Gert-Joachim Glaessner

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Gert-Joachim Glaessner

Gert-Joachim Glaeßner (* 1944 in Erfurt ) is a German political scientist .

Career

After graduating from high school in Korbach in 1965 , Glaeßner studied political science, sociology and economics at the Free University of Berlin from 1966 to 1971 and graduated as a political scientist. In 1976 he received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin. rer. pole. In 1982 he completed his habilitation with a paper on the theories and methods of comparative communism research in political science. Glaeßner began his academic work at the Central Institute for Social Science Research at the Free University of Berlin, where he worked in the field of GDR and comparative communism research. In 1986 he was given a professorship for GDR and German research at the Otto Suhr Instituteof the Free University. In 1992 he was offered a position at the newly founded Institute for Social Sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Until his retirement in 2009 he held the chair “The Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany”. From 1992 to 1994 he was the first director of the newly founded Institute for Political Science, from 2002 to 2006 Vice Dean and then Dean at the Institute for Social Sciences at HU-Berlin. In addition to comparative research on communism, his research interests include the transformation of post-socialist societies, problems of the German unification process, comparative constitutional politics and, since the mid-1990s, comparative studies on security policy and the relationship between security and freedom.

At the Humboldt University, he devoted himself to the development of international master's and doctoral programs. In 1995, in cooperation with colleagues from European universities in Great Britain, France, Italy and the Czech Republic, he established the first European master's program “Euromasters”, which was followed in 1998 by a “Transatlantic Master”, in which two US universities take part in addition to the European partners . In 2007, together with scientists from the Middle-East Technical University (METU) in Ankara , he initiated a joint master’s course sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD , the “German-Turkish Masters Program in Social Sciences” (GeT MA), in which students from both groups Countries, Central and Central Asia, the US and other countries participate. From 2002 to 2010 Glaeßner was the founding director of the “Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences” BGSS, which was initially funded by the DAAD and from 2006 onwards from funds from the Excellence Initiative of the federal and state governments. Glaeßner received invitations as visiting professor and researcher a. a. to the University of Bath , the London School of Economics , King's College London , the University of Connecticut , New York University and Charles University in Prague .

research

In the 1980s Glaessner was one of the leading representatives of social science research in the GDR , which was characterized as a "system-immanent school". Since his dissertation on the cadre policy of communist parties and the SED, his work on the ruling system of the GDR and other Soviet socialist systems has dealt critically with the assumptions of the totalitarianism theory that the Soviet socialist systems can neither modernize nor liberalize. On the other hand, he preferred a modernization-theoretical approach based on the assumption that even the Soviet socialist systems could not evade the need for modernization. For him, as for other representatives of this approach, the process of modernization stood in blatant contradiction to the communist party's all-embracing claim to rule. The implicit expectation that the communist regimes would not be able to escape the pressure to modernize and that this process would lead to at least partial liberalization has proven to be a mistake. After 1989, there was a controversial debate about this research approach among representatives of the theory of totalitarianism.

In close cooperation with social scientists from East Germany and East Central Europe, Glaeßner followed the process of transformation and democratization in East Germany and East Central Europe in comparative studies after the collapse of the communist systems of rule and the end of the GDR . Studies on comparative constitutional politics were of particular importance.

In the mid-1990s he turned to comparative studies of internal security policy , criminal policy and the fight against terrorism . In an article from 2001 in the Berlin Journal for Sociology and an international comparative study (Germany, Great Britain, USA) entitled Security in Freedom from 2003, the conflict-ridden relationship between security and freedom, the protective function of the democratic state and the relationship between Focus on security guarantees and civil liberties. In 2016 he published a study in the series of publications of the Federal Agency for Civic Education with the title Freedom and Security - A Location Determination , in which freedom and security are presented as central values ​​of modern societies. In Glaessner's view, in mutual dependence, both have a decisive influence on personal, political and social life. They protect people from violence, guarantee the internal order of a political community and ensure economic stability as well as social welfare. Last but not least, they are an important element in protecting the private against state and economic control interests, especially in the developing digital society. It follows from this that in liberal, constitutional political systems, one cannot be thought of as good without the other if they do not want to give up their fundamental value orientations.

Literature (selection)

Glaeßner's list of publications includes monographs, co-authors and co-editors as well as articles in magazines, manuals and encyclopedias mainly on GDR and comparative communism research, the history of the labor movement, transformation research, the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany and the relationship between security and freedom.

Monographs

  • Freedom and security. A location determination. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2016, ISBN 978-3-8389-0715-4 .
  • German Democracy. From Post World War II to the Present Day. Berg Publishers, Oxford 2006, ISBN 978-1-85973-871-9 .
  • Politics in Germany. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-15213-4 .
  • Security in freedom. The protective function of the democratic state and the freedom of citizens. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3889-X .
  • Communism - totalitarianism - democracy. Studies on a secular dispute. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1995, ISBN 3-631-47360-5 .
  • Democracy after the end of communism. Regime Change, Transition and Democratization in Post-Communism. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-531-12538-9 .
  • The Unification Process in Germany. From Dictatorship to Democracy. Pinter, London 1992, ISBN 1-85567-015-1 .
  • The difficult road to democracy. From the end of the GDR to German unity. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1991, ISBN 3-531-12318-1 (Japanese edition 1993).
  • Labor movement and cooperative. Origin and development of the consumer cooperatives using the example of Berlin. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-525-86042-0 .
  • The other German republic. Society and Politics in the GDR. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1989, ISBN 3-531-11912-5 .
  • Socialist systems. Introduction to communism and GDR research. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1982, ISBN 3-531-21546-9 .
  • Power through knowledge. On the connection between education policy, education system and management training in the GDR. A political-sociological investigation (with Irmhild Rudolph). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1978, ISBN 3-531-11456-5 .
  • Rule by cadres. Management of society and management policy in the GDR using the example of the state apparatus. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1977, ISBN 3-531-11431-X .

Editorships

  • Europeanization of internal security. A comparative study using the example of organized crime and terrorism (with Astrid Lorenz). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14518-5 .
  • Constitutional politics and constitutional reform in Germany and Great Britain (with Charlie Jeffery and Werner Reutter ). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 2000, ISBN 3-531-13570-8 .
  • System change and democratization. Russia and Central Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union (with Michal Reiman ). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-531-13003-X .
  • Germany after Unification. Coming to Terms with the Recent Past. Rodopi, Amsterdam / Atlanta 1996, ISBN 90-420-0056-2 .
  • On the way to Europe. European perspectives after the end of communism (with Klaus Sühl ). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-531-12563-X .
  • The long road to unity. Studies on the transformation process in East Germany. Dietz, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-320-01813-2 .
  • The German Revolution 1989. Causes and Consequences (with Ian Wallace). Berg Publisher, Oxford 1992, ISBN 978-0854967858 .
  • A German revolution. The upheaval in the GDR, its causes and consequences. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1991, ISBN 3-631-43562-2 .
  • The political systems of the socialist countries (with Michal Reiman). Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1991, ISBN 3-631-43545-2 .
  • Between utopia and everyday experience. Studies on the labor movement and culture in Berlin (with Detlef Lehnert and Klaus Sühl). Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-7678-0748-3 .
  • The GDR in the Honecker era. Politics, culture, society. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-531-11922-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. the critical reappraisal of this debate in: Jens Hüttmann: GDR history and its researchers. Actors and economic trends in West German GDR research, Berlin 2008, p. 184 ff.
  2. ↑ Maleweibi in Potsdam. Anyone who has a special education or managerial position in the GDR is trained as a cadre - and checked completely., Der Spiegel 40/1977 of September 26, 1977-
  3. ^ Rüdiger Thomas: Achievements and deficits of the GDR and comparative German research. In: Heiner Timmermann (Ed.): GDR research. Balance sheet and perspectives. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 1995, pp. 13-27.
  4. ^  Gert-Joachim Glaeßner / Charlie Jeffery / Werner Reutter (eds.): Constitutional policy and constitutional reform in Germany and Great Britain. Opladen 2000.
  5. ↑ Freedom and Security. A location determination. Bonn 2016
personal data
SURNAME Glaessner, Gert-Joachim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Glaessner, Gert-Joachim; Glaessner-Rudolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt