University for work, politics and economics

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The University of Work, Politics and Economics (Apowi, from 1956 University of Social Sciences ) was a university that existed from 1949 to 1962 and was based in Wilhelmshaven - Rustersiel .

history

The establishment of the university took place in May 1949 on the basis of a resolution of the Lower Saxony state parliament in December 1947. The Wilhelmshaven location was chosen to support the previous garrison town by setting up new state institutions. The offer of the university was aimed primarily at those who were already working. Characteristic for the university was the relatively high proportion of students from working-class circles and the establishment of an upstream preparatory course for applicants without a high school diploma in order to obtain the higher education entrance qualification (from which the Oldenburg-Kolleg later emerged after the university was closed in 1962 ). There were only a few hundred students enrolled at the university among eight professors. With the appointment of Wolfgang Abendroth as rector and the election of Rüdiger von Tresckow as AStA chairman, a signal should be set against the restorative tendencies at universities in West Germany.

In 1952 the university was given the rector's constitution and the right to confer habilitation and doctorates ; it awarded the degree as a social economist and the degree of "Doctor disciplinae politicae". In 1956 the name was changed to "University of Social Sciences".

Conservative politicians and representatives of the class, however, initially criticized the Apowi as a "trade union college" or "SPD cadet institute". From the mid-1950s, however, the political orientation of the university changed due to various new appointments. Apowi operated, among other things, an institute for the study of Soviet economics under the economist Friedrich Lenz , which published a series of publications.

The West German Rectors' Conference refused to recognize the institution as a university on an equal footing. The people of Wilhelmshaven therefore tried to integrate into the Braunschweig Technical University or, alternatively, to relocate to Bremen , which at that time did not yet have its own university. When the Science Council proposed the establishment of a north German university in 1961, a relocation to Hanover was discussed for a time.

By decision of the state government, the university was finally incorporated into the economics and social science faculty of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen on April 1, 1962 ; the Wilhelmshaven site was given up. At the academic closing ceremony in February 1962 - before the integration into the University of Göttingen - the students appeared dressed in black and a funeral wreath hung on the portal, so it is reported.

A group of economists and sociologists with a social democratic orientation around the later Federal Labor Minister Herbert Ehrenberg entered the history of the FRG as "Rustersielers" , who, as representatives of left Keynesianism, wanted to expand the welfare state with the help of the income from economic growth in the post-war period. In addition to the Marxists Wolfgang Abendroth and Werner Hofmann , Ernst-Rudolf Huber also taught here, who after 1945 had difficulties getting a position at a university because of his Nazi involvement, possibly a reaction to criticism from conservative circles at the university. Student chaplain was Reinhard Huebner .

University village of Rüstersiel

The university was housed in a barracks settlement built in 1935 and used by the military until 1949 in the Rüstersiel district . Following the example of American colleges , students and lecturers should live and work together in the “university village”. After the university closed, the “university village” was initially taken over by the German Navy , later the buildings were demolished and the areas lay fallow for a long time. Today there is a residential area at the former location of the university. The street name “Am Hochschuldorf” is the only reminder of the university.

Well-known teachers

Well-known students

literature

  • Gerd Diers: The University for Work, Politics and Economics, University of Social Sciences in Wilhelmshaven-Rustersiel - Presentation and interpretation of the efforts to implement the "Social Sciences" course and to be recognized as a scientific university . Dissertation, Göttingen 1972.
  • Jens Graul: "Wilhelmshaven must become more than it was." The cultural new beginning 1945 , Wilhelmshaven 2009.
  • Oliver Schael: On the task of education. The failed reform experiment of the "University for Work, Politics and Economics" in Wilhelmshaven-Rustersiel (1949–1962) . In: Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann , Hans Otte , Wolfgang Brandes (eds.): Universities and politics in Lower Saxony after 1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen , 274). Göttingen 2014, pp. 53–79.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The chronology of the Oldenburg-Kolleg , oldenburg-kolleg.de.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Abendroth: A life in the workers' movement. Conversations . Recorded and edited. v. Barbara Dietrich u. Joachim Perels , Frankfurt am Main 1976, pp. 206-211.
  3. ↑ University of Work, Politics (and) Economy: Diploma examination regulations for social economists at the University of Work, Politics and Economy in Wilhelmshaven-Rüstersiel , Wilhelmshaven 1952.
  4. ↑ DNB 575684658 .
  5. ↑ a b c Wilhelmshaven: An der Leine , in: Der Spiegel , 31/1961.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Brandes: Universities and Politics in Lower Saxony after 1945 , report from the 18th meeting of the working group for the history of the 19th and 20th centuries of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen on October 13, 2007 on the lecture by Oliver Schael, in : H-Net Reviews, February 2008.
  7. ↑ Writings of the Institute for the Study of Soviet Economics at the University of Social Sciences, Wilhelmshaven-Rustersiel , issues 1–3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957.
  8. ↑ Ulrich Müller-Heinck: A first attempt at a university location , in: Wilhelmshavener Zeitung of September 24, 2012.
  9. ↑ Winfried Suss: The oppressed welfare state. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
  10. ↑ See Ewald Grothe : A 'silent' affair? The return of the constitutional historian Ernst Rudolf Huber to university science after 1945. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 47 (1999), pp. 980–1001, here pp. 991–996.
  11. ↑ Martin Greiffenhagen: Born 1928. From a restless life , Munich / Zurich 1988, pp. 71–79.