Helge Pross

Helge Pross, bust at the New Castle in Giessen

Helge Agnes Pross , née Nyssen (born July 14, 1927 in Düsseldorf , † October 2, 1984 in Gießen ) was a German sociologist .

Life

Text panel below the bust

Helge Nyssen studied and did his doctorate in Heidelberg. She then worked as an assistant to Max Horkheimer and later to Theodor W. Adorno in Frankfurt am Main in the 1950s . From 1965 to 1976 she taught at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen , where she was co-founder of the Sociology Seminar.

Helge Pross taught sociology as a professor at the University of Siegen from 1976 to 1983 . On her initiative, the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (figs) was founded there in 1977.

Helge Pross was married in his first marriage (1950–1954) to the social scientist Harry Pross , in his second marriage (since 1972) to the sociologist and social politician Karl W. Boetticher.

Act

Her research focus was on women and family. In numerous empirical studies, it has proven the structural disadvantage of women and girls. She distinguished herself from more radical feminist positions in that she advocated equal rights for women within existing social structures.

With enlightening journalistic articles in Die Zeit and in the Spiegel she tried to bring the results of sociological research into socio-political debates. She also wrote in a regular column in the women's magazine Brigitte, which was heavily criticized by feminists .

The estate of Helge Pross has been in the possession of the Siegen University Library since 1984 . In the mid-1990s it was made accessible and documented in a finding aid. In April 2010 the estate was transferred to the Siegen University Archives.

Helge Pross Prize

The Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (figs) at the University of Siegen has awarded the € 5,000 Helge Pross Prize to scientists for outstanding achievements in the field of family and gender research since 1994 .

Quote

"A democracy in which the greater half of the population is properly represented neither in parliaments nor in governments is just a democracy in the beginning."

- Helge Pross: Political participation of women in the Federal Republic of Germany . In: The Psychology of the 20th Century . Vol. VIII, Zurich 1979.

Works (selection)

From Helge Nyssen

• On the sociology of romanticism and pre-Marxist socialism in Germany. Bettine von Arnim's social ideas . (Diss., Heidelberg 1950)

From Helge Pross

• German academic emigration to the United States 1933–1941 . Berlin 1955
• About the educational opportunities of girls in the Federal Republic . Frankfurt am Main 1969
• Manager of capitalism. Investigation of executives in large companies (together with Karl W. Boetticher). Frankfurt am Main 1971
• Capitalism and democracy. Studies on West German Social Structures . Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-8072-4013-6
• The reality of the housewife . The first representative study of inactive wives: How do they live? How are they thinking? How do you see yourself? Rowohlt, Reinbek 1975
• The men. A representative study of the self-images of men and their images of women . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1978, ISBN 3-498-05232-2
• What is German today? Value orientations in the Federal Republic . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1982, ISBN 3-498-05242-X
• The spirit of the entrepreneur. 100 years Vorwerk & Co. Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-546-47589-5
• Sociology of the crowd (ed. With Eugen Buss in collaboration with Alois Heinemann). Quelle and Meyer (UTB), Heidelberg 1984.

literature

• Evelyn Tegeler: Women's issues are men's issues . Leverkusen 2002. ISBN 3-8100-3601-3 .
• Sabine Hering: Helge Pross: trailblazer in women's research: biographical information from the estate , Siegen: universi - Universitätsverlag Siegen 2019, ISBN 978-3-96182-018-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Helge Pross in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Infamy of Truth . In: Die Zeit , No. 9/1967
2. ↑ Sabine Hering (ed.): Findbuch - The inventory of the Helge Pross estate . Wins 1996