August Nitschke

August Nitschke (born September 18, 1926 in Hamburg ; † September 2, 2019 in Tübingen ) was a German historian and co-founder of historical anthropology .

Life

August Nitschke was the eldest son of the pediatrician and head of the children's clinic in Halle Alfred Nitschke (1898–1960) and the physician Maria Nitschke, nee. Bergner (1897–1991) and brother of the architect Heinrich Nitschke and the pediatrician Ruprecht Nitschke. He grew up in Hamburg, Berlin and Halle an der Saale. After work and military service, he studied in Göttingen . There he received his doctorate in 1951 ( The World of Gregory VII. Studies on the Reform Papacy ). From 1950 to 1952 he worked as a tutor and assistant at the Leibniz College. Stays abroad in France and Italy followed. A grant from the German Research Foundation enabled him to work for three years in Rome , where he edited the medieval chronicle of Saba Malaspina.

He completed his habilitation in Münster and in 1960 was the first historian to go to the then TH Stuttgart after the war. There he published the Propylaea world history with Golo Mann . He taught at the Historical Institute of the University of Stuttgart , which he co-founded in 1960. The establishment of the “History” and “History of Natural Sciences and Technology” courses can be traced back to his work. In 1968/69 he was dean of the then faculty for natural sciences and humanities, in 1970/71 and 1978/79 he served as vice-rector and temporarily took over the official duties of the rector. In these functions and as a long-standing member of the Senate, he strongly advocated the expansion of the Technical University of Stuttgart into a full university. For the SDR he designed the series Funkkolleg Geschichte (1979) and Funkkolleg Jahrhundertwende (1988). In 1987 he worked as a visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin , 1991/92 at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at Bielefeld University and followed invitations to the USA, Japan and China.

On October 17, 1986, August Nitschke was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his services to historical research at home and abroad, especially for the organization of the International Congress of Historians in Stuttgart together with Eberhard Jäckel in 1980 . Nitschke's students and employees included Dieter R. Bauer , Johannes Burkhardt , Henning Eichberg , Ekkehard Eickhoff , Andreas Kalckhoff , Sönke Lorenz , Harald Kleinschmidt, Tilman Struve , Wolfgang Stürner and Johannes Zahlten . After his retirement on September 30, 1994, he continued to do various academic and journalistic activities, including a. at the North-East-University Changchun (2002).

Research priorities

Dialogue with the natural sciences

Nitschke's early work focused on the era of the investiture controversy, Staufer Sicily, and source studies of the 13th century. Together with Golo Mann , he published the “Propylaea World History” from 1960–1964. Working at a university with a focus on engineering led him to ask about the historical conditions of scientific knowledge and technical action. For decades he has successfully sought dialogue with the natural and engineering sciences. This resulted in cooperation in the form of joint courses, conferences and publications. With two Funkkollegs on the methodology of historical research and on the culture of the turn of the century (1900) Nitschke reached a broad public.

Historical behavior research

His efforts at methodical communication with the natural sciences led him to a "historical behavioral research", which later led to " historical anthropology ". In doing so, he focused on the historical change in physical and space-oriented behavior as a mirror of social and political change. The observation and description of human behavior beyond intentions, reasons and so-called worldviews should make historical processes measurable in a certain way. As fields of observation he mainly used art, dance, sport, games, descriptions of nature and fairy tales. Pioneering works in this direction are “Knowledge of Nature and Political Action in the Middle Ages. Body, Movement, Space ”(1967),“ Art and Behavior. Analogue configurations ”(1975),“ Historical behavior research. Analyzes of social behavior ”(1981),“ Questions in historical anthropology ”(1984) and“ Bodies in motion. Gestures, dances and spaces in the course of history ”(1989).

Mental history with an interdisciplinary approach

Part of this approach to natural science was that on the one hand he made the methods of biological behavior research fruitful for the science of history and, on the other hand, wanted to let it benefit from the insights of ethnology. In the ways of life and ways of thinking of indigenous peoples, he recognized an approach particularly to the older epochs of European history. In it he met with similar efforts of the French mentality research ( mentality history ) for the magazine "Annales" . Like these colleagues, the study of non-European history and intercultural comparison has always been a strong research concern for him.

Publications (selection)

• August Nitschke and Walter Koller (eds.). 1999. The Chronicle of Saba Malaspina . Hanover: Hahn.
• Mann, Golo, Alfred Heuss, August Nitschke and Mathias Bertram. 1999. Propylaea World History. A universal story . Berlin: Directmedia.
• Nitschke, August. 1962. Saints in this world. Personal authority and political effectiveness . Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag.
• Nitschke, August. 1964. The enemy: experience, theory and encounter. Forms of Political Action in the 20th Century . Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.
• Nitschke, August. 1967. Knowledge of nature and political action in the Middle Ages. Body, movement, space . Stuttgart: E. Klett.
• Nitschke, August. 1976. Social orders in the mirror of fairy tales . Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog.
• Nitschke, August. 1980. Funkkolleg history. Weinheim: Belz.
• Nitschke, August, and Hartmut von Hentig (eds.). 1997. What Reality Teaches. Golo Mann on his 70th birthday . Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1979.
• Nitschke, August. 1981. Historical behavior research. Analyzes of social behavior; a workbook . Stuttgart: Ulmer.
• Nitschke, August. 1985. Young rebels. Middle ages, modern times, present: children change the world . Munich: Kösel.
• Nitschke, August 1985. Almost no chance in Baden-Württemberg . Frankfurt / Main: Typo-Knauer.
• Nitschke, August, Jochen Martin, and Klaus Arnold. 1986. On the social history of childhood . Freiburg [i. Br.]: K. Alber.
• Nitschke, August. 1988. Funkkolleg turn of the century . Weinheim: Beltz.
• Nitschke, August. 1989. Body in motion. Gestures, dances and spaces in the course of history . Munich: Kösel.
• Nitschke, August. 1991. The brave in one system: Interactions between humans and the environment: a comparison of cultures . Cologne: Böhlau.
• Martin Kintzinger , Wolfgang Stürner , Johannes Zahlten (eds.): Perceiving the other. Contributions to European history. Dedicated to August Nitschke on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1991, ISBN 3-412-08291-0 .
• Nitschke, August. 1994. The future in the past. Systems in historical and biological evolution . Munich: Piper.
• Nitschke, August. 1995. Dynamics of nature and movements of people . Goldbach: Keip.
• Nitschke, August. 2004. Time Patterns in History: What are the young Chinese interested in Europe's Middle Ages? Cologne: Köppe.
• Nitschke, August. 2009. Surprising laughter, demanded crying. Feelings and Processes Cultures and Epochs in Comparison . Vienna: Böhlau.

literature

• Matthias Beer: body and mind in motion. History as behavioral research: On the death of August Nitschke. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 23, 2019, No. 221, p. 12 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about August Nitschke in the catalog of the German National Library
• August Nitschke on his 80th birthday
• The Historical Institute mourns the loss of Prof. em. Dr. August Nitschke (1926-2019)

Remarks

1. ↑ Death notice of Prof. Dr. phil. August Nitschke . Retrieved September 23, 2019.
2. ↑ Alfred Nitschke: The orphaned child of nature. Tubingen 1962.
3. ^ VWM Verlag: Search. Retrieved September 23, 2019 . 
4. ^ August Nitschke: Almost without a chance - in Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 1985.
5. ↑ Body and mind in motion. Retrieved September 23, 2019 . 
6. ↑ August Nitschke: Time Patterns in History: What Are Young Chinese People Interested in in Europe's Middle Ages? Cologne 2004.