Eduard Heimann

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Eduard Heimann

Eduard Magnus Mortier Heimann (born July 11, 1889 in Berlin ; † May 31, 1967 in Hamburg ) was a German economist and social scientist .

He was one of the leading religious socialists around the theologian Paul Tillich . In the early years of the Weimar Republic , Heimann concentrated on socialization issues. After completing his habilitation in Cologne in 1922, he was offered a position at the University of Hamburg in 1925 . There he dealt with questions of social economy until 1933 . He was particularly interested in developing a theory of social policy . In 1933 the National Socialists forced him to give up his academic activities. In the same year he went into exile . Heimann spent three decades in the United States , teaching economics and sociology at the New School for Social Research in New York . Even after his return to Hamburg in 1963, he continued to devote himself to the question of how a “third way” could be found between capitalism and communism . Heimann's journalistic work comprises around 200 treatises.

family

Heimann came from a Jewish merchant family. His father Hugo Heimann was a successful and wealthy publisher and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who was a member of the city parliament of Berlin, the Prussian House of Representatives and the Reichstag for many years and was friends with the party leaders August Bebel and Paul Singer . Other leading social democrats such as Karl Kautsky or Clara Zetkin were also frequent guests in the Heimann house.

Education

Eduard Heimann passed his Abitur at the French Gymnasium in Berlin in 1908 and then studied economics and social sciences in Heidelberg , Vienna and Berlin with leading classically and Marxist- oriented economists of his time. For example, he heard about Bawerk and Franz Oppenheimer from Eugen Böhm . At the same time, he attended courses given by the so-called Kathedersozialisten Gustav Schmoller and Adolph Wagner . In 1912 he received his doctorate from Alfred Weber in Heidelberg. He later referred to Franz Oppenheimer as his actual teacher.

In Heidelberg he made contact with the Free German youth , whose romanticism influenced his thinking.

Professional Activities

Heimann worked for several years in the private sector after completing his doctorate. He worked in the Bergmann Elektrizitätswerke , in the banking house Jaquiers and Securius , as well as in the Central Purchasing Company (ZEG), which is subordinate to the Reich government . During the First World War he was not drafted into the military for health reasons. In 1919 he took over the office of general secretary of the first socialization commission , the majority of which spoke out in favor of socializing the coal and steel industry . He also worked as a secretary in the second socialization commission. During his work for these commissions, which were located in the Reich Ministry of Economics , he got to know Walther Rathenau better.

He summarized his experiences and findings from the commission work in the study Added Value and Community Economy , with the first part of which he completed his habilitation in Cologne in 1922 . Still in 1922 took place at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg his Habilitation . There he then taught finance and social policy as a private lecturer . The University of Hamburg appointed him in 1925 to the chair for theoretical and practical social economy . From September 1927 on, Siegfried Landshut was his scientific assistant there .

As part of his work, Heimann took part in various contemporary debates in the social and economic sciences. Like many leading social scientists, he had already participated in the discussion of Heinrich Herkner's critical theses on social policy in the post-war period between 1923 and 1925 . The fact that Heimann was a recognized expert in his subject is also shown by the fact that he and Adolf Weber gave a lecture on the theoretical foundations of social policy at the conference of the Verein für Socialpolitik in 1930.

The National Socialist seizure of power ended Heimann's teaching activities, the National Socialists viewed him as an opponent due to his Jewish origins and his SPD membership since 1926. Some of his writings were condemned in the book burning . With his wife and twin daughters, Heimann emigrated to the United States via the Netherlands in 1933 . There he taught economics and sociology at the University in Exile and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of the New School for Social Research in New York City until 1958 . He also studied Christian theology in the USA and taught Christian social doctrine at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York . He also tried to help save people who were threatened by National Socialism in Europe. He was also able to pave the way for his own parents to come to the United States in this way. His sister committed suicide in late 1942 when she was about to be deported.

From 1948 Heimann gave frequent guest lectures in Europe, mostly in Germany, but also in France and Switzerland. A call to participate in the reconstruction of Germany is, however, never been ordered to Heimann, the chances of success in terms of re-education -Programms was skeptical. In 1963 he returned to Hamburg with his family, where he lived until his death. He lectured as emeritus at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg and as honorary professor at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn .

Spiritual influences

A number of influences were important to Heimann's writings. This included the ideas of Marxism and social democracy, the romanticism of the German youth movement , contemporary economic theories and cooperative economic concepts. Heimann had expressed his rejection of orthodox Marxism early on. In 1920 an essay that critically with the published value theory of Karl Marx dealt. This was connected with the draft of an essentially planned economic order with built-in market economy elements as well as a concept of a dynamic social policy and a gradual socialization of the economy. These ideas, which shaped his work, remained a minority opinion within the SPD.

