Otwin Massing
Otwin Massing (born May 3, 1934 in Namborn , Saar; † August 5, 2019 ) was a German political scientist and sociologist who taught at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover .
Life
Massing comes from a family of ironworkers in Saarland. After graduating from high school in St. Wendel , he studied sociology, political science, philosophy and public law in Saarbrücken (among others with Ralf Dahrendorf ) and Frankfurt / Main (among others with Max Horkheimer , Theodor W. Adorno and Carlo Schmid ) from 1955 to 1962 . Graduated as a sociologist, Frankfurt / Main 1962. During his studies he worked on empirical research projects at the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt / Main) (including "Student and Politics"). Massing was a fellow of the Cusanuswerk .
From 1961 he managed the position of a research assistant at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Frankfurt / Main, headed by Carlo Schmid . Doctorate to Dr. phil. 1964 with a thesis on Auguste Comte (reviewers: Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas ; publication as a book: "Progress and Counterrevolution. Comtes' social theory in their social function", Stuttgart 1966). From 1965 to 1968 Massing was a research assistant at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Frankfurt / Main, and from 1968 to 1969 a research grant from the German Research Foundation.
In 1970 Massing took over the position of Scientific Director and Head of Department for Political Systems Analysis, in 1972 that of Professor and Director at the Social Science Institute for Education, Munich (Director of the Institute: Thomas Ellwein ); at the same time he was a lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich ("On the Convergence of Sociology and Political Science"). In 1974 he accepted a professorship for the science of politics in the newly founded Faculty of Law (today: Faculty of Law) of the then Technical University (TU) Hanover (today: Leibniz University Hanover ). As part of the so-called single - stage legal training, social science findings and methods were also integrated into legal training. In 1976/77 Massing was prorector of the then TU Hannover, its rector in 1977/78 and its vice-president in 1978/79. 1996/97 Dean of the Faculty of Law, 1997/98 Vice Dean. Retired in 2002.
For a long time he held management positions in the German Association for Political Science (1971: Scientific Advisory Board; 1972 to 1979 board member, 1975 to 1977 as deputy chairman). 1974 to 1978 editorial board member of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift (PVS). During his active university teaching activities, he was a liaison professor at the Hans Böckler Foundation . In addition, he was involved in numerous scientific and socio-political associations and initiatives, including in the Bensberger Kreis , an initiative by critical Catholics.
Work and scientific work focus
Massing's life and scientific work are shaped by a broad spectrum of interests beyond the scientific discipline structure. In addition to sociology, political science and public law, his subjects, his interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interests are directed towards numerous other disciplines, in particular the sociology of religion, economics and psychology.
It is therefore no coincidence that questions in the border areas between these subjects shape his scientific work. In the 1960s he was one of the first political scientists and sociologists to deal with constitutional jurisdiction from a critical social science perspective. During his teaching activity in the legal training, he expanded this focus of interest. Numerous publications on fundamental questions of constitutional jurisdiction in Germany and on individual decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court are the result of this long-term work. In the 1990s, he expanded his interest to the role of the European Court of Justice in European integration.
He dealt regularly with questions of political theory and political sociology, which are reflected in numerous publications on topics such as rule or sovereignty. Works on border issues between social politics, theology and religion are another formative part of his academic work. Curriculum theoretical and military-sociological work form a further focus.
Despite his basic orientation towards society and domination, and his socialization in the context of critical theory with the Frankfurt style, Massing was not one of the dogmatic representatives of certain theoretical positions. For him, criticism was a scientific method, characterized by the claim to question the premises of premises and not to be satisfied with simple answers or references to social or political constraints and necessities.
Book publications
- Progress and counter-revolution. Comte's social doctrine in its social function. (= Frankfurt studies on the science of politics ; Volume III), Stuttgart 1966.
- Anagogic models , with six orig. Serigraphs by Wolfgang Rost, limited edition, Verlag Studio-Grafik, Koblenz 1967.
- Adorno and the consequences. About the “Hermetic Principle” of Critical Theory. Neuwied-Berlin 1970.
- Political Sociology. Paradigms of a Critical Political Science. (= edition suhrkamp ; No. 724), Frankfurt am Main 1974.
- Reform in contradiction. Bundeswehr and university training: who reforms whom? Models - concepts - experiences. Casting 1976.
- From the census movement to juridification. (= HiMoN, research focus on historical mobility and change in norms. Edited by Rüdiger Voigt , No. 60/85), Siegen 1985.
- Darned circumstances. About human social environments. Opladen 1987.
- How to deal with the French Revolution. Can a myth be connected? (= HiMoN, research focus on historical mobility and norm change. Edited by Rüdiger Voigt, no. 133/89), (= working materials for comparative cultural research ; issue 12), Siegen 1989.
- QUISQUILIEN and other set pieces , with drawings by Otto Robeck, Freiburg i. Br. 1992.
