Although Nevanlinna did not participate actively in politics, he was known to sympathise with the right-wing Patriotic People's Movement and, partly because of his half-German parentage, was also sympathetic towards Nazi Germany; with many mathematics professors fired in the 1930s due to the Nuremberg Laws, mathematicians sympathetic to the Nazi policies were sought as replacements, and Nevanlinna accepted a position as professor at the University of Göttingen in 1936 and 1937. His sympathy towards the Nazis led to his removal from his position as Rector of the University of Helsinki after Finland made peace with the Soviet Union in 1944.