Georg Klaus

Georg Klaus (born December 28, 1912 in Nuremberg , † July 29, 1974 in East Berlin ) was a German Marxist philosopher , chess player and chess official.

Life

Klaus was the third son of the iron caster Georg Heinrich Klaus. In 1932 he began studying mathematics at the University of Erlangen . During this time he became a member of the KPD . For his political activities he was arrested in 1933 and convicted of high treason. He spent two years in prison in Nuremberg and then three years in protective custody until 1939 in Dachau concentration camp . After his release he worked in pencil factories in Nuremberg ( Faber-Castell or Schwan pencil).

In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and deployed on the Eastern Front. Because of a lung wound, he spent a long time in the hospital. In 1945 he was captured by the Allies on the Western Front. After his release he was head of the Thüringer Volk publishing house in Sonneberg (Thuringia) in 1945/46 , in September 1945 he became district chairman of the KPD in Sonneberg and in 1946 a member of the district leadership of the SED. In 1946 and 1947 he attended the SED party college "Karl Marx" and was then secretary of the SED state leadership in Thuringia.

In 1947 he resumed his studies in Jena and graduated in 1948 as Dr. paed. of education . After teaching and completing his habilitation , he became a professor for dialectical and historical materialism in Jena in 1950 . In 1953 he moved to the Humboldt University in Berlin (HUB), where he became director of the Institute for Philosophy. At the same time he took over the chair for logic and epistemology. In 1959 he moved to the German Academy of Sciences , where he took over the management of the "Philosophy-Historical Texts" department. At the same time, Hermann Ley , succeeding him as director of the Institute for Philosophy at the HUB, began building up the new chair for Philosophical Problems in Science , actively supported by Klaus' student Herbert Hörz .

Under the leadership of Klaus and with a steadily growing workforce (initially around 20, later around 140 employees), the Institute for Philosophy at the Academy developed from this (most recently “Central Institute for Philosophy” of the Academy). In 1961 Klaus was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences.

tomb

Klaus was married twice. He had a daughter from his first marriage to Maria. In his second marriage, his wife Elfriede brought two daughters, whom Klaus adopted. The family lived in the suburbs of Berlin for the longest time, most recently in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen . His adopted daughter Sabine, a television director, has taken over this house and lives here in her second marriage to Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski .

He was buried in the Pergolenweg grave complex in the Socialist Memorial at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin.

Work areas

The connection between his philosophy and modern sciences was part of Georg Klaus' philosophical concern. He had recognized that there was considerable lag in the philosophical reception in this area. Marxist philosophy had great difficulties in the middle of the 20th century with a materialistic understanding of mathematics and logic, with more recent results in physics (for example on space and time) and with disciplines such as semiotics and cybernetics . This explains his intensive preoccupation with modern logic, cybernetics, semiotics and a general methodology of the sciences. His related work always included rejecting unscientific and dogmatic philosophical interpretations of scientific results.

From 1954 onwards, Klaus held a two-semester philosophical lecture on logic at the Institute for Philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin , whereby by logic he understood its modern form, known as mathematical logic . This lecture formed the basis for his later writings on modern logic, which appeared in several, increasingly improved and expanded editions (see works). In the context of this lecture, Klaus also developed a sharp polemic against philosophical misjudgments of modern logic, such as formal logic in the sense of David Hilbert . His rigorous assessments of works on the philosophical evaluation of logic by the Hungarian Marxist Béla Fogarasi earned him many rebukes in the GDR.

After moving to the Academy of Sciences in the GDR , where he initially headed the "Philosophy-Historical Texts" department, Klaus took part in the publication of philosophical-historical writings, which he provided with detailed prefaces and scientific comments. Klaus had extensive knowledge of the history of philosophy. It is therefore wrong - as has often happened - to see Georg Klaus alone as the "cybernetics philosopher".

