Burkhard Müller (social worker)

Burkhard Müller (born May 9, 1939 , † May 23, 2013 ) was a German educational and social scientist . He contributed significantly to the development of a modern understanding of the educational sciences and in particular shaped the development of social education and psychoanalytic education with a large number of books and magazine articles.

Career

Burkhard Müller completed a degree in Protestant theology in Zurich, Berlin, New York and Tübingen in 1964 and then initially worked in the church service and in adult education. In 1971 he received his doctorate as Dr. theol. in Zurich. In Tübingen he completed a degree in social education and qualified as a professor in the field of education and social sciences. From 1974 to 1982 he worked there as a research assistant at the chair of Hans Thiersch and in 1983 was appointed professor at the Institute for Social and Organizational Education at the University of Hildesheim. The focus of his teaching and research was ethnography of youth work, professionalization of socio-educational action, psychoanalytical education and intercultural education. As part of the Franco-German Youth Office (DFJW), Burkhard Müller worked with colleagues from various European countries in a large number of intercultural practice / research projects.

Burkhard Müller was one of the first group of university professors who formed the scientific advisory board of the International Psychoanalytic University in Berlin. In particular, he designed the educational master’s course and held a visiting professorship there.

family

Burkhard Müller was married to Sabine Hebenstreit-Müller . He has a son and a stepdaughter.

Thomas Mann Syndrome

Burkhard Müller accompanied and examined exchange programs for the Franco-German Youth Office . He coined the term Thomas Mann Syndrome to describe a paradoxical behavior that he observed in international encounters: On the one hand, great openness and a determined willingness to communicate are shown, on the other hand there is rigidity and overcompensation for national prejudices. This is to be classified as a phenomenon of cognitive dissonance and to that extent a pseudosyndrome .

If there is a negative or ambivalent reaction to the past in international communication, German participants tried to distance themselves personally from the past in order not to correspond to the supposed prejudices of Germans. The paradox here is that the more internationalist, unprejudiced, cosmopolitan such German participants are, the more likely they are to be considered “typical” Germans. They acted as if they themselves had nothing to do with what the others call “German”. It seems as if their task is the neutral mediation of international understanding. They take a critical stance towards their own nationality, and that's exactly how they would appear to others as “typically German”: model pupils, model democrats, representatives of exemplary understanding. The suspicion arises that German history and the change to a democratic Germany are being overcompensated, which prevents Germans from being truly open to the world. Müller draws an exaggerated conclusion:

“They act as if they wanted to become world champions not only in football, but also in the discipline of intercultural understanding. And that's exactly how they stand in their own way. [...] If one tries to formulate national clichés that exist on this collectively unconscious level, one could say: the German reactions are overdetermined by the collective fantasy of being "good people". "

Müller names the phenomenon after Thomas Mann , because he first took a German nationalist and later a cosmopolitan attitude. In Reflections of a Non-political , he endorsed the first World War and celebrated the peculiarity of the Germans. He later revised his posture. Against the background of this change, Burkhard Müller claims, Thomas Mann is the first

"Exemplary" good German "who has finally moved away from the conceit of German peculiarities, who no longer divides culture and politics into separate spheres, who knows that [sic!] Germany can only continue to exist as part of a world civilization."

Publications (selection)

• Social pedagogical skills , revised and expanded 7th edition, Lambertus, Freiburg i. B. 2012. ISBN 978-3-7841-2117-8
• Boundary objects. Social worlds and their transitions , together with Hörster, R., Köngeter, S. (Ed.), Springer-VS, Wiesbaden 2012. ISBN 978-3-531-18030-4
• Observing in early childhood education. Practice - Research - Camera , together with Hebenstreit-Müller, S., dohrmannVerlag.berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-86892-054-3
• Professional help: what it is and how to learn it. The topicality of a forgotten tradition of social work. , Klaus Münstermann Verlag, Ibbenbüren 2012. ISBN 978-3-943084-09-2
• Ethnography and educational science , together with Hünersdorf, B., Maeder, Ch. (Ed.), Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim and Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-7799-1700-7
• What is the case? Casuistry and "construction of the addressee" , in: Zeitschrift für Sozialpädagogik ZfSp 2008, 4th year H. 3
• The pedagogy of child and youth work , together with Cloos, P., Köngeter, St., VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009. ISBN 978-3-531-16597-4
• Thinking and acting interculturally , together with Nicklas, H., Kordes, H. (ed.), Campus Verlag 2006. ISBN 978-3-593-38020-9
• Proximity and distance. A field of tension between educational professionalism. , together with Dörr, M., Juventa-Verlag 2012 (3rd edition)
• Children between three and six. Educational processes and psychoanalytic pedagogy in preschool age. Yearbook for Psychoanalytic Pedagogy 15 , together with Steinhardt, K., Büttner, C., Psychosozial-Verlag 2006. ISBN 978-3-89806-391-3
• Can perceive. Youth work and informal education. , together with Schmidt, S., Lambertus-Verlag Freiburg i. B. 2008. ISBN 978-3-7841-1820-8
• Think feelings. Power and emotion in educational practice. , together with Hellbrunn, R., Moll, J., Storrie, T., Campus Verlag Frankfurt a. M. 2005, French edition by Anthropos, Paris 2008. ISBN 978-3-593-37720-9

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Prof. Dr. Burkhard Müller" website of the University of Hildesheim. Retrieved December 7, 2015
2. ^ "Prof. Dr. Burkhard Müller" website of the Franco-German Youth Office. Retrieved December 14, 2015
3. ^ "Prof. Dr. Burkhard Müller" website of the International Psychoanalytic University. Retrieved December 7, 2015
4. ^ "Burkhard Müller: Socio-Pedagogical Skills. 2009, p.14." Website of the Lambertus publishing house. Retrieved December 15, 2015
5. ↑ Burkhard Müller (social pedagogue): The Thomas Mann Syndrome or: The rediscovery of prejudices - an attempt from a German perspective. (University of Hildesheim, 1992).
6. ↑ Burkhard Müller (social pedagogue): The Thomas Mann Syndrome or: The rediscovery of prejudices - an attempt from a German perspective. (University of Hildesheim, 1992).