The Austrian farmer, politician and academic Ernst Schönbauer(1885–1966) had a self-willed and versatile personality. In histeaching and research he did not restrict himself to his actual discipline,i.e. Roman Law, but he also knew well how to point outdevelopments in legal history up to the present day.Even before 1938, Schönbauer had shown an affinity for NationalSocialism, albeit without having been a party member. As a prospectiveand then as an actual party member he looked after peoplepersecuted by the system between 1938 and 1945. In his functionas Dean of the Faculty of Law (1938–1943), for instance, he upheldthe traditional Austrian way of making new appointments to vacantchairs, a procedure which was contrary to the national socialist‘Führerprinzip’. He also proved stamina when various partyorganizations tried to influence him. This also meant that he didnot leave his post as Dean at a time when attempts were made fromdifferent sides to remove him from his office because of his nonconformism.He left when the opposition against him had come toan end. He did not echo what the respective rulers or moving forces in the Austrian corporative state and duringNational Socialism said, which exposed him repeatedly to vehement criticism or entailed disadvantages.He felt hurt when he was dismissed from university after 1945, an act he considered dishonourable. However, thisdid not stop him from remaining true to academia – especially to the Austrian Academy of Sciences – by being immenselyproductive until the end of his life. He remained vulnerable when the well-being of his family was at stake;for their sake he eventually refrained from realizing his political ambitions in the Second Republic.