Kurt E. Becker

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Kurt E. Becker (pseudonym: Oliver Baum ; born October 26, 1950 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a German publicist , rhetoric teacher, university lecturer , communications consultant and management coach .

life and work

After graduating from high school and training as an officer in the armed forces (paratroopers) at the army officers' schools in Hanover and Munich and the combat troop school in Hammelburg, Becker studied political science , philosophy , sociology , psychology and education in Freiburg im Breisgau and Stuttgart.

His doctoral thesis The Roman Caesar with Christ's Soul. He wrote an analysis of Max Weber's charisma concept including biographical facts (1984, published as a book in 1988) with Martin Greiffenhagen , Günter Endruweit and Eckart Olshausen . Since then he has been interested in the phenomenon “charisma”. He took up the phenomenon in popular science in his essays Charisma. The way out of the crisis (1996) and in The Charisma Factor. Happiness with Sisyphos (2016), the latter pervading the famous myth socio-philosophically, in that Becker Camus' happiness individualism lends a social dimension: "In a social act of communalization, Sisyphus proves to be a salvific conqueror of the absurd and a leader out of the human crisis of meaning" ( The charisma factor. P. 10).

For Becker, philosophical, literary, psychoanalytically inspired, anthroposophical and historical key witnesses of his charismatic, meaningful communalization thesis are Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Goethe's Faust, Freud's Moses, but also an Ayatollah Khomeini, as well as Rudolf Steiner and Karl König with their ideas on the threefolding of the social organism and curative education .

Becker had in Charisma about the “great evil” in charisma in the form of Hitler . The way out of the crisis (p. 111 ff.) Reflects and contrasts the philosophies of a Socrates and a Lao-Tse. Regina C. Henkel wrote in January 1997 in Wirtschaftsbild (p. 6 f): “The philosopher, entrepreneur, management coach and author with a doctorate knows how to ... offer more than one knitting pattern à la right and left. His style is ... literarily polished and filigree in detail ... The term "Charisma" is Becker's vehicle with which he rushes through times, situations and the history of philosophy to invite the reader to an exciting and entertaining tour of human sensitivities. "

Becker had already described in 1988 in “The Roman Caesar with Christ's Soul” that the human crisis is of an existential nature, as well as the opportunities and risks to overcome it, addressing a fundamental question from Max Weber (p. 150): “If the existential The problem of occidental man begins with a crisis of knowledge, namely with the knowledge that God is dead, then the one following this crisis of knowledge is a practical one, namely the question of how he should orient his actions in the practice of daily interaction. Last but not least, the charismatic leader ... gives an answer. And last but not least, on this spiritual and emotional crisis of the human being, totalitarianism, the disenchanted, desecrated form of charismatism can arise. "

Becker lives in Emmendingen, is the author and editor of more than 40 books on questions of time and the people in it. He processed his experiences with the Bundeswehr in the form of a novel ( you can say Acker to me ). The ideological sfumato of the novel is based on Becker's direct experience of terrorist violence at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where he was assigned by his unit to the Olympic Committee and deployed on site in the guest area of ​​the boxing hall, a few hundred meters away from the location of the Israeli hostage-taking National teams by Palestinian terrorists in what was then the Olympic Village at dawn on September 5th. In a small autobiographical essay, Becker provides some information on his impressions of the fateful incursion of barbarism into the world of peace at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Among other things, he was the editor of “ Rudolf Steiner . Selected works in 10 volumes ”. Together with Hans Peter Schreiner, Becker, supported by Hella Wiesberger, Edwin Froböse and Friedrich Hiebel , did pioneering work in the eighties of the last century in the publication of anthroposophical topics in large German publishers such as Kindler in Munich and S. Fischer in Frankfurt. Edited volumes such as Anthroposophie heute (first edition 1981) or Becker's essay Anthroposophy - Revolution from within (first edition 1985) achieved large print runs. Becker wrote in the introduction to “Rudolf Steiner. Selected Works ”(1985):“ Anthroposophy develops the individual human being at the center - without any dogmatic impetus - an all-encompassing system of coordinates from the particular to the general, from the smallest to the greatest, from the past to the future. In this claim of anthroposophy lies a standard and a challenge for the established bulwarks of those ideas of a ... relative human being. Because the human being at the center of anthroposophy is the whole human being as the smallest “building block” of a unity of the world and at the same time the image of a cosmic whole. ”(Volume I, p. 17).

Becker is co-founder of "BSK Becker + Schreiner Kommunikation GmbH" in Willich , oversees the German-language public relations work of Jones Lang LaSalle (since 1988) and is the author of the German-language blog of "JLL - vorBUILDer - The CRE Immobilien Blog from JLL Germany".

Becker was responsible for the conception, organization and moderation of numerous series of events such as “Frankenthal Conversations”, “Building and Living”, “Futurion”, “Economy and Society in the New Millennium”. As head of the “Frankenthal Talks” in 1983, he addressed the explosive question of Islam as a world power? . And a year later, in the same series of events, he moved anthroposophy into the focus of public interest: the focus is on people . I.a. Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, Konrad Schily and Ernst Schuberth were contributors to the congress. Conceived and moderated by Becker and implemented in cooperation with the University of Witten Herdecke and the former Thyssen AG as sponsor and organizer, "digitization" was the topic of discussion in 1996 under the patronage of the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl . Contributors to the Düsseldorf symposium "The Information Society in the New Millennium" were, for example, Arnulf Baring , Johan Galtung , Neil Postman and Alphons Silbermann . In 1997/1998 the series of congresses "Are we running out of work?" Followed in Erfurt, Hamburg and Berlin. Employment Perspectives in Tomorrow's Society ”, documented as a book of the same name published by Campus Verlag in 1998 with contributions by, for example, Gail D. Fosler , Gunda Röstel , Peter Glotz , Gregor Gysi , Lothar Späth , Reinhard Marx and Jeremy Rifkin . In the introduction to this book, Becker wrote (p. 14): “What is on the test stand is nothing other than the way in which industrial society has become so and not different in general, as well as its way of life and behavior shaped individuals in particular. Without a doubt: The modern world has reached a crossroads. "

The one-on-one discussions in the Frankenthal series of events also met with media interest - with Esther Vilar, for example, about her new book Alt. Manifesto against the rule of the young (1980), with Mehdi Navab-Motlagh, then ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Germany, on the revolution in his country (1981), with Ephraim Kishon on Israel (1981), with Erhard Eppler on the " Peace Movement ”(1982) or with Otto von Habsburg on“ Conservatism ”(1982), the latter two also documented in the accompanying book series Frankenthaler Talks , published in the same year in the Palatinate Publishing House, Landau / Pfalz.

As an executive coach , Becker works for executives in business in German-speaking countries. In addition, he designs and implements employee-centered management structures in companies. His coaching concept is based on the development of charismatic personality potential.

Together with Rudolf M. Bleser, then head of the publishing company Rudolf Müller, Cologne, and the Krefeld personnel and management consultant Bernd Heuer, Becker created the specialist magazine Immobilien Manager in 1990, for which he, as “Oliver Baum”, portrayed protagonists of the real estate industry for many years and later also wrote glosses under his own name.

Between 2006 and 2012 Becker designed cooperation projects for the energy and real estate industries in Germany. For example the think tank ENRESO 2020 (Energy - Real Estate - Economy - Society), the "Prom of the Year", a competition for the most energy-efficient commercial or public property in Germany, as well as the "Energy Education Initiative", which addresses the topic of "Energy" in wanted to anchor the German educational landscape as a life and learning goal, a joint project with the Euroschools (Aschaffenburg) and their then managing director Wolfgang Gärthe.

The topic of “climate and environment in built-up areas” attracted early attention from Becker's initiatives. The entire series of events and books “Forum Bauen und Leben”, sponsored by the Baumeister-Haus cooperation and its then managing director Klaus Waltenbauer, was not least driven by the idea of ​​developing ideas for contemporary, humane and at the same time sustainable building.

Becker has been a co-founder and member of the board of various non-profit organizations such as the Förderkreis Camphill Rheinland / Pfalz (until October 2013), the Alexandra Lang Foundation for patient rights (board member until November 2008) or the Alexandra Lang Initiative School and Work Environment (ALISA), since 2012 Alexandra Lang Foundation - Social and Labor Initiative (Board member until December 31, 2016). In Worms in 2009 he launched an “ethics initiative” dedicated to the subject of “sustainability in education”. In 2011 he was a co-founder of the Karl König Institute according to eV in Berlin, since then chairman of the board. October 2014 Foundation of the “Corporate Communicative Responsibility eV” initiative associated with the Berlin Humboldt University.

Works (selection)

As an author
  • Pais Paizon. Narrative. Bläschke, St. Michael 1982, ISBN 3-7053-1751-2
  • You can say Acker to me. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Landau 1982, ISBN 3-87629-015-5 (under the title “Unlawful Distance”, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1985), 780-ISBN-3-596-25847-2
  • Anthroposophy - Revolution from within. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, 680-ISBN-3-596-23336-4, (reprinted 2015), 680-ISBN-3-596-23336-4
  • The Roman Caesar with Christ's soul. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-8204-8667-4
  • Charisma. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1996, ISBN 3-7857-0840-8
  • The charisma factor. Happiness with Sisyphus. info3, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-95779-025-5
  • When Paul came to Stutensee. Sensible and nonsensical in four lines. Lindemanns Bibliothek, Bretten 2018, ISBN 978-3-88190-989-1 .
As editor

literature

  • Wilhelm Kosch u. a. (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon. The 20th century. Volume 2: Bauer-Ose - Björnson. De Gruyter, p. 112 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Ulla Hofmann in FAZ of November 11, 1996: "Becker's essay is a plea for regaining a balance between reason and emotion."
  2. ↑ See Ronald Richter in die Drei. 8–9, 2016: "Becker's book is an educated and entertaining read through cultural history on the wings of charism [...]"
  3. ↑ See Der Romanführer , Anton Hiersemann, Volume XVIII, page 31 ff., As well as: Critical appraisal in: Gerhart Mayer, Der deutsche Bildungsroman , JB Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1992, p. 322 ff.
  4. ↑ See Kurt E. Becker: 1972 to today. A Munich Olympic fairy tale. In: Quintessence. 2019, No. 1, p. 18 ff.
  5. ^ JLL website
  6. ↑ Published in the same year as a book of the same name. Bergisch Gladbach: Lübbe, 1997.
  7. ↑ Always something new. In: Der Spiegel. No. 2, 1982, p. 43 f.
  8. ↑ New type. In: Der Spiegel. No. 49, 1985, p. 118.
  9. ^ Christian Schlesiger: New forces. In: Wirtschaftswoche of August 14, 2006, p. 103.
  10. ↑ https://www.medioq.com/DE/Cologne/144197048937148/Immobilienmanager
  11. ↑ "Immobilienmanager", 12/2012: "Prometheus für Immobilien", p. 64 ff.
  12. ↑ Basically Volume 1 of the forum series “Necessity and Possibility of Humane Building” from 1986, as well as Volume 7: “Environment - Contradictions, Conflicts and Solutions” from 1991, therein a timelessly relevant essay by Martin Greiffenhagen with the title “ Living with changing values ​​”.
  13. ^ Website of the Karl König Institute , accessed on January 10, 2017
  14. ↑ https://www.corporate-communicative-responsibility.de/ , Chairman of the Board of Management there since it was founded in 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Kurt E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist, rhetoric teacher, university lecturer, communications consultant
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein