Werner Hofmann (sociologist)

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Werner Hofmann (born July 27, 1922 in Meiningen ; † November 9, 1969 in Wehrda near Marburg ) was a Marxist- oriented sociologist and economist , founder of the Association of Democratic Scientists (1968) and co-founder of the Democratic Progress Party (1969).

Life

The son of the bank director a. D. Rudolf Hofmann entered class 7C at the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich on September 11, 1939 and was drafted into the Wehrmacht from 8th grade just one year later. After the end of the war he studied economics at the University of Munich from the summer semester of 1946 . Then in 1948 he went to the Soviet occupation zone at the University of Leipzig out of conviction . Because his doctorate was not accepted there for political reasons and he was subsequently unemployed, he returned to Munich in 1952. There he did his doctorate under Adolf Weber (1953) and worked on his textbook "Kurzgefasst Volkswirtschaftspektiven" (1957). Since 1958 he has taught at the University of Social Sciences in Wilhelmshaven- Rüstersiel and completed his habilitation with Hans Raupach in the same year . From 1964 he was an adjunct professor of economics in Göttingen , and from 1966 to 1969 a full professor of sociology at the University of Marburg .

Werner Hofmann was one of the first scientists in the FRG to deal with Stalinism as an ideology , a system of rule and a social phenomenon. He developed economic and social theories, particularly on the development of capitalism and the sociology of science .

In the social sciences, he combined various scientific approaches, which he presented convincingly in the “Socio-Economic Study Texts” and “Economic Society”. He gave important impulses to scientists of different directions, but without having formed their own school. Together with Wolfgang Abendroth and Heinz Maus , he shaped the Marburg School .

He was characterized by the connection between scientific economics and sociology in the tradition of social economics (cf. Max Weber , Werner Sombart , Adolf Weber and Hans Raupach ). In terms of philosophy of science , despite his criticism of neopositivism, he did not tend towards the dialectical-materialist approach, but towards a separation of subject and object.

Hofmann contributed to the founding of the Action Democratic Progress (ADF), an electoral alliance of the DKP and the German Peace Union . There he was a member of the Federal Presidium and Hessian top candidate in the Bundestag elections of 1969. The " Federation of Democratic Scientists ", which he co-founded in response to the Marburg Manifesto , was not intended to serve as a communist cadre formation, but to protect individual freedom of research from social attacks. It was important to him here to attract renowned scholars outside of Marxist circles.

A few weeks after the 1969 federal election, Hofmann succumbed to a circulatory collapse.

His work on economic society was widely received in groups of the student movement , while he criticized these students as " anarchist petty bourgeoisie ".

His son is Joachim Hofmann-Göttig , born in 1951 , an SPD politician and Lord Mayor of Koblenz from May 1, 2010 to April 30, 2018 .

Quote (science)

Werner Hofmann initially described science formally as a “ methodical (ie systematic and critical) way of searching for knowledge ”, which “is geared towards its general content: 1. the appearance of reality (as a collecting, descriptive, classifying activity, as morphology, typology, etc.) .); 2. As theoretical work on the context, meaning, meaning of the phenomena, on essential basic facts, on the laws of reality. The development of the empirical picture of the world works ahead of theoretical interpretation; it justifies their empirical nature and the verifiability of their results. The theory, however, first establishes the order of the empirical image; It is only it that gives the empirical analysis its meaning and takes the view of appearance in guard against the mere form of things. In this dialectical contradiction between the apprehension and interpretation of reality, theory is constitutive for science. Understanding reality does not always require theory; but only with theory does science begin. "

Fonts (selection)

  • The national accounts , Berlin 1954
  • Where is the Soviet economy headed? , Berlin 1955
  • The Labor Constitution of the Soviet Union , Berlin 1956
  • Social theory as a regulatory power , Berlin 1961
  • Secular inflation , Berlin 1962
  • History of ideas of the social movement , Berlin 1962
  • Socio- economic study texts , vol. 1 value and price theory, 2 income theory, 3 theory of economic development, Berlin 1964–66
  • Stalinism and Anti-Communism. On the sociology of the East-West conflict , Frankfurt a. M. 1967; 2nd, revised edition 1968
  • University, ideology , society: contributions to the sociology of science . Frankfurt a. M., 1968
  • Basic elements of business society , Reinbek 1969
  • Farewell to the bourgeoisie . Essays and speeches , Frankfurt 1970
  • Industrial sociology for workers. Class relationship and work constitution . Published from the academic papers of Herbert Claas and Rainer Rilling , Heilbronn 1988

literature

  • Herbert Claas u. a. (Ed.): Werner Hofmann. Social theory with practical intent (= Forum Wissenschaft. Studies 46). BdWi-Verlag, Marburg 1999, ISBN 3-924684-80-4 .
  • Dieter Boris :  Hofmann, Werner. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 461 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wilhelm Bernsdorf : Hofmann, Werner. In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf, Horst Knospe (Ed.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon. Volume 1: Articles on sociologists who died by the end of 1969. 2nd, revised edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-432-82652-4 , pp. 185 f.
  • Gerhard Schäfer: The Marburg triumvirate: Wolfgang Abendroth - Heinz Maus - Werner Hofmann. On the prehistory of critical social science in Marburg , in: Stephan Moebius / ders. (Ed.), Sociology as social criticism . Against the loss of a current tradition ; Festschrift for Lothar Peter , Hamburg: VSA-Verlag, 2006, pp. 44–70, ISBN 3-89965-175-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matriculation of the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich, school year 1940/41
  2. ↑ University of Munich / Student Directory / Summer Half-Year 1946 / (Semester B 1946) / According to the status of June 1947 / Munich 1946, p. 47
  3. ↑ Adolf Weber: Brief economic policy. 7th, revised edition, 29–31. Thousand. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957.
  4. ↑ Lothar Peter Marx to the university. The >> Marburg School. History, problems, actors, Cologne 2014, p. 13f.
  5. ↑ DIED: Werner Hofmann. Der Spiegel 47/1969, November 17, 1969, accessed on June 27, 2017 .
  6. ^ Werner Hofmann: Science and Ideology. In: Werner Hofmann: University, ideology, society. Contributions to the sociology of science (= Edition Suhrkamp. Vol. 261). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1968, pp. 49-66, here p. 50.
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist, co-founder of the Democratic Progress Campaign
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Meiningen
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1969
Place of death Wehrda (Marburg)