Helmut R. Wagner

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Helmut R. Wagner (born August 5, 1904 in Dresden , † April 22, 1989 in South Dennis , Massachusetts ) was a councilor communist theorist and later an American sociologist of German origin.

After training at a technical school, Wagner was one of the central figures of the left opposition in the Dresden SPD in the late 1920s . It was because of this activity from the SPD end of 1931 excluded . At that time he worked in the council communist group Red Fighters , for which he wrote the theses on Bolshevism that are still known today . From 1925 to 1932 worked as a teacher in adult education. In 1934 he was stripped of his German citizenship because of his criticism of the Nazi regime . In exile in Switzerland , he worked as a technician for the Swiss army and also conducted social science studies. In 1941 he emigrated to the USA , where he worked as a toolmaker for ten years . From 1951 he studied sociology at the New School for Social Research , where he received his doctorate in 1955 .

From 1956 to 1964 Wagner taught as a professor of sociology at the University of Bucknell ( Pennsylvania ). He then went to the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges , New York , as a professor , which he headed until 1985.

Alongside Alfred Schütz , Wagner was one of the leading representatives of phenomenological sociology in the USA.

Works (selection)

  • Theses on Bolshevism (1934).
  • Social and Religious Outlooks of a Young Labor Elite (1955).
  • The Cultural Sovietization of East Germany (1957).
  • Types of Sociological Theory (1963).
  • Husserl on Historicism (1972).
  • Phenomenological Sociology (1973).

literature

  • J. Maier: Wagner, Helmut R. , in: Wilhelm Bernsdorf / Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Vol. 2, Enke, Stuttgart ² 1984, p. 905.
  • Olaf Ilhau: Helmut Wagner , in: The Red Fighters - A Contribution to the History of the Labor Movement in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Politladen-Reprit No.8, Erlangen ² 1969, p. 183.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wagner, Helmut R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th August 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden , Germany
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1989
Place of death South Dennis , Massachusetts, USA