Robert Lessmann

Robert Lessmann in 2012

Lessmann (2nd from left) at a discussion event with the Bolivian President Evo Morales (right) in the Concordia Press Club , Vienna

Robert Lessmann (born February 16, 1960 in Fürth ) is a German social scientist , journalist and writer . He lives in Vienna and Wiesbaden .

Life

After attending the Hardenberg High School in Fürth, Lessmann studied political science, sociology and English philology in the master’s course at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), in between he did his civil service in 1980/81 in the Northern Bavaria branch of the Federal Nature Conservation Union . After the mountain guide examination in 1981, he was a member of the Northern Bavaria teaching team for youth leader training at the German Alpine Association and held courses and guided tours in the Alps and around the world (especially Kilimanjaro and Mt. Everest Trek ). This activity resulted in a photo exhibition about load carriers around the world (“The little people who carry the big loads” with a book of the same name), which could be seen in numerous places at home and abroad. After studying in Bangladesh in 1983, he studied in Vienna from 1984 to 1986, followed by another study visit to Tanzania in 1986 . After completing his master's thesis at FAU with the title “ Tanzania between capitalist integration and self-reliance - analysis of a development model with special consideration of the factor of foreign development aid ”, he did a doctorate at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Vienna from 1990 to 1994 . Since 1991 he has increasingly appeared as a publicist.

After his dissertation on " The political economy of the cocaine trade and its effects on inter-American relations using the example of Bolivia, Colombia and the USA " and research in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and the USA with the help of a scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation , he received his doctorate in 1994. Since 2006 he has been a Senior Research Fellow and lecturer at the Institute for Political Science and European Issues at the University of Cologne . Lessmann specializes in South America as well as development and drug policy , where he is also in demand as an international consultant. He published essays a. a. in GeoSpecial , the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Der Standard , Die Zeit . Lessmann is a member of the Latin America Information Group (IGLA) and is accredited by the United Nations in Vienna.

Publications

• International drug policy. Challenges and reform debates , Springer essentials, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-15936-8 , ISSN 2197-6708, e-book ISBN 978-3-658-15937-5 , ISSN 2197-6716
• The drug war in the Andes , Springer Verlag, Berlin 2015/16, softcover ISBN 978-3-658-10967-7 , e-book ISBN 978-3-658-10968-4
• The new Bolivia. Evo Morales and its democratic revolution , Rotpunktverlag Zurich 2010. ISBN 978-3-85869-403-4 .
• The little people who carry great burdens. Load carriers in the Himalayas, the Andes and Mount Kilimanjaro , Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna, 2008. (Catalog for the photo exhibition of the same name)
• Che Guevara , Hugendubel-Verlag, Munich, 2006.
• For example: Bolivien Lamuv-Verlag, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-88977-645-7
• For example: Kokain , Göttingen, Lamuv-Verlag, 2001.
• Drug Economics and International Politics , Vervuert-Verlag, Frankfurt / M., 1996.
• Empresas mixtas en Cuba , editorial Nueva Sociedad, Caracas, 1994.

as well as numerous articles.

Web links

• Homepage Robert Lessmann
• Robert Lessmann on the homepage of the University of Cologne .
• Commodity drug in global trade . In: Südwind Magazin 07/2016.