Rainer C. Baum

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Rainer C. Baum (* 1934 in Germany ) is a German-American sociologist and professor emeritus from the University of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania .

Life

After a childhood in Born a. Darß (Pomerania) emigrated to Canada after the Second World War , where he first studied forest science and then sociology . He completed his PhD at Harvard University and was appointed to the Chair of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh , where he taught until his retirement . He published on the theory of action and historically and sociologically on the question of why the elites of the German Reich cooperated or tolerated the criminal National Socialism , which sometimes contradicted their traditions, so without hesitation .

Fascism theory

It is noteworthy that Baum did not develop a conflict or class theory , but a structure-functionalist explanation of why the German elites followed Hitler. He set up the sociological thesis that already the 1871er Empire from a mere elite cartel of military Junkers , capitalists, university professors, educated middle class has been dominated and technocratic experts, by no means of a value-some political class. This 'cartel' was nevertheless able to stick together by virtue of a mutual policy of non-interference. In 1933, however, it was precisely not in a position to form an elite of unity against criminal policy or even to set a moral example for the people who, without an exemplary elite, had already developed anomic traits in the imperial era . According to Baum, these traits can be recognized by the hectic and internally insecure patriotism of the Wilhelmine era , for example by the enthusiasm for the fleet.

Publications (selection)

  • The Holocaust - Anomic Hobbesian "State of Nature". In: Journal of Sociology. Volume 7, 1978, pp. 303-325.
  • with Martha Baum: Growing Old . A Societal Perspective . Eaglewood Cliffs 1980.
  • The Holocaust and the German Elite. Genocide and National Suicide in Germany. 1871-1945 . Rowman and Littlefield / Croom Helm, Totowa / London 1981.
  • with Victor Meyer Lidz and Jan J. Loubser: General theory of action. from the American by Ursula Wolf. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. especially his chap. VI ( State and Society in Wilhelmian Germany: The Birth of Mass Politics ), p. 187 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Baum, Rainer C.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American sociologist and professor emeritus
DATE OF BIRTH 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Germany