Andreas Walther (sociologist)

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Andreas Walther (born February 10, 1879 in Cuxhaven , † June 16, 1960 in Hamburg ) was a German sociologist who was one of the innovators of German sociology in the Weimar Republic . In the Third Reich he put his competence at the service of those in power.

Life

Andreas Walther was a son of the theologian Wilhelm Walther . He only came to sociology after extensive studies of theology and medieval history and a world tour. After studying theology at the Universities of Erlangen , Tübingen and Rostock and a vicariate in Hamburg, he passed the second state examination in theology in 1905, but then renounced a career as a practical or academic theologian and turned to history at the University of Göttingen . His academic teacher in Göttingen was Karl Brandi , with whom he received his doctorate in 1908 and took the senior teacher examination for history. He then moved to the University of Berlin , where under Otto Hintze he was concerned with the structural context of medieval history. In 1911 he completed his habilitation in Berlin, after which Walther taught there for two years as a private lecturer .

In 1913 Walther set off on a world tour and visited South and East Asia, the USA and Lebanon , where he witnessed the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War . According to Waßner, his diary entries, which were made during the world tour, are unusual: “While German history was still talking about Germany's boom in the world center of Europe, Walther discovered the new powers in the making, Japan and the United States. His travel notes, free from imperialist drudgery and Eurocentric arrogance, open up a view of cultural characteristics that are common to many peoples and that the scientist Walther would like to compare in the future. "

After the end of the German Empire in 1918, Walther went in search of scientific answers to the social crisis, relying in particular on the work of Auguste Comte , Max Weber and Richard Thurnwald , which brought him to sociology. His sponsor Brandi made it possible for Walther to make a fresh start in 1921 as a professor of sociology at the University of Göttingen. In 1925 he made another trip to the USA, where he studied the empirical urban sociology of the Chicago School and adopted its methods. His German colleagues, who understood sociology as the humanities, only had a "disparaging smile" for that. Only the then Nestor of German sociology, Ferdinand Tönnies , was open to Walther's innovations. With a recommendation, he ensured that Walther was appointed to the new chair for sociology at the University of Hamburg in 1926 . In 1929 he was elected to the council (board of directors) of the German Society for Sociology (DGS). In 1931 he founded the DGS Sociography subgroup with Tönnies and others . In 1932/33 he became dean of the law and political science faculty at the University of Hamburg.

Walther joined the NSDAP in May 1933. His name was on the list of signatories on November 11, 1933: Professors at German universities and colleges professors' commitment to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist state . He was fascinated by National Socialism and by the shift in his subject from class society to the national community. As a scientist, he felt called to do his part for the regime. According to Waßner, “Walther has not received a single word of regret when colleagues at the university put their life and office at risk because of their ethnic or political affiliation. He wrote letters to sociologists who were supposed to set the course in his guild on the National Socialist course. Even his sponsor, the anti-fascist Ferdinand Tönnies in Kiel, was not spared. "

In 1933 he succeeded in what had previously been prevented by the members of the university. With the transfer of the sociological seminar to the Philosophical Faculty, sociology became a doctoral and habilitation subject. By 1944, Walther had completed around thirty major sociologists and a similar number of minor sociologists, and two people qualified as a professor. In 1944, Walther retired for health reasons. The faculty then wanted to rededicate the chair for sociology to one for archeology , to which the NSDAP party chancellery in Munich, the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and Public Education and the academic senate of the university raised objections. Waßner says: "Not the university, the party supported sociology."

Andreas Walther was forced into final retirement by the British occupying forces in 1945. Until his death in 1960, he only intervened sporadically in the technical disputes.

"Eradicating Sociology"

During National Socialism, Walther applied the research methods he imported from the USA to the urban sociology of Hamburg, which in his interpretation became "eradicating sociology". This approach can be found in sociology during National Socialism . In 1934/35 he worked out a social cartography of Hamburg's slum areas in preparation for social sanitary renovation, which was generously funded by the Emergency Community of German Science . In a description of his urban sociological approach, Walther wrote:

“Any real renovation that not only wants to replace bad houses with better ones, but also sees the people and is borne by the long-term responsibility for the völkisch future, requires preparation, including through sociological studies. These surveys must finally come to the point where, before the pickaxe begins to work, it can be determined how one should deal with the individual people and families in the demolition area: promote those who have remained healthy despite the social environment, i.e. those who are particularly immune to urban corruption to get ahead more successfully in the city; those suitable for peripheral and rural settlements, which are also not lacking, lead to the goal of their wishes; transplant the only infected into healthy circles of life; take control of those unable to reform; eradicate the genetic make-up of the hopeless biological defects. "

Fonts (selection)

  • Sociology and Social Sciences in America and Their Importance to Education . G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1927
  • New ways of urban redevelopment. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1936
  • The new tasks of the social sciences. Hansischer Gildenverlag, Hamburg 1939

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the academic biography is based, unless otherwise indicated, on: Rainer Waßner, Andreas Walther and his urban sociology between 1927 and 1935. In: ders. (Ed.): Paths to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 69-84.
  2. ^ A b Rainer Waßner: Andreas Walther and his urban sociology between 1927 and 1935. In: ders. (Ed.): Ways to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 69–84, here p. 70.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 654.
  4. ^ Rainer Waßner: Andreas Walther and his urban sociology between 1927 and 1935. In: ders. (Ed.): Ways to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 69–84, here p. 72.
  5. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Memories of the Sociology Seminar between 1939 and 1945. A conversation with Peter Coulmas. In: Rainer Waßner (Ed.): Ways to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 85-97, here p. 94 (appendix).
  6. ^ Rainer Waßner, From Andreas Walther to Helmut Schelsky. The interregnum at the seminar for sociology from 1944 to 1953. In: ders. (Hrsg.): Ways to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 101–110, here p. 101.
  7. ^ Rainer Waßner: Andreas Walther and his urban sociology between 1927 and 1935. In: ders. (Ed.): Ways to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 69–84, here p. 72.
  8. ↑ So Silke van Dyk and Alexandra Schauer: "... that official sociology has failed". On sociology under National Socialism, the history of its coming to terms and the role of the DGS. 2nd Edition. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-658-06636-9 , p. 94.
  9. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Sociology and Politics. Social science expert knowledge in the Third Reich and in the early West German post-war period . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-15064-2 , p. 275.
  10. ↑ Andreas Walther: New ways of urban redevelopment. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1936, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Walther, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Cuxhaven
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1960
Place of death Hamburg