Wilhelm Dreier

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Wilhelm Dreier (born February 17, 1928 in Wattenscheid , Westphalia, † February 27, 1993 in Würzburg ) was a Catholic economist and social ethicist.

Life

After studying philosophy, Catholic theology , economics and sociology in Paderborn and Münster, Dreier received his doctorate in Münster in 1958 in economics and in 1964 in Catholic theologian. From 1954 to 1962 he was a research assistant or assistant to the later Cardinal Joseph Höffner from Cologne and, after his appointment as Bishop of Münster from 1962 to 1968, he was executive assistant of the Münster Institute for Christian Social Sciences. In 1967, after overcoming a number of legal problems, he became the first Catholic layperson to study Christian social sciences at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Mainzhabilitated and in 1968 he was the first layperson to be offered a chair in a Catholic theological faculty, namely the chair for Christian social sciences at the University of Würzburg , where he taught Christian social sciences and sociology for several years until his untimely death in 1993. From 1971 to 1972 he was dean, then until 1976 vice dean of the faculty. Part-time he headed the Academy for Youth Issues until 1988 .

Even if the natural law argumentation patterns of his teacher Höffner are still clearly noticeable in Dreier's first publications, he was the first to break through the then dominant "unified line" of Christian social ethics. In 1966 he edited together with Wilfrid Schreiber in a special volume of the yearbook of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences the speeches and essays by Joseph Höffner under the title “Social policy out of Christian world responsibility” and in 1967 he published the brochure “Should the church advertise” in honor of his teacher Höffner ? ”And with these publications documented his origins and his ties to the Münster Institute for Christian Social Sciences. Later he opened up without reservation - not always in accordance with Archbishop Höffner - to the new approach of the Second Vatican Council, because he felt himself to be gaudy in his fundamental intuitions, which included the demands for interdisciplinarity and for the addition of social teaching to social theology, through the pastoral constitution et Spes confirmed. In this way he arrives at a concept of a scientific social ethics, which is motivated by the Christian eschatological message of hope and demand for change, but which is fundamentally and at the same time carried out in interdisciplinary discussion and is geared towards society-changing practice.

In this spirit, together with his scientific colleague Reiner Kümmel (physics), from 1976 onwards he established an interdisciplinary research focus of the university on the subject of "The future of mankind", within the framework of which he examined the new problem areas indicated by the reports to the Club of Rome "Limits to Growth" as the first Catholic social ethicist in Germany worked on. In the following years, too, current topics were repeatedly taken up at his institute - often in close cooperation with groups from the environmental, women's, one-world and peace movements as well as adult education institutions and Catholic associations. In addition to the ecological problem, his special concerns were a really "social" design of the social market economy and a reorientation of educational processes and the education system in the sense of "practice-changing education" with the aim of enabling people to cope with the enormous challenges of global injustice and the impending environmental destruction enable. In 1992 he became involved in the controversial debates about the 500th anniversary of the discovery / conquest of America (1492–1992) and wrote his last book with the programmatic title "Reversal to the Future - Social-Ethical Signs in a Post-Colonial Age".

His diverse non-university advisory activities are also important: from 1969 to 1984 he was a member of the German Youth Institute in Munich, 1970–1975, as a member of the Joint Synod of the Dioceses in the Federal Republic of Germany, he played a decisive role in the resolution of the Synod on youth work and a text on the subject “For the service of the church in the achievement society”, which was no longer decided by the synod. 1976–1986 he was a member of the Scientific Commission of the Catholic Working Group for Development and Peace and in 1981 co-founder of the interdisciplinary study group Development Problems of