Fritz Vilmar

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Fritz Vilmar (born July 28, 1929 in Insterburg , East Prussia , † November 20, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German university professor . He taught political science and sociology at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin .

Life

After studying sociology, he worked in adult political education . From 1959 to 1970 he was a consultant in the educational work department of the IG Metall board . He was one of the founders of "Critical Peace Research", among other things through his books Armament and Disarmament in Late Capitalism (1965) and Socialist Peace Policy for Europe (1972). Since the 1970s he has concentrated his work on the theory of “humane alternatives” to the prevailing economic and social structures based on reform theory.

Vilmar was Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin since 1975 . Against left dogmatism, he founded the "University Initiative Democratic Socialism" in 1976 with like-minded people. (In 1980 he published in this context with Ossip K. Flechtheim and others The March of the DKP through the Institutions .) From 1977 member of the SPD's Basic Values ​​Commission , voted out of office in 1984 because of commitment to the Greens . Since 1983 he has been chairman or board member of the "Working Group Atomic Weapons-Free Europe" and in 1990 the initiator of the "Ecological Living and Working Group" (ÖkoLeA), which had set up a kibbutz-like community project in Klosterdorf near Strausberg since 1993 . Vilmar was later a member of the scientific advisory board of Attac Germany.

In 1994, companions and students presented important elements of Vilmar's life's work in the commemorative publication Courage for Utopia .

On November 15, 2003, after 52 years of membership, Vilmar left the SPD because of what he saw as a “capitalist adjustment policy”.

In 2008, the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity awarded Fritz Vilmar its “Human Rights Prize”.

Fonts (selection)

  • Strategies of democratization. 2 volumes. Luchterhand, Darmstadt et al. 1973, (at the same time: Hanover, Technical University, dissertation, 1974).
    • Volume 1: Theory of Practice (= Luchterhand Collection. 53). ISBN 3-472-61053-0 .
    • Volume 2: Models and struggles in practice (= Luchterhand collection. 115). ISBN 3-472-61115-4 .
  • as editor: Human dignity in the company. 2 volumes. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1973–1975.
    • Volume 1: Models of the humanization and democratization of the industrial working world (= rororo 1604 rororo current ). 1973, ISBN 3-499-11604-9 .
    • Volume 2: Industrial Democracy in Western Europe (= rororo 1711 rororo aktuell ). 1975, ISBN 3-499-11711-8 .
  • with Karl-Otto Sattler: Economic democracy and the humanization of work. Systematic integration of the most important concepts Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Cologne (including 1978), ISBN 3-434-45071-8 .
  • with Leo Kißler: the world of work. Outline of a critical sociology of work (= UTB 1167). Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1982, ISBN 3-8100-0400-6 .
  • with Thomas Kutsch: Shortening working hours - a way to full employment? Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983, ISBN 3-531-11587-1 .
  • with Klaus J. Scherer: Eco-Socialism? Red-green alliance policy. Verlag Europäische Perspektiven, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-89025-025-4 .
  • with Brigitte Runge: On the way to a self-help society? 40,000 self-help groups: general overview, political theory and suggestions for action. Klartext, Essen 1986, ISBN 3-88474-415-1 (Also as: Handbuch Selbsthilfe. Group reports. 900 addresses. Societal perspectives. Revised and significantly expanded new edition. Two thousand and one, Frankfurt am Main 1988).
  • with Walter B. Godenschweger: The saving power of utopia. German Jews found the Kibbutz Hasorea. Luchterhand, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-630-86733-2 .

Since 1991 he has coordinated the “Research Group Critical Analysis of Unification Politics”; their work results:

  • as editor with Wolfgang Dümcke : Colonization of the GDR. Critical analyzes and alternatives of the unification process (= agenda slow motion. 7). Agenda-Verlag, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-929440-67-9 .
  • with Gislaine Guittard: La face cachée de l'unification allemande. Les Éditions de l'Atelier, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-7082-3462-5 .
  • as editor: Ten years of unification politics. Critical balance sheet and humane alternatives (= series of critical analyzes on unification politics. Vol. 1). Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89626-221-1 .
  • as editor with Stefan Bollinger : The GDR was different. Critical appreciation of their important socio-cultural institutions. 2 volumes. 2002.
    • Main band. Edition Ost published by Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-360-01036-1 .
    • Supplementary volume. Research group critical analysis of unification politics at the Institute for Political Science of the Free University of Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-929532-29-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Wasmuth Scherer (Ed.): Courage for Utopia. Festschrift for Fritz Vilmar , Agenda-Verlag, Münster 1994, ISBN 3-929440-46-6 .
  2. Fritz Vilmar: From someone who left anyway In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 19, 2003
  3. http://www.die-ddr-war-anders.de/