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This article is focused on statistician E.J. Gumbel, a pacifist, socialist, and secular Jew who was dismissed from his position as a professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in 1932 for his involvement in political activism. It is stated that a group of right-wing students campaigned for Gumbel's termination over a full decade as an expression of their opposition to the Weimar Republic. Gumbel's story is used as a platform to discuss the broader issue of the politicization of German universities during the 1920s and 1930s, which is noted to have forecast the coming National Socialist State.

Analyzes the response of the University of Heidelberg in Germany to the controversy surrounding the removal of statistician Emil Gumbel from his post as junior lecturer. Linking of controversy to the university's role in undermining the Weimar Republic; Prevalence of anti-republic sentiment among faculty and students; Failure of the academy to defend academic freedom.