Rolf Peter Sieferle

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Rolf Peter Sieferle (born August 5, 1949 in Stuttgart ; † September 17, 2016 in Heidelberg ) was a German historian who established the energetic approach to environmental history . Initially working at the University of Mannheim , he was full professor for general history at the University of St. Gallen from 2005 to 2012 . In 1995 he published a book on the so-called Conservative Revolution , in which he also rated National Socialism as a “real conservative revolution”. Even then he was accused of “bringing to life” the “barbaric positions of old Germany in a way that was sensible for understanding a new image of history”. His book Finis Germania , published posthumously in 2017, caused a scandal .

life and work

Sieferle was born in Stuttgart and grew up with his mother in Heidelberg. After attending boarding school, he studied history, political science and sociology at the universities of Heidelberg and Konstanz , a reform university, from 1968 . In Heidelberg he was temporarily chairman of the Socialist German Student Union (SDS); Nevertheless, he later considered the student movement to be an illusion. In 1977 he was at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Konstanz with a dissertation on the concept of revolution in the theory of Karl Marx to Dr. phil. PhD . The work, which was included two years later in the Ullstein series of Social History Library edited by Dieter Groh , was considered by Helmut Berding to be an “immanent-critical reconstruction of Marx's theory of revolution”. His 2007 introduction to Karl Marx is recommended in literature.

After completing his doctorate, he translated a socio-historical monograph by David F. Crew on the industrial city of Bochum from English, and his work was well received. In 1980 he became a member of the Environment, Society and Energy working group at the University of Essen , which Meyer-Abich described as a "descendant" of the Max Planck Institute for research into the living conditions of the scientific and technical world . From 1980 to 1984 he was involved in the research project “The social compatibility of various energy systems in industrial society development” led by Klaus Michael Meyer-Abich and Bertram Schefold and carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology . As an employee of Meyer-Abich he was at that time also at the German Bundestag established commission of inquiry with "Future Nuclear Energy Policy". His work, The underground forest , published in 1982 . Energy Crisis and Industrial Revolution , a publication by the Association of German Scientists , is sometimes regarded as the standard work on the transition from wood as an energy source to hard coal and the possible industrialization . Ernst Langthaler described the work as "pioneering work in the 'energetic' approach in environmental history". Almost twenty years later, the slightly revised English translation was published by White Horse Press , a British publisher specializing in environmental issues . In the context of the Essen research project, an overview of the archetypes of the environmental movement in Germany ( enemies of progress? Opposition to technology and industry from Romanticism to the present day ) was created, based on Frank Uekötter's "energetic world history". In 1984 Sieferle qualified as a professor in Constance for the subject of modern history . In the 1980s he also published popular science articles in the journal Bild der Wissenschaft . In 1987, on behalf of the German Chemical Industry Association , he published Paths out of the crisis? Old and new models of technology criticism ; There he describes "society as torn between hope for the future and fear of crisis." "Naive," he says, according to Dieter Imboden's judgment, "this balance is ... essentially determined by cultural processes in society."

From 1988 to 1993 Sieferle was a Heisenberg fellow of the German Research Foundation . In 1989 he received a private lectureship at the University of Mannheim , and in 1991 he became an adjunct professor there . He held visiting professorships in Zurich ( ETH ) and in Vienna. In the years that followed, he advocated “a comprehensive quantification of social material and energy flows” (MEFA approach) in the context of a research group at the Vienna Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and Training , from which the Vienna Institute for Social Ecology emerged . Dieter Schott counted Sieferle among the prominent representatives of an interdisciplinary ambitious "historical [n] ecology " ( environmental history ).

Sieferle had a change of epochs in his book at the latest . The Germans on the threshold of the 21st century (1994) changed their perspective in the direction of futurology and was active “in an explicitly political field”; He diagnosed future problems, in addition to critical environmental problems, as well as the immigration problem, which further exacerbates the crisis of the welfare state. According to Sieferle, this multitude of crises can no longer be solved with the means of “humanitarian universalism ”, but only in a particular way . Ludger Heidbrink stated that the study was flawed: “It bans everything that once belonged to the 'left' Enlightenment tradition in order to present countless clichés of 'right' Enlightenment criticism instead of looking for possible mediations and practical suggestions for to present the political design of the epoch change . "

In 1995 he published “five biographical sketches” on Paul Lensch , Werner Sombart , Oswald Spengler , Ernst Jünger and Hans Freyer , which he included in the so-called “ Conservative Revolution ”. In February 1996, the work was recommended at number 5 in the non-fiction books of the month . In feuilletons that appeared immediately afterwards, there were initially different views on the thrust of the book. The work was later emphatically criticized in specialist reviews ( German History , Politische Vierteljahresschrift ). Claudius R. Köster (1997) criticized the “sketchy” representations in terms of method, theory and content. He recognized a "political-agitational intention" of what he believed to be a distant author. For Armin Pfahl-Traughber , the articles tend to be “ essayistic ”, albeit informative. Ultimately, the selection of the sketches and the "uncritical representation" are problematic, especially from the point of view of democracy theory , as he noted in an annotated bibliography. According to Dirk Kretschmer and Siegfried Jäger from the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research , the “ Nolte student” even attempted to “ blur the Nazi shadow that weighs on the esteemed pre-fascist authors ” in his work. ” Acted for Volker Weiß (2017) it is an " apologetic collection of texts on authors of Weimar nationalism". In 1996 he was one of the contributors to a much-noticed handbook on the Völkisch movement , which was published by Uwe Puschner et al. was issued; his essay "Racism, Racial Hygiene, Human Breeding Ideals" was well received.

In 1995 he took over the management of the historical funding focus of the Stuttgart Breuninger Foundation . Corresponding collections of articles (including on the subject of “Cultures of Violence ”) were published by Rolf Peter Sieferle and Helga Breuninger in German and English in the years that followed. In his review of the first anthology, Market and Power in History (1995), Matthias Schmolz pointed out that Sieferle made “challengingly pessimistic forecasts” about the future. On behalf of the Foundation, Sieferle was responsible for the "so far only [], larger [] German-language [] research project" on the subject of the European Special Path from 2000 until his departure to Switzerland (series: "The European Special Path"). Comparative works were created u. a. about agriculture , family structures and international transport .

Verena Winiwarter considers his book Rückblick auf der Natur: A History of Man and his Environment , published in 1997, to be essayistic. It would have a popular approach, “without missing the necessary depth”. In an obituary published by the European Society for Environmental History , she praised him as one of the “most important pioneers” of “European environmental history” who, however, stayed away from “international conference tourism”, which was detrimental to his public perception.

From 2000 to 2004 Sieferle was a permanent visiting professor at the University of St. Gallen , where he became a full professor of general history in 2005 . Since 2004 he has been co-editor of the environmental historical research series at Böhlau Verlag . In 2010 he presented one of three external reports for the main report Welt im Wandel: Social Contract for a Great Transformation of the German Advisory Council on Global Change . In 2012 he retired . Sieferle's main focus was on the structural and intellectual history of industrialization as well as environmental and universal history . He was u. a. Co-editor of the trade journal Gaia ( oekom verlag ).

Gustav Seibt , who also wrote an obituary in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , considered Sieferle to be “an interesting stylist” with “a great joy in narrative and theoretical formulation ". His last creative phase was, however, characterized by “wild ranting and primitiveness”, which led to his “ability to differentiate” being lost. Sieferle recently attested a “merciless cynicism ” to Seibt . According to Jan Grossarth ( FAZ ) "[he] was considered to be an exceptionally fine-minded historian". At the same time, however, Grossarth notes critically that he recently wrote “poisonous, right-wing radical books”.

Sieferle was married and last lived in Heidelberg again, where he committed suicide in 2016 .

Dispute about Finis Germania

Posthumously the new right publisher Antaios published the title Finis Germania . The book was ranked ninth on the June list of “ Non-Fiction Books of the Month ” by NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung . It was made on this list because one of the twenty-five jurors - as it soon turned out: the Spiegel editor Johannes Saltzwedel - had accumulated his anonymously assigned twenty voting points, which are normally divided into three or four titles, in this one book. Although formally admissible, it sparked a scandal in the case of Sieferle's book.

In July 2017 was Finis Germania first on the mirror - bestseller listings total of Issue 29 for non-fiction books in sixth place. In the following week it was no longer listed on the bestseller list, although it should have been listed there according to the sales figures.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • The revolution in the theory of Karl Marx (=  Ullstein books , No. 3584 / Social History Library ). Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main [a. a.] 1979, ISBN 3-548-03584-1 (also Diss., Univ. Konstanz, 1977).
  • The underground forest. Energy crisis and industrial revolution. [A publication of the Association of German Scientists (VDW)] (=  The social compatibility of energy systems . Vol. 2 / Beck'sche black series . Vol. 266). Beck, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-406-08466-4 .
  • English translation by Michael P. Osman: The subterranean forest: energy systems and the industrial revolution . White Horse Press, Knapwell, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 1-874267-47-2 .
  • Enemies of progress? Opposition to technology and industry from romanticism to the present (=  The social compatibility of energy systems . Vol. 5). Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30331-5 .
  • Ways out of the crisis? Old and new models of technology criticism . VCI, Frankfurt am Main 1987.
  • The crisis of human nature. On the history of a concept (=  Edition Suhrkamp 1567 = NF, Bd. 567). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-11567-7 .
  • Population growth and natural balance. Studies on the natural theory of classical economics. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-518-58070-1 .
  • Change of epoch. The Germans on the threshold of the 21st century. Propylaea, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-549-05156-5 .
  • The Conservative Revolution. Five biographical sketches (=  Fischer 12817: history ). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-596-12817-X .
  • Review of Nature: A History of Man and his Environment. Luchterhand, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-630-87993-4 .
  • The European special way. Causes and factors (=  The European Special Way . Vol. 1). Breuninger Foundation, Stuttgart 2000. (2nd expanded edition 2003).
  • English edition: Europe's special course: outline of a research program (=  Der Europäische Sonderweg . Vol. 1). Breuninger Foundation, Stuttgart 2001.

Editorships

  • Progress in the destruction of nature (= Edition Suhrkamp 1489 = NF, Bd. 489). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-11489-1 .
  • with Günter Figal : Self-conceptions of modernity: formations of philosophy, politics, theology and economics (=  Metzler library . Vol. 1). Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-476-00734-0 .
  • Nature. A reading book (= Beck series 430). Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-34022-9 .
  • with Helga Breuninger : Market and Power in History . DVA, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-421-05014-7 .
  • with Helga Breuninger: Cultures of Violence. Ritualization and symbolization of violence in history . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1998, ISBN 3-593-35952-9 .
  • with Helga Breuninger: Nature Pictures. Perceptions of nature and the environment in history . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1999, ISBN 3-593-36327-5 .
  • with Marina Fischer-Kowalski , Eugene A. Rosa , Barbara Smetschka : Nature, Society and History. Long Term Dynamics of Social Metabolism (=  Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences. Special Issue 2). ICCR, Vienna 2001.
  • with Helga Breuninger: Agriculture, population and economic development in China and Europe (= Europe ́s Special Course . Vol. 10). Breuninger Foundation, Stuttgart 2003.
  • Family history: the European, Chinese and Islamic families in historical comparison (= Der Europäische Sonderweg . Vol. 2). Lit Verlag, Vienna [u. a.] 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1503-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RP Sieferle The Conservative Revolution. Five biographical sketches. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 24
  2. ↑ An intimate understanding of Joachim Perels , Time , May 24, 1996
  3. ↑ a b c d e Jan Grossarth : Right at the end . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 12, 2017, No. 110, p. 18.
  4. ↑ Groh previously gave as her title “The Constitution of the Proletariat as the Subject of the Revolution in Karl Marx”; see. Dieter Groh : Basic processes and organizational problem. Sketch of a socio-historical research project . In: Ulrich Engelhardt , Volker Sellin , Horst Stuke (eds.): Social movement and political constitution. Contributions to the history of the modern world (=  industrial world . Special issue). Klett, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-12-901850-6 , pp. 415-431, here p. 428.
  5. ↑ Helmut Berding , Stefan Breuer: The crisis of the revolution theory / Rolf Peter Sieferle, The revolution in the theory of Karl Marx . In: Historische Zeitschrift 232 (1981) 2, p. 377 f.
  6. ↑ Michael Berger: Karl Marx (=  UTB S 3010). W. Fink (UTB), Paderborn 2016, ISBN 978-3-8252-3010-4 , p. 9; see. also Frank Schal : Review of: Rolf Peter Sieferle: Karl Marx for introduction, Hamburg: 2007 , in: Portal für Politikwissenschaft , published on August 16, 2007.
  7. ↑ See Dirk Blasius : David F. Crew, Town in the Ruhr . In: Die Verwaltung 15 (1982) 1, pp. 134-137.
  8. ↑ Cf. Klaus Michael Meyer-Abich : Practical Natural Philosophy. Memory of a forgotten dream. [Created as part of the research project “Cultural History of Nature”] (=  cultural history of nature in individual representations ). Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-41990-9 , p. 473.
  9. ↑ Bertram Schefold : The nightmare of a technocrat . In: Klaus M. Meyer-Abich , Reinhard Ueberhorst (Hrsg.): Hatched up - arguments for breeder reactor policy (=  Policy Research Vol. 1). Birkhäuser, Basel [a. a.] 1985, ISBN 3-7643-1701-9 , pp. 48-65, here p. 50.
  10. ^ Annegret Witt-Barthel: Chances of socially oriented technology design. With a case study on the informatization of social security (=  studies on social science . Vol. 119). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1992, ISBN 3-531-12406-4 , p. 52.
  11. ^ A b Dieter Schott : Introduction: Energy and City in Europe. From the pre-industrial 'wood shortage' to the oil crisis of the 1970s . In the S. (Ed.): Energy and City in Europe. From the pre-industrial “wood shortage” to the oil crisis of the 1970s. Contributions to the 3rd International Conference on Urban History in Budapest 1996 = Energy and the city in Europe (=  Quarterly Journal for Social and Economic History . Supplements , No. 135). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07155-5 , pp. 7-42, here p. 11.
  12. ↑ Cf. Dirk Neuber: Energy and environmental history of the Lower Saxony hard coal mining. From the early modern period to the First World War (=  publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen 206). Hahn, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-7752-6006-4 , p. 15.
  13. ↑ Ernst Langthaler : Agricultural systems without actors? Socio-economic and socio-ecological models in agricultural history . In: Andreas Dix , Ernst Langthaler (Hrsg.): Green revolutions. Agricultural systems and the environment in the 19th and 20th centuries (=  yearbook for the history of rural areas 2006). Studienverlag, Innsbruck [u. a.] 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4235-7 , pp. 216-238, here p. 238.
  14. ↑ See Fredric L. Quivik : The Subterranean Forest: Energy Systems and the Industrial Revolution by Rolf Peter Sieferle . In: Technology and Culture 44 (2003) 1, pp. 216-218.
  15. ^ Annegret Witt-Barthel: Chances of socially oriented technology design. With a case study on the informatization of social security (=  studies on social science . Vol. 119). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1992, ISBN 3-531-12406-4 , p. 130.
  16. ^ Frank Uekötter : Environmental history in the 19th and 20th centuries (=  Encyclopedia of German History . Vol. 81). Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57631-3 , p. 61.
  17. ↑ See Martin Henkel : Abuses of the guild. “Labor movement” in mercantilism (=  Campus Research . Vol. 608). Campus, Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1989, ISBN 3-593-34059-3 , p. 325.
  18. ↑ Dieter Imboden : From the industrial revolution to the limits of growth . In: Peter Donath u. a .: Science in concern for the environment (= ETH forum for environmental issues ). Birkhäuser, Basel [a. a.] 1990, ISBN 3-7643-2521-6 , pp. 37-52, here p. 49.
  19. ^ Frank Uekötter: Environmental history in the 19th and 20th centuries (=  Encyclopedia of German History . Vol. 81). Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57631-3 , p. 59.
  20. ↑ Dirk van Laak : Change of epochs. The Germans on the threshold of the 21st century. In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift 35 (1994), p. 766 f.
  21. ↑ See Ludger Heidbrink : Change of fronts . In: Die Zeit , No. 44, October 28, 1994, p. 48.
  22. ^ Non-fiction books of the month of February . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 10, 1996.
  23. ↑ Cf. Tilman Fichter : The “Conservative Revolution” - a mirage? . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 12, 1996, No. 86, p. 9; Joachim Perels : Intimate understanding . In: Die Zeit , May 24, 1996, No. 22.
  24. ↑ See u. a. Matthias Uecker : Book Review: The Conservative Revolution. Five biographical sketches / The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic . In: German History 16 (1998) 2, pp. 275-277.
  25. ↑ Cf. Claudius R. Köster: The Conservative Revolution. Five biographical sketches by Rolf Peter Sieferle . In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift 38 (1997) 1, pp. 175–177.
  26. ↑ Armin Pfahl-Traughber : Conservative Revolution and New Right. Right-wing extremist intellectuals against the democratic constitutional state . Leske & Budrich, Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-8100-1888-0 , p. 238.
  27. ↑ Dirk Kretschmer , Siegfried Jäger : More authority inside. A brief look at new right-wing arguments in the political science discourse . In: Siegfried Jäger, Dirk Kretschmer, Gabriele Cleve, Birgit Griese, Margarete Jäger , Helmut Kellershohn , Coerw Krüger, Frank Wichert: The spook is not over. Völkisch-Nationalist Ideologeme in the public discourse of the present . Duisburg Institute for Language and Social Research , Duisburg 1998, ISBN 3-927388-63-7 , pp. 32–53, here p. 38.
  28. ↑ Volker Weiß : Furor Teutonicus . In: Jüdische Allgemeine , No. 27, July 6, 2017, p. 17.
  29. ↑ See u. a. Armin Pfahl-Traughber : Handbook on the “Völkische Movement” 1871–1918 by Uwe Puschner; Walter Schmitz; Justus H. Ulbricht . In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift 39 (1998) 3, pp. 669–670; Enrico Syring : Handbook on the "Völkischen Movement" 1871-1918 by Uwe Puschner; Walter Schmitz; Justus H. Ulbricht . In: Zeitschrift für Politik NF 46 (1999) 2, pp. 240–242; Bernd Sösemann : Handbook on the “Völkische Movement” 1871–1918 by Uwe Puschner; Walter Schmitz; Justus H. Ulbricht . In: Historische Zeitschrift 266 (1998) 1, pp. 229-231.
  30. ↑ Jost Hermand : Handbook on the "Völkische Movement" 1871-1918 . In: Monatshefte 90 (1998) 4, p. 552 f.
  31. ↑ See Wolfgang Hardtwig : From the Cistercian to the impostor . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 27, 1998, No. 121, p. 11.
  32. ↑ See u. a. Bernd-Stefan Grewe : Review of: Sieferle, Rolf Peter: Transportgeschichte. Münster 2008 , in: H-Soz-Kult , September 4, 2008; Ralf-Peter Fuchs : Review of: Sieferle, Rolf Peter; Helga Breuninger (ed.): Cultures of violence. Ritualization and symbolization of violence in history. Frankfurt am Main 1998 , in: H-Soz-Kult, January 21, 2000.
  33. ↑ Matthias Schmolz : The tension between market and power: cultural and economic historical considerations . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 13, 1996, No. 111, p. 14.
  34. ↑ Marcus Popplow : Technology as a factor of the European special path into industrialization. Recent publications on an open question . In: Journal for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 20 (2012) 2, pp. 91–105, here p. 92.
  35. ↑ Cf. Verena Winiwarter : Between Society and Nature. Tasks and achievements in environmental history . In: Ernst Bruckmüller , Verena Winiwarter (ed.): Environmental history: On the historical relationship between society and nature (=  writings of the Institute for Austrian Studies 63). öbv and hpt, Vienna 2000, pp. 6–20, here p. 14 f.
  36. ↑ Verena Winiwarter : Lessons from the past - obituary for Rolf Peter Sieferle , eseh.org, Vienna, October 2016, accessed on July 29, 2017.
  37. ↑ Environmental historical research , boehlau-verlag.com, accessed on January 10, 2018.
  38. ↑ Nicole Dittmer and Julius Stucke (moderation): SZ literary critic Gustav Seibt on "Finis Germania": "A terrifying crash" , Deutschlandfunk Kultur , June 12, 2017, accessed on July 12, 2017.
  39. ^ A b Jan Grossarth: Who gave the right-wing extremist reading recommendation? , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 12, 2017.
  40. ↑ Criticism of the jury of the “Non-fiction books of the month” - NDR Kultur goes on distance , boersenblatt.net, June 12, 2017, accessed on June 12, 2017
  41. ^ Lothar Müller: Recommendation on points. In: sueddeutsche.de . June 11, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017 .
  42. ↑ Bestseller: Non-fiction book . In: Der Spiegel , July 15, 2017, p. 124.
  43. ↑ Rainer Moritz: Because a book does not fit “Spiegel”, it is secretly deleted from its own bestseller list. In: www.nzz.ch . July 25, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Sieferle, Rolf Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 2016
Place of death Heidelberg