However, cybernetics and their subdivisions included ( system theory , control theory, control theory , information and communication theory , game theory ) to Klaus preferably treated areas. In cybernetics, he is not satisfied with an epistemological and philosophical analysis of cybernetics and its sub-areas as well as possible applications in other disciplines, but also tried to create scientific-political and scientific-organizational prerequisites for it. At the academy this led to the formation of a cybernetics commission , which was appointed by the then general secretary of the academy. Georg Klaus was in charge of this commission, supported by his students Rainer Thiel and Heinz Liebscher. The commission should develop a memorandum in which the state of research and future requirements with regard to the use of cybernetic mindsets should be recorded.

In 1963, Klaus directed Unlifted Treasures. Epistemological aspects of the so-called gifted theory in the weekly newspaper Sonntag , No. 20, in the GDR the rethinking from a hitherto purely environmental perspective to a more complex one.

In parallel to his scientific-theoretical and methodological investigations, Georg Klaus endeavored to contribute to the development of the philosophy of dialectical materialism and sought to raise it to the level of the natural and social sciences of the 20th century. This made it possible, for example, to design the course in economic cybernetics , which was introduced at some universities in the GDR at the end of the 1960s, but was discontinued in the mid-1970s for ideological reasons after the change in power in the SED Politburo from Walter Ulbricht to Erich Honecker . Klaus initiated and edited the Philosophical Dictionary together with Manfred Buhr . He also published the Dictionary of Cybernetics .

chess

In 1928 Klaus became a member of the Nuremberg workers' chess club . He was responsible for the chess corner for the Fränkische Tagespost newspaper . After the forced dissolution of the workers' chess club, he became a member of the Noris Nuremberg civil chess club . Here he was team champion of Franconia in 1933.

In 1942 Klaus surprisingly came second in the competition in Regensburg , which enabled him to qualify for the Greater German Championship in Bad Oeynhausen . Here he took shared second place (behind Ludwig Rellstab ). In 1943 he reached fourth place at the 4th Chess Masters Tournament of the General Government in Krynica . He managed a victory over Bogolyubov .

In 1953/54 Klaus was President of the Chess Section of the GDR .

In 1953 he drew as a participant in a competition between the GDR and Bulgaria in Sofia.

Klaus described the former world chess champion Emanuel Lasker as a forerunner of game theory.

Fonts

• The epistemological isomorphism relation (1948, diss.)
• Nuclear Power - Nuclear War? (together with Peter Porst) 1949, 1st to 1950, 4th edition.
• Preface to: Kant, I .: General natural history and theory of heaven. Berlin 1955, Philosophische Bücherei 3, pp. 5-36
• The discoveries of Carl Friedrich Gauß in the field of geometry and their philosophical significance. Structure 11 (1955) 6, 120-134
• Lucretius Carus. Structure 11 (1955) 10, 890-897
• Introduction to: Lucretius: About the nature of things. Berlin 1957, Philosophische Bücherei 12, pp. 5–21
• Lecture on philosophical and social problems of cybernetics (1957)
• Jesuits, God, Matter - the Jesuit Father's Revolt against Reason and Science (1957)
• Introduction to formal logic (1958; 2nd edition 1959); Modern logic. Outline of formal logic (1964 1st; 7th edition 1973)
• Experienced chess novella. In: Karau, Anita and Wenzel Renner: Black and White - Cheerful and serious encounters with the royal game in literature. 1st edition, Sportverlag Berlin. 1960, pp. 164-182.
• Cybernetics from a philosophical point of view (1961 1st to 1965 4th ed.)
• Introduction to: Kant, I .: The early writings of Immanuel Kant - their significance in the history of philosophy and the history of science. (1961) pp. VII-XCVII
• About the existence of cybernetic systems in society (together with Rainer Thiel). German Journal of Philosophy (1962) 1, pp. 22-57
• Semiotics and Epistemology (1963 1st to 4th ed. 1973)
• Cybernetics and Society (1964 1st to 3rd ed. 1973)
• Georg Klaus, Manfred Buhr (Hg.): Philosophical dictionary . 2 vol., Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1964 (10th revised and expanded edition 1974)
• Dictionary of Cybernetics. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1968 and Fischer Handbooks Vol. 1 and 2, Frankfurt / Hamburg 1969
• The power of the word. An epistemological-pragmatic treatise. 1964 1st to 6th edition 1972
• Special epistemology. Principles of Scientific Theory Formation (1965)
• What is, what is cybernetics? (together with Heinz Liebscher) (1966, 1st to 1974, 9th edition)
• Sense, Law and Progress in History (together with Hans Schulze) 1967
• Game theory from a philosophical point of view (1968)
• Language of Politics (1971)
• Cybernetics and Epistemology (1966 1st to 5th ed. 1972)
• Cybernetics, a new universal philosophy of society? (1973)
• Rationality - Integration - Information. Laws of Development of Science in Our Time (1974)
• Systems - Information - Strategies (together with Heinz Liebscher) (1974)
• Philosophy-historical treatises. Copernicus - D 'Alembert - Condillac - Kant (1977) (edited by Manfred Buhr)
• Contributions to philosophical problems in the individual sciences (1978) (edited by Heinz Liebscher)
• Comments on the current status of Marxist philosophy in the GDR and the prospects for its further development (1968) (as * text from the estate in: Eckardt 2002: 127–142)

literature

• Heinz Liebscher: Pleasure to think, pleasure in arguments. On the first anniversary of Georg Klaus' death on July 29, 1975 . In: Sonntag 29 (1975) of August 3, 1975, p. 8
• Heinz Liebscher: Georg Klaus on philosophical problems of mathematics and cybernetics . German Science Publishers, Berlin 1982
• Heinz Liebscher: Georg Klaus - Life and Achievement. Conversation with Dr. Heinz Liebscher. Radio broadcast Radio DDR II on December 23, 1982, series "Studio 80"
• Helmut Korch: Klaus, Georg. In: Philosophers' Lexicon. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1982, pp. 478-480
• Heinz Liebscher: An uncomfortable man who created something new . In: Spectrum , Berlin 14 (1983) 1, 28 29
• Heinrich Scheel (Ed.): Philosophy - Science. On the work of Georg Klaus . Berlin 1984, meeting reports of the AdW of the GDR, social sciences. Born 1983, No. 10 / G
• Heinz Liebscher: Philosophy and other sciences from the point of view of Georg Klaus. In: From the philosophical life of the GDR . Information bulletin. Berlin 21 (1985) 8/1, 31-35
• Heinz Liebscher: External or self-regulation? Systemic thinking in the GDR between science and ideology. LIT Verlag, Münster 1995
• Heinz Liebscher: Georg Klaus - an uncomfortable Marxist. In: Beginnings of the GDR philosophy. Claims, powerlessness, failure. Edited by V. Gerhardt, H.-C. Rauh, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2001, pp. 406-419
• Jérôme Segal: Cybernetics in the GDR - encounter with the Marxist ideology, Dresden contributions to the history of technology and technical science. 27, 2001, pp. 47-75
• Michael Eckardt (Ed.): Man-machine symbiosis. Selected writings by Georg Klaus on construction science and media theory. VDG, Weimar 2002
• Michael Eckardt: The philosopher and scientific theorist Georg Klaus (list of publications). In: Deutschland-Archiv 35 (2002) 3, 544–552.
• Michael Eckardt: Philosophy and Philosophers in Jena: Max Bense and Georg Klaus. In: M. Weissbecker (Ed.): Gewalten, Gestalten, remembrance: Contributions to the history of the FSU Jena in the first years after 1945. Jena 2002, pp. 51–69.
• Michael Eckardt: Applied science revision - overlaps and parallels in the work of Max Bense and Georg Klaus. In: Basic studies in cybernetics and humanities / human cybernetics. 43 (2002) 4, pp. 143-152.
• Michael Eckardt: Ticket 182: Georg Klaus. In: Schach 57 (2003) 1, pp. 50-53
• Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski , Siegfried Piotrowski (ed.): Cybernetics and interdisciplinarity in the sciences. Georg Klaus on his 90th birthday . Joint colloquium of the Leibniz Society and the German Society for Cybernetics in November 2002 in Berlin. (Treatises of the Leibniz Society of Sciences, Volume 11). Berlin: trafo Verlag 2004
• Heinz Liebscher: Systems theory and cybernetics in the philosophical view of Georg Klaus. In: Hans-Christoph Rauh, Peter Ruben (Hrsg.): Denkversuche. GDR philosophy in the sixties. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2005, pp. 157–175.
• Michael Eckardt: Media Theory Before Media Theory. Considerations following Georg Klaus. Berlin: trafo-Verlag 2005
• Michael Eckardt: Chess in hard times: an unusual contact between the GDR philosopher Georg Klaus and the Czech chess grandmaster and regime critic Luděk Pachman from 1972. In: Contributions to the history of the workers' movement 48 (2006) 1, 53–56.
• Michael Eckardt: Experienced chess novella: Georg Klaus. In: M. Hesselbarth, E. Schulz, M. Weißbecker (eds.): Lived ideas: Socialists in Thuringia. Biographical sketches. Jena 2006, 259-267.
• Frank Dittmann, Rudolf Seising (ed.): Cybernetics infects the East. Rise and difficulties of an interdisciplinary science in the GDR. Vol. 1, trafo Verlag, Berlin 2007.
• Michael Eckardt: “… being able to introduce oneself to the scientific world in the best possible way.” Max Bense, Walter Wolf and Georg Klaus between cooperation and conflict at the University of Jena in the years 1945–1949. In: U. Hossfeld, T. Kaiser, H. Mestrup (Eds.) (2007): University in Socialism. Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (1945–1990). Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2007, 1929–1970.
• Hans-Christoph Rauh, Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Georg Klaus . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Michael Eckardt: Georg Klaus was born 100 years ago. Free Word (Sonneberg) December 29, 2012, 7.
• Michael Eckardt: The clever cyberneticist. Memory of a GDR philosopher: Georg Klaus ; New Germany 5./6. January 2013, W 7
• Michael Eckardt (Ed.): The semiotics of Georg Klaus. Stauffenburg-Verlag, Tübingen 2011, issue 3–4 / 2011 of the magazine for semiotics. ISBN 978-3-86057-917-6
• Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski , Rainer E. Zimmermann (Ed.): Cybernetics, Logic, Semiotics. Philosophical points of view. Conference on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Georg Klaus. (Treatises of the Leibniz Society of Sciences, Volume 40). trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86464-095-7 .
• Michael Eckardt: "Science needs the opponent": The beginnings of the debate between Georg Klaus and Paul Ferdinand Linke as an example of the philosophical culture of debate in the early GDR ; in: Helle Panke eV (ed.): Beginning and end of East German philosophy. Studies on the work of Ernst Bloch, Wolfgang Harich, Georg Klaus and other philosophers in the GDR (Philosophical Conversations, Volume 47). Berlin 2017, pp. 47–60.

