Christoph Butterwegge

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Christoph Butterwegge (2018)

Christoph Butterwegge (born January 26, 1951 in Albersloh ) is a German political scientist and poverty researcher . From 1998 to 2016 he was Professor of Political Science at the Institute for Comparative Educational Research and Social Sciences at the Human Sciences Faculty of the University of Cologne and is a member of the Research Center for Intercultural Studies (FiSt). He has been retired since the end of October 2016.

Butterwegge was a member of the SPD from 1970 to 1975 and from 1987 to 2005 ; He has not been a member of any party since leaving, but is close to the left , for which he ran for the office of Federal President at the 2017 Federal Assembly .

Life

Christoph Butterwegge graduated from the Max-Planck-Gymnasium Dortmund in 1970 and then studied social science , philosophy , law and psychology at the Ruhr University in Bochum . In 1975 he completed his studies as a social scientist and in 1978 as an MA (philosophy). In 1980 he was at Detlev Albers at the University of Bremen with a thesis SPD and state today to Dr. rer. pole. PhD .

There, as well as at various universities and technical colleges in Duisburg , Fulda , Magdeburg and Münster, he taught sociology and social and political science. From 1987 to 1989 he was employed at the University of Bremen for the "Further Education" course as a scientific employee in the Department of Education and Social Sciences. He also worked as a lecturer at the Academy for Labor and Politics as well as at the research and training facility for the history of the labor movement in the state of Bremen.

In 1990 Butterwegge completed his habilitation at the University of Bremen in political science with an investigation into the theory and practice of Austrian social democracy ( Austromarxism ). From February 1, 1991 to July 31, 1994, he worked as a research assistant at the Bremen Foundation for Arms Conversion and Peace Research. From 1994 to 1997 he was a C-3 professor for social policy in the social affairs department of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences , where he was offered a C-4 professorship for political science at the University of Cologne. Since April 1, 2011 Butterwegge has been Managing Director of the Institute for Comparative Educational Research and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne. His academic students include: a. Kemal Bozay , Thomas Gesterkamp , Gudrun Hentges , Michael Klundt and Samuel Salzborn .

Butterwegge has been writing guest columns for FOCUS Online since May 2013 . In addition to articles for ZEIT , taz , Frankfurter Rundschau , Friday , Mittelbayerische Zeitung , Junge Welt and Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , he was an author a. a. for spw - magazine for socialist politics and economy , Ossietzky and Z. magazine Marxist Renewal and the Federal Agency for Civic Education .

He is married to the social scientist and politician Carolin Butterwegge . The couple have two children.

Work and subject

Butterwegge initially dealt with the history of German social democracy as well as with questions of state and democracy theory . At the beginning of the 1980s, the new social movements, peace policy , disarmament and NATO strategy were added as new fields of research. He tried to use the contemporary witness approach in Bremen for civic education, and combined it with concepts of "research-based learning" in the sense of a "search for clues" as well as local and regional historiography "from below", which was then in connection with Oral History was discussed.

Since 1990 Butterwegge has focused primarily on right-wing extremism , racism , (youth) violence, violence prevention and migration policy . Further fields of work are globalization , neoliberalism , the welfare state , demographic change , poverty - especially of children and the elderly - as well as intergenerational justice. Butterwegge has appeared publicly with his subjects for years and has been questioned and interviewed by various newspapers, radio and television stations.

In his numerous writings Butterwegge coined the term “ paternoster effect” for the social polarization, the division of society into rich and poor: some go up, others go down. In doing so, he distinguished himself from the elevator effect according to Ulrich Beck , in which all strata of the population drive up or down together. He diagnosed a “dualization of poverty”, which denotes the double structure of the problem that today consists of the total impoverishment of certain people (“underclass”) and a subtle undersupply of other people (“ working poor ”).

Butterwegge describes globalization and demographic change as the “two great narratives of our time”: Both real processes are being misused to justify far-reaching market-related changes in society such as the dismantling of the welfare state and a policy of reform that is largely unsocial. In emphasizing the benefit of people, Butterwegge sees the danger of "ethnicising social conflicts". The term “location nationalism” goes back to Butterwegge, which, in contrast to the popular nationalism of the extreme right, means over-identification with Germany as a business location.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday, the political scientists Gudrun Hentges and Bettina Lösch wrote in the anthology they edited that Butterwegge “as a political scientist and socially committed citizen has repeatedly taken a public position on current and politically explosive issues” and is thus “in the tradition of a Political science that feels obliged to the democratic society - a scientific tradition that wants to intervene in social and political processes ”.

