Cologne School (Sociology)

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The Cologne School is a theoretical trend in sociology that goes back to the German sociologist René König (1906-1992). In addition to the Frankfurt School and the Leipzig School, it is one of the three most important theory schools of West German post-war sociology. She achieved particular fame in the field of empirical social research . It also gave birth to the Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology , which is now the most important specialist journal for sociology in the German-speaking world.

The formation of the Cologne School

Seal of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne

History and creation

The history of sociology in Cologne began with the Cologne Research Institute for Social Sciences. The foundations for the creation of a school in Cologne were laid here.

The Cologne Research Institute for Social Sciences (today: Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS)) was founded in 1918, making it the first research institute in Germany to focus solely on the social sciences. The first central figure in Cologne sociology was Leopold von Wiese . Together with Max Scheler, he headed the institute's sociological department right from the start, but at the same time held a professorship at the commercial college in Cologne from 1914 and was appointed full professor for economic political sciences and for sociology at the re-founded University of Cologne in 1919. This professorship was also the first of its kind in Germany.

The primary goal of Wieses' work was "the creation of a clearly defined individual science and the corresponding subject in sociology." He pursued this goal by doing pure basic research. The result of his work can be found in his doctrine of relationships and structures , which represents a systematic for social processes and social structures rich in categories and which ultimately results in a table of human relationships that aims at completeness. The reception of this typology with regard to its significance for sociology was very different; Since the time of National Socialism , however, theory no longer played a significant role in sociology. In contrast, the founding of the Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Sociologie in 1921 (today: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie ) and the presidency of the German Society for Sociology from 1946, of which he was secretary from 1919, are all the more important for today's sociology.

Although von Wiese played a pioneering role in German sociology in many aspects, one does not speak today of schooling through von Wiese. Neither von Wieses sociology nor his students experience any particular prominence or relevance in current sociology. The fact that one speaks of a Cologne school was first established in the person of René Königs, who succeeded Wieses in 1949.

The 1950s were seen as the time when sociology was re-established after the Second World War. Major courses and research institutions emerged that were exclusively devoted to sociology. René König made a decisive contribution to establishing sociology as an independent individual science by conceptualizing a sociology that is carefully separated from many other disciplines, systems of thought and doctrines and is therefore “nothing but sociology”. The extraordinary theoretical and methodological foundation as well as the international orientation of his sociology stood out in the post-war generation. It is particularly the empirical methods of social research with which the Cologne School is associated at that time, as it is today.

In the 1960s, public interest was mainly focused on the Frankfurt School and the famous positivism controversy, while empirical methods developed in the background. It was not until the 1970s that attention was drawn to the new research methods again, thanks in part to advancing computer technology, which sometimes continued to emerge from Cologne, e.g. For example, in the form of the handbook of empirical social research first published by René König in 1962 , which was expanded and reissued several times in the following years.

Teaching

What was particularly striking about the teaching of René Königs and his Cologne school was the range of subjects and the multitude of topics taken up in a newly constituting sociology of the post-war period. In terms of content, René Königs sociology can be linked in particular with French theory and the tradition of the Durkheim School , American influences from the Chicago School and various points of contact with German sociology of the 1920s and early 1930s. His work was also accompanied by the structural functionalist ethnology following Richard Thurnwald , who was one of the teachers of König in Berlin. In terms of methodology, König stood like no other post-war sociologist for empirical social research and especially for quantitative methods .

Stephan Moebius sees the central point in König's teaching in the core triad person - society - culture, i.e. in his (sometimes also comparative) cultural sociology . This was strongly shaped by the influences of French theory and Durkheim's cultural concepts. The so-called cultural lag was central to his understanding of cultural sociology . For König, the sociologist's task was to recognize a cultural lag and to continue to counteract it by adapting cultural orientations, thought and perception schemes to the corresponding technological processes. This made him one of those sociologists who see the task of sociology less in mere diagnosis and cultural criticism than in actively improving the lives of individuals. König also saw "the emergence of a general social self-awareness" as "more and more dependent on social science research."

The Durkheim School was also formative for the Cologne School in many other aspects. In the 1970s, König saw sociology less as a science in crisis than as a crisis science and even spoke of sociology as the supreme discipline in times of crisis. This is also evident in the conception of his sociology as a critical sociology , which is made responsible for criticism, opposition and reform - albeit always on the basis of rational knowledge, as was also a matter of course for Durkheim. In his autobiography König writes: "Today the sociologist represents that sting of which Socrates spoke and which not only drives thinking, but at the same time brings it on the path of truth." In addition, a good sociology for König had to comply with the rules of sociology Follow method . Theory, method and practice form an inseparable unit and must always be understood and viewed as a whole.

Despite its relevance in terms of content, the Cologne School has since often been associated almost exclusively with its methodology. König strongly promoted the empirical and especially quantitative methods in sociology. His interest in empirical social research was aroused early on by Sociologus , a journal that was published at the time by Richard Thurnwald, one of his teachers in Berlin. His understanding of empirical social research was based mainly on influences from the Chicago School of the 1920s and 1930s. In the context of the post-war period, he considered the empirical methods to be an important measure for the reeducation of Germans, since the hermeneutics , which had hitherto mainly been practiced in the social sciences , seemed to have failed. However, since he himself was not a great connoisseur of the said methods, he expressed this conviction primarily by encouraging students like Scheuch and Rüschemeyer who rely on empiricism. On the other hand, he himself used methods such as field studies that he was familiar with from ethnology , rather than quantitative methods.

student

From the 1970s at the latest, the sociological field was shaped less by the “school heads” than by their students. Since sociology was already institutionalized as a discipline at this point, a certain "turn to the point" took place. Overall, the differences between the schools became less important because the schools themselves became pluralized and differentiated. The understanding of sociology as an “empirically oriented discipline” was largely in agreement.

The following can be counted among the students of the Cologne School: Erwin K. Scheuch , Peter Heintz , Peter Atteslander , Dietrich Rüschemeyer, Fritz Sack , Hansjürgen Daheim, Hans-Joachim Hoffmann-Nowotny , Wolfgang Sodeur, Rolf Ziegler , Karl-Dieter Opp , Hans Joachim Hummell, Rainer M. Lepsius , Hans Peter Thurn , Dieter Fröhlich, Heine von Alemann, Gerhard Kunz, Heinz Sahner , Günther Lüschen , Michael Klein, Günter Albrecht , Klaus Allerbeck , Kurt Hammerich.

Alphons Silbermann was not a König student, but his friend and colleague, so he was institutionally and personally closely connected to the Cologne school .

Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology

The Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology (KZfSS) was founded in 1921 by Leopold von Wiese in Cologne under the name of the Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Sozialwissenschaften or Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Sociologie (from 1923). After the Second World War, von Wiese brought it back to life in 1948 and named it the Cologne Journal for Sociology . It owes its current name to René König, who took over the publishing house from von Wiese in 1955. The expansion of the title to include social psychology should be understood less as the inclusion of a new discipline in the journal's program than as the foundation of sociology in general, which should receive special recognition in the title. However, König not only changed the name of the magazine, he also introduced the special issues as well as the special issues, which established a whole series of special sociologies .

The KZfSS was of particular importance for René König's work. He saw it as a “means of solidly establishing sociology” and understood it in this way as a mouthpiece for the consolidation and professionalization of sociology as a discipline. In order to do justice to this claim, the magazine published under him should be free of school tendencies and, as far as possible, should depict all relevant currents in German sociology. He was also careful to allow young, as yet unknown sociologists to have their say, and to include important foreign sociologies. The proportion of empirical work also increased threefold under König's editorship.

Today the Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology is one of the most important specialist journals in sociology in the German-speaking world in terms of size and distribution and has an impact factor of 0.476.

Demarcation

West German sociology in the post-war period is often divided into three schools. In addition to the Cologne School, which is associated with René König, the Frankfurt School with Theodor W. Adorno and the Leipzig School with Helmut Schelsky are counted among the three currents.

In this conception of the tripartite division of sociology, the Cologne and Frankfurt Schools face each other directly as "empirical functional science" on the one hand and "socio-philosophical interpretive science" on the other. Schelsky stands between these positions and is therefore also referred to by Dahrendorf as a "paradigm-bridger". However, by dealing with both positions and trying to mediate between them, he ultimately founds his very own sociology, which he calls "transcendental sociology".

The three schools did not exist without mutual knowledge. For the entire duration of the three heads of office there was a continuous exchange of letters between König and Adorno and between König and Schelsky. However, there were hardly any major content-related disputes.

Heinz Sahner differentiates the three schools using the following keywords:

Cologne School Frankfurt School Leipzig School
Structural functionalism , neopositivism , explain, collectivist , partialist, deductive , physical entities, conceptual, propositional, empirical , technological Marxism / historical materialism , critical theory , psychoanalysis , collectivist , holistic, materialistic , abstraction, conceptual, reflexive, dialectical , unity of theory and practice phenomenological , explain, collectivistic , holistic, inductive , physical entities, empirical , technological

The consideration and typology of German post-war sociology is also conceivable differently. While the Frankfurt School is an established term, it is less clear to what extent a school education around Helmut Schelsky took place. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, for example, calls the people of Leipzig a scientific “ circle ” in the sense of Georg Simmel and clearly rejects the term school as a description. Nevertheless, he describes Helmut Schelsky as one of the "most influential West German sociologists at all".

Problematization

René König and his immediate environment did not use the term school themselves. His pupil Peter Atteslander even rejects the term and writes about René König: “His style was training the mind, not creating schools as an institution.” Whether the intention of school education is a criterion for typifying theoretical schools depends on the respective school definition . The sociology historian Jerzy Szacki writes: “[…] in fact, any group of sociologists with a similar approach to any subject can be called a school.” And further: “In many cases these scientists would classify themselves differently or would refuse to accept at all to be associated with any school. Of course, this does not mean that the type was constructed incorrectly. ”He legitimizes the concept of school through the usefulness of a retrospective classification.

Following on from Szacki, Lothar Peter concretizes and understands “as a school the institutional formation of a theoretical and / or empirical conception that is sociologically influential in terms of both time and space, as well as the associated formal or informal integration of sociological actors in an institutionalized context of research, teaching, and publication and public presence. ”It is also important, however, that“ the activities of these individuals [school heads] lead to other actors identifying with them and entering into a non-temporary context of interaction. ”

It is therefore not undisputed that one can even speak of a Cologne school. Nevertheless, this classification is often made in the current literature, for example by Günther Lüschen, Heinz Sahner and Stephan Moebius. In addition, a research project on the history of sociology at the University of Cologne has existed since October 2016 , which is intended to investigate the justification of a Cologne school. The fact that the Cologne school has René König, a head of school with a particularly charismatic charisma, speaks in favor of classifying it as a school. There are also quite a number of students who relate to König's teaching and who themselves enjoy a certain reputation in sociology. In this respect, the Cologne School can withstand the criteria for typology as a school, both in the broader sense according to Szacki and in the narrower sense according to Peter.

Which is the decisive paradigm or the special teaching of the Cologne people can be discussed. Ultimately, they shape the sociological field of the post-war period with the methods of empirical social research and the claim to operate an "applied enlightenment" with them. However, according to Möbius, the differentiation of the content of sociology can also be seen as paradigmatic for the Cologne school. With the Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology, the Fischer Lexicon Sociology and the Handbook of Empirical Social Research, the Cologne-based company not only contributed to the differentiation and thus the establishment of a whole range of special sociologies , but also played a decisive role in professionalization, de-provincialization and consolidation of sociology as a discipline.

literature

  • Christian Fleck (Ed.): Paths to Sociology after 1945 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-8100-1660-8 .
  • Günther Lüschen (ed.): German sociology since 1945. Development directions and practical relevance (= Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. Special issue 21). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1979, ISBN 3-531-11479-4 .
  • Heinz Sahner : Theory and Research - on the paradigmatic structure of West German sociology and on its influence on research. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1982, ISBN 3-531-11606-1 .
  • Karl Martin Bolte , Friedhelm Neidhardt (ed.): Sociology as a profession. Memories of West German university professors of the post-war generation (= Social World. Special Volume 11). Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 3-7890-5453-4 .
  • Leopold von Wiese : memories. West German publishing house, Cologne / Opladen 1957.
  • Ralf Dahrendorf : The three sociologies. On Helmut Schelsky's 'Location of German Sociology'. In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. Volume 12, 1960, pp. 120-133.
  • René König (Hrsg.): Handbook of empirical social research. Volume 1, Enke, Stuttgart 1962.
  • René König (Ed.): The Fischer Lexicon Sociology . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-40010-4 .
  • René König: Life in Contradiction - An attempt at an intellectual autobiography . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-548-35197-2 .
  • Stephan Möbius : René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 .
  • Stefanie Knebelspieß, Stephan Moebius: Program, personnel and organizational development of the Research Institute for Social Sciences from 1918/1919 to today's Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS) , in: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Vol. 71, Issue 4 2019, p 515-552.
  • Stephan Moebius, Martin Griesbacher: Was there a “Cologne School” of Federal Republican sociology? On René König's professionalization of sociology , in: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Volume 71, Issue 4 2019, pp. 553–591.
  • Wolf Lepenies (ed.): History of sociology. Volume 2, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-518-07967-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Heine von Alemann: Leopold von Wiese and the Research Institute for Social Sciences in Cologne 1919 to 1934. In: Wolf Lepenies (Ed.): History of Sociology. Volume 2, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1981, ISBN 3-518-07967-0 , pp. 349-389.
  2. ^ Leopold von Wiese: Memories. Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne / Opladen 1957, p. 53.
  3. ^ Karl Lenz: Handbook of personal relationships. Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim / Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7799-0792-3 , pp. 36-38.
  4. ↑ In 1975 Edward Shils passed a harsh judgment on von Wiese's sociology: “Fortunately for German sociology, however, von Wiese's ideas could not be developed. He dealt primarily with nomenclature and classification […]. ”(Edward Shils: History of Sociology: Tradition, Ecology and Institutionalization . In: Talcott Parsons et al: Sociology autobiographical - three critical reports on the development of a science. Enke, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-423-04160-9 , pp. 69–146.) Erwin Scheuch comes to a far milder judgment at the same time. For him it is "the most systematic draft of a general sociology to date, far more systematic than that of Talcott Parsons", whereby he continues to admit "- but also incomparably empty of content." (Erwin Scheuch, Thomas Kutsch: Basic Concepts of Sociology. Volume 1 : Foundation and elementary phenomena . Teubner, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-519-10020-7 , p. 279.)
  5. ↑ René König (ed.): The Fischer Lexikon Sociology . Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-596-40010-4 . P. 8.
  6. ^ Rainer Lepsius: Part 1: On the history of development and ideas - The development of sociology after the Second World War, 1945 to 1967. In: German sociology since 1945. Development directions and practical relevance. (= Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology . Special issue 21). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1979, ISBN 3-531-11479-4 , pp. 25-70.
  7. ↑ René König (Ed.): Handbook of empirical social research. Volume 1, Enke, Stuttgart 1962.
  8. ^ Rainer Lepsius: Part 1: On the history of development and ideas - The development of sociology after the Second World War, 1945 to 1967. German sociology since 1945. Development directions and practical relevance. (= Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology . Special issue 21). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1979, ISBN 3-531-11479-4 , pp. 25–70, here pp. 51–52.
  9. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 55-60.
  10. ↑ See also: René König (Ed.): Das Fischer Lexikon Soziologie . Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-596-40010-4 . Keyword: person (p. 241), keyword: society (p. 104), keyword: culture (p. 159).
  11. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 60-65.
  12. ↑ René König (ed.): The Fischer Lexikon Sociology . Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-596-40010-4 , p. 157 (keyword: complex societies).
  13. ↑ Socrates describes himself in the Apology of Socrates of Plato as a sting (also: spur) in the flesh of the Athenians. Plato : Des Socrates Defense (Apology) , 30e, accessed June 15, 2017.
  14. ↑ René König: Life in contradiction - attempt at an intellectual autobiography . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-548-35197-2 , p. 195.
  15. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 68-72.
  16. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 75-79.
  17. ↑ Erwin Scheuch: It didn't have to be sociology, but it was better that way. In: Christian Fleck (Ed.): Paths to Sociology after 1945 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-8100-1660-8 , pp. 199–224, here p. 209.
  18. ^ Heinz Bude, Friedhelm Neidhardt: The professionalization of the German post-war sociology . In: Karl Martin Bolte, Friedhelm Neidhardt (ed.): Sociology as a profession. Memories of West German university professors of the post-war generation (= Social World. Special Volume 11). Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 3-7890-5453-4 , pp. 405-418, here p. 406.
  19. ^ Heinz Bude, Friedhelm Neidhardt: The professionalization of the German post-war sociology . In: Karl Martin Bolte, Friedhelm Neidhardt (ed.): Sociology as a profession. Memories of West German university professors of the post-war generation (= Social World. Special Volume 11). Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 3-7890-5453-4 , pp. 405-418, here p. 408.
  20. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 80-83.
  21. ^ Erwin Scheuch: Science - Application - Journalism: Three lives as social scientists . In: Karl Martin Bolte, Friedhelm Neidhardt (ed.): Sociology as a profession. Memories of West German university professors of the post-war generation (= Social World. Special Volume 11). Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 3-7890-5453-4 , pp. 233-266, here p. 241.
  22. ↑ Dirk Kaesler , Silbermann, Alphons . In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), pp. 410-411, online .
  23. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , p. 61.
  24. ↑ a b Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 111-118.
  25. ↑ René König: Life in contradiction - attempt at an intellectual autobiography . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-548-35197-2 , p. 208.
  26. ↑ Springer International Publishing AG: KZfSS Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. https://link.springer.com/journal/11577 , accessed June 18, 2017.
  27. ↑ Ralf Dahrendorf: The three sociologies. On Helmut Schelsky's 'Location of German Sociology'. In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. Volume 12, 1960, pp. 120-133, here p. 125.
  28. ↑ Heinz Sahner: Theory and Research - on the paradigmatic structure of West German sociology and on its influence on research. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1982, ISBN 3-531-11606-1 , pp. 23-50 and 66-69.
  29. ↑ Mario König, Oliver König (Ed.): Correspondence Volume 1 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2000, ISBN 978-3-322-80865-3 , pp. 131-212 and pp. 419-576.
  30. ↑ Heinz Sahner: Theory and Research - on the paradigmatic structure of West German sociology and on its influence on research. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1982, ISBN 3-531-11606-1 , p. 31, p. 37, p. 47.
  31. ^ Karl-Siegbert Rehberg: Hans Freyer (1887–1969), Arnold Gehlen (1904–1976), Helmut Schelsky (1912–1984). In: Dirk Kaesler (Ed.): Classics of Sociology. Volume 2, 5th edition, Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-42089-4 , pp. 72-104, here pp. 72-73.
  32. ↑ Peter Atteslander: Fragments . In: Christian Fleck (Ed.): Paths to Sociology after 1945 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-8100-1660-8 , pp. 161-184, here p. 178.
  33. ↑ Jerzy Szacki: schools in sociology . In: Wolf Lepenies (Ed.): History of Sociology. Volume 2, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-518-07967-0 , pp. 16-30, here pp. 17 and 22.
  34. ↑ Jerzy Szacki: schools in sociology . In: Wolf Lepenies (Ed.): History of Sociology. Volume 2, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-518-07967-0 , pp. 16-30.
  35. ↑ Lothar Peter: Marx to the university: the Marburg school: history, problems, actors . PapyRossa, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89438-546-0 , pp. 9-10.
  36. ^ Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS): 100 Years of Cologne Sociology. Archive link ( memento of July 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 20, 2017.
  37. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , p. 126.
  38. ↑ See also: Rainer Lepsius: Sociology as applied enlightenment . In: Christian Fleck (Ed.): Paths to Sociology after 1945 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-8100-1660-8 , pp. 185-198.
  39. ^ Stephan Möbius: René König and the "Cologne School". A sociological-historical approach . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-08182-9 , pp. 119–128.
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