The beginning of the Nazi regime in 1933 raised the immediate possibility that Jewish students might be banned from receiving degrees. Kitzinger accordingly completed his dissertation, a brief but influential study of Roman painting in the 7th and 8th centuries, with exceptional speed, and defended it in the fall of 1934.
In 1933, with the onset of the Nazi regime, there was a likelihood that Jewish students might be prevented from obtaining degrees. Kitzinger thus completed his dissertation on Roman painting from the 7th to the 8th centuries rapidly and defended it in the fall of 1934.