Political activity

Christoph Butterwegge entered the SPD in July 1970 as a high school graduate . Very active with the Dortmund Young Socialists , he was soon elected to the sub -district executive board and the state committee for North Rhine-Westphalia and also to the SPD district committee. Like the majority of the members of his subdistrict, he oriented himself on the stamokap theory. As an exponent of the Juso left , he was elected to the Juso district board on November 24, 1974 by the Western Westphalia district conference.

This prompted the responsible SPD executive committee to initiate party regulation proceedings against him the following day . He accused Butterwegge of party-damaging behavior and justified this with his article for the papers for German and international politics under the title The Right Challenge . In it Butterwegge had accused the newly elected Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of a policy against the interests of the workers. This will prepare the ground for the CDU / CSU to take over government. In 1975 the Arbitration Commission therefore excluded Butterwegge from the SPD . He himself documented and commented on the process, as well as the motives for his involvement with the Jusos, in detail in his book Party Order Procedure in the SPD (published 1975).

In 1983, shortly after Helmut Kohl was elected Federal Chancellor, Butterwegge applied for re-entry into the SPD. The procedure took a few years and only took place on January 1, 1987, after Gerhard Schröder , who had worked with him at the federal level with the Young Socialists, stood up for him personally.

Butterwegge repeatedly took on functions in the SPD state organization in Bremen and was a delegate at the state party congress without interruption until 1994. In 1984 Butterwegge was a member of the working committee of the Bremen Peace Forum .

Butterwegge criticized the coalition government of the CDU , CSU and FDP under Chancellor Helmut Kohl and its policies from 1982 to 1998 particularly sharply. Above all, the core substance of the welfare state has been damaged by being dismantled step by step. Butterwegge's hope that the new federal government of 1998 with the coalition of SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen would also bring about a change of policy, did not come true for him.

Christoph Butterwegge at a party conference of the left (2014)

Since the red-green coalition had no alternative concept to neoliberalism , it was adapted in practice, complained Butterwegge, especially since the business lobby had exerted a lot of pressure, which the government had given in. Because he feared that the grand coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel would continue the reform policy against the "common people" and the welfare state, Butterwegge resigned from the SPD on November 18, 2005 - when the CDU, CSU and SPD signed the coalition agreement in Berlin and has remained independent since then. On the same day he justified this step at a press conference in Cologne and, when asked, emphasized that the WASG and the Left Party.PDS were now the ones "on which the hopes of the left social democrats are most likely to rest".

As part of the election of the German Federal President in 2012 , Butterwegge was brought up for discussion by the Left as an opposing candidate to Joachim Gauck . After initially signaling his readiness, he later rejected the candidacy because he did not want a vote on his candidacy against Beate Klarsfeld and Luc Jochimsen . For the election of the Federal President in 2017 , he was put up by the Left Party as an opposing candidate to Frank-Walter Steinmeier . He received 128 votes, the best result after Frank Walter Steinmeier with 931 votes. The left only had 95 delegates in the Federal Assembly .

Positions

The longer Gerhard Schröder was Federal Chancellor, the more sharply Butterwegge distinguished himself from his course. This applied to foreign, military and security policy (participation of the Federal Republic in the Kosovo war ) as well as to social, family and educational policy. In particular, the partial privatization of old-age provision (introduction of the “ Riester pension ”), the “ Agenda 2010 ”, the so-called “Hartz laws” and the health reform of the red-green coalition aroused Butterwegge's opposition. This policy would increase poverty. In his opinion, the agreed cuts in benefits hit the weakest: the poor, the old, the (long-term) unemployed, the (mentally) ill and people with disabilities. Butterwegge criticizes this policy, which aims to lower non-wage labor costs, among other things, as " neoliberal ". Butterwegge sees the "human image of a slave-holding society" at work behind neoliberalism. Furthermore, neoliberalism is no longer just an economic theory, but has long since changed into a social ideology that encourages right-wing populism, nationalism and racism.

