothers: Leonard, Hubert and Jack.

Biographical Sketch: Frederick Gustav Hübener.

Frederick Gustav Hübener, son of Gustav and Emma (Hotte) Hübener, was born in Hamburg, Germany on July 4, 1889.  Although he was a student of many universities, including Munich, Berlin, Edinburgh and Paris, he eventually graduated in Modern Languages and Philosophy from the University of Göttingen in 1913. It is of particular interest that during his schooling,  he studied under Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, and was also a member of the Göttingen Circle.  In 1919, Dr. Hübener became a Privatdozent, and his first appointment was as Professor of English at the University of Konigsburg in 1922. In 1925, he was appointed Professor of English at the University of Basle.  In 1930, Hübener was called to the Chair of English Language and Literature at the University of Bonn.

Dr. Hübener remained in this position until 1937, at which point he was prevented by the Hitler government from accepting an invitation to lecture at Harvard University.  Rather than remain in Germany, Dr. Hübener chose to go abroad as a voluntary exile.  On the recommendation of Arnold J. Toynbee, Dr. Hübener was granted a Carnegie Fellowship, and accepted a position as Head of the Department of German at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.  Jean Isabel Hamilton, who had collaborated with Dr. Hübener on research about the literature of the British Dominions while they were both at the University of Bonn, accompanied him.  On September 22, 1938, Jean Hamilton and Gustav Hübener were married in Toronto.

Throughout his career, Dr.Gustav Hübener authored over twenty-five publications, many of which were recognized as authoritative source books in their fields. Dr. Hübener also became an international authority on Chaucer, and was a special lecturer at the universities of India and Harvard Summer School. In the later stages of his career, he also became interested in Anthropology, especially concerning primitive cultures.

Having been unwell during the winter of 1940, Dr. Gustav Hübener entered the hospital while visiting Toronto in late September of that same year, but his leukemia was too far advanced for treatment. He died suddenly on September 30th, 1940.

Scope and Content: This fonds primarily contains material created and collected by Dr. Jean Isabel Hübener, although there is also material created and collected by Dr. Frederick Gustav Hübener.  The nature of the material reflects both scholars devotion to academics, particularly evident in the extensive amount of research notes, lecture notes, academic papers and clippings which the Hübeners collected over their lives, the material which they had published, and the draft manuscripts for the book which Jean Hübener worked on dealing with intellectual resistance in Nazi Germany.  Also contained in this fonds are items of a personal nature, including photographs, biographical material, various certificates, and financial information.  Reflecting both the personal and professional sides of the Hübeners lives is a collection of correspondence, covering the years 1930-1975.

This fonds is divided into 8 series:

Series:
1.  Published and Draft Papers and Addresses Written by Jean and Gustav Hübener. -- 1919-1947; predominant 1936-1947
2.  Draft Manuscripts, Outlines and Other Material concerning Enemies of the State.  A Study of the Intellectual Resistance
         in Nazi Germany. -- c. 1950-1951
3.  Academic Research Notes, Clippings and Papers. -- various dates
4.  Correspondence. -- 1930-1975
5.  Biographical Material, Official Certificates, Recommendation Letters and Other Material of a Personal Nature. -- 1909-1975;
            predominant 1927-1941
6.  Photographs. -- [c1900-1975; predominant 1926-1975]
7.  Published Material Collected by Jean and Gustav Hübener. -- 1908-1958; predominant 1930-1948
8.  Miscellaneous. -- various dates

Notes:

Title: Title is based on name of the creators.

Immediate Source of Acquisition: On an unknown date, the majority of this material was stored in the Harriet Irving Library. In March, 1985, it was taken from basement of the Harriet Irving Library to the University of New Brunswick Archives. On April 2, 1985, another small amount of material was donated by W.Y. Smith.

Arrangement: The original state of the material necessitated an arrangement being imposed by the archivist.  Due to the cross-over in academic areas of interest between Jean and Gustav Hübener, however, it was not possible to fully sort or distinguish the research notes, clippings and citations that predominate this fonds.  Consequently, arrangement of these folders is arbitrary.

Language: This fonds contains material written in both English and German. BACK TO CONTENTS