Otto Jenssen

Otto Jenssen (born February 21, 1883 in Hanover ; † July 3, 1963 in Gera ) was a German teacher of political education , university teacher for education and activist in the GDR's association for the blind .

Life

Jenssen comes from the family of a small business owner . His father was a print shop owner and publisher . Almost blind from childhood due to corneal opacity , he is intensively self-taught . He attended an institution for the blind and then a high school for the sighted. His interest in history , politics , economics and ethnology developed by allowing himself to be read from relevant literature . He also attended lectures at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin . In 1909 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). At the SPD party school he heard lectures a. a. by Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring . He was also interested in the theories of the Austrian Social Democrats. After the First World War he became a teacher at the councils School of Free Trade Unions in Leipzig . From June 1921 he was a teacher for social studies , history and politics, organizational problems and socialization at the socialist Heimvolkshochschule Tinz . He wrote hundreds of articles and contributions in daily newspapers and scientific journals . He also wrote books on theoretical questions of socialism , e.g. T. were launched several times. His commentary on the SPÖ's draft program in 1927 received a great deal of attention from the working class and its parties.

After the NSDAP came to power and the Tinz school closed in 1933, Jenssen remained unemployed, but unofficially kept numerous contacts with like-minded people.

When the Nazi regime ended, he was one of the founders of the Federation of Democratic Socialists , at whose founding congress in July 1945 he held a place of honor. In 1946 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). He was part of the core editorial team of the Urania magazine, which was reissued after the Second World War, and in its first issue from 1947 described its task as follows:

“The solution must be social biology, not race theory. A comprehensive sociological consideration also draws natural science into its field. [...] Instead of starting from scientific knowledge, broad layers of the German people gave themselves up to the political and social belief in miracles. That took terrible revenge. The 'Urania' must make its contribution to the spiritual reconstruction. "

From 1946 to 1950 he participated in the training of new teachers . After lecturing at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena since 1947 , he was awarded the title of professor in 1948 . Although he was under pressure from the internal party representatives, he did not abandon the political convictions he had gained. In the 1950s he campaigned particularly for the concerns of the blind and visually impaired.

Works

• The living Marxism , Glashütten (im Taunus): Auvermann, 1973, unchanged. Neudr. D. Jena 1924
• Basic social science knowledge , German Freethinkers Association, Berlin [1932]
• Marxism and natural science , Berlin: E. Laub, 1925
• The struggle for state power , Berlin: E. Laubsche Verlh., 1927
• More spirit - less alcohol! , Berlin: German Workers' Abstinence Association, [1927]
• The living Marxism , Jena: Thüringer Verlagsanstalt u. Printing house, 1924
• Socialist life reform , Berlin: German Workers' Abstinents Association, 1925
• Basic questions of functionary training , Berlin (: Vorwärts Buchdr.), 1930
• Education for political thinking , Berlin: E. Laub, 1931
• Alcohol and Colonial Policy , Vienna VII, Seidengasse 15: Workers' Abstinentenbund in Oesterreich, 1928
• The bourgeois revolution of 1848 , Weimar: Thüringer Volksverl., 1948

Honors

• Since November 7th 1995 there is a "Jenssenweg" in Gera.

literature

• Steffen Kachel : A red-red special path? Social Democrats and Communists in Thuringia 1919 to 1949 . Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia, Small Series Volume 29, p. 556.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gera Chronicle.Retrieved May 29, 2011
2. ↑ Otto Jenssen: From the old to the new Urania. In: Urania . Urania Verlags-Gesellschaft, Jena 1947, p. 9 ff .