In Butterwegge's view, the state would respond to “crime generated by cutting social benefits” with tougher penalties. A “punitive” state is increasingly taking the place of a “benevolent” state. In addition, previously state tasks such as energy supply, education or the penal system are increasingly being privatized and thus merchandise . Associated with this is a loss of power by the democratically legitimized state in favor of the individual interests of private investors. Their decision evades power control and thus endangers democracy in Germany, argues Butterwegge.

As a counter-proposal, Butterwegge suggested, among other things, the introduction of a machine tax , the levying of a wealth tax , the raising of the top income tax rate and a " basic social security ", by which he means something decidedly different from an unconditional basic income . He speaks out against such a thing.

Christoph Butterwegge at a panel discussion on the subject of poor - rich Germany? (2013)

Butterwegge warns against playing down the subject of “relative poverty” as “whining at a high level”. The 2.4 million people between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in relative poverty experience social exclusion that affects the psyche and can be worse "than going to sleep on an empty stomach". Against this background, Butterwegge also criticizes the judicially enforced improvements by the CDU / CSU-FDP coalition to SGB ​​II as "alien to life". The current “precarious labor market situation” also creates relative poverty, which Butterwegge believes is the cause of racist violence. He continues to criticize that this is still being played down. The media coverage of racist violence often remains event and perpetrator-oriented. In doing so, she provides a “caricature” of reality and underpins “clichés, prejudices and racist stereotypes of events”. The fact that “impoverishment, impoverishment in slums and jobless prospects” also affect migrants, as a result of which criminal acts can occur, is a problem that is to blame for the majority of society. "Integration, which one rightly expects from migrants, is not a one-way street, but can only succeed if we create the conditions for it and grant minorities equal rights and social opportunities." In the “football patriotism” that prevailed at the 2006 World Cup , Butterwegge sees a sign of a creeping rise in nationalism and racism.

In newspaper interviews, Butterwegge continues to interfere in daily politics. In May 2011, for example, he spoke out against the introduction of “flat rates” for people who receive ALG-II. He warned of the emergence of “poverty ghettos” and a looming municipal undercutting competition for rent subsidies paid by the job center. Butterwegge also took a clear stand in the Sarrazin debate . He accused Sarrazin of "elitist awareness, feelings of superiority and intellectual conceit". Sarrazin breaks off in his book Germany Abolishes Itself with the fundamental first article of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany . According to Butterwegge, this break is "the core of all racism". In essence, Sarrazin represents an argument that is also represented by cultural racist and right-wing populist thinkers. Butterwegge asserted that Sarrazin's motive was “satisfaction of his personal vanity through permanent media presence”.

In an interview with the Swiss weekly WOZ , Butterwegge said in November 2011 that left and right-wing extremism “have nothing to do with each other” because “the quality of violence ... is completely different”. When “left- wing autonomous people cut down electricity pylons”, it is “something completely different than when right- wing terrorists kill Turkish migrants”.

Memberships

In December 1983 Butterwegge was appointed to the advisory board of the DKP- affiliated Institute for Marxist Studies and Research . Today he is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL) in Hanover and of Attac Germany. He has long been a member of the Education and Science Union (GEW), the Federation of Democratic Scientists (BdWi) and the German Association for Political Science (DVPW). Butterwegge is also a member of the advisory boards of the magazines SozialExtra and Wissenschaft und Frieden .

Fonts (selection)

