Elmar Wiesendahl

Elmar Wiesendahl (* 1945 in Arnsberg , Sauerland ) is a German political scientist and party researcher.

Life

Wiesendahl studied sociology , economics and political science in Münster and Hamburg . He completed his studies with a degree in sociology. He wrote his diploma thesis entitled The Influence of Internal Opposition on Internal Party Democracy in a Political Youth Association (examined using the example of the Hamburg Regional Association of the Young Union) at the University of Hamburg . The background to the survey study was provided by a violent argument in 1967 about the internal course within the Junge Union Hamburg, in which the camps of the then state and later federal chairman of the Junge Union, Jürgen Echternach , and the rebel camp around Stephan Reimers faced each other. During this period Wiesendahl was district chairman of the JU and chairman of the RCDS in Hamburg. In 1971 Wiesendahl resigned from the CDU and Junge Union with 17 other Hamburg CDU members because of differences with the party leadership.

In 1979 he submitted his doctoral thesis to Janpeter Kob in Hamburg on the subject of parties and democracy: a sociological analysis of paradigmatic approaches in party research . His habilitation in political science at the University of Hamburg is also based on a theoretical study of the organizational structure of parties.

After several years of lecturing as scientific director at the leadership academy of the Bundeswehr Hamburg and as a lecturer for sociology at the University of Hamburg, he was appointed professor at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich in 1992 . In April 2006 he moved to the leadership academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg as director and head of the social sciences department.

After his retirement in May 2010 he became managing director and partner of the Agency for Political Strategy (APOS) in Hamburg, whose founding partners are Joachim Raschke and Ralf Tils.

Wiesendahl was active for a long time in teacher training and in the training of executives in public administration and politics.

job

As part of his research, Wiesendahl dealt with theories of democracy in the early 1980s and, in addition to articles on military sociology and elite research, published studies on theoretical and empirical party research. Wiesendahl is considered an expert in the field of party research , especially in the research field of fundamentals and changes in member and people 's parties as well as the social anchoring and organizational structure of parties. His book Parties from the Fischer-Kompakt series is regarded as a standard overview work for party research.

Wiesendahl supported the change in Hamburg's electoral law implemented by the association Mehr Demokratie by referendum and criticized the direct change made by the CDU, which ruled with an absolute majority. He supported the call for Hamburg constitutional law teachers and political scientists.

Publications (selection)

• Dierk-Eckhard Becker, Elmar Wiesendahl: Without a program to Bonn or the Union as a Chancellor Association . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1972, ISBN 3-499-11606-5 .
• Elmar Wiesendahl: Modern democracy theory: an introduction to its foundations, varieties and controversies . Diesterweg, Frankfurt 1981, ISBN 3-425-05187-3 .
• Elmar Wiesendahl: Parties in perspective: theoretical views of the organizational reality of political parties . Westdeutscher Verlag , Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-531-13121-4 .
• Elmar Wiesendahl: Member parties at the end? : A criticism of the decline discussion . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14350-6 . [1]
• Elmar Wiesendahl (Ed.): Elites in the transformation of society and the armed forces. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh , Paderborn, 2007
• Elmar Wiesendahl, Uwe Jun, Oskar Niedermayer (eds.): The future of the member party. Barbara Budrich Verlag , Opladen / Farmington Hills 2009, ISBN 978-3-86649-204-2
• Elmar Wiesendahl: People's parties. Rise, decline and future. Barbara Budrich Verlag , Opladen / Farmington Hills 2011, ISBN 978-3-86649-385-8

Web links

• Literature by and about Elmar Wiesendahl in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview Hamburger Morgenpost from September 9, 2006 ( Memento from June 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Statement on the call for professors from October 12, 2007 ( Memento from January 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )