Javier Tusell

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Javier Tusell Gómez (born August 26, 1945 in Barcelona , † February 8, 2005 in Barcelona) was a contemporary Spanish historian and politician .

Life

Born in Barcelona, ​​he moved to Madrid with his family at an early age . There he obtained the higher education entrance qualification at the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones . He then enrolled at the Universidad Complutense for philosophy and political science. There he stood out for his outstanding achievements in history and was taught by José María Jover , among others .

In addition to his studies, he organized himself in the Unión de Estudiantes Demócratas (Union of Democratic Students) and the Unión de Jóvenes Demócratas Cristianos (Union of Young Christian Democrats ). In this regard, there was a university case against him in 1965 because of his work against the Sindicato de Estudiantes Universitarios (SEU; for example: student union, Francoist organization in which the students should organize).

After completing his doctorate and specializing in contemporary history, he lectured at the Philosophical Faculty from 1966. In 1975 he accepted an auxiliary position at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona for universal contemporary history. From 1977 received the professorship for contemporary history of the Universidad de Valencia . He also directed the Madrid Center for Political Culture. From 1981 until his death he was Professor of Contemporary History at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED).

Attracted by politics, he enrolled in 1974 in the Federación Popular Democrática (FPD), a Christian Democratic organization under José María Gil-Robles . (The FPD was organized in a network of other Spanish Christian Democrats such as the Partido Nacionalista Vasco , the Unión Democrática de Cataluña and the Izquierda Democrática under Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez .)

After a debacle in the first democratic elections in Spain in 1977 , Tusell left the FPD and joined the Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC) under Fernando Álvarez de Miranda , which belonged to the Unión de Centro Democrático (from April 1977; UCD). In the first Elecciones municipales in 1979 (similar to the German state elections) he was elected to the Madrid City Council on the UCD list. From the same year he was head of the Dirección General de Patrimonio Artístico, Archivos y Museos (later Dirección General de Bellas Artes ) in the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

During this time he led the negotiations with the Picasso family and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to transfer the Guernica to the Museo del Prado in the Casón del Buen Retiro . The success of the negotiations became a symbol of democratic transition in Spain. On April 28, 1982 he was removed from office by Minister of Education Soledad Becerril . The decision was based on differing views on public libraries and restorations. On May 11, 1982, Joan Miró , Pablo Serrano Antoni Tàpies and Eduardo Chillida protested against his dismissal .

He then switched to the Partido Demócrata Popular (PDP) under Óscar Alzaga , but soon left politics and devoted himself to his position at UNED. In 1999 the Spanish cabinet appointed him representative of the state in the Foundation for the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum .

In addition to his teaching activities and as a book author, he also worked as a journalist for various newspapers and publishers.

In March 2002, he was hospitalized with a bacterial infection. There he was diagnosed with leukemia , from which he died in February 2005. He left behind his wife, the historian Genoveva García Queipo de Llano , and his two children.

Positions and Legacy

As a specialist in contemporary Spanish history, he left an extensive and well-founded work on the political developments in Spain in the twentieth century.

He criticized the intellectuals for their alleged unreality and their alleged excessive restraint in sensitive domestic political issues such as the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL). In 1995 he was one of the signatories of the En defensa de la democracia manifesto , which campaigned for the removal of Felipe González and the calling of new elections. He also initiated a document against a law by José María Aznar , which weakened the independent judiciary at universities, and brought together around 8,500 professors. However, the law was passed in December 2001. He also publicly advocated more funding for teaching in his subject.

Fonts

  • Sociología electoral de Madrid . 1969
  • La Segunda República en Madrid . 1970
  • Las elecciones del Frente Popular en España . 1971
  • La reforma de la Administración local en España . 1973
  • Historia de la Democracia Cristiana en España . 1974
  • La España del Siglo XX . 1975 ( Premio Mundo de Ensayo in the same year)
  • El caciquismo en Andalucía . 1976 ( National Prize for Spanish Literature in the Essays Category, and the Menéndez Pelayo Prize for Spanish and Ibero-American History)
  • La política y los políticos en tiempos de Alfonso XIII . 1976
  • La oposición democrática al franquismo 1932–1962 . 1977 (awarded the Premio Espejo de España in the same year )
  • Franco y los católicos: la política interior española entre 1945 y 1957 . 1984
  • Franco y Mussolini. La política española durante la segunda guerra mundial . 1985 (together with his wife Genoveva García Queipo de Llano )
  • Hijos de la sangre . 1986
  • La derecha española contemporánea . 1986 (with Juan Avilés )
  • Radiografía de un golpe de Estado . 1987
  • La URSS y la perestroika desde España . 1988
  • La España de Franco . 1989
  • La dictadura de Franco . 1989
  • Retrato de Mario Vargas Llosa . 1990
  • Manuel Giménez Fernández: precursor de la democracia española . 1990 (together with José Calvo )
  • El secuestro de la democracia . 1990 (together with Justino Sinova )
  • Franco en la Guerra Civil. Una biografía política . 1992 (Biography Prize Premio Comillas de Biografía, Autobiografía y Memorias )
  • Maura y el regeneracionismo . 1993 (Primer premio Antonio Maura de Investigación Histórica)
  • Carrero. La eminencia gris del régimen de Franco . 1993
  • La transición española . 1995
  • Juan Carlos I. La restauración de la monarquía . 1995
  • Franco, España y la II Guerra Mundial: entre el Eje y la neutralidad . 1995
  • La revolución postdemocrática . 1997
  • España, una angustia nacional . 1999
  • Arte, historia y política en España (1890–1939) . 1999
  • La política exterior de España en el siglo XX . 2000
  • Fotobiografía de Juan Carlos I . 2000
  • Una breve historia del siglo XX: los momentos decisivos . 2001
  • Alfonso XIII. El rey polémico . 2002 (together with his wife)
  • Vivir en guerra. Historia ilustrada de España 1936–1939 . 2003
  • Tiempo de incertidumbre: Carlos Arias Navarro entre el franquismo y la transición (1973-1976) . 2003
  • Fascismo y franquismo cara a cara: una perspectiva histórica . 2004
  • El aznarato: el gobierno del Partido Popular 1996-2003 . 2004
  • Dictadura franquista y democracia, 1939-2004 . 2005

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Picasso had decreed in his will that his works could only be returned to Spain under the condition of democratic conditions.
  2. ^ Among other things, El Mundo , El País , La Vanguardia , Diario 16 and the Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (SER).
personal data
SURNAME Tusell, Javier
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tusell Gómez, Javier (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish contemporary historian and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 2005
Place of death Barcelona