  • Party order procedure in the SPD: on the role of party jurisdiction in the SPD . Democrat. Publishing cooperative, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-88107-003-6 .
  • SPD and State Today: A Contribution to State Theory and the History of West German Social Democracy. Dissertation . Verlag Das Europäische Buch, Berlin 1979, ISBN 3-920303-87-3 .
  • with Joachim Dressel (Ed.): 30 Years of the Easter March: A contribution to the political culture of the Federal Republic of Germany and a piece of Bremen's city history . With a foreword by Dr. Henning Scherf. Steintor, Bremen 1990, ISBN 3-926028-57-2 .
  • Austromarxism and State: Political Theory and Practice of Austrian Social Democracy between the Two World Wars (Habilitation). With a foreword by Dr. Bruno Kreisky (print version of the habilitation thesis from 1990). Verlag Arbeit & Gesellschaft, Marburg 1991, ISBN 3-89419-016-7 .
  • Right-Wing Extremism, Racism and Violence: Explanatory Models in Discussion . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft , Darmstadt 1996. (Licensed edition: Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 1996, ISBN 3-89678-015-8 )
  • Christoph Butterwegge u. a .: Right-wing extremists in parliaments: state of research, case studies, counter-strategies . Leske & Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-8100-1776-0 .
  • with Lothar Peter and the project group “Conversion in Business and Society” at the University of Bremen: Armaments conversion in the region. Studies on the conversion process in the Lower Weser region. Agenda Verlag, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-929440-96-2 .
  • with Rudolf Hickel , Ralf Ptak : welfare state and neoliberal hegemony. Locational nationalism as a threat to democracy . Elefanten Press, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88520-718-4 .
  • Welfare state in transition. Problems and perspectives of social policy . 3. Edition. Leske & Budrich, Opladen 2001, ISBN 3-8100-3125-9 .
  • Christoph Butterwegge u. a .: Topics of the right - topics of the middle. Immigration, demographic change and national awareness . Leske & Budrich, Opladen 2002, ISBN 3-8100-3419-3 .
  • Right-wing extremism . Herder, Freiburg i. Br./ Basel / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-451-05229-6 .
  • Christoph Butterwegge u. a .: poverty and childhood. A regional, national and international comparison . 2nd Edition. VS – Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-531-33707-6 .
  • with Gudrun Hentges (Ed.): Immigration under the sign of globalization . 3rd, revised and updated edition. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14957-1 .
  • Mass media, migration and integration. Challenges for journalism and political education. 2nd Edition. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-35047-1 .
  • with Michael Klundt and Matthias Belke-Zeng: Child poverty in East and West Germany. 2nd, updated and expanded edition. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15915-7 .
  • with Bettina Lösch and Ralf Ptak (eds.): Neoliberalismus. Analysis and Alternatives . VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15186-1 .
  • with Bettina Lösch and Ralf Ptak: Critique of Neoliberalism . 2nd, improved edition. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15809-9 .
  • with Gudrun Hentges (Ed.): Right-wing populism, the world of work and poverty . Barbara Budrich Verlag, Opladen / Farmington Hills 2008, ISBN 978-3-86649-071-0 .
  • as editor with others: Poverty in old age. Problems and perspectives of social security . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39752-8 .
  • Crisis and future of the welfare state . 5th, updated edition. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-531-19940-5 . A review of the first edition is available from Forum Recht (PDF; 39 kB).
  • Poverty in a rich country. How the problem is played down and suppressed. 4th updated edition. Campus Science, 2016, ISBN 978-3-593-50642-5 . On the 1st edition (2009) Barbara Ketelhut: Review from October 15, 2009. In: socialnet reviews , accessed on January 22, 2020.
  • Hartz IV and the consequences: On the way to another republic? . Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, Basel 2015, ISBN 978-3-7799-3234-5 .
  • Poverty (basic knowledge of politics / history / economics). PapyRossa Verlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-89438-625-2 .
  • with Gudrun Hentges and Bettina Lösch (eds.): On the way to another republic? Neoliberalism, locational nationalism and right-wing populism . Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7799-3776-0 .
  • with Gudrun Hentges and Gerd Wiegel : right-wing populists in parliament, polemics, agitation and propaganda by the AfD . Westend Verlag, Frankfurt 2018, ISBN 978-3-86489-714-6 .
  • with Kuno Rinke: Basic income controversial, pleadings for and against a new social model , Beltz Publishing Group, Weinheim 2018, ISBN 978-3-7799-3987-0 .
  • The torn republic. Economic, social and political inequality in Germany , Beltz, Weinheim 2020, ISBN 978-3-7799-6114-7 .

