Michael Wolffsohn

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Michael Wolffsohn, 2015

Michael Wolffsohn (born May 17, 1947 in Tel Aviv ) is a German historian and publicist . From 1981 to 2012 he taught modern history at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich .

Life

Michael Wolffsohn is the son of a Jewish merchant family who fled to Palestine in 1939 and is the grandson of the publisher and cinema pioneer Karl Wolffsohn . After starting school in Israel in 1953, he moved with his parents to West Berlin in 1954 and began studying at the Free University of Berlin in 1966 . From 1967 to 1970 he served as a conscript in the Israeli army , where he was deployed in the Palestinian Territories after the Six Day War . During his military service, he also passed the Israeli Abitur in 1968 . Then he returned to Berlin. Wolffsohn originally had German and Israeli citizenship; he gave up the Israeli one in 1984.

He studied history, political science and economics at the Free University of Berlin, Tel Aviv University and Columbia University in New York City. In 1975 he was at Wolfram Fischer in history at the University of Berlin to Dr. phil. PhD . From 1975 to 1980 he worked as a research assistant at Saarland University . In 1980 he completed his habilitation (with Jürgen Domes ) in political science and his extended habilitation in contemporary history (extension of the Venia Legendi ). In 1980/81 he was a deputy professor at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg . From September 1981 until his retirement in 2012, Wolffsohn taught at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich as a professor of modern history . In 1991 he founded the Research Center for German-Jewish Contemporary History there .

His main research interests are in the field of international relations , Israeli and German-Jewish history as well as historical opinion polls (= surveys in pre-demoscopic times). He is the author of numerous books and writes for several newspapers at home and abroad, for example for Die Welt , Bild , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Handelsblatt and the Tagesspiegel . Again and again he is a guest in television discussions such as Hart aber fair , Anne Will , Maischberger or Maybrit Illner . Wolffsohn was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Eugen Biser Foundation and chairman of the jury for the Eduard Rhein Culture Prize . In 1993 he was visiting professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

From 1980 to 1982 he was a member of the executive committee of the German University Association . In the early 1990s he became a member of the Collegium Europaeum Jenense . In 1992 he became a member of the European Academy for Science and the Arts . Since 2001 he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Goethe Society and the Eduard Rhein Foundation . Since 2002 he has been a member of the Research Board of Advisors at the American Biographical Institute and is an honorary member of the German Language Association .

He inherited the Atlantic garden city in the Gesundbrunnen district of Berlin from his grandfather Karl Wolffsohn . The complete renovation from 2001 to 2005 took place according to his own account by giving up the majority of his own assets. The listed residential complex has received several awards and is a non-profit, German-Jewish-Turkish-intercultural cultural and integration project. His wife Rita, the daughter of Wilhelm Braun-Feldweg , organizes the property management.

From July 2008 Wolffsohn was a board member and cultural advisor of the Israelite Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria . In September 2009 he resigned from this post due to "irreconcilable content and organizational differences".

Political positions and controversies

Wolffsohn takes the position of a “German-Jewish patriot in the tradition of emancipation”. He repeatedly emphasized that the events of National Socialism did not give reasons that would have to burden the integration of Judaism into German post-war society in the long term ; National Socialism is no objection to the fact that Jews, at least of his generation, can be proud of Germany. This attitude is particularly evident in his book Don't be afraid of Germany! described. He campaigns for understanding for the Israeli position and was close to Yitzhak Rabin's peace policy . In the area of ​​security policy and in relation to the defense against terrorist threats, Wolffsohn considers the integration deficits of Western European societies to be a major problem.

Wolffsohn is often referred to as a conservative . He repeatedly encountered incomprehension among the political left , for example with his stance on the United States' fight against terrorism or on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Wolffsohn's views received express support from various conservatives and also from some publicists such as Henryk M. Broder and Josef Joffe , co-editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit .

In the spring of 2004, Wolffsohn drew criticism when he said on the n-tv talk show Maischberger on May 5, 2004:

“If we want to fight terrorism with gentlemanly methods, we will fail. [...] As one of the means against terrorists, I consider torture or the threat of torture to be legitimate. "

On May 3, 2005, he wrote an article in the Rheinische Post on May 8, 1945, the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. Wolffsohn got involved in the so-called locust debate , which the SPD chairman Franz Müntefering had triggered through his criticism of the buy-out practices of private equity funds. Müntefering had previously compared their behavior with swarms of locusts in an interview with the Bild newspaper . Wolffsohn criticized the equation of humans with animals and accused the SPD of anti-Semitism in the Nazi comparison :

“In today's largest ruling party in Germany, there is a black list of supposedly hypercapitalist companies circulating . At least two are “Jewish” or have Jewish names. Unlike 'back then', this is of course not mentioned openly, but whoever knows, knows. [...] 60 years 'later' today people are again equated with animals which - this implicitly resonates - must be destroyed as a 'plague', 'exterminated'. Today this 'plague' is called ' locusts ', back then 'rats' or ' Jewish pigs '. Words from the dictionary of the monster , because humans are denied being human. "

Several leading politicians of the red-green government coalition and the FDP thereupon demanded legal action against Wolffsohn for the second time within a year, which Defense Minister Peter Struck rejected as employer of the Munich Bundeswehr University. Paul Spiegel , the then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , stated that comparisons between humans and animals were "fundamentally unfortunate", but described a Nazi comparison in connection with Müntefering and the SPD as absurd. For Wolffsohn, “ Kerner & Co” are today's inquisitors and Eva Herman’s statements are not to blame for the “neo-pagan anti-Semitism of the new millennium”.