- From the enforced to the revised constitution. Constitutional history as social history. (= IfS-Nachrichten: Discussion papers of the Institute for Political Science. Edited by Rüdiger Voigt, No. 17. Topic Constitutional History ), Neubiberg 2000.
- Founding myths and political rituals. A criticism of their exaggeration and falsification. Baden-Baden 2000.
- Politics as Law - Law as Politics. Studies on a Theory of Constitutional Justice. Baden-Baden 2005.
- Church-Bound Religiosity and Secular Society - Studies on their Political Psychology. Munich 2008.
Massing also published numerous articles in books and magazines (complete list: see web links).
Festschriften / Works dedicated to Otwin Massing
- Peter Nahamowitz / Stefan Breuer (eds.), Politics - Constitution - Society. Lines of tradition and development prospects. Otwin Massing on his 60th birthday , Baden-Baden 1995 with contributions by Klaus von Beyme, Thomas Blanke, Stefan Breuer, Rolf Ebbighausen, Walter Euchner , Götz Frank, Michael Th. Greven, Jörg-Detlef Kühne , Claus Leggewie, Ingeborg Maus, Peter Nahamowitz, Wolf-Dieter Narr, Joachim Nocke, Joachim Perels, Wilfried Röhrich, Hans-Peter Schneider, Hinrich Seidel, Jürgen Seifert, Rainer Wolf, Rüdiger Voigt and Wolfgang Zapf
- Hartmut Aden (Ed.), Theories of rule and phenomena of rule , Wiesbaden 2004, dedicated to Otwin Massing on his 70th birthday; with contributions by Joachim Beerhorst, Stefan Breuer, Ulrich Ehricke , Christiane Lemke, Hans J. Lietzmann, Otwin Massing, Peter Nahamowitz, Wolf-Dieter Narr, Wilfried Röhrich, Bernd Röttger, Rainer Wolf, Rüdiger Voigt and Hartmut Aden
Sources and further information
- The German Who's Who XLV 2006/07, Lübeck 2006, p. 873
- Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar, Munich 2007, p. 2300
- Peter Nahamowitz / Stefan Breuer: Introduction , in: dies. (Ed.): Politics - Constitution - Society. Lines of tradition and development prospects. Otwin Massing on his 60th birthday , Baden-Baden 1995, pp. 11-14
Web links
- Literature by and about Otwin Massing in the catalog of the German National Library
- Homepage with complete list of publications, Leibniz University Hannover
- Archiving of deposits in the archive of social democracy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, Department I: Legacies and deposits ( Memento from January 9, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Obituary notice , Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung / Neue Presse of August 10, 2019.
Directors: Karl Karmarsch (1831–1875) | Wilhelm Launhardt (1875–1880)
Rectors: Wilhelm Launhardt (1880–1886) | Karl Dolezalek (1886-1892) | Wilhelm Kohlrausch (1892–1895) | Albert Frank (1895–1898) | Heinrich Köhler (1898–1901) | Ludwig Kiepert (1901–1904) | Georg Barkhausen (1904–1907) | Hermann Ost (1907–1910) | Franz Frese (1910–1911) | Karl Mohrmann (1911–1913) | Robert Otzen (1913–1915) | Carl Heim (1915–1917) | Ludwig Troske (1917–1919) | Conrad Müller (1919–1923) | Ernst Vetterlein (1923–1925) | Fritz Oesterlen (1925–1927) | Friedrich Quincke (1927–1929) | Otto Blum (1929–1931) | Ludwig Klein (1931–1933) | Otto Franzius (1933–1934) | Horst von Sanden (1934–1937) | Hanns Simons (1937–1939) | Alexander Matting (1940-1943) | Helmut Pfannmüller (1943–1945) | Conrad Müller (1945–1947) | Otto Flachsbart (1947–1950) | Walter Großmann (1950–1951) | Hermann Deckert (1951–1952) | Walter Hensen (1952–1954) | Hans Schönfeld (1954–1956) | Johannes Schlums (1956–1957) | Walter Theilacker (1957–1958) | Wilhelm Nicolaisen (1958–1959) | Egon Martyrer (1959–1960) | Wilhelm Wortmann (1960–1961) | Hans-Oskar Wilde (1961–1963) | Albert Vierling (1963–1964) | Walter Renard (1964–1966) | Theodor Kaluza (1966–1968) | Alf Pflüger (1968–1969) | Eduard Pestel (1969–1970) | Hermann Böhrs (1970–1971) | Jürgen Wehrmann (1971–1972) | Lothar Hübl (1973–1974) | Gerhart Laage (1974–1975) | Hinrich Seidel (1975–1977) | Otwin Massing (1977–1978) | Klaus Schäfer (1978–1979)
President: Hinrich Seidel (1979–1997) | Ludwig Schätzl (1997–2005) | Erich Barke (2005–2014) | Volker Epping (since 2015)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Massing, Otwin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German political scientist and sociologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Namborn , Saar |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th August 2019 |