Rosemarie Nave heart

Rosemarie Nave heart

Rosemarie Nave-Herz (born March 29, 1935 in Berlin ) is a German sociologist who researches and publishes primarily in the field of family sociology . For many years she also worked on the board of the German Society for Sociology .

After studying in Cologne (1955–1959) and obtaining a PhD rer. pole. in Berlin (1963), in 1971 she accepted the chair for sociology at the University of Cologne and in 1974 at the chair for sociology at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg (retirement 2003). This was the first in the Federal Republic of Germany, in whose denomination "family sociology" was explicitly included. In 2000 she was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for the renewal of family sociological research in Germany and the international reputation it has given this research area .

Life and work

Nave-Herz lived in Berlin almost until the end of the Second World War , she belongs to the generation of war children . She describes her father as “a real family man , warm-hearted and concerned about the well-being of his children. This also included the principle that a family should not separate in times of need ”. In addition, due to a traumatization in the First World War , he wanted to prevent being a soldier again in the Second World War by all means - which he succeeded.

The family left Berlin shortly before their tenth birthday on a refugee train and came to Göttingen via many detours . Here she first attended elementary school, after an entrance exam the grammar school and passed the Abitur there. In doing so, it had a lasting impact on the refugee experience, namely the devaluation of social status and the classification in the lower area of ​​the social hierarchy. Before escaping, her father was a senior civil servant .

During her school days, she had already decided to study and to be gainfully employed when getting married and starting a family. Her future husband, whom she had already met at the end of school, always carried these decisions with her. She actually wanted to run a business, a hotel, or become a stockbroker. But already after graduating from high school, it was clear to her that she would never be able to realize this professional ideal as a woman.

From 1955 to 1959 she studied economics , business administration , German and, for pragmatic reasons, business education at the University of Cologne , and graduated as a “ Diplom-Handelslehrer ” (female designations were not available at the time). After she happened to come across a lecture on “ Family and Society ” by René König in the second semester and attended it, her main interest was sociology.

Since she could not live with her partner due to the puzzling paragraph , they married during their studies in 1957. At the end of their studies, their son Klaus-Armin Nave was born in 1958 and their daughter shortly before the dissertation was submitted in 1962. The topic of her dissertation was: "The parent school: Development and status in the context of institutionalized parenting in West Germany and West Berlin" (publication 1964).

Her outsider status as a woman quickly became clear to her during her studies, simply because of the small number of female students studying economics. In the final exam she was asked: “Why are you actually still taking an exam, are you married?” René König experienced her as a scientist with a more open, modern image of women. Until she gave lectures as a lecturer herself, she had never heard a professor speak.

From 1965 to 1967 she worked as a research assistant at the newly founded Max Planck Institute for Human Development . From 1969 she worked as a university lecturer and in 1970 turned down an offer for a professorship in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1971 to 1974 she was a full professor of sociology at the University of Cologne. From 1975 until her retirement in 2003, she held the professorship for sociology with a focus on family, youth and leisure at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. In 1985 she was visiting professor at the University of Sussex in England. She does not answer numerous other calls to other universities. In 1986 she became head of the Lower Saxony Institute for Women and Society.

As early as 1972 she advocated the term gender sociology and turned against the reduction to the term women's research .

Her “personal concern” played a central role in her professional development , as she expressly makes clear in her autobiographical notes. Before the second wave of the women's movement advocated the employment of women, they had "singularly had to endure the struggle of the double burden " and "had to stand against the prejudices about working mothers ", especially since their employment was not financially justified. On the contrary, due to the domestic help required , their work has never been financially worthwhile. She could not afford leisure activities because of the double time burden. There was also great social pressure on her: for example, her older mentor even asked her to “finally decide in favor of the children because both (work and family) would not be possible”. During the interview, the director also emphasized that he would only be forced to accept her work because of the lack of teachers. Based on her own experiences of social pressure and heavy workloads, she committed herself so that “the next generation would no longer have to overcome this 'barrier'”.

Definition of family

Your attempt at defining the family chooses the highest possible level of abstraction in order not to hide what you want to investigate through too narrow a definition. In this way, newly created family forms would be excluded from the start. So it's about the criteria by which the family differs from other forms of life, in all cultures and at all times.

She suggests three constitutive characteristics of " family :

1. The "family" has a " biological-social dual nature " ( René König ). Accordingly, it has a biological reproductive and socialization function (having children and primarily bringing up them), in addition to other functions that are culturally variable, e.g. B. the social placement of children.
2. It develops a special cooperation and solidarity relationship . Because in all societies the family is assigned a very specific role structure with role definitions and designations that apply only to them (father, mother, son, daughter, sister - see relationship ), the number of roles and the expectations of them depend on the individual society or culture dependent).
3. The “family” differentiates the generations from one another. Only the generation differentiation (parents versus children (including grandparents, grandchildren) is the criterion here. Within the nuclear family , the fathering and future generations live together, but other generations can also be included. However, single mothers or fathers are also not formed marital relationships with children family systems, and both genders do not have to be present for it to be a "family".

A large number of family forms can be imagined under this broad definition. There are 14 family types

• different role composition (parents, mother, father families)
• Family formation processes (birth, adoption, divorce, widowhood, remarriage, foster care)

The plurality of family types is particularly evident in de- institutionalization processes : marriage is no longer so binding, which increases the instability of families. The 'normal family' is decreasing quantitatively and proportionally. This means that supporting traditions are being lost to a significant extent. On the other hand, individualization leads to the dissolution of fixed and not always to be welcomed obligations. This indirectly increases the chance of choosing between different forms of communal coexistence.

Fonts (selection)

• The Parent School: Development and Status in the Framework of Institutionalized Parent Education in West Germany and West Berlin , Berlin-Spandau: Luchterhand, 1964.
• The dilemma of women in our society: the anachronism in role expectations. Texts and statistical data for an introduction to a "gender sociology" , Berlin-Spandau: Luchterhand, 1972.
• (as ed.) Rene König Schriften, Vol. 14, Family Sociology, 2002.
• Marriage and Family Sociology. An introduction to history, theoretical approaches and empirical findings. Weinheim, Munich: Juventa Verlag, 3rd edition 2013.
• Family today. Change in family structures and consequences for upbringing. Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 7th revised. u. supplementary edition 2019.
• The history of family sociology in portraits , Würzburg. Ergon Verlag, 2nd ext. Edition 2016.
• R. Nave-Herz (ed.): Familiensociology: A text and study book, deGruyter / Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2014.
• R. Nave-Herz: Autobiographical Notes, in: Vogel, Ulrike (Hrsg.) Paths to Sociology and Women and Gender Studies. Autobiographical notes from the first generation of female professors at the university. Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 17-22.

Web links

• Literature by and about Rosemarie Nave-Herz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nave-Herz, Rosemarie: Autobiographical Notes, in: Vogel, Ulrike (Hrsg.) Paths to Sociology and Women and Gender Studies. Autobiographical notes from the first generation of female professors at the university. Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 17-22.
2. ↑ Nave-Herz, Rosemarie: The dilemma of women in our society: The anachronism in role expectations. Texts and statistical data for an introduction to a "gender sociology" , Berlin-Spandau: Luchterhand, 1972.
3. ↑ Nave-Herz, Rosemarie: Autobiographical Notes, in: Vogel, Ulrike (Hrsg.) Paths to Sociology and Women and Gender Studies. Autobiographical notes from the first generation of female professors at the university. Wiesbaden 2006, p. 20.