His work was mainly influenced by the thoughts of the leading religious socialist Paul Tillich. The contact with Tillich had existed since the beginning of the Weimar Republic. In addition to Tillich and the social pedagogue Carl Mennicke , Heimann was one of the leading figures in the so-called Tillich circle . In the week of Pentecost in 1928 Heimann and Tillich, along with 80 other socialist-minded people - among them Martin Buber and Gustav Radbruch - took part in a conference in Heppenheim , which pursued the goal of "clearing lively socialist knowledge from the dregs of solidifying tradition and the To strengthen the socialist movement in its current situation through young drives in will and in action. ” Heimann spoke among others about the foundation of socialism, while Tillich gave a lecture on socialism and personal lifestyle.

Since 1930 Heimann, together with Fritz Klatt and Tillich, published the magazine Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus - magazine for intellectual and political design . Not only religious socialists published in this organ, but also a number of younger intellectuals close to socialism . They included, for example, Theodor Haubach , Emil Lederer , Adolf Löwe , Hendrik de Man , Carlo Mierendorff , Adolf Reichwein , Hugo Sinzheimer , Wilhelm Sollmann , Walter Dirks , Hermann Heller , Carl Landauer , Gustav Radbruch and Otto Stammer . The magazine, which, in the words of Tillich, wanted to "dare to dare socialism anew", was banned by the National Socialists in June 1933.

Contact with Tillich remained in exile as this scholar had also emigrated to the USA. How close the contact was is shown by the fact that Heimann was baptized by Tillich in 1944 at the age of 55. Tillich also referred to Heimann in a small circle as his "Peter".

Social science work

Heimann put the community , which was ethically oriented towards Christianity and in this way was supposed to overcome widespread alienation , above the individual. He rejected the capitalism of his present without discarding the efficiency of his economic system. He advocated changing this social and economic order little by little with socialist ideas. A comprehensive and continuously expanded social policy was of decisive importance for Heimann. In this regard, he was looking for a "third way" between socialism and capitalism, for a socialist market economy . Heimann rejected communist social and political ideas. Fundamental social changes are not to be brought about by revolutions , but by means of education and decision-making . In contrast to orthodox Marxist positions, Heimann also considered the neglect of the peasant and middle-class population groups to be a decisive theoretical and political mistake of the labor movement.

The subjects of his research were the functioning and functionality of economic and social systems, practical and theoretical questions of social policy as well as the history of ideas and the methodology that shaped these subject areas. He viewed the diverse social, economic and political problems of the interwar period primarily in terms of regulatory policy . Heimann endeavored to separate science and action and in this respect followed Max Weber's postulate of freedom from value judgments . However, his religious-socialist outlook always remained clear in his works.

In his 1929 book Social Theory of Capitalism, for example, Heimann tried to formulate a general basis for social policy on this basis. In it he almost completely renounced Marxist teachings and defined - based on Tillich - social policy as the "institutional precipitate of the social idea in capitalism." Social policy would have a conservative-revolutionary double face. It “realizes bit by bit the social idea within capitalism and thereby ensures its orderly progress. (...) It fulfills a production-political necessity within the capitalist system, which however consists in a partial dismantling of the system, in the incorporation of foreign ideas. ” These would develop further into socialism. The prerequisite, however, is that the workers “do not allow themselves to be legitimized as citizens. (...) that they do not sell their historical right to redesign the world based on the spirit of social freedom for a lens dish of the socio-political mitigation of capitalism. ” The orderly continuance of capitalism would change its essence, the socially reformed liberal system would arise Democracy .

In his 1947 work Freedom and Order , Heimann claimed that capitalism had created too much freedom. As a counter-reaction, the coercive systems of fascism and Bolshevism emerged, which brought about bondage. However, a balance between freedom and order is essential for political stability.

In 1954 and 1955 Heimann published studies on economic and social systems as well as on belief in reason and religion in modern society . Here he advocated the thesis that both capitalism and communism clearly overestimated the economy, especially economic growth. Both systems have a common root: rationalism . The belief in reason divides society and the present. Religion alone offers a way out of this comprehensive crisis. Due to occidental history, this can only be imagined as re- Christianization , as the revival of a “religiously grounded community spirit” . Heimann did not trust the social sciences with the analysis of the present and the development of solution strategies, because they were split up into individual disciplines and had lost the necessary view of the whole.

