Konrad Loew

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Konrad Löw (born December 25, 1931 in Munich ) is a German lawyer and political scientist .

Life

Konrad Löw studied law as well as philosophical, historical and economic studies and graduated in 1955 with the first state examination in law. He then took on several teaching positions for civil and constitutional law and political science at the Munich Adult Education Center , then at the former Munich University of Education and later also at the Munich School of Politics .

In 1959/60 he took the second state examination in law and from 1960 to 1964 he joined the administrative service for the Free State of Bavaria . Löw then rose to the Federal Chancellery in 1965 , where he worked until 1972. In the meantime, he repeatedly taught as a lecturer at the University of Politics in Munich.

From 1972 to 1975 Löw was Professor of Political Science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and from 1975 Professor of Political Science at the University of Bayreuth . In 1980 he became head of the Politics section of the Society for German Research . In 1999 he retired.

He has been married since 1959 and has five children.

Act

Löw has been a member of the board of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) since 1990 . Since 2000 he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Forum of German Catholics . He is also the legal advisor of the Christian Publicists Working Group .

Löw's main research focus is the theory of totalitarianism , with a particular focus on communism . Löw published works in the magazine for politics , the magazine for historical science , the Cologne magazine for sociology and social psychology , the magazines law and politics , Eastern Europe , the yearbooks for the history of Eastern Europe and in the Germany archive . He also made contributions in new right magazines such as Criticón and Sezession as well as in the critical rationalism- oriented magazine Enlightenment and Criticism .

Focus of his scientific work

Totalitarianism theory

Löw bases his political science analyzes on theories of totalitarianism. His work is also the basis for extremism researchers Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse and the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism (HAIT). At this institute he is valued as an author and speaker for the Veldensteiner Kreis .

To Karl Marx

Based on quotes from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , Löw tries to relativize the “Marx myth”. In his writings, a great deal of space is occupied by personal misconduct by Marx, which he also sees in connection with later crimes committed in the name of Marxism. He makes Karl Marx jointly responsible for anti-Semitism in Germany and tries to prove that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not contribute anything worth mentioning to philosophy , economics and history .

Recognition, criticism and controversy

The effect of Löw's criticism of Marxism

Löw's works were banned in the GDR. Günter Schabowski , editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland and member of the SED Politburo from 1984 , confessed after the fall of the Wall: “Löw's writings - they weren't the only ones from the poison cupboards of the free spirit that I devoured in the nineties ... delivered to me liberating x-rays of the red pillar saints. "

Accusation of historical revisionism

From around the year 2000, Löw turned to the question of the extent to which the German population supported the murderous persecution of Jews under National Socialism. Although Löw relies primarily on Jewish sources, some of his statements on this topic have accused him of historical revisionism . According to the reviewer Thomas Forster, Löw played down anti-Semitism during the imperial era in his book Die Schuld as “snub”, which apart from Jews and Christians, there was a peaceful coexistence. Anti-Semitism in Germany only brought about the Weimar Republic . According to this presentation by Forster, specialist librarian for document management at the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Munich, Löw considers this anti-Semitism to be justified and cites the justification: "the enormous participation of Jews in the revolutions in Russia, Bavaria and Hungary, which the majority of the population hated." Forster rates the book Die Schuld as “an attempt to abuse science as a medium of politics and to pursue revisionist history politics behind the masks of an upright Catholic and scientist with integrity. The intention of the book to want to answer moral questions of guilt and atonement with at best popular scientific methodology is far removed from historical as well as outside theological discourse. With regard to methodological weakness and ignorance of serious research, it is of course astonishing and remarkable that such an elaboration was submitted by a German university professor. " Olaf Blaschke complains that Löw is of the opinion that" any criticism of Jews ... anti-Semitism "is called too lightly , and that Löw demanded that one had to ask "whether the criticism of the matter was somehow justified."

His book The people is a consolation sparked controversy . He presented the main results of this work in a newspaper article. In the opinion of critics of his theses, the “special explosiveness” of this contribution was that it cites testimonies from Jewish Germans. He quotes Victor Klemperer , Inge Deutschkron , Willy Cohn and Bella Fromm, among others .

The historian Wolfgang Benz accused Löw that these quotations were "arbitrarily stolen" and "extremely amateurish". The persons quoted have objected in letters to the editor. In one case, Löw confused the author. Löw tries "to" prove "something with such outrageous methods. Benz by no means only criticized craftsmanship. He held the article for "ideology production" by Loew looking for "arbitrary quotations" "to support a preconceived opinion". Benz, referring to his own research ( Die Juden in Deutschland 1933–1945 ), countered Löw's accusation that German-language Holocaust research was “undesirable” for Jews and their testimonies if they “exonerated” the German people.

Löw protested against the charge of wanting to support “preconceived opinions”. “As the son of an officially recognized Nazi victim ”, he had “not the slightest reason to issue Persil certificates to the many followers from that time ”. The result of his research is that "the vast majority of the German people did not approve of Hitler's murderous Jewish policy". He was able to “call over a hundred Jewish victims to the stand”, who stated that “the majority of Germans did not allow themselves to be infected by Hitler's excessive hatred of Jews”.

Löw's work Deutsche Schuld 1933–1945? The ignored answers of contemporary witnesses are again exposed to the accusation of revisionism. In this work, Löw even tries to prove, with 354 testimonies from Jewish Germans, that the vast majority of (non-Jewish) Germans rejected the National Socialist persecution of the Jews. The historian Raphael Gross criticizes, however, with one-sided sources that Löw suggests "that 'the Germans' are not to blame for the Holocaust - only a very specific group of Nazis". He also trivializes anti-Semitism and, on the other hand, puts the Germans' willingness to help in the foreground, which he supports with any quotation from “Jewish” sources. Wolfgang Benz described Löw's approach as “outrageous” - “ideological production” and Trude Maurer as “whitewashing”.

Article German identity in the constitution and history in the Germany archive

The withdrawal of the publication of his article German Identity in Constitution and History in the journal Germany Archive of the Federal Agency for Civic Education caused a scandal . The contribution was heavily attacked because critics saw in it Löw's recourse to anti-Semitic stereotypes . Marked Sven Felix Kellerhoff the 10-page text "German identity in the constitution and history" as "pretty crude (s) nonsense" and "intellectual Selbstentleibung a once respected Marxism-critic".

The Bundeszentrale (bpb) distanced itself after the publication "in the sharpest" way and apologized in a circular to the 5500 subscribers of the magazine to everyone who "felt disparaged by the contribution" and ordered the entire remaining circulation of the magazine to be crushed. The Federal Constitutional Court criticized the behavior of the Federal Central Office towards Löw: the balance and the rule of law to be expected from a state institution were lacking, and Löw's general personal rights had been violated. The court found that the Federal Central Office was “in principle not prohibited” from “ignoring extreme opinions on the fringes of the political spectrum and describing them as such”; The explicit distancing that took place in Löw's case went well beyond the justified concern of the federal agency to remove the impression that it offered extremist positions a journalistic forum and was therefore disproportionate.

Unification Church

In 1987 Konrad Löw gave a lecture in the forum for spiritual leadership of CAUSA Deutschland e. V. In the 1990s he came under fire for his advocacy of the Unification Church .

Publications

  • as Ed .: Cheated Hope. From personal testimonies of former communists. Sinus-Verlag, Krefeld 1978, ISBN 3-88289-012-6 .
  • Why is communism fascinating? - A systematic investigation. 1980.
  • The teaching of Karl Marx - documentation, criticism. 1982.
  • Can a Christian be a Marxist? With a foreword by Christa Meves in 1987.
  • Terror. Theory and Practice in Marxism . 1991.
  • ... until the betrayal of freedom - The Society of the Federal Republic and the "GDR" , 1993.
  • as editor: totalitarianism. 1993.
  • Causes and course of the German revolution in 1989. 1993.
  • as Ed .: Loyalty betrayed. The SPD and the victims of communism. 1994.
  • About "witches" and witch hunters. The moonies and freedom of belief. 1994.
  • The myth of Marx and its makers. How stories become history. Langen Müller, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7844-2567-4 .
  • with Eckhard Jesse (ed.): Coping with the past. (= Publication series of the Society for Germany Research, 54) Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997 ISBN 3-428-09183-3
  • Did the end come before the beginning? - 150 Years of the Communist Party Manifesto . 1998
  • For people with short memories. The Rostock Manifesto of the PDS. 1998
  • Basic features of democracy. The political order of the Federal Republic of Germany. 1998
  • with Eckhard Jesse : Elections in Germany. 1998
  • The red book of communist ideology. 1999
  • with Eckhard Jesse: 50 years of the Federal Republic of Germany. 1999
  • Marx and Marxism. 1997
  • (Ed.): Ten years of German unity. 2001
  • In the holy year of forgiveness. 2002
  • The blame. Christians and Jews in the judgment of the National Socialists and the present. 2002 ISBN 3-935197-21-7 ; again in 2003, same ISBN
  • Marx myth. (PDF; 85 kB) In: Enlightenment and Criticism. , Special Issue 10: What Remains of Marxism? P. 3–26 (PDF file; 83 kB)
  • Metacriticism of the criticism of Marx. My answer to Dr. Michael Schmidt-Salomon. (PDF; 30 kB) In: Enlightenment and Criticism. Special issue 10: What remains of Marxism? Pp. 45–52 (PDF file; 29 kB)
  • “The people are a consolation”. Germans and Jews 1933–1945 in the judgment of Jewish contemporary witnesses. Olzog Verlag , Munich 2006 ISBN 3-7892-8156-5
  • Munich residents and their Jewish fellow citizens 1900–1950 in the verdict of Nazi victims and opponents. 2008
  • Hitler in us? How to deal with our past properly. Manuscriptum Verlagsbuchhandlung, Waltrop 2009 ISBN 978-3-937801-48-3 .
  • German guilt 1933-1945? The ignored answers of contemporary witnesses . Vorw. Klaus von Dohnanyi , Nachw. Alfred Grosser . Olzog, Munich 2010 ISBN 978-3-7892-8328-4
  • Adenauer was right. Why is the image of the Germans living under Hitler darkened? Nachw. Alfred de Zayas . Inspiration Unlimited Publishing, London 2014 ISBN 978-3-9812110-8-5

literature

  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon : “The Myth of Marx”? Outlines of the life and work of the philosopher, economist and politician Karl Marx (including a critical consideration of Konrad Löw's criticism of Marx). In: Enlightenment and Criticism. Special issue 10/2005 ( Marxism ), Nuremberg 2006, pp. 27–44 (PDF; 199 kB) .
  • Rainer Eisfeld: Conservative illusion formation among university teachers. Opinion on criticism by Konrad Löw . In: From Politics and Contemporary History . 1977.1, pp. 15-37. ISSN  0479-611X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ G. Schabowski: The x-rayed Marx. In: Enlightenment and Criticism. No. 10/05, p. 71.
  2. ↑ Review by Thomas Forstner at H-Soz-u-Kult
  3. ↑ Vicariate General - Document Management. ( Memento of November 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Website of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, accessed on October 16, 2012.
  4. ^ Olaf Blaschke: The 'Reichspogromnacht' and the attitude of the Catholic population and the church. History of mentality as the key to a new understanding? In: House of History Baden-Württemberg (ed.): Side by side - with each other - against each other? On the coexistence of Jews and Catholics in southern Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. (= Laupheim Talks 2000). Bleicher, Gerlingen 2002, p. 216.
  5. ↑ Konrad Löw: Jews undesirable. In: FAZ February 28, 2007.
  6. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : "Arbitrarily gathered together", the historian Wolfgang Benz on the thesis of his colleague Konrad Löw that the Germans had rejected the Nazi Jewish policy. In: The world. April 14, 2007, accessed September 7, 2011.
  7. ^ Konrad Löw: Inconvenient research results . Letter to the editor in Die Welt from April 21, 2007 on: Arbitrarily clipped together.
  8. ↑ Raphael Gross : The offended nationalist. In: Faz. November 19, 2010, No. 270, p. 33, paragraph 5.
  9. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: A collection of anti-Jewish clichés. In: The world . dated April 15, 2004.
  10. ↑ Hellmuth Vensky: A revisionist gets right. A Karlsruhe judge's verdict supports the controversial political scientist Konrad Löw. In: The time. September 28, 2010.
  11. ^ Order of August 17, 2010, press release of the Federal Constitutional Court No. 87/2010 of September 28, 2010
  12. ↑ Journal Forum for Spiritual Guidance No. 3, 1988, p. 37.
  13. ↑ The process is described in more detail in Konrad Löw Auf, auf zum Happy Jagd. Experiences with Manicheans . In: Gerhard Besier, Erwin K. Scheuch: The new inquisitors. Religious freedom and envy of faith. Osnabrück 1999, p. 255.
personal data
SURNAME Loew, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich