Hans von Eckardt

Grave of Hans von Eckardt in the cemetery in Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim

Hans von Eckardt (born December 22, 1890 in Riga , † December 24, 1957 in Heidelberg ) was a German sociologist, political and media scientist, of German Baltic origin.

Career

Eckardt graduated from the University of Heidelberg in 1919 with the promotion of Dr. phil. from 1920 to 1926 as an Eastern European advisor at the World Economic Archives in Hamburg and as an editor of the Hamburg Economic Service, and completed his habilitation in 1925 at the University of Hamburg for economics . In 1927 he became an associate professor for political science at the University of Heidelberg, where he headed the Institute for Newspapers. In 1933 he had to leave the university. In 1946 he returned to Heidelberg University as a professor of sociology and head of the Institute for Journalism .

plant

At first, Eckardt tried to lay the foundations of political science in theory , in the center of which he did not see the history of ideas, but rather the respective way in which the will to power was enforced. His doctrine of political behavior resulted from this occupation, in which the figure of the political leader played an important role. The press has the task of preparing political will and decisions. However, this would no longer be fulfilled because of the pure news and sensational character of the bourgeois newspapers.

In his sociological diagnosis of the time in 1930, Eckardt saw - based on Russia and the USA - a growing importance of collective forms of life with a simultaneous loss of importance of the Führer ideal.

Eckardt has been influenced by Alfred Weber's cultural sociology since his studies .

Works (selection)

• The political leader, his figure and his form in history (1919 - dissertation paper).
• Social policy in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1925 - habilitation thesis).
• Principles of Politics (1927 - in Spanish translation 1932)
• The deposition of the Führer and the political practice of the collective (1930 - dedicated to Alfred Weber).
• Russia (1930 - in English translation 1932).
• Press and Public Opinion , in: Negotiations of the 7th German Sociological Conference 1930 (1931).
• Principles in Politics , in: Synopsis, Festgabe für Alfred Weber (1948).
• The power of women. Ideas and assertions, sketches of cultural sociology (1949).

literature

• R. Gruner: Eckardt, Hans von , in: Wilhelm Bernsdorf / Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Vol. 1, Enke, Stuttgart ² 1980, p. 108.
• Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 380 f .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans von Eckardt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Eckardt, Hans v .. In: BBLD - Baltic biographical lexicon digital
• Newspaper article about Hans von Eckardt in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .