Gerhard Wurzbacher

Paul Gerhard Wurzbacher (1963)

Gerhard Wurzbacher (born July 31, 1912 in Zwickau , † April 1, 1999 in Ebenhausen near Starnberger See ) was a German sociologist , most recently full professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg . He made particular merits in family and youth sociology .

Life

Gerhard Wurzbacher was the son of Paul and Hedwig Wurzbacher, married to Annelore Bock since 1939. The couple had four children. From 1932 to 1936 he studied pedagogy at the University of Leipzig and passed the state examination for teaching at elementary schools. From 1937 to 1939 he studied history , sociology and folklore at the University of Berlin .

At the beginning of his studies in Berlin, Wurzbacher was a district officer for the National Socialist German Student Union . He was in charge of the student land service operation in the former Prussian province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia . He collected material for his investigations in 1936/37. The dissertation The Development of the Social Structure of the Flatow District from 1773-1937 and the Effects on the Ethnic Composition of the Population with which he received his doctorate in 1939 at the University of Berlin arose from these social science studies . Since Wurzbacher showed "Polonization tendencies" in the population, his writing was initially declared secret for foreign policy reasons and could not be published even after the secret status was lifted.

From 1948 Wurzbacher was Helmut Schelsky's scientific assistant at the Academy for Community Economy in Hamburg , in 1952 he completed his habilitation at the University of Hamburg and went to the UNESCO Institute for Social Sciences in Cologne. In 1954 he moved to the University of Education in Hanover and in 1956 was first visiting professor at the University of South Carolina and then professor of sociology at the University of Kiel . From 1965 until his retirement in 1981 he held the chair for sociology and social anthropology at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (former Nuremberg University of Economics and Social Sciences ).

He was a co-founder of the Social Science Research Center (SFZ) in Nuremberg and was a member of the advisory board at the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health . He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his services to family and youth sociology .

Well-known Wurzbacher students are u. a. Horst Beyer (†), Dieter Blaschke, Gudrun Cyprian, Hendrik Fassmann , Hans-Peter Frey (†), Friedrich Heckmann , Dieterkap , Bernhard Mann , Renate Mayntz , Hasso von Recum and Gerhard Schulze .

Sociological work

Wurzbacher's main concern was the sociological analysis of social change as well as socialization in manageable groups such as community , association and family . He dealt with concepts of integration and differentiation as well as Tönnies ' terms community and society . In doing so, he made contributions to social change in the 18th and 19th centuries and in developing countries in the second half of the 20th century.

In his empirical study “Das Dorf” he presented the differentiation of the rural community structure through which the individual comes to the fore both in the exercise of a profession and in his or her social mobility . The post-war family was also subject to change, according to his research. It proved to be a stabilizing element , especially for those who were displaced from their homes. Patriarchal structures changed into partnership ones. Functional and structural disorders in the family result from opposing value orientations in and outside the family. Wurzbacher also addressed youth issues. He attached special importance to the interaction of peers.

Based on and further developing American research, Wurzbacher came up with a conceptual distinction between socialization , enculturation and personalization and, as a result, turned against an overemphasis on the primary group as a socialization factor.

Wurzbacher endeavored on the one hand to check theoretical assumptions through empirical research and their methodological further development. On the other hand, he tried to draw socio-political conclusions from theoretical insights. With the discovery and introduction of triangulation as a method, Wurzbacher contributed to the further development of social research. The method is still important.

Fonts (selection)

• Help for gypsies and rural travelers. Proposals for goal setting, planning and implementation of social help for gypsies and rural travelers with special consideration of the possibilities of § 72 of the Federal Social Welfare Act. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1980, ISBN 978-3-17-005988-7 (with Christoph Freese and Matthias Murko).
• Models of current German family life. Methods, results and socio-educational requirements of a sociological analysis of 164 family monographs . 4th edition with an introductory comparison about the West German family in 1950 and 1968. Enke, Stuttgart 1969 (first edition: Ardey Verlag, Dortmund 1951).
• Forms of society of youth . 3rd edition, Juventa, Munich 1968 (first edition 1965).
• As editor: The human being as a social and personal being . 2nd edition, Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart 1968 (first edition: Enke, Stuttgart 1961).
• The village in the field of tension of industrial development. Investigation of the 45 villages and hamlets of a West German rural community . Series of publications by the UNESCO Institute for Social Sciences, 2nd edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1961 (first edition 1954), with the assistance of Renate Mayntz .
• The pastor in modern society. Sociological studies on the professional situation of the Protestant pastor . Furche-Verlag, Hamburg 1969 (with others).
• The young worker. Contributions to social studies and youth work . Juventa, Munich 1958 (with others).

literature

• Gesa Büchert, Harald Fuchs, Peter Löw (ed.): Small history of a large faculty. 75 years of economics and social sciences in Nuremberg. Nuremberg, ISBN 3-87191-201-8 .
• The social science research center as an interdisciplinary research institute. Colloquium on the 80th birthday of Gerhard Wurzbacher. Series of publications by the Social Science Research Center of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Nuremberg 1993, ISSN  0944-9000 .
• Reinhard Wittenberg : Sociology in Nuremberg. Research and teaching between 1919 and 2000. Roderer, 2001, ISBN 3-89783-269-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerhard Wurzbacher in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Gerhard Wurzbacher , Kiel list of scholars.
2. ↑ Gerhard Wurzbacher , biographical entry in Prabbok.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} H. G. Rasch: Wurzbacher, Gerhard . In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf and Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Volume 2, articles on living sociologists or those who died after 1969, 2nd, revised edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-432-90702-8 , p. 939 ff., here p. 939.
4. ^ Carsten Klingemann : Sociology and Politics. Social science expert knowledge in the Third Reich and in the early West German post-war period . VS, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 3-531-15064-2 , p. 99 ff.
5. ↑ Gerhard Wurzbacher: The development of the social structure of the Flatow district from 1773-1937 and the effects on the ethnic composition of the population . Without publisher, Berlin 1939.
6. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Sociology and Politics. Social science expert knowledge in the Third Reich and in the early West German post-war period . VS, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 100, note 175
7. ↑ Bärbel von Borries-Pusback: No college for socialism. The establishment of the Academy for Community Economy in Hamburg 1945 - 1955 . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2002, ISBN 978-3-8100-3369-7 , p. 285, note 222.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} H. G. Rasch: Wurzbacher, Gerhard . In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf and Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Volume 2, articles on living sociologists or those who died after 1969, 2nd, revised edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1984, p. 939 ff., Here p. 940.
9. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Sociology and Politics. Social science expert knowledge in the Third Reich and in the early West German post-war period . VS, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 276.
10. ^ Alan Bryman: Quantity and Quality in Social Research. In: Martin Bulmer (General Editor): Contemporary Social Research Series. Volume 18. London a. New York. ISBN 0-415-07898-9 .