Helmut Schelsky
Encyclopedia
Helmut Schelsky, was a German
sociologist, the most influential in post-World War II
Germany, well into the 1970s.
, Saxony
. He turned to social philosophy
and even more to sociology
, as elaborated at the University of Leipzig
by Hans Freyer
(the "Leipzig School
"). Having earned his doctorate in 1935 (thesis [tr.]: The theory of community in the 1796 natural law
by Fichte
), in 1939 he qualified as a lecturer ("Habilitation") with a thesis on the political thought of Thomas Hobbes
at the University of Königsberg
. He was called up in 1941, so did not take up his first chair of Sociology at the (then German) University of Strasbourg
in 1944.
After the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, Schelsky joined the German Red Cross and formed its effective Suchdienst (service to trace down missing persons). In 1949 he became a Professor at the Hamburg
"Hochschule für Arbeit und Politik", in 1953 at Hamburg University, and in 1960 he went to the University of Münster
. There he headed what was then the biggest West German centre for social research, in Dortmund
.
In 1970, Schelsky was called to be the first rector
of the newly-founded Bielefeld University
(creating by the way the only German full "Faculty of Sociology", and the "Centre of Interdisciplinarian Research" ("Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung" [ZiF] at Rheda
), planned to be a 'German Harvard'). However, his new university changed very much, due to the years of student unrest all over Europe and North America, so he returned to Münster in anger, in 1973, for another five years. Having been a busy and successful publisher and editor all his life, he wrote several more books, against the Utopian way to approach Sociology, as fostered by the Frankfurt School
, and on the Sociology of Law
, but died a broken man in 1984.
" (the social philosopher Hans Freyer
, the anthropologist Arnold Gehlen
, the philosopher Gotthard Günther
), rich in the talents of a first generation, was of strong theoretical influence on Schelsky. But Freyer also dreamt of building up a sociological think tank for the Third Reich - quite differently to most other sociologists, e. g. to the (outspoken) anti-Hitlerian Ferdinand Tönnies
(University of Kiel
) and to Leopold von Wiese (University of Cologne
), and to the émigrés (e. g. to Karl Mannheim
, and to the up-and-coming René König
, Paul Lazarsfeld
, Norbert Elias
, Theodor Adorno, Rudolf Heberle, and Lewis A. Coser
). Freyer's ambitions failed miserably, the Nazi
power elite monopolizing ideology
, but helped the talented (and former Nazi) student Schelsky in his first career steps.
After the Second World War, no longer a National Socialist, Schelsky became a star of applied sociology, due to his great gift of anticipating social and sociological developments. He published books on the theory of institution
s, on social stratification
, on the sociology of family, on the sociology of sexuality, on the sociology of youth, on Industrial Sociology
, on the sociology of education, and on the sociology of the university system. In Dortmund
, he made the Social Research Centre a West German focus of empirical and theoretical studies, being especially gifted in finding and attracting first class social scientists, e.g. Dieter Claessens
, Niklas Luhmann
, and many more.
It helped that Schelsky was an outspoken liberal professor, without any ambition to create adherents - a rare bird among German mandarins. He helped another 17 sociologists qualify as lecturers (outnumbering in this any other professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences) and anticipated the boom in sociological chairs at German universities. Manning them, he was professionally even more successful than the outstanding remigrants René König
(Cologne) and Otto Stammer (Berlin) - the Frankfurt School
starting to be of influence only after 1968.
Schelsky was able to design Bielefeld University
as an innovative institution of the highest academic quality, both in research and in thought. But the fact that his own university had moved away from his ideas hit him hard. His later books, criticizing ideological sociology (very much acclaimed now by conservative analysts) and on the sociology of law (quite influential in the Schools of Law) kept up his reputation as an outstanding thinker, but fell out of grace with younger sociologists. Moreover, his fascinating analyses, being of highest practical value, went out of date for the same reason; only by 2000 did new sociologists start to read him again.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
sociologist, the most influential in post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Germany, well into the 1970s.
Biography
Schelsky was born in ChemnitzChemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
, Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
. He turned to social philosophy
Social philosophy
Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of...
and even more to sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, as elaborated at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
by Hans Freyer
Hans Freyer
Hans Freyer, born July 31, 1887 in Leipzig, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Baden-Baden, was a conservative German sociologist and philosopher.-Life:...
(the "Leipzig School
Leipzig school (sociology)
The Leipzig school was a branch of sociology developed by a group of academics led by philosopher and sociologist Hans Freyer at the University of Leipzig, Germany in the 1930s....
"). Having earned his doctorate in 1935 (thesis [tr.]: The theory of community in the 1796 natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
by Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
), in 1939 he qualified as a lecturer ("Habilitation") with a thesis on the political thought of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
at the University of Königsberg
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
. He was called up in 1941, so did not take up his first chair of Sociology at the (then German) University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
in 1944.
After the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, Schelsky joined the German Red Cross and formed its effective Suchdienst (service to trace down missing persons). In 1949 he became a Professor at the Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
"Hochschule für Arbeit und Politik", in 1953 at Hamburg University, and in 1960 he went to the University of Münster
University of Münster
The University of Münster is a public university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The WWU is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a society of Germany's leading research universities...
. There he headed what was then the biggest West German centre for social research, in Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
.
In 1970, Schelsky was called to be the first rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the newly-founded Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the established universities...
(creating by the way the only German full "Faculty of Sociology", and the "Centre of Interdisciplinarian Research" ("Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung" [ZiF] at Rheda
Rheda, Germany
Rheda is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, a part of the municipality of Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the Kreis of Gütersloh.-History:Rheda was first mentioned in documents from the year 1085, at the latest 1088...
), planned to be a 'German Harvard'). However, his new university changed very much, due to the years of student unrest all over Europe and North America, so he returned to Münster in anger, in 1973, for another five years. Having been a busy and successful publisher and editor all his life, he wrote several more books, against the Utopian way to approach Sociology, as fostered by the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
, and on the Sociology of Law
Sociology of law
The sociology of law is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies...
, but died a broken man in 1984.
Schelsky and German Sociology
The "Leipzig SchoolLeipzig school (sociology)
The Leipzig school was a branch of sociology developed by a group of academics led by philosopher and sociologist Hans Freyer at the University of Leipzig, Germany in the 1930s....
" (the social philosopher Hans Freyer
Hans Freyer
Hans Freyer, born July 31, 1887 in Leipzig, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Baden-Baden, was a conservative German sociologist and philosopher.-Life:...
, the anthropologist Arnold Gehlen
Arnold Gehlen
Arnold Gehlen was an influential conservative German philosopher and sociologist.-Biography:His major influences while studying philosophy were Hans Driesch, Nicolai Hartmann and especially Max Scheler....
, the philosopher Gotthard Günther
Gotthard Günther
Gotthard Günther , was a German philosopher.- Biography :...
), rich in the talents of a first generation, was of strong theoretical influence on Schelsky. But Freyer also dreamt of building up a sociological think tank for the Third Reich - quite differently to most other sociologists, e. g. to the (outspoken) anti-Hitlerian Ferdinand Tönnies
Ferdinand Tönnies
Ferdinand Tönnies was a German sociologist. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft...
(University of Kiel
University of Kiel
The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...
) and to Leopold von Wiese (University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
), and to the émigrés (e. g. to Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim , or Károly Mannheim in the original writing of his name, was a Jewish Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers of classical sociology and a founder of the sociology of knowledge.-Life:Mannheim studied in Budapest,...
, and to the up-and-coming René König
René König
René König was a German sociologist. He was very influential on West German sociology after 1949.Born in Magdeburg, he 1925 took up Philosophy, Psychology, Ethnology, and Islamic Studies at the Universities of Vienna and Berlin. He gained his doctorate 1930 at the Berlin University...
, Paul Lazarsfeld
Paul Lazarsfeld
Paul Felix Lazarsfeld was one of the major figures in 20th-century American sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of social research...
, Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.-Biography:...
, Theodor Adorno, Rudolf Heberle, and Lewis A. Coser
Lewis A. Coser
Lewis Coser was an American sociologist. The 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975....
). Freyer's ambitions failed miserably, the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
power elite monopolizing ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
, but helped the talented (and former Nazi) student Schelsky in his first career steps.
After the Second World War, no longer a National Socialist, Schelsky became a star of applied sociology, due to his great gift of anticipating social and sociological developments. He published books on the theory of institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
s, on social stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
, on the sociology of family, on the sociology of sexuality, on the sociology of youth, on Industrial Sociology
Industrial sociology
Industrial sociology, until recently a crucial research area within the field of sociology of work, examines "the direction and implications of trends in technological change, globalization, labour markets, work organization, managerial practices and employment relations to the extent to which...
, on the sociology of education, and on the sociology of the university system. In Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, he made the Social Research Centre a West German focus of empirical and theoretical studies, being especially gifted in finding and attracting first class social scientists, e.g. Dieter Claessens
Dieter Claessens
Dieter Claessens was a German sociologist and anthropologist.- Life :Returning as POW from the Soviet Union Dieter Claessens studied sociology, anthropology, and psychology in Berlin, where he got his doctorate from the Freie Universität in 1957...
, Niklas Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, and a prominent thinker in sociological systems theory.-Biography:...
, and many more.
It helped that Schelsky was an outspoken liberal professor, without any ambition to create adherents - a rare bird among German mandarins. He helped another 17 sociologists qualify as lecturers (outnumbering in this any other professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences) and anticipated the boom in sociological chairs at German universities. Manning them, he was professionally even more successful than the outstanding remigrants René König
René König
René König was a German sociologist. He was very influential on West German sociology after 1949.Born in Magdeburg, he 1925 took up Philosophy, Psychology, Ethnology, and Islamic Studies at the Universities of Vienna and Berlin. He gained his doctorate 1930 at the Berlin University...
(Cologne) and Otto Stammer (Berlin) - the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
starting to be of influence only after 1968.
Schelsky was able to design Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the established universities...
as an innovative institution of the highest academic quality, both in research and in thought. But the fact that his own university had moved away from his ideas hit him hard. His later books, criticizing ideological sociology (very much acclaimed now by conservative analysts) and on the sociology of law (quite influential in the Schools of Law) kept up his reputation as an outstanding thinker, but fell out of grace with younger sociologists. Moreover, his fascinating analyses, being of highest practical value, went out of date for the same reason; only by 2000 did new sociologists start to read him again.
Selected bibliography
- Theorie der Gemeinschaft nach FichtesJohann Gottlieb FichteJohann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
"Naturrecht" von 1796, 1935 - Das Freiheitswollen der Völker und die Idee des Planstaats, 1946
- Zur Stabilität von Institutionen ([tr.] On the stability of institutions, 1952)
- Wandlungen der deutschen Familie in der Gegenwart ( [tr.] Changes in present-day German families, 1953, 4th ed. 1960)
- Soziologie der Sexualität ([tr.] Sociology of sexuality, 1955, 21st ed. 1977)
- Die sozialen Folgen der Automatisierung ([tr.] The social outcomes of automation, 1957)
- Die skeptische Generation, (a sociology of youth, 1957) 1975
- Schule und Erziehung in der industriellen Gesellschaft ([tr.] School and education in the industrial society, 1957, 5th ed. 1965)
- Ortsbestimmung der deutschen Soziologie, 1959
- Einsamkeit und Freiheit. Die deutsche Universität und ihre Reformen, (1963) 1973
- Die Arbeit tun die anderen. Klassenkampf und Priesterherrschaft der Intellektuellen (1975) ²1977
- Die Soziologen und das Recht, 1980
Sources
- Wolfgang Lipp, Schelsky, Helmut, in: Wilhelm Bernsdorf/Horst Knospe (eds.), “Internationales Soziologenlexikon”, tom. 2, Enke, Stuttgart ²1984, p. 747–751