Gottfried Eisermann

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Gottfried Eisermann, 1978 in his office in Bonn.

Gottfried Eisermann (born November 6, 1918 in Berlin ; † November 10, 2014 in Bonn ) was a German economist and sociologist . He has come to the fore in particular through research on Vilfredo Pareto - who strongly influenced him - and Max Weber, as well as on the history of economics and sociology .

Life

Gottfried Eisermann was the youngest of three children of the businessman Erich Eisermann and his wife Marie Louise (née Vogel). After attending a private school, he switched to a humanistic grammar school, where he graduated from high school in 1937. He then first studied for a semester at the Berlin Commercial College , where he also heard a lecture by the retired Werner Sombart . He then moved to the University of Berlin and studied economics , philosophy and German . His academic teachers were Eduard Spranger and Nicolai Hartmann . The Berlin studies were interrupted by stays at the University of Perugia and the University of Rome , which, according to Lothar Neumann, decisively shaped Eisermann's later career as a social researcher.

According to the diploma examination regulations for economists at that time, practical work in the economy had to be proven. This took place at the Prussian State Bank . Completion of the degree was delayed by the Second World War , although Eisermann was unsuitable for both Reich Labor Service and the Wehrmacht for health reasons . Nevertheless, he was drafted in 1941, after an early release for health reasons and being drafted again, he was drafted as a civilian employee of the Wehrmacht. At the beginning of 1945 he was able to finish his studies with an examination for a degree in economics and a doctorate .

After the end of the war, Eisermann first worked in the financial administration of the university department of the new central administration for public education . From 1946 to 1948 he was a lecturer in economic sociology at the Humboldt University in Berlin . When the first politically justified layoffs occurred at the Berlin University, Eisermann ended his activity there at the end of 1948. In the following 21 months he took on smaller assignments from an opinion research institute . In October 1950, then was replaced at the University of Heidelberg , where he remained until 1957 scientific assistant of Alexander Rüstow was. After his habilitation in “Economics and Social Sciences” on May 15, 1957, he taught for five years as a private lecturer in Heidelberg. On May 29, 1962 he was appointed to the first chair of sociology established there at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . After his retirement in 1984, he continued to live in Bonn.

Gottfried Eisermann was an honorary doctor of the Universities of Padua and Bochum and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic . He was a member of the dogma-historical committee of the Verein für Socialpolitik . In 1998 he was honored with a festschrift.

Social science work

Eisermann dedicated his inaugural lecture in Bonn to his indirect predecessor Joseph Schumpeter , who had taught economic political science at the university during the Weimar Republic . In Bonn, Schumpeter was mainly concerned with social studies , according to his view that economics and sociology have a common origin and that their research subjects cannot be viewed separately from one another. He thus "paved the way for the controversial sociology as a science".

The combination of historical-sociological with strictly empirical and theoretical approaches was characteristic of Eisermann's research . He was an interdisciplinary oriented social scientist who integrated economics, sociological theory, law, and economic and cultural history into his many writings. He devoted himself particularly to the works of Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto, some of which he also edited.

During his time as assistant in Heidelberg, he presented early work on party sociology in a research group led by Dolf Sternberger , which was only just developing in German-speaking countries. Influenced by Pareto's thinking, he formulated a sociology of developing countries that led to empirical research. Together with Sabino Acquaviva , he investigated the influence of mass communication on the development processes of an underdeveloped region in Gargano, Italy . Also in Italy, he studied the influence of television in combating illiteracy . This was followed by empirical studies of language minorities in South Tyrol and eastern Belgium . He also researched, again together with Acquaviva, the causes of the global success of Italian films.

In several of his later writings Eisermann linked the sociological role theory with elements from the poems of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Gottfried Benn . He also portrayed important sociologists in commemorative publications and edited volumes. A sociology of the game of chess and a study of the power man with reference to Niccolò Machiavelli remained unfinished in his estate .

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • Human and fellow human being. Essay . Bouvier, Bonn 2004, ISBN 978-3-416-03052-6 .
  • Fate and chance in the life and work of Goethe . Bouvier, Bonn 1998, ISBN 978-3-416-02811-0 .
  • Galiani. Economist, sociologist, philosopher . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 978-3-631-31041-0 .
  • Max Weber and economics . Metropolis-Verlag, Marburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-926570-13-0 .
  • Role and mask . Mohr, Tübingen 1991, ISBN 978-3-16-145694-7 .
  • Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto. Dialogue and confrontation . Mohr, Tübingen 1989, ISBN 978-3-16-545456-7 .
  • Vilfredo Pareto. A classic in sociology . Mohr, Tübingen 1987, ISBN 978-3-16-545207-5 .
  • Telescuola. The impact of television on school in today's and tomorrow's society . Enke, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 978-3-432-01974-1 (with Sabino Acquaviva).
  • La montagna del sole. Il Gargano. Milan 1971 (with Sabino Acquaviva).
  • Eminent sociologists . Enke, Stuttgart 1968.
  • The basics of historicism in German economics . Enke, Stuttgart 1956 (also habilitation thesis).
  • The importance of historical thinking for German economics . Berlin 1945 (dissertation).

Editorships

  • Sociological reader . Enke, Stuttgart 1969.
  • Sociology of Developing Countries . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1968.
  • The current situation of sociology , Enke, Stuttgart 1967
  • The doctrine of society. A textbook of sociology , Enke, Stuttgart 1958 (last published as a limited study edition of the 2nd edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 978-3-432-02288-8 ).
  • The unity of the social sciences. Franz Eulenburg in memory . Enke, Stuttgart 1955.
  • Economy and cultural system. Alexander Riistow on his 70th birthday , Rentsch, Erlenbach-Zürich and Stuttgart 1955.
  • Present problems of sociology. Alfred Vierkandt on his 80th birthday , Academic Publishing Company Athenaion, Potsdam 1949.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information and information on the scientific work are based, unless otherwise indicated, on: Lothar Neumann, Gottfried Eisermann. Person and work . In: Dieter Fritz-Assmus (ed.): Economic society and culture. Gottfried Eisermann on his 80th birthday. (= Contributions to economic policy. Volume 70). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-258-05881-4 . Pp. 7-12.
  2. ↑ Lothar Neumann, Gottfried Eisermann. Person and work . In: Dieter Fritz-Assmus (ed.): Economic society and culture. Gottfried Eisermann on his 80th birthday. (= Contributions to economic policy. Volume 70). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-258-05881-4 . P. 7–12, here p. 7.
  3. ^ Gottfried Eisermann at the University of Berlin , short biography and list of his courses.
  4. ↑ Gottfried Eisermann - WHO'S WHO biography. In: www.whoswho.de. Retrieved April 28, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Dieter Fritz-Assmus (Ed.): Economic Society and Culture: Gottfried Eisermann for his 80th birthday. (= Contributions to economic policy. Volume 70). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-258-05881-4 .
  6. ↑ Gottfried Eisermann, Joseph Schumpeter as a sociologist , in ders .: Important sociologists . Enke, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 53-73; previously in this: Joseph Schumpeter as a sociologist , Kyklos: International Review for Social Sciences, Volume 18, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 1965, pp. 288-315.
  7. ↑ Erika Aschauer, Eisermann, Gottfried. In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf and Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Volume 2. 2nd edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 206-208, here p. 207.
  8. ↑ Lothar F. Neumann, obituary for Gottfried Eisermann , in: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie , 67th year 2015, p. 175.
personal data
SURNAME Eisermann, Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 2014
Place of death Bonn