Emerich K. Francis

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Emerich Klaus Francis , born Emerich Franzis (born June 27, 1906 in Gablonz , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary , † January 14, 1994 ) was an Austrian- American sociologist . He dealt mainly with ethnic minorities and religious groups, before emigration with practical-political intentions and a German-national orientation, after the Second World War theoretically and with scientific distance.

Life

Because Francis grew up in Innsbruck , he was able to remain an Austrian citizen even after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (to which his Bohemian birthplace had belonged). After graduation he studied for two semesters Jura in Innsbruck and went in 1926 to Prague . There he studied German , philosophy , pedagogy , psychology , folklore and history . In addition, he joined the University Association of Staffelstein , a Catholic - elitist , ethnic German-oriented, anti-democratic association that rejected the Czechoslovak national state. During these years, Francis denied his Jewish descent through a pronounced Catholic and German national creed. In 1930 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the educational content in the work of Bernard Bolzano . He then held an assistant position at the German Institute for Foreign Studies in Münster until 1933 . Then Francis returned to Austria and worked until 1939 as editor-in-chief of the Catholic people's newspaper in Warnsdorf . When Francis could no longer hide his Jewish ancestry in 1939, he fled to Great Britain via South Tyrol .

There he lived secluded in a Benedictine monastery until 1940 (like most civilians of German origin) he was imprisoned as an enemy alien . He was soon deported to the Canadian province of Manitoba , where he was released as an agricultural worker in 1942. Francis moved and worked as a typesetter in Winnipeg. In his free time, he also familiarized himself with the English language and later also with Anglo-American social science . From 1945 to 1947 he researched the history of the Mennonites in Manitoba on behalf of the Manitoba Historical Society . He got in touch with the University of Manitoba through the Historical Society . There he taught German language and literature from 1945 to 1947 and was also a university assistant for sociology. As early as 1947 he became an assistant professor at the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Southbend (US state Indiana ). In 1950 he became an associate professor there and in 1954 a full professor of sociology.

In 1954, Francis was granted US citizenship and visited Europe for the first time after the war. In the following two years he took on visiting professorships in Munich and Innsbruck. From 1955 onwards, Francis applied for the newly established sociology chair at the University of Munich , but was only able to work there in 1958 after lengthy university-political quarrels and a change of state government. Up until Francis' final appointment, old Alfred von Martin had administered the Munich chair. In addition, Francis became an honorary professor at the University of Innsbruck from 1969 . In 1974 he was in Munich emeritus .

Like his Jewish origins before 1939, Francis concealed his national and German past after World War II .

plant

In his sociological work, Francis remained true to his early themes, which he turned critically after emigrating: people , nation , minority . He also dealt with issues related to his life story: migration , flight , exile , emigration . He also wrote one of the first sociological textbooks in the Federal Republic of Germany. In it he presented (still as a professor at the University of Notre Dame) the main features of the empirical "American" sociologist.

Quotes

Before emigration

The German people were challenged in the future, his resume last in 1918 violently interrupted educator and pioneering work again, which is guided by the Holy consciousness (and should know) , that the most severe service means the peoples of the East tangle.

After emigration

So peoples are dynamic systems of social action just like all other types of social structures. They are subject to incessant decay and rebuilding. Depopulation, repopulation, assimilation, change of nationality and change of nationality - these are all everyday phenomena, especially at borders. In any case, they are the inevitable consequence of migrations, conquests, the separation of territories or the formation of new states.

Fonts (selection)

  • Bernard Bolzano . The pedagogical content of his teaching, at the same time a contribution to the intellectual history of the East Central European area. 1933.
  • In Search of Utopia. The Mennonites in Manitoba. 1955.
  • Scientific foundations of sociological thought. 2nd Edition. Francke, Bern / Munich 1960. (First edition 1957)
  • Ethnos and Demos. Sociological contributions to popular theory. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1965.
  • Interethnic Relations. An Essay in Sociological Theory. 1976.

literature

  • HP Henecka: Francis, Emerich K. In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf , Horst Knospe (Hrsg.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon. Volume 2, 2nd edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 251-253.
  • Werner von der Ohe : cultural anthropology. Contributions to the new beginning of a discipline. Celebration for Emerich K. Francis on his 80th birthday. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-06139-X .
  • Herbert Fischer: In memorian Emerich K. Francis (June 27, 1906 to November 14, 1994). In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. 46/1994, p. 184 f.
  • Karin Pohl: The sociologists Eugen Lemberg and Emerich K. Francis. Scientific historical considerations on the biographies of two "Staffelsteiners" in the "Volkstumskampf" and in post-war Germany. In: Bohemia. Journal of the history and culture of the Czech lands. Volume 45, Issue 1, Munich 2004, pp. 24-76.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. EK Francis: Scientific foundations of sociological thought. Franke Verlag, Bern / Munich 1957.
  2. Emerich Franzis: Thoughts on the young Catholic united front. West German and South German Catholicism. In: Voices of the Youth. 3, No. 6, 1931, pp. 205-208. (Quoted from Pohl, 2004, p. 39.)
  3. Emerich K. Francis: The people as a sociological category. Munich inaugural lecture 1959. In: Ders .: Ethnos and Demos, sociological contributions to folk theory. Berlin 1965, pp. 43-49. (quoted from Pohl, p. 71.)