Günther Rudolph

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Günther Rudolph (born July 19, 1929 in Leipzig ; † July 26, 2017 in Berlin ) was a German economist and sociologist . He was the only Tönnies researcher in the GDR . He also presented scientific publications on Karl Rodbertus . He received his doctorate in each of his two main topics .

Life

Rudolph finished school in Leipzig in 1946 with secondary school leaving certificate , after which he worked for a year as a worker in the city's electricity company. He obtained his university entrance qualification after attending a three-quarter-year course at the preparatory college of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig , to which the union of his company had delegated him. In the fall he began studying law , first in law . Soon he switched to philosophy , cultural politics and German studies . His most important academic teacher was Ernst Bloch .

Because Rudolph was considered not loyal to the line and thinking outside the box, he threatened to end his studies prematurely. But he was able to finish his studies with the support of Bloch - under great time and political pressure. In the spring of 1955 he successfully completed his studies with a thesis on the late philosophy of Schelling and then briefly worked in academic teaching. But when his teacher Bloch was forced to retire for political reasons in 1957 , he saw no possibility of continuing his academic career. He therefore began additional training in librarianship at the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig and the German State Library in Berlin , which he completed in the summer of 1957 with the specialist examination for academic library service. He worked at the Greifswald University Library until 1961 , then moved to the main library of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. There he was able to continue his academic career as a research assistant for the history of philosophy from 1963. In 1967 he moved to the Academy's Central Institute for Economics and researched the history of political economy .

At the same time, Rudolph was a member of a sociological working group led by Kurt Braunreuther . In this context he was in 1967 with the work The philosophical-sociological basic positions by Ferdinand Tönnies. A contribution to the history and criticism of bourgeois sociology . With this dissertation “he is one of the pioneers of Tönnies research after the Second World War .” A second doctorate followed ten years later, the title of the dissertation is: From Desiderius Erasmus to Rodbertus-Jagetzow. Investigations into pre-Marxist economic thinking with special consideration of the property concept. A contribution to the history and criticism of socio-economic ideologies in Germany .

Until the end of the GDR in 1990, Rudolph worked at the Academy of Sciences, where he always had to prove himself scientifically, because he had been non-party since the mid-1950s. Joined the SPD after the war , when the KPD and SPD were forced to unite, he automatically became a member of the SED , but was then expelled from the party and never rejoined in connection with the political and ideological disputes surrounding his teacher Ernst Bloch. After 1990, until he retired, he worked for the Ferdinand Tönnies Society in Kiel . He also remained active in journalism as a retiree.

Günther Rudolph was married to the radio play director Christa Kowalski , who died a few weeks before him. They were parents of a daughter and a son.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • The philosophical-sociological basic positions of Ferdinand Tönnies. A contribution to the history and criticism of bourgeois sociology . Materials from the Ferdinand Tönnies workstation at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Hamburg, Volume 12, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-929215-07-1 (also dissertation, Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1967).
  • Basic lines of economic thought in Germany. From the beginning to the middle of the 19th century . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1977 (as a member of the author collective).
  • From Desiderius Erasmus to Rodbertus-Jagetzow. Investigations into pre-Marxist economic thinking with special consideration of the property concept. A contribution to the history and criticism of socio-economic ideologies in Germany . Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1977 (dissertation).
  • Basic lines of economic thought in Germany from 1848 to 1945 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1980 (with Werner Krause).
  • Karl Rodbertus (1805–1875) and the basic pension theory. Political economy from the German pre-March . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1984.

Editing

  • Ferdinand Tönnies: The Nietzsche cult. A criticism . de Gruyter, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-05-005773-4 .

Book contributions

  • Economy and utopian-socialist aspects in the work of Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow (1805–1875). In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. Dedicated to the work of Auguste Comte. Born 1973, No. 20, Berlin 1975, pp. 92–130.
  • Conservatism as a reaction to the French Revolution - Friedrich von Gentz, Adam Müller, Karl Ludwig von Haller, Franz von Baader and Friedrich Ludwig Stahl. In: Ludwig Elm (Ed.): False Propheten. Studies on conservative-anti-democratic thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1984, pp. 23–73.
  • Ferdinand Tönnies and the teaching of Karl Marx. Approach and reservation. In: Lars Clausen , Carsten Schlüter (Ed.): Hundred Years of “ Community and Society ”. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1991, ISBN 3-8100-0750-1 , pp. 301-320.
  • Critical reception of Marx by Ferdinand Tönnies (1855–1936), the founder of sociology in Germany. In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. New episode 1994, Hamburg 1994, pp. 55-72.
  • Ferdinand Tönnies' view of the state. In: Uwe Carstens (Ed.): Ferdinand Tönnies. The welfare state between community and society . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2014, ISBN 978-3-8487-1626-5 , pp. 63–84.

Magazine articles

  • Ferdinand Tönnies and fascism. In: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University in Berlin. Social and Linguistic Series, Vol. 14, Issue 3/1965, pp. 339–345.
  • The effects of Karl Marx's “capital” on the bourgeois democrat Ferdinand Tönnies. In: Economics. Vol. 16, issue 5/1968, pp. 760-778.
  • The socio-economic thinking of the Erasmus of Rotterdam. In: German magazine for philosophy. Vol. 17, 1969, pp. 1076-1092.
  • Ulrich von Hutten's socio-economic views. In: German magazine for philosophy. Issue 12, 1972, pp. 1474-1493.

Newspaper articles

  • Kiel private lecturer visiting Engels. Ferdinand Tönnies - sociologist and anti-fascist. In: New Germany . 12./13. April 1986, p. 13.
  • Courageous privy councilor speech in the Kroll Opera. Prof. Ferdinand Tönnies - democrat and anti-fascist. In: National newspaper . No. 91, April 18, 1986, p. 14.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information is based on: Sebastian Klauke: Günther Rudolph - Life and Work: A sketch. In: Tönnies forum . Volume 26, 3/2017, pp. 66–70; as well as Sebastian Klauke: Günther Rudolph, Tönnies researcher in the GDR. In: Tönnies forum. Volume 25, 2/2016, pp. 39–42.
  2. ^ Sebastian Klauke: Günther Rudolph, Tönnies researcher in the GDR. In: Tönnies forum. Volume 25, 2/2016, p. 39.
  3. ↑ As early as 1987, he had been able to travel to a symposium of the Ferdinand Tönnies Society in Kiel.
  4. ↑ A list of all publications was compiled by Sebastian Klauke: Bibliography Günther Rudolph (as of October 2017). In: Tönnies forum. Volume 26, 3/2017, pp. 89–93.
personal data
SURNAME Rudolph, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2017
Place of death Berlin