Horst Berger

This article is about the sociologist Horst Berger. For the electrical engineer, see Horst H. Berger

Horst Berger (born May 29, 1934 in Nudersdorf ) is a German sociologist. His main research interests are methodology of sociological research and social indicator research.

Life

Berger comes from a working-class family and trained as a steel fitter from 1949 to 1952; Then he graduated from 1952 to 1955 the workers and farmers faculty of the Technical University of Dresden , where he passed the Abitur in 1955. Berger studied economics and sociology at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1955 to 1959 . The subject of his diploma thesis is The Younger Historical School (Kathedersozialisten) at the Berlin University from 1870-1880 . After completing a scientific traineeship with Kurt Braunreuther , he received his doctorate in 1964 with the dissertation on the methodology of industrial sociological research . At the Economics Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Berger played a key role in the introduction of an additional industrial sociology course and later a minor sociology course. In 1968 Berger completed his habilitation with the thesis On the Sociological Analysis of Leaders in Socialist Industry and was appointed university lecturer in 1969. In 1975 he was appointed full professor for sociology. In 1977 Berger switched to the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and built up the Institute for Sociology and Social Policy (ISS), which was founded in 1978, initially in the field of methodology and methodology of sociological research and later the Sociological-Methodical Center (SMZ). In 1988 Berger was appointed deputy director of the ISS.

After the dissolution of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and the associated winding up of the ISS, the research group Social Indicators / Social Statistics, headed by Berger, was positively evaluated by the Science Council and affiliated to the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) and incorporated into the "Social Structure and Social Reporting" department integrated. In the following years, Berger's group worked on a DFG project “Social Situation of Private Households in the Social Change in East Germany”. On the basis of data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a comparative longitudinal analysis of the social situation of East and West German households has been carried out since 1990. The revised version of the research report was published as a book.

In 1999, Berger ended his activity at the WZB and retired.

Memberships

Berger was a member of the Scientific Council for Sociological Research in the GDR and head of the Problem Council Methodology and Methodology of Sociological Research, member of the UNESCO commission of the AdW, member of the multilateral problem commission of the ADW of socialist countries, member of the research committee methodology and logic of sociological research of the ISA and from 1992 to 1999 member of the German Society for Sociology.

Publications

• Methods of industrial sociological research. State Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1965, DNB 450374211 .
• with Horst Jetzschmann: The sociological research process. Dietz, Berlin 1973, DNB 740006010 .
• with Eckhard Priller (Ed.): Indicators in sociological research. Academy, Berlin 1982, DNB 820955124 .
• with Thomas Hanf, Wilhelm Hinrichs , Eckhard Priller and D. Rentsch: System of social indicators of the socialist way of life. Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Berlin 1984, OCLC 833073506 .
• with Herbert F. Wolf, Arndt Ullmann (Hrsg.): Handbook of sociological research. Academy, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000606-4 .
• with Wilhelm Hinrichs, Eckhard Priller, Annet Schultz: Private households in the process of unification. Your social situation in East and West Germany. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1999, ISBN 3-593-36215-5 .

literature

• Wilhelm Bernsdorf, Horst Knospe (Hrsg.): International sociologist lexicon. 2nd revised edition. Volume 2, Enke, 1984, pp. 64-65.
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 1996. 17th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York, p. 90.
• 25 years of WZB type and location of research. Berlin 1994, p. 162.
• Vera Sparschuh, Ute Koch: Socialism and Sociology - The Founding Generation of GDR Sociology. Attempt at contouring. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1997, p. 248.
• Wolfgang Girnus, Klaus Meier (Hrsg.): Research academies in the GDR - models and reality. Pp. 211-237, pp. 457/458, p. 463.

Web links

• Literature by and about Horst Berger in the catalog of the German National Library