In Heimann's last major study (Social Theory of Economic Systems) , presented by him in 1963, he once again emphasized what he believed to be the inhuman character of contemporary economic forms. Communism, and especially capitalism, has an inherent compulsion to expand. However, capitalism has been restrained by internal and external pressure. Trade unions , federations and associations of all kinds have largely limited the classic laissez-faire principle. The problem is no longer whether the economy is to be organized liberally , collectivist or mixed- economy ; Rather, the present task is to overcome consumerism and the submission of people to technology and science . Cultural and social reforms are therefore on the agenda in order to give people a higher degree of freedom, to be able to control the ecological consequences of economic activity and to ensure the continued existence of the earth as a whole.

effect

Heimann's ideas of an appropriate economic order did not come into play in practice. Between 1933 and 1945, the National Socialists pursued completely different political and social goals. In the first years after World War II , when a “third way” between capitalism and communism was being discussed in public, Heimann's considerations were occasionally appreciated. Heimann's ready-to-print lectures in Hamburg, for example, were overcrowded and fascinated many of his listeners. Among them was Helmut Schmidt . Heimann was a formative academic teacher for the future Chancellor, with whom he often discussed late into the night. "For me, Eduard Heimann was the first great American that I saw directly."

In the further course of economic and social development in Germany, the economic and regulatory discussion diverged more and more from Heimann's theoretical concepts. His work is currently not widely received in either the USA or Germany. For Gerhard Besier , Heimann is now one of the "forgotten scientists of the 20th century" . This neglect affects all major dimensions of Heimann's work - religion, economy and (social democratic) politics. In 1999, Heinz Rieter gave several reasons for this. On the one hand, the interest in mixed forms of economy has clearly decreased after the failure of the real socialist experiments . On the other hand, the often pathetic language of Heimann's texts, as well as his belief in the ability of people to improve, hindered his effectiveness. In addition, when considering economic problems, a methodology and language has prevailed that is clearly different from Heimann's, which was characterized by “German means of thinking” from the first two decades of the 20th century. Rieter sees a fourth reason in the spiritual closeness of Heimann to Paul Tillich, whose world of ideas he always remained loyal to, while other comrades-in-arms from the circle of religious socialists would have emancipated themselves from Tillich.

Honors

The law and political science faculty of the University of Hamburg awarded Heimann an honorary doctorate in 1948 . In 1951 the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg made him professor emeritus . The Academy for Community Economy dedicated a commemorative publication to him on his 70th birthday. In 1965, the German Trade Union Confederation awarded its culture prize to Eduard Heimann and Paul Jostock . Before the awards ceremony, Jostock died on April 24, 1965 in Stuttgart.

literature

  • Art. Heimann, Eduard . In: Herbert A. Strauss , Werner Röder (eds.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. Vol. II, Part 1: A - K, The Arts, Sciences, and Literature. Sauer, Munich a. a. 1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 447.
  • Bernhard Badura : Heimann's democratic socialism, a provocation of modern social policy . In: Eduard Heimann: Social theory of capitalism. Social Policy Theory . With a foreword by Bernhard Badura, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-518-11052-7 , pp. III-XXII.
  • Gerhard Besier : No longer a "German Patriot"? Eduard Heimann at the New School for Social Research . In: Mike Schmeitzner (Ed.): Criticism of totalitarianism from the left. German discourses in the 20th century (= writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism . Volume 34). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-36910-4 , pp. 161-175.
  • Ulrich Heyder: Overall social thinking in Eduard Heimann's work . In: Rainer Waßner : Paths to the social. 90 years of sociology in Hamburg . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-8100-0595-9 , pp. 49-62.
  • Rainer Nicolaysen : Heimann, Eduard. In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . Lexicon of persons. Vol. 3. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , pp. 158-160.
  • Arnold Pfeiffer: Heimann, Eduard . In: Manfred Asendorf, Rolf von Bockel: Democratic ways. German résumés from five centuries . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1997, ISBN 3-476-01244-1 , pp. 243-246.
  • Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb , Eduard Heimann. Social economist, socialist and Christian - an obituary. In: Eduard Heimann: Socialism in the change of modern society. Essays on the theory and practice of socialism. A memory tape. Edited and introduced by Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, JHW ​​Dietz Nachf., Berlin / Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1975, ISBN 3-8012-1077-4 , pp. 1-20.
  • August Rathmann: Eduard Heimann (1889–1967). From Marx and his “overwhelmingly great” teaching on religious-liberal socialism . In: Peter Lösche , Michael Scholing, Franz Walter : Keep from being forgotten. Life paths of Weimar Social Democrats . Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7678-0741-6 , pp. 121-144.
  • Heinz Rieter: Heimann, Eduard. In: Harald Hagemann , Claus-Dieter Krohn (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking economic emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Adler – Lehmann. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11284-X , pp. 242-251.
  • 100 years of the main building of the University of Hamburg. Speeches at the ceremony on May 13, 2011 and on the occasion of the naming of lecture halls H and K in the main building of the university after the social economist Eduard Heimann (1889-1967) and the lawyer Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1874-1936). Hamburg Univ. Press, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-937816-98-2 .

Web links

Commons : Eduard Heimann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Number according to Ulrich Heyder, Art. Heimann, Eduard. In: Internationales Soziologenlexikon, Volume 1, articles on sociologists who died by the end of 1969 , ed. by Wilhelm Bernsdorf and Horst Knospe. 2nd, revised edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1980, pp. 172–174, here p. 173. ISBN 3-432-82652-4 .
  2. ↑ The article is based heavily on the contribution by Heinz Rieter mentioned in the literature list. Where this is not the case, this is marked separately.
  3. ^ Rainer Nicolaysen, Heimann, Eduard Magnus Mortier , p. 159.
  4. ↑ Information on Heimann's private sector activities according to Ulrich Heyder, Gesamtgesellschaftliches Thinking , p. 61.
  5. ↑ The Deutsche Bank appropriated this bank as part of the Aryanization , see briefly Aryanization: Nobody has anything to celebrate here . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1987, pp. 58-72 ( online ).
  6. ↑ On the ZEG see briefly Saul Friedländer : The Third Reich and the Jews. The years of persecution 1933–1939 . CH Beck / dtv, Munich 1998, p. 88, ISBN 3-423-30765-X .
  7. ^ Ludwig Preller : Social Policy in the Weimar Republic . Kronberg, 1978. ISBN 3-7610-7210-4 , p. 208 and p. 212 f.
  8. ↑ See the obituary (PDF; 449 kB) in the German-Jewish newspaper Aufbau from March 1946.
  9. ↑ On the lack of reputation and Heimann's skepticism, see briefly Gerhard Besier, No longer a "German Patriot"? , P. 175.
  10. ^ Helga Grebing History of the German Labor Movement. From the revolution of 1848 to the 21st century , Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-86602-288-1 , p. 92.
  11. ^ Franz Osterroth, Dieter Schuster: Chronicle of the German Social Democracy. Vol. 2: From the beginning of the Weimar Republic to the end of the Second World War , Verlag JH Dietz Nachf., Hanover, 1963, ISBN 3-8012-1084-7 . Online here .
  12. ↑ For the group of advisory board members and authors of this journal, see Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , p. 11, note 18.
  13. ↑ On this claim, briefly Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , p. 11 f.
  14. ^ Franz Osterroth / Dieter Schuster, Chronik , Vol. 2, p. 213, p. 316.
  15. ↑ See briefly on this judgment Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , p. 10 f. and August Rathmann, Eduard Heimann (1889–1967) , p. 132.
  16. ↑ Quoted from Ludwig Preller, Sozialpolitik in der Weimarer Republik , p. 218. For the core thesis of the publication Social Theory of Capitalism, see also the excerpt from the corresponding review by Götz Briefs , cited by Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , p. 7 f . In detail, in particular Bernhard Badura, Heimanns democratic socialism , especially pp. III – XV.
  17. ↑ On this, Ulrich Heyder, Overall Societal Thinking , p. 56.
  18. ^ German translation 1950 under the title Freedom and Order. Lessons from the war .
  19. ↑ On this briefly Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , p. 13.
  20. ^ Gerhard Besier, No longer a "German Patriot"? , P. 164.
  21. ↑ See briefly Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , pp. 13–16 and Ulrich Heyder, Gesamtgesellschaftliches Thinking , p. 50.
  22. ↑ For the basic considerations in the social theory of science systems see Heinz-Dietrich Ortlieb, Eduard Heimann , pp. 16-18. See also Ulrich Heyder, Overall Societal Thinking , p. 53.
  23. ↑ See Helmut Schmidt: Menschen und Mächte , Siedler, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-88680-278-7 , p. 162 f, quotation on p. 163. On the importance of Eduard Heimann for Schmidt see also Hartmut Soell: Helmut Schmidt. 1918-1969. Reason and passion , Dt. Verl.-Anst., Munich 2003, ISBN 3-421-05352-9 , p. 172. Here also the labeling of Heimann's lectures as "ready for printing".
  24. ^ Gerhard Besier, No longer a "German Patriot"? , P. 161.
  25. ↑ Cf. on this Heinz Rieter, Art. Heimann, Eduard , in Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Emigration nach 1933 , p. 248 f.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 15, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Heimann, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heimann, Eduard Magnus Mortier (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and social scientist
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Kingdom of Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1967
Place of death Hamburg , Federal Republic of Germany