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Klaus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Harald E. Ballo / Michael Eckardt: check sheet 182. Georg Klaus
• Detlef Borchers: On the 100th birthday of Georg Klaus

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski. In: Frank Fuchs-Kittowski ; Werner Kriesel (Ed.): Computer science and society. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski . Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, PL Academic Research, Frankfurt am Main / Bern / Bruxelles / New York / Oxford / Warszawa / Vienna 2016, pp. 479–484, ISBN 978-3-631-66719-4 (print), E - ISBN 978-3-653-06277-9 (e-book).
2. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: Georg Klaus as a historian of philosophy. In: Cybernetics and Interdisciplinarity in Science. Georg Klaus on his 90th birthday. Joint colloquium of the Leibniz Society and the German Society for Cybernetics in November 2002 in Berlin. Ed. V. Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski / Siegfried Piotrowski (series: Abhandlungen der Leibniz-Sozietät, Vol. 11). trafo Verlag, Berlin 2004, pp. 83–99
3. ↑ Werner Schuffenhauer: Georg Klaus and the philosophical legacy. In: Philosophy - Science. On the work of Georg Klaus. Report of the meeting of the AdW of the GDR, social sciences. Born 1983, No. 10 / G, Berlin 1984, pp. 34-37
4. ↑ German individual championship 1942 in Bad Oeynhausen on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
5. ↑ Georg Klaus: Emanuel Lasker - a philosophical forerunner of game theory. German Journal for Philosophy, Volume 13, Issue 8 (August 1965), pp. 976–988 ( online, license required )