Udo Witzens

Udo Witzens (* 1941 in Karwin , Teschen district ) is a German political scientist and orientalist.

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Witzens studied political science, oriental studies, German, English and philosophy at the universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg . He received his doctorate in Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies and Classical Studies at Heidelberg University, where he conducted research on Karl A. Wittfogel's theses on "Oriental Despotism". As an employee of the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University, he worked on the political implications of Neo-Buddhism in Southeast Asia with a focus on Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar). This was followed by a teaching position as a lecturer in political education in teacher and adult education. As a non-fiction author, Witzens now works in particular on the subjects of violence and ethnic cleansing .

Witzens examines questions about the relationship between oriental and western culture. He denies Samuel P. Huntington's thesis of the clash of civilizations and, in contrast to this, postulates the compatibility of Muslim and Christian cultures, which have been intertwined in Europe for centuries. According to Jokes, cultural diversity and cosmopolitan tradition make up Europe's true identity. Witzens rejects the reduction of the EU to the Roman-Christian Occident, pursued by Samuel P. Huntington and the French historian Jacques Le Goff , among others , a concept that excludes both Christian-Orthodox and Muslim peoples and nations from Europe. That is why he is also firmly against the exclusion of Turkey from the European Union, as pursued by national-conservative politicians and historians in the wake of Huntington. Witzens sees similar events in the expulsion of the Germans from the eastern regions, which he witnessed as a child, and the deportation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, neither of which represent genocide but ethnic cleansing with partially genocidal incidents. He relies in particular on the work of Bernard Lewis , Guenter Lewy and Cem Özgönül . In his foreword to Özgönül's book, Witzens emphasizes that it is not about historical revisionism, but rather the correction of a one-sided view of history in which essential aspects have been systematically faded out due to selective perception and questionable legends.

The independent political scientist Witzens is a representative of the structural comparison (comparative) method, as it was developed by his academic teachers Manuel Sarkisyanz , Dieter Oberndörfer and Gottfried-Karl Kindermann in the tradition of Arnold Bergstraesser .

Publications

• Abysses of violence. The greatest atrocities in world history - a documentation . Third updated and expanded edition, Norderstedt 2019, ISBN 978-3-740-762-773 (also as an online resource)
• Abysses of violence. The greatest massacres in world history - a documentary . Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7407-4728-2 . (also as an online resource)
• Abysses of violence. The greatest atrocities in world history . Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7407-3467-1 . (also as an online resource)
• Half Orient - Half Occident. Where is Turkey going? Helmes, Karlsruhe 2011, ISBN 978-3-940567-16-1 .
• Uprising of the monks, background to the "Saffron Rebellion" in Burma. Helmes, Karlsruhe 2009, ISBN 978-3-940567-10-9 .
• Inclusion or exclusion? Does Turkey belong to Europe? 2nd updated and expanded edition. Önel, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-933348-85-2 .
• The European-Turkish Relations as Seen From German Perspective. In: Marmara Journal of European Studies 13, no.1-2 (2005): 217-239.
• Inclusion or exclusion? Does Turkey belong to Europe? Önel, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-933348-85-4 .
• Critique of Karl A. Wittfogel's theses on oriental despotism. Karlsruhe 2000 DNB 963989014 , ( Dissertation at the University of Heidelberg online resource, Heidelberg 2002 ).
• The monarchy in Burma and Wittfogel's theses. Karlsruhe 2001 ( online ).
• The Political Aspects of Neo-Buddhism in Ceylon and Burma. University of Heidelberg 1967.

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• Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. Munich / Vienna 1996.
• Guenter Lewy: The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey, A disputed Genocide. University of Utah Press 2005.
• Bernard Lewis: Star, Cross and Crescent. Munich / Zurich 1997.
• Cem Özgönül: The myth of a genocide - a critical consideration of the Lepsius documents and the German role in the past and present of the "Armenian question". Önel , Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-933348-93-5 , p. 23.

Web links

• Literature by and about Udo Witzens in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence