Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch

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Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch (2017)

Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch (born October 3, 1939 in Weimar ; † May 16, 2020 ) was a university professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen . His main research focus was religious politics , for which he founded an institute in the legal form of an eV in Duisburg in 1996 .

biography

Bärsch was the son of a farmer who was abducted to Russia in 1945 and has been missing since then. Bärsch grew up in the Soviet occupation zone . In 1957 he passed his Abitur in Leipzig and then moved to the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1958 to 1968 he studied law , canon law , legal philosophy and legal history in Munich with subsequent legal clerkship and assessor exams. For the next three years he worked as an independent lawyer .

In 1962 he met Hedda Herwig , who would later become political scientist and university professor . Both were students of the German-American political scientist and philosopher Eric Voegelin . Bärsch and Herwig had remained on friendly terms ever since. Years later, both taught at the University of Duisburg . In the foreword to his later book The Young Goebbels , Bärsch wrote, for example: “I owe key intellectual insights to my friendship with my colleague Hedda J. Herwig. Without your constant criticism, I would have overlooked or not noticed a lot. "

1972 doctorate Bärsch Eric Voegelin at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Dr. phil. and completed his habilitation in 1977 with venia legendi for political science and social philosophy .

In 1981 he began teaching at the Institute for Political Science at what was then the University of Duisburg, specializing in political theory and the history of ideas , which was interrupted by two external teaching activities: from 1990 to 1991 at the Humboldt University in Berlin and from 1991 to 1993 of the University of Potsdam . In Duisburg he worked as a research assistant to Michael Hereth after completing his doctorate .

For four years (1993–1996) he was director of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History in Duisburg. In 1996 he founded the Institute for Political Religion . V. in Duisburg. In 1998 Bärsch published an extensive major work entitled The Political Religion of National Socialism . As the preface can be seen in the book, Bärsch was concerned with “nothing less” than “a record of the Nazi ideology in which all essential characteristics are taken into account”. Bärsch also indicated in his foreword that the historian Julius H. Schoeps was an "old friend" of his.

Bärsch retired on February 7, 2006. The title of his farewell lecture at this university was: The connection between religion, theology, philosophy and politics from the perspective of religious politics .

In the 2006/07 winter semester, Bärsch taught at the University of Innsbruck . He led the course "Introduction to the Philosophy of Science".

In the 2008/09 winter semester he taught at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. The topic of his lecture was The Fundamentals of the Relationship between Politics and Religion in Christianity, Islam, the Enlightenment and the political religions of the modern age .

Bärsch died in May 2020 at the age of 80.

research

Bärsch's focus is on the subject areas of political theory and the history of ideas, and his main research interests are the theory of history and law , National Socialism and religious politics .

Fonts

Books
  • The concept of the state in modern German state theory and its theoretical implications (= contributions to political science. Vol. 20). Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-03218-7 (At the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 1972).
  • The equality of the unequal. On the importance of equality, self-determination and history in the dispute over constitutional democracy. Fink, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7705-1756-3 (At the same time: Duisburg, Gesamtthochschule, habilitation paper, 1977, under the title: Self-determination, equality and history. ).
  • with Julius H. Schoeps and Joachim H. Knoll : conservatism, liberalism, socialism. Introduction, texts, bibliographies (= UTB. 1032). Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-1942-6 (reprint, unchanged edition, ibid 1991).
  • Redemption and annihilation. Dr. phil. Joseph Goebbels. On the psyche and ideology of a young National Socialist. 1923-1927. Klaus Boer, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-924963-18-5 (later editions appeared under the title: Der Junge Goebbels. Redemption and Destruction. Klaus Boer, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-924963-72-X ; Fink, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3806-4 ).
  • Max Brod in the fight for Judaism. On the life and work of a German-Jewish poet from Prague. Passagen-Verlag, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85165-024-7 .
  • The political religion of National Socialism. The religious dimension of the Nazi ideology in the writings of Dietrich Eckart, Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Hitler. Fink, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7705-3172-8 (2nd, completely revised edition, ibid 2002).
  • as editor with Peter Alter and Peter Berghoff: The construction of the nation against the Jews. Fink, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7705-3326-7 .
  • “Those who fail to recognize religion do not recognize politics.” Perspectives in religious politics. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2843-0 .
Essays
  • The fight between God and evil. Carl Schmitt's concept of the political from the perspective of religious politics. In: Hans Uske, Hermann Völlings, Jochen Zimmer, Christof Stracke (eds.): Sociology as crisis science. Festschrift for the 65th birthday of Dankwart Danckwerts (= Political Sociology. Vol. 11). Lit, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3676-2 , pp. 333-351.
  • Alfred Rosenberg's "Myth of the 20th Century" as a political religion. In: Hans Maier , Michael Schäfer (eds.): "Totalitarism" and "Political Religions". Concepts of the dictatorship comparison (= political and communication science publications of the Görres Society. 17). Volume 2. Schöningh, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-76826-3 , pp. 227-248, (Review by Werner Röhr in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft . Vol. 47, No. 4, 1999, p. 347).
  • Hitler's political religion. The divinization of the Germans, the satanization of the Jews and the genocide. In: Wolfgang Leidhold (Ed.): Politics and Politeia. Forms and Problems of Political Order. Announcement for Jürgen Gebhardt on his 65th birthday. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-1939-3 , pp. 5–20.
  • The reflex of relations - A possible political science understanding of power. In: Bochum yearbook for East Asia research. Vol. 23, 2001, ISSN  0170-0006 , pp. 30-34.
  • The collective identity as a measure of everything that exists, the corresponding mode of knowledge, violence and genocide according to the political religion of Adolf Hitler. In: Kristin Platt (ed.): Talking about violence. (= Series of publications “Genozid und Gedächtnis” ) Fink, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7705-3674-6 , pp. 256–270.
  • The emergence of the political from the spirit of religion? In: Wilfried Ruff (Hrsg.): Understanding religious experience. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-61405-5 , pp. 151-160.
  • The connection between politics and religion in Hegel's conception of state, society and folk spirit. In: Thomas Goll, Thomas Leuerer, Tilman Mayer , Hans-Georg Merz (eds.): State and politics. Contributions from political science and political education. Festschrift for Paul-Ludwig Weinacht on his 65th birthday. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2003, ISBN 3-8329-0301-1 , pp. 149–158.
  • Foreword to: Michael Hesemann : Hitler's religion. The fatal doctrine of salvation of National Socialism. Pattloch, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-629-01678-2 .
  • Sense and inner-worldly eschata: mysticism, apocalyptic and politics. In: tumult. Fonts for transportation science . Vol. 28, 2004, pp. 55-108.
  • The “existentially” foreign, the enemy and the struggle between God and evil in Carl Schmitt's concept of the political. In: Christian Bremshey, Hilde Hoffmann, Yomb May, Marco Ortu (eds.): There are no strangers. Xenology and knowledge (= cultural studies. Vol. 2). Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7458-3 , pp. 129-146.
  • The will to the trophy. Goebbels and the women. In: Lutz Hachmeister , Michael Kloft (ed.): The Goebbels Experiment. Propaganda and politics. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-12977-X , pp. 85-98.
  • National Socialism as a "political religion" and the "national community". In: Gerhard Besier , Hermann Lübbe (Hrsg.): Political religion and religious policy. Between totalitarianism and civil liberty (= writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research. Vol. 28). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-36904-2 , pp. 49-78.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch: The young Goebbels . Redemption and Destruction, Klaus Boer Verlag, 1995, p. 10, ISBN 3-924963-72-X .
  2. ↑ a b Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch: The political religion of National Socialism , Munich 1998, p. 9 f.
  3. ↑ Obituaries of Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch , Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 23, 2020
  4. ↑ Table of contents, forewords, excerpt.
personal data
SURNAME Bärsch, Claus-Ekkehard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political and religious scholar
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 2020