Web links

Commons : Christoph Butterwegge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Christoph Butterwegge  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Butterwegge is running for Federal President ( memento from November 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) WDR, accessed on November 22, 2016
  2. ↑ Uli Schöler: Otto Bauer - no thanks? Austromarxism and historical references for determining the position of Marxist social democrats. DVK, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88107-043-5 , p. 5.
  3. ^ CV of Christoph Butterwegge , accessed on November 30, 2011.
  4. ↑ focus.de .
  5. ↑ Christoph Butterwegge at Linksnet .
  6. ↑ See for example: [1] .
  7. ^ Gudrun Hentges, Bettina Lösch: The measurement of the social world: Neoliberalism - Extreme rights - Migration . VS Verlag, 2011, pp. 9 and 10.
  8. ^ Gudrun Hentges, Bettina Lösch: The measurement of the social world: Neoliberalism - Extreme rights - Migration . VS Verlag, 2011, p. 12.
  9. ^ Karl August Chassé, Margherita Zander, Konstanze Rasch: My family is poor: How primary school children experience and cope with poverty . VS Verlag, 2010, p. 21.
  10. ^ Karl August Chassé, Margherita Zander, Konstanze Rasch: My family is poor: How primary school children experience and cope with poverty . VS Verlag, 2010, p. 21.
  11. ^ Gudrun Hentges, Bettina Lösch: The measurement of the social world: Neoliberalism - Extreme rights - Migration . VS Verlag, 2011, p. 9.
  12. ↑ Rainer Benthin , On the way to the middle: Public strategies of the new rights , Campus Verlag 2004, p. 188.
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Gessenharter, Thomas Pfeiffer, The New Right: A Danger for Democracy? VS Verlag 2004, p. 242.
  14. ^ Gudrun Hentges, Bettina Lösch: The measurement of the social world: Neoliberalism - Extreme rights - Migration . VS Verlag, 2011, p. 10.
  15. ↑ Pascal Beucker : End of a long love-hate relationship. In: taz , November 19, 2005, p. 6.
  16. ↑ Pascal Beucker: End of a long love-hate relationship. In: taz , November 19, 2005, p. 6.
  17. ^ Hajo Hoffmann, Horst Klaus: Concepts for Peace: Proposals for a new disarmament and détente policy of the SPD . SPW-Verlag, 1985, p. 128.
  18. ^ Curt Gasteyger : Europe between division and unification: representation and documentation, 1945-2005 . Nomos Verlag, 2006, p. 187.
  19. ↑ Lafontaine is believable . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 27, 2007.
  20. ↑ Pascal Beucker: End of a long love-hate relationship. In: taz , November 19, 2005, p. 6.
  21. ↑ suc / dpa: Presidential Poker of the Left: Butterwegge withdraws . In: Spiegel Online from February 26, 2012. Retrieved on February 27, 2012: "But he does not want his social concerns to compete with important issues such as maintaining democracy or the fight against right-wing extremism, for which Klarsfeld stands above all."
  22. ^ RP ONLINE: Poverty researcher from Cologne: Left party wants Butterwegge for presidential election. In: RP ONLINE. Retrieved November 17, 2016 .
  23. ↑ We need a solidarity jolt. Christoph Butterwegge on the motives for his candidacy for the left in the election of the Federal President
  24. ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Federal Presidential Election 2017: The Results in Detail - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Politics. Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
  25. ↑ social scientists to poverty debate . News from October 17, 2006.
  26. ^ Peer Zickgraf: Recognition melodies of (neoliberal) opera . ( Memento from February 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ Christoph Butterwegge: UTOPIE Kreativ, H. 135 (January 2002), pp. 55-67 .
  28. ↑ Michael Klarmann: Privatization of the welfare state endangers democracy August 14, 2007.
  29. ↑ Lafontaine is believable . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 27, 2007.
  30. ↑ Ask the rich to pay . n-tv , October 18, 2006.
  31. ↑ Christoph Butterwegge in SWR2 on the unconditional basic income (November 15, 2009)
  32. ↑ 3sat.online: Neoliberal deforestation - Butterwegge: Basic income would be the end of the welfare state. In: www.3sat.de. Retrieved November 9, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Those who do not have a cell phone are excluded. In: ZeitOnline , June 18, 2008.
  34. ↑ Hartz IV "The judgment is alien to life" . In: ZeitOnline , March 23, 2010.
  35. ↑ The young people see no perspective . In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger . April 19, 2006.
  36. ↑ More sensitivity, less prejudice . Telepolis , March 28, 2006.
  37. ↑ Peer Zickgraf: The sad tradition of creating the mood ( Memento from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  38. ↑ Rental flat rates are completely wrong . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . May 25, 2011.
  39. ↑ Pure right-wing populism . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . August 29, 2010; on Sarrazin's utterances.
  40. ↑ Interview with Butterwegge. In: The weekly newspaper. November 17, 2011.
  41. ↑ Patrick Moreau, Rita Schorpp-Grabiak: You have to be as radical as reality. (= Extremism and democracy . Volume 4). Nomos, 2002, p. 135.
  42. ^ Members of the scientific advisory board. In: Attac. Retrieved July 13, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Butterwegge, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Albersloh