Jürgen Fijalkowski

Jürgen Fijalkowski (born August 29, 1928 in Berlin ; † September 18, 2014 there ) was a German political scientist and sociologist .

Life

Fijalkowski was born in Berlin in 1928. There he studied philosophy , sociology and psychology at the Free University and began his scientific career as Otto Stammer's assistant at the Institute for Sociology. In 1958 he received his doctorate at the “Institute for Political Science” of the Free University of Berlin with his thesis “The turn to the Führer state” on “ideological components in the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt ” (subtitle). He then headed various research groups and lectured at the Otto Suhr Institute at the Free University of Berlin. After his habilitation in 1970, he took over a professorship at the University of Education in Berlin in 1971 , which he held until 1997. From 1970 to 1972 Fijalkowski was a board member of the German Society for Sociology .

In 1976 he was offered a chair for political science and political sociology in the political science department at the Free University of Berlin. From 1979 to 1982/1983 Fijalkowski was the spokesman for this department. In addition, from 1981 to 1983 he was a board member of the German Association for Political Science . In 1985 he became a member of the "Research Area Ethnicity and Society" at the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin. The “Research Center for Labor Migration and Foreigner Policy”, which was renamed “Research Center for Labor Migration, Refugee Movements and Minority Policy” in 1988, was co-founded by him at the Free University of Berlin in 1986 and was under his academic direction. Jürgen Fijalkowski was a member of a commission for the award of doctoral grants from the State of Berlin from 1985 to 1991.

In 1993 Jürgen Fijalkowski retired .

Scientific focus

Fijalkowski has written numerous publications on migration research and was a member or supervisor of several research projects on this topic (“Migrant workers in the urban environment”, “Company strategies for the employment of foreigners”, establishing contact with European and American research on minority politics and ethnic minorities, etc.). He dealt with social structure theories, as well as with socio-political analyzes and comparative analyzes of political systems.

Important publications

In one of his early works, Die Wendung zum Führerstaat (1958), Jürgen Fijalkowski analyzes the political philosophy of the legal scholar Carl Schmitt with regard to ideological aspects. Carl Schmitt had, among other things, sharply criticized the parliamentary democracy of the Weimar Republic . According to Fijalkowski, this was not done in order to ultimately stabilize it, but to be able to legitimately overcome it. That is why his scientific work also served as an apology for the autocratic successor system. Schmitt paints a picture of a degenerate form of parliamentary democracy that ultimately favors civil war. The state is falling apart because of the pluralism of the party powers. But there is an alternative between this system or authority, which is almost moving in the direction of anarchy . An authoritarian state could be a solution. According to Fijalkowski, however, this assessment was philosophically and politically absurd. Schmitt paints a one-sided picture by emphasizing certain aspects excessively and emphasizing others too little.

“The diagnosis of reality in its present form only ever comes about through radicalization, and this radicalization follows a certain direction, which is indicated by a certain political will. The given picture of reality is, perhaps not in purpose, but at least in effect, a purposeful representation to justify certain political endeavors. Therein lies the ideological character of the otherwise rational diagnosis of Carl Schmitt. " (Fijalkowski, Jürgen: Die Wendung zum Führerstaat. Ideological components in the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt, Cologne / Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1958, p. 64)

The Migration Research was one of the scientific priorities Fijalkowskis. In his work “Ethnic heterogeneity and social segregation in German cities. On the state of knowledge and the need for research ”from 1988 he described the problem of the social demarcation of ethnic minorities in the Federal Republic of Germany. This affects around 4.5 million people (1988), mostly Turks , Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks . Around two thirds of them are former guest workers or their descendants. According to Fijalkowski, minorities were formed, especially in large cities, living together in high concentrations, and they settled there permanently without integrating or being able to integrate. The question is whether this situation is only a transitional phenomenon or whether a permanent ghettoization is on the horizon. Jürgen Fijalkowski based his work on Anglo-American and German social science literature, which deals with both theory and empirical observations on this topic. He also presented a draft of how research can discuss the causal relationships of this problem in the future.

“Transnational Migrants in the Working World”, another book by Fijalkowski, was written as part of a workshop in 1988. This anthology also includes texts by Martin Biller, Christoph Köhler, Hans Grüner, Jürgen Bogdahn. The focus here is not only on foreigners in Germany, but also on foreigners in an international context.

Works

• The turn to the leader state. Ideological components in the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt . Westdeutscher, Cologne 1958 (Series: Writings of the Institute for Political Science of the Free University of Berlin, Ed. Otto Stammer, Volume 12)
• About some theory terms in contemporary German sociology. in KZfSS Vol. 13, 1961, pp. 88-109; again in Jürgen Friedrichs & Karl Ulrich Mayer & Wolfgang Schluchter, Ed .: Sociological Theory and Empiricism. KZfSS. Westdeutscher, Opladen 1997 ISBN 3531131397 pp. 1–22
• F. as editor: Political Science and Sociology: Otto Stammer on his 65th birthday. West German Publishing House, Cologne 1965
• Together with others: Berlin - claim to the capital and integration with the West. Westdeutscher, Cologne 1967 (Series: Writings of the Institute for Political Science of the Free University of Berlin, Volume 20)
• Department of Political Science. Manual. Part 1: Development and scientific work, self-publication of the department (FU Berlin), 1981, 94 pages
• Labor migration and foreigner policy in the Federal Republic. Problem development and party concepts. Opening lecture of the conference "Integration of Foreigners", August-Bebel-Institut Berlin, 1983
• Ethnic heterogeneity and social segregation in German cities. On the level of knowledge and research needs. Occasional Papers No. 13 of the “Research Area Ethnicity and Society. Problems of ethnic demarcation in societies of the Near and Middle East ”of the Free University of Berlin 1988, 53 pages
• Scope and concepts of urban development in Berlin in: Hannelore Horn, Ed .: Berlin as a factor of national and international politics. Colloquium, Berlin 1988, pp. 67-87
• Together with others: Foreign employment in the crisis? The employment opportunities and risks of foreign workers using the example of West Berlin industry . Edition Sigma, Berlin 1989 (Series: Contributions to the Social Economics of Work, Ed. Michael Bolle & Burkhard Strümpel, Volume 21)
• Transnational migrants in the world of work. Studies on the employment of foreigners in the Federal Republic and international comparison , ibid. 1990 (same series as before, Volume 22)
• With Helmut Gillmeister: Foreign associations. A research report on the function of independent organizations for the integration of heterogeneous immigrants into a host society using the example of Berlin. Hitit, Berlin 1997, Series: Diversity of Nations and Minority Rights in Europe, Vol. 5

Web links

• Literature by and about Jürgen Fijalkowski in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Jürgen Fijalkowski. In: family obituary. Der Tagesspiegel , September 28, 2014, accessed on April 18, 2018 .