Oswald von Nell-Breuning

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Oswald von Nell-Breuning (center) in conversation

Oswald von Nell-Breuning (born March 8, 1890 in Trier , † August 21, 1991 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a Catholic theologian , Jesuit , political economist and social philosopher , who is considered the " Nestor of Catholic social teaching ".

Nell-Breuning acted as an advisor to Pius XI. played a key role in the formulation of the famous social encyclical Quadragesimo from 1931, in which the social bond of property was demanded and in which Nell-Breuning developed the principle of subsidiarity .

Nell-Breuning's thinking is based on the classical natural law tradition and the basic principles of Catholic social teaching, personality , solidarity and subsidiarity, developed from it in the 19th century . In his more than 1800 publications he dealt with questions of business ethics , economic and social policy . Important topics were the relationship between labor and capital, the confrontation with Marxism , the question of co-determination , the design of Catholic social teaching and thus the overcoming of the alienation of the workers from the church.

Life

Origin and education

Oswald von Nell-Breuning was born in Trier as the son of the winery owner Arthur von Nell (1857-1939) and his wife Bernharda von Breuning (1862-1933) . Young Oswald's parents would have liked to see his son continue the family business; however, he wished early on to become a priest. He passed his Abitur in 1908 at the humanistic Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium - the same gymnasium as Karl Marx .

After finishing school, Nell-Breuning first turned to mathematical and scientific studies for four semesters. He attended lectures in Kiel, Munich, Strasbourg and Berlin (there among others with Adolf Wagner ).

In 1910 he began studying philosophy and theology in Innsbruck . In 1911 he entered the Jesuit order there. He completed a two-year novitiate in 's-Heerenberg (Netherlands) and then began studying philosophy at the religious college in Valkenburg . The study of the order was interrupted by his military service in the First World War (1914-1916), in which he worked as a medic in a Maltese hospital troop. In 1916 he was dismissed as no longer fit for use in the war and sent by the order to the Jesuit college " Stella Matutina " in Feldkirch as an educator. In 1920 he continued his studies in Innsbruck and was ordained a priest there in 1921.

In 1926 he was sent to Münster, where he received his doctorate in 1928 under Joseph Mausbach and Heinrich Weber . His dissertation dealt with the topic of stock market morals and made him known to the Catholic public. In the same year he was appointed professor of moral theology, canon law and corporate law at the newly founded Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt am Main, where he continued to teach and work for a long time after his retirement.

Work until 1945

Nell-Breuning soon gained a reputation as an economist beyond the church's borders. The high point of his activities at that time was his significant contribution to the social encyclical Quadragesimo anno by Pope Pius XI , published in 1931 . ( see also: Subsidiarity ). In it the church criticism of capitalist class society , the equivalence of wage labor and capital , the social ties of property and the goal of a “new social order” were formulated.

During the National Socialist era , Nell-Breuning was banned from writing and publishing from 1936 to 1945. In 1944 he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for alleged foreign exchange offenses , but no longer had to serve the sentence for “health reasons”.

Work after 1945

After the Second World War, Nell-Breuning developed a lively activity as a professor, publicist and representative of the Catholic Church.

From 1947 to 1950, together with Hermann Sacher, he published the Dictionary of Politics, which contained many of Nell-Breuning's fundamental articles on Catholic social teaching.

In 1948 he was given a teaching position for business and social ethics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main , which appointed him honorary professor in 1956. He was also a member of the Königswinterer Kreis at the Institute for Social and Economic Order there - together with Theodor Brauer , Götz Briefs , Gustav Gundlach , Paul Jostock , Franz H. Mueller and Heinrich Rommen.

Since it was founded, Nell-Breuning has also worked at the Frankfurt Academy for Labor .

Since the 1950s, his interest has increasingly focused on current issues of economic and social policy. In the three volumes of the collective work Economy and Society (1956–60) he dealt with the questions of economic reorganization. It was important to him that the capitalist corporate structures that existed before 1933 should be reorganized. Employees should be more integrated into industrial society and become equal partners of employers. Important topics included the equalization of burdens , fair wages , the trade unions' right to strike , the housing shortage, property policy and the corporate constitution .

Nell-Breuning had a particularly close relationship with the unions. Since 1959 he was a member of the Economic Institute of the German Trade Union Confederation. He advocated the unity union and tried to fight the revival of the directional unions . He has had many years of consulting work with the German Trade Union Federation . Nell-Breuning tried to maintain Christian influence in the DGB and to prevent a Marxist orientation. Despite his closeness to the DGB, he took a position critical of the DGB on some central points. B. against the 35-hour week with full wage compensation and for the possibility of lockout .

Nell-Breuning campaigned for the participation of employees in productive property and promoted the idea of investive wages . From the mid-1960s, his commitment to the workforce shifted from wealth creation to co-determination , the socio-ethical justification of which he worked out in many articles.

Nell-Breuning was in close contact with the Catholic workers' movement . He also welcomed the formulations of the Godesberg program of the SPD , which he described as a “concise revision course of Catholic social teaching”.

Nell-Breuning was also a member of the scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministries for Economics (1948–65), for town planning and housing (1950–58) and for family and youth issues (1959–61).

On his 100th birthday, one of the well-wishers wished him a few more years of life, to which he replied: "No, that's not enough for me - I want to live forever." On August 21, 1991, Oswald von Nell-Breuning died in Frankfurt am Main Age of 101 years. With more than 1,800 publications, he had a rich life. His numerous students include the Dutch sociologist and Jesuit Harry Hoefnagels and the German politician Norbert Blüm .

The Oswald von Nell-Breuning-Institute for Economic and Social Ethics was founded at the Philosophical-Theological University Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt am Main in 1992 , the director of which was the renowned theologian, economist and Jesuit Friedhelm Hengsbach until 2006 . The current head of the institute is Bernhard Emunds .

plant

Beginning in 1924, Nell-Breuning devoted himself to a variety of topics in over 1,800 titles. In it he dealt with the current economic and social problems in Germany, although he did not present a complete draft of a social and economic order.

His subjects in the period before the Second World War included currency devaluation , land rights, the promotion of building society savings , home ownership and housing construction . It also examined at this time with the function of money and capital market , a just financial condition, the Company Law and the corporate concentration . In addition, he made fundamental considerations about the function of property and the capitalist economy.

In the development phase of the Federal Republic of Germany, the focus was on fundamental questions relating to the reorganization of society, the economy and the state. Nell-Breuning wrote about Christian models of society, which he positioned beyond capitalism and socialism, about democracy in the economy and the relationship between church and political parties. Until the implementation of the coal and steel co-determination in 1951, he wrote numerous articles on this topic. Furthermore, he was concerned with the topic of shortening working hours , wealth accumulation and family-friendly housing for working-class families. He also saw the pension reform and the expansion of the social and constitutional state as particularly important .

In the 1970s and 1980s, following the pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council Gaudium et Spes, he again took up the issue of economic co-determination and the question of a new corporate constitution. Inspired by the social circulars of Paul VI . Nell-Breuning dealt intensively with Karl Marx, whose image of man he rejected, but whose description of the social dependencies of the workers convinced him. He saw these dependencies as a given in the church as an employer. Encouraged by the social encyclical on human work by John Paul II (1981), Nell-Breuning criticized the fact that the Church gave its employees fewer rights of participation than is customary in the commercial economy and the public service.

Reduction of working hours from a goods economic point of view

The scientific elaborations of Oswald von Nell-Breuning are important for economics because of his engagement with the trade unions and Marxism, since von Nell-Breuning was also prepared to disregard valid doctrines in order to contribute scientific knowledge in a simple and understandable form Name. In a 1985 survey, for example, he assumed “that one day a week is more than enough to cover the entire demand for manufactured consumer goods. ... But you don't see it when you start thinking from the perspective of finances, you only see it when you think in terms of goods. ”This means that access to such a comprehensive reduction in working hours is“ only visible in terms of goods economics ”.

reception

As a speaker and political advisor to governments, parties, trade unions and business associations, Nell-Breuning had a considerable influence on the social and economic development of the Federal Republic. His participation in the social encyclical Quadragesimo anno made an important contribution to the development of Catholic social teaching. His explanation of the official pronouncements of the church's social teaching, which was always related to concrete social problems, made it understood and spread beyond the church.

Under his influence, there was a rapprochement between the labor movement and the church. Essential elements of the welfare state model are based on the principles that it helped to develop, such as the principle of subsidiarity and co-determination.

Honors

Nell-Breuning was awarded the Romano Guardini Prize (1972) donated by the Catholic Academy in Bavaria , the Goethe plaque of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1977) and the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal of the State of Hesse (1979), the Hans -Böckler Prize (1980) and the Cornelius Gurlitt Memorial Medal. In 1981 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Trier and in 1983 an honorary citizen of the city of Frankfurt am Main .

On April 17, 1980, he received an honorary doctorate from the economics and social sciences department of the University of Münster, and Erik Boettcher gave the laudation.

In the 1990s he was made an honorary member of the Frankfurter Wirtschaftswwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft e. V. (short: fwwg), the alumni organization of the Faculty of Business at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.

The city of Trier has been awarding the Oswald von Nell Breuning Prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, every two years since 2003 . Previous winners include Paul Kirchhof , Helmut Schmidt , the Papal Council Cor Unum and the brothers Hans-Jochen and Bernhard Vogel .

Nell Breuning Vocational College in Frechen - Habbelrath

In Trier , the last part of the connecting road between Heiligkreuz and Mariahof is called Oswald-von-Nell-Breuning-Allee . In Bergheim-Glessen, a street in the industrial park was named “Oswald-von Nell-Breuning-Straße” by decision of the city council. There are Oswald-von-Nell-Breuning schools in Rödermark and Offenbach am Main . There is a Nell-Breuning vocational college in Coesfeld , Frechen and in the Bad Honnef district of Rhöndorf (in the Rheinfrieden house ) . In Cologne Junkersdorf a street named after him in Netphen also in Rottweil there are the Nell-Breuning school. In Frankfurt a. M., a street in the Sachsenhausen district was named Nell-Breuning-Straße. In Saarbrücken there is the Nell-Breuning-Allee on the Saarterrassen in the Burbach district . The Oswald-von-Nell-Breuning-Haus in Herzogenrath is an educational center sponsored by the CAJ and the KAB.

literature

Fonts (selection)

  • Basics of stock market morality , 1928
  • The social encyclical , Cologne 1932
  • To Christian social teaching . Herder, 1947 (together with Hermann Sacher)
  • Individuals and Society , 1950
  • Co-determination , Landshut 1950
  • together with Hermann Sacher: Dictionary of Politics. Society - State - Economy - Social Question, 1952, 2nd edition 1954
  • Economy and Society Today , 3 volumes Freiburg i. Br. 1956-60
  • Capitalism and fair wages . Herder, 1960
  • Building Laws of the Society , 1968
  • Fundamental to Politics , Munich 1975
  • Church Social Doctrine , 1977
  • Social Security. On basic questions of the social order out of Christian responsibility , Freiburg i. Br. 1979
  • Justice and freedom. Basics of Catholic Social Teaching , 1980
  • Work before Capital , Vienna 1983
  • Do people work too much? Freiburg i. Br. 1985
  • A critical view of capitalism. On the discussion about the better "system" , Freiburg i. Br. 1986
  • Our responsibility. For a solidary society , 1987
  • Bending capitalism. Writings on Church, Economy and Society , Düsseldorf 1990

expenditure

  • Heribert Klein (ed.): Oswald von Nell-Breuning - indomitable for people. Life picture, encounters, selected texts . Herder-Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 1989. ISBN 3-451-21483-0
  • Friedhelm Hengsbach : Writings on the Church, Economy and Society. A reader , 2005

Secondary literature

Web links

Commons : Oswald von Nell-Breuning  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Articles about Nell-Breuning
Contributions by Nell-Breuning

Remarks

  1. ^ For example, Reinhard Marx in an interview with Spiegel on October 27, 2008 .
  2. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: How social is the church? , Düsseldorf 1972, p. 95. However, it should be noted in this context: "The persistent claim that Nell-Breuning contributed to the Godesberg basic program of the SPD (1959) is incorrect." (Jonas Hagedorn: Oswald von Nell-Breuning SJ. Awakening of Catholic Social Teaching in the Weimar Republic , Paderborn 2018, p. 43.)
  3. ↑ For an overview of the work see: Benno Kuppler: Oswald von Nell-Breuning SJ (1890–1991): A life in the service of church social proclamation. In: Gregorianum, Vol. 73, No. 2 (1992), pp. 329-335
  4. ↑ Cf. u. a. Nell-Breuning: workers in the church service. In: Arbeit und Recht 27 (1979), pp. 1–8; Church (s) as an employer. In: Katechetisch Blätter 103 (1983), pp. 688-693
  5. ↑ Do people work too much? , Oswald von Nell-Breuning, Pater, Prof., Dr .; 1985; Page 98f.
  6. ^ Oswald-Von-Nell-Breuning vocational college of the Coesfeld district in Coesfeld - European school since 2007
  7. ↑ Nell Breuning Vocational College in Frechen
  8. ^ Nell Breuning Vocational College in Bad Honnef ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Oswald von Nell Breuning House
personal data
SURNAME Nell-Breuning, Oswald von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian, economist and social philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1991
Place of death Frankfurt am Main