Elisabeth Löckenhoff

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Elisabeth Löckenhoff , born as Elisabeth Maria Herrmann (born January 30, 1929 in Gerdauen ; † July 9, 1985 in Berlin ) was a German communication scientist who dealt intensively with the press theory of the GDR. From 1972 until her death she was a professor of journalism at the Free University of Berlin .

Life

Elisabeth Löckenhoff was born in Gerdauen / East Prussia as one of three children. Together with her two brothers and her mother, she had to flee from East Prussia to Halle / Saale in 1944. There she graduated from high school and began studying German , history , art history and psychology at the University of Halle . She supported anti-fascism and demonstrated together with the education professor and dean of the philosophical faculty, Gustav Lange .

In 1949 Löckenhoff moved to West Berlin to study journalism with the minor subjects German and psychology at the newly founded Free University .

At the beginning she helped to set up the Institute for Journalism until she began to work as a student assistant at the then Professor of Journalism , Emil Dovifat , in 1952 . In 1955 she was appointed his research assistant. This should show that she would be a candidate for the subject. Her duties here were updating numbers, data and advising students. In the period between 1952 and 1955 she did her doctorate with a thesis on the propaganda function of school books in the GDR . At the end of the 1950s she married Helmut Löckenhoff and moved with him to Frankfurt / Main . During this time she dealt intensively with the press theory of the GDR.

In 1957 and from August to October 1963 Löckenhoff made a long research trip to the United States and visited numerous universities there.

In 1959/60 she returned to the Free University of Berlin and was appointed academic adviser and managing director of the Institute for Journalism when Fritz Eberhard took up the position of the new professor . In 1963 she published under the name EM Löckenhoff On Theory and Practice of the Press in Germany's Soviet Zone of Occupation .

On March 3, 1972, she received the professorship for journalism and was allowed to act as a professor at the Free University of Berlin from then on . During this time, Elisabeth Löckenhoff wrote and published very little and turned to courses in media education and the journalism of National Socialism .

Due to her early death at the age of 56, she was no longer able to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall and the transformation of the GDR media system.

Scientific work

The main research focus of Elisabeth Löckenhoff fell on the media system and the media of the GDR. Her research and differentiations aroused divided opinions in Germany.

In 1954 she submitted the work The propaganda function of schools in the Soviet occupation zone . This dissertation by Löckenhoff deals with the contradictions in the propaganda for the formation of Soviet people. She also tried to estimate the potential effect. The work has not yet been published.

After Elisabeth Löckenhoff was appointed research assistant in 1956/57, her monograph Die Presse in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany appeared in the series of publications of the Bonn Reports from Central and Eastern Germany of the All-German Ministry (Herrmann 1957). The GDR journalism should be a focus of your work. Her work consisted of working out political guidelines for the media from the writings of the classics ( Karl Marx , Lenin , Stalin ) and their further development. This became their unique selling point in the 1950s and 1960s .

In the same year, 1957, Löckenhoff published, at that time still as Elisabeth Maria Herrmann, the work The present situation of the press in the Soviet zone . Her research focus was to determine differences between the press in the Soviet zone and, for example, the press in Poland. Löckenhoff found out that the "press in the Soviet zone has a greater variety of form and content". Due to the geographical location of the Soviet zone, journalistic security measures were necessary. On the one hand, the Soviet Zone was to be shielded from Poland; on the other hand, there was a defense against the flows of information that penetrated Central Germany.

Together with Marianne Lunzer, she also researched the history of the press at that time. Her professional fields of activity were in the field of market and media research. As part of this, she held seminars at the Free University of Berlin , primarily referring to the writings of the Munich sociologist Horst Holzer .

The focus of her last activity at the Institute for Journalism at the Free University of Berlin was no longer just the "media studies topics of the GDR", she also examined the developments in the journalistic system of the GDR and the Federal Republic. Her lecture in one of her courses on the problem of “youth and mass media” made it clear how much she was interested in the journalistic system and the type of effectiveness of journalists in the GDR. In this research area, she was primarily concerned with the effectiveness of the medium.

Works and publications

Instead of EM Herrmann, the author's name Elisabeth Löckenhoff was chosen from 1966 onwards

  • The press of the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany. Bonn: Deutscher Bundes-Verlag 1957.
  • The Present State of the Press in the Soviet Zone. In: Publizistik 2. Jg. (1957) pp. 217–222
  • Press - GDR. In: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (Hrsg.): Fischer Lexikon Publizistik. Frankfurt / Main: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag 1971, pp. 241–245
  • On the theory and practice of the press in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. Reports and documents. Berlin: Colloquium Verlag 1963
  • For guidance and control of the SED press. Review of the press conferences 1950–1964. In: Publizistik 11th vol. (1966), pp. 299–309
  • Mass media USSR. In: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (Hrsg.): Fischer Lexikon Publizistik. Frankfurt / Main: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag 1971, pp. 132–138.
  • To determine the terms agitation and propaganda using the example of the production contingent (1961/62) in the GDR. In: Peter Christian Ludz (Ed.): Studies
  • Materials on the sociology of the GDR. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie, special issue 8, pp. 309-325

literature

  • Verena Blaum: Review: EM Herrmann (1963): On the theory and practice of the press in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. Reports and documents. In: Christina Holtz-Bacha / Arnulf Kutsch (ed.): Key works for communication studies. Wiesbaden 2002, pp. 199-202
  • Hans Bohrmann: Obituary for Elisabeth Löckenhoff. In: Publizistik, 30 (4), 547-548
  • Hans Bohrmann: Elisabeth Löckenhoff at the Institute for Journalism at the Free University of Berlin (1952–1985). In: Geserick, Rolf / Kutsch, Arnulf (ed.): Journalism and journalism in the GDR. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-20550-3 , ISBN 978-3-598-20550-7 , pp. 17-35
  • Rolf Geserick, Arnulf Kutsch: Journalism and journalism in the GDR. Eight contributions in memory of Elisabeth Löckenhoff. Saur, Munich, New York, London, Paris, 1988, ISBN 3-598-20550-3 , ISBN 978-3-598-20550-7
  • Martina Thiele: To be seen. The life paths and careers of female scientists of the next generation - a contribution to feminist historiography. In: Feminist Studies, 33rd year; H. 1/2015, ISSN 0723-5186 pp. 75-89

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Elisabeth Löckenhoff - Biographical Lexicon of Communication Science . In: Biographical Lexicon of Communication Science . April 21, 2016 ( halemverlag.de [accessed December 21, 2016]).
  2. ↑ Hans Bohrmann: Obituary for Elisabeth Löckenhoff . In: Journalism . 1985, p. 547-548 .
  3. ↑ Martina Thiele: To be seen. The life paths and careers of female scientists of the next generation - a contribution to feminist historiography . In: Feminist Studies . 2015, p. 75-89 .
  4. ↑ Martina Thiele: To be seen. The life paths and careers of female scientists of the next generation - a contribution to feminist historiography . In: Feminist Studies . 2015, p. 75-89 .
  5. ^ Elisabeth Maria Herrmann: The current situation of the press in the Soviet zone . In: Elisabeth Maria Herrmann (Ed.): Journalism . 2nd Edition. Heye, Konstanz / Bremen / Munich / Wiesbaden 1957, p. 217-222 .
personal data
SURNAME Löckenhoff, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herrmann, Elisabeth Maria (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communication scientist
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Gerdauen
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1985
Place of death Berlin