Otto Then

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Otto Dann (born August 24, 1937 in Gersdorf / Pomerania ; † October 1, 2014 in Hürth ) was a German historian and professor at the University of Cologne .

Life

Otto Dann left the GDR after completing his Abitur at the AH Francke-Oberschule in Halle in 1955 , first worked as a miner in Essen , then as a student trainee at the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst in Dortmund , and finally at Gut Hedwigsburg near Wolfenbüttel , before studying agriculture . From 1958 Dann studied history , philosophy and Protestant theology in Bethel , Berlin , Zurich , Cologne , but especially in Heidelberg . After graduating from the theological faculty in 1962, he was awarded a doctorate in 1968 with a dissertation on the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte with Werner Conze and Dieter Henrich in Heidelberg. phil. PhD.

Since 1968, Dann worked as a research assistant under Theodor Schieder at the historical seminar of the University of Cologne , specifically on a project to research European national movements . In 1974 he completed his habilitation in Cologne with a study on the socio-political concept of equality in the subject of modern history at the Philosophical Faculty. At the beginning of 1980 he was appointed to a chair for modern history there. From 1986 he headed the interdisciplinary working group for nationalism research . After his retirement in 2002 he was a scholarship holder at the Wissenschaftskolleg der Nederland (NIAS) in Wassenaar in the academic year 2002/03 .

Then she was married to Antje Markert in 1965 and had three children. He died in October 2014 at the age of 77 in his home town of Hürth. Then on October 10, 2014, after a memorial service, the burial took place in the cemetery in Alt-Hürth .

Memberships

Then was a member of the Association of German Scientists , the German Society for Research into Political Thought , the Association for Constitutional History , the International Herder Society , the Association of Historians in Germany and the Central Cathedral Building Association in Cologne . In 1984 he co-founded the Working Group on Historical Peace Research, of which he was a member until after his retirement.

Research priorities

Dann's main research areas included nation research, civil society formation (18th and 19th centuries), the history of political concepts and ideas, especially Kant, Herder, Schiller, Fichte and Gustav Heinemann in the 20th century. With the subject of Heinemann , he returned to his beginnings in peace research in Heidelberg in 1970, when Heinemann promoted the local working group for peace and conflict research.

Works (selection)

Otto Dann worked on the Lexicon of Basic Historical Terms and on the Schiller National Edition. His directory of scientific writings includes 147 publications, including 21 books.

  • Nation and nationalism in Germany 1770–1990 . Munich 1993. 3rd, expanded and revised edition, Munich 1996.
  • Equality and equality. The history of the political and social equality postulate of the modern era up to the middle of the 19th century , Berlin 1980.
  • Association building and nation building. Seven contributions , ed. by Albert Eßer, Johannes Koll, Georg Mölich, Raimund Neuss, Cologne 2003.

Editorships

  • Nationalism and social change in Germany 1806–1850 , Modern nationalism as a problem of historical development research . In: Nationalism and Social Change , Hamburg 1978.
  • The reading societies and the emergence of a modern civil society in Europe . In: Reading Societies and Bourgeois Emancipation. A European comparison , Munich 1981.
  • The beginnings of social democracy in Cologne after the Second World War . In: Cologne after National Socialism. The beginning of social and political life in 1945/46 , Wuppertal 1981.
  • Prussia. Development and Problems of a Modern State . Stuttgart 1983.
  • The cathedral building movement and Cologne society in the first half of the 19th century . In: Religion - Art - Fatherland. The Cologne Cathedral in the 19th century . Cologne 1983.

Contributions

  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte. The 'destiny of the scholar' in society . In: History and Political Action. Studies on European Modern Thinkers , ed. v. Peter Alter u. a., Stuttgart 1985.
  • Herder and the German Movement . In: Johann Gottfried Herder. 1744-1803 , ed. by Gerhard Sauder, Hamburg 1987.
  • The German citizen becomes a soldier. On the emergence of civil war engagement in Germany . In: Lessons from History? Historical peace research , Frankfurt 1990.
  • Nazionalismo e nazione tedesca dal 1945 a oggi . In: Scienza e Politica 5 , Trento 1991.
  • Jena in the era of the revolution . In: Evolution of the Spirit: Jena around 1800 , ed. by Friedrich Strack, Stuttgart 1994.
  • German nation building under the sign of the French challenge . In: The German Nation. History - Problems - Perspectives . Vierow 1994.
  • Friedrich Schiller. Historical writings and stories , 2 volumes, Frankfurt / M. 2000-2002.
  • History of Germany . In: Outline of the historical sciences . Vol. 2: Rooms , ed. by Michael Maurer , Stuttgart 2001.
  • Schiller . In: German places of memory , ed. by Etienne François u. Hagen Schulze , Munich 2001, also in: Das Parlament , B 9-10, 2005.
  • Kant's Republicanism and its Echoes . In: Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850 . Ed. by Jürgen Heideking , James A. Henretta, Cambridge 2002.

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