Christian Fenner

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Christian Fenner (born August 16, 1942 in Berlin ; † January 2, 2006 in Berlin) was a German political scientist and party researcher who primarily dealt with the comparison of political systems and their culture, especially European democracies.

Life

Christian Fenner graduated from high school in Mannheim in 1963 and studied law and political science, journalism and sociology in Berlin from 1965 to 1969. From 1970 to 1976 Fenner was a research assistant at the Free University of Berlin . In 1974 he was with the work "Democratic socialism and social democracy: reality and rhetoric of socialism debate in Germany" PhD . In 1976 he was first assistant professor. Until 1980 he stayed several times to study in Sweden and Austria. In 1980 he was a fellow at St Antony's College of Oxford University . In 1985 he completed his habilitation.

After several guest professorships at the Philipps University in Marburg, the University of Osnabrück , the University of Duisburg , the Technical University in Darmstadt, the Free University of Berlin and the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle , he was appointed full professor in 1992 University of Leipzig , where he helped establish the Institute for Political Science from the ruins of the “Scientific Communism” of the former Karl Marx University at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences.

In 1968 Christian Fenner was chairman of the Liberal Student Union of Germany (LSD), which advocated social liberalism. After the change of government in 1982, which was forced by the FDP without elections and in a constitutionally questionable manner, thousands of left-wing liberals left the FDP, including Christian Fenner. He saw his social liberalism represented in the Freiburg theses , which had already been replaced in 1979 by the Kiel theses in the FDP's program.

Then Christian Fenner joined the SPD. For the neoliberal socio-political counter-reforms of the red-green federal government (1999-2005), he tried to find explanatory models that include factors that can be ascribed to political culture (e.g. in contrast to the self-confident Swedish social democracy).

A distinctive introduction and at the same time the guiding principle in his courses was the phrase he used again and again: “We compare all!”, With which he characterized the political comparison of the system comparison between states as an internationally common procedure, which also includes significant changes in societies and Cultural circles went out. In the last years of his scientific activity he dealt again intensively with the democratization of the Federal Republic of Germany by the "68 generation" in its tendencies and effects up to its political and cultural-historical conclusion.

Christian Fenner had a fatal accident on January 2, 2006. The urn was buried in the Dahlem forest cemetery in Berlin.

Fonts

  • Liberalization and democratization of socialism in the ČSSR. In: From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ, Bundeszentrale, Issue 45), Bonn 1970, pp. 1–38.
  • together with Bernhard Blanke: System change and democratization. European Publishing House , Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-434-00257-X .
  • Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy: Reality and Rhetoric of the Socialism Discussion in Germany. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 1977, ISBN 3-593-32190-4 .
  • For an introduction to the theory of democratic socialism. European Publishing House , Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-434-45067-X .
  • Incapable of Reform? A balance sheet of the internal reforms since 1969. European publishing house, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-434-45075-0 .
  • For an introduction to the theory of democratic socialism. European Publishing House, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-434-45081-5 .
  • The two deadly sins greed and envy. In: Freibeuter 67. 1996, pp. 55-67.
  • Party system and political culture: Sweden in a comparative perspective. Berlin-Verlag Spitz, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-87061-713-6 .
  • Does Capitalism Threaten Democracy? Leipziger Universitäts-Verlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-86583-069-2 .

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personal data
SURNAME Fenner, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist and party researcher
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 2006
Place of death Berlin