Wolffsohn is a supporter of the Center against Displacements and acts there as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board.

On March 7, 2008, he spoke out on Deutschlandradio Kultur for the Iron Cross as an order for Bundeswehr soldiers.

The reformulation of the Good Friday intercession for the Jews in the Usus antiquor by Benedict XVI. , in which one can again pray for the conversion of the Jews to the “true”, i.e. the Christian faith, Wolffsohn commented in March 2008: This was “the greatest theological step backwards in relation to Judaism of the Catholic Church since 1945”.

In August 2009, in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt , Wolffsohn complained about the “ossification” of the Bundeswehr , which threatened to become a “lower-class army ” due to the disproportionate number of East Germans. Wolffsohn also defended the Bundeswehr leadership in the world against criticism due to cases of abuse in the Bundeswehr. After the suspension of compulsory military service in Germany, Wolffsohn repeated his theses in the world in April 2011 , which led to a public discussion and to which Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière also replied in the world .

Wolffsohn has published various publications on the Middle East conflict and early on advocated the comparatively little widespread thesis that the state of Jordan , whose population consists mainly of Palestinians and whose territory today belonged to the then Mandate Palestine , must and will be part of a Palestinian state that is to be created. He reinforced the thesis in 2011 when he proposed the establishment of a Federal Republic of Jordan-Palestine .

At that by a judgment of the Cologne Regional Court initiated on May 7, 2012 Discussion about the legality of the circumcision of children Wolffsohn said, "Not from the foreskin depends Judaism from." He justifies this by the "fact that the biblical story about the Circumcision is not as clear and unbroken as it is claimed ”.

In an article in Die Welt in March 2014 he called for the reinstatement of conscription in Germany .

The historian Wolffsohn is convinced that many regional hot spots (for example in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa or Eastern Ukraine) could be pacified by the introduction of federal structures. In the newspaper Die Welt on April 17, 2015 he wrote:

“The key word is federalization. Here we have to distinguish between two basic forms: territorial and personal self-determination of the respective communities. Where communal structures within a state are territorially assigned, the establishment of a federal state x, y or z within a federal republic A is an option. It goes without saying that minority protection must be guaranteed in the state. Coordinating structures between federal states of different states or federal republics would also be conceivable in the form of a federation of the federal states, which, however, is not a state. That would be a variant of the known confederations or confederations. Where self-determination of the communities is not territorially possible, it would have to be granted to their members independently of the residential area of ​​the respective group. "

Wolffsohn criticizes that the German state is no longer in a position to adequately protect its citizens from internal and external dangers. In the newspaper Die Welt on May 21, 2016 he wrote:

“Our state is crumbling. One of many alarm signals is the state's appeal for the moral courage of its citizens. In plain language it means: 'You have to protect yourself. We are no longer capable of that. ' The state is doing away with itself, because the protection of its citizens internally and externally is the instrumental, functional reason for being of every state. "

Wolffsohn attributed the growing anti-Semitism in Europe and Germany largely to immigration from Muslim countries. In an article for the NZZ am Sonntag on April 29, 2018, he wrote:

“If everything is not wrong, Western Europe is currently facing murderous anti-Semitism again. The fundamental change that accompanies him this time is the demographic revolution, triggered by Muslim migration. "

Europe's Muslims are a large minority. It will become even bigger and thus politically more important.

“If you want to win elections in Europe in the future, you have to win them. The previously so lax reaction of politicians to Islamic anti-Semitism and the increasingly anti-Israel course in the EU can also be explained in this way. "

The state is powerless and cannot guarantee the safety of the Jews:

"That is why more and more Jews, like the French, will leave Western Europe and emigrate to Israel."

After the deportation of the concentration camp supervisor Jakiw Palij from the USA to Germany in August 2018, Wolffsohn spoke out in a comment that was published in the Bild newspaper that Palij should henceforth be marked in public with a " Cain symbol ", an armband with the inscription "I was a concentration camp murderer":

“What to do with Palij? Old people in court arouse pity. Pity for this killer? Never ever! A sign of Cain is required. Like in the Bible. The sign of Cain makes the perpetrator visible as the perpetrator. At the same time it protects him from avenging violence. Specifically: The federal government should take him to a senior citizen or nursing home and publish his register of sins. In public he should only wear an armband, 'I was a concentration camp murderer'. "

Social Commitment

Michael Wolffsohn is chairman of the board of the non-profit Lichtburg Foundation . The foundation founded in 2001 by Michael Wolffsohn and his mother Thea organizes cultural, educational and integration projects for children and young people as well as the Lichtburg forum in the microcosm of the Atlantic Garden City.

As a board member of Gartenstadt Atlantic AG , Wolffsohn is a member of the Advisory Board East of Deutsche Bank .

Awards

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Beatrice Dernbach (Ed.): From the ivory tower into the limelight: prominent scientists in popular mass media. Springer , Wiesbaden 2012, pp. 259–280
    (the editor's résumé and interview with Wolffsohn on his relationship with the media, limited preview in the Google book search).

Web links

Commons : Michael Wolffsohn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Michael Wolffsohn  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ DTS news agency: Michael Wolffsohn: Time with the Israeli army was a turning point. In: presse-augsburg.de. May 28, 2019, accessed April 7, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Gernot Kramper: Fighter nature . In: The time . 1993, accessed June 22, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Industry and craft in conflict with state economic policy? Duncker & Humblot, 1977, p. 5.
  4. ^ Cora Stephan: Farewell to an academic soldier: Michael Wolffsohn leaves the Bundeswehr University. In: The world . June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  5. ↑ Christian Düringer: Hard but fair: Michael Wolfssohn feels disgust and admiration for Trump . In: THE WORLD . April 17, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed September 1, 2018]).
  6. ↑ "70 years of failure of a policy are no reason for a continuation". Accessed September 1, 2018 (German).
  7. ↑ The authors were not invited: From Wolffsohn to Blüm - these people are debating at “Maischberger” about the anti-Semitism documentary ›Meedia. Retrieved September 1, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Maybrit Illner gets caught between the Erdogan fronts . In: stern.de . July 22, 2016 ( stern.de [accessed September 1, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Thank you very much for the USB stick. Welt am Sonntag , October 14, 2012, accessed on October 20, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Waltraud Schwab: Wolffsohns Revier . taz , May 16, 2007.
  11. ↑ New shine in old walls . Report by Theresa Adlmaier on berlin.de about the garden city, December 2006.
  12. ↑ Jochim Stoltenberg: Michael Wolffsohn knows how integration works. Berliner Morgenpost dated Sept. 26, 2014, accessed on April 2, 2016.
  13. ↑ Press release from Professor Wolffsohn ( memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) from September 11, 2009 (accessed from his homepage).
  14. ↑ Kerner & Co are today's inquisitors ( Memento of December 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: Netzeitung , October 20, 2007.
  15. ↑ [1]
  16. ↑ People by our side , Center against Expulsions.
  17. ↑ "Truly not the worst". Historians advocate reintroduction of the Iron Cross . Interview in Deutschlandradio Kultur, March 7, 2008.
  18. ↑ Interview with the Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA) from March 11, 2008 (Proven with Beatrice Dernbach: Vom Elfenbeinturm ins Rampenlicht. Wiesbaden 2012, p. 260).
  19. ↑ Analysis. The Bundeswehr is a lower-class army . In: Welt Online , August 21, 2009.
  20. ↑ The Bundeswehr is not an army for poets . In: Welt Online, February 24, 2010.
  21. ↑ Will only the East die for the fatherland in the future? Die Welt , April 4, 2011, accessed June 25, 2011 .
  22. ↑ The Bundeswehr is not a lower-class army! Die Welt , April 12, 2011, accessed June 25, 2011 .
  23. ^ New States Solution. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. June 30, 2011, accessed July 3, 2011 .
  24. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: It is not circumcision that makes the Jew. welt .de, August 28, 2012, accessed on August 31, 2012 .
  25. ↑ welt.de: Russia's actions point back to conscription
  26. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Crises and Wars: What were we doing in Afghanistan and Kosovo? welt .de, May 21, 2016, accessed on May 29, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Our state is no longer one. welt .de, April 17, 2015, accessed on May 29, 2018 .
  28. ↑ «We have a growing Muslim minority that is becoming radicalized» | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 5, 2018, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed September 1, 2018]).
  29. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: More and more Jews will leave Europe. April 29, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: COMMENTARY BY PROF. MICHAEL WOLFFSOHN - pity for this murderer? Never ever!. Picture, August 28, 2018
  31. ^ Lichtburg Foundation: [2]
  32. ^ Deutsche Bank: Directory of Advisory Board Members , as of February 2012 (for Michael Wolffsohn see p. 66).
  33. ↑ Vita Michael Wolffsohn on wolffsohn.de, accessed on April 2, 2016 (names all awards listed here).
  34. ↑ Professor Dr. Michael Wolffsohn is "University Professor of the Year". In: www.hochschulverband.de. December 1, 2016, accessed December 1, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Human Rights? Which human rights? , Welt Online, October 21, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Wolffsohn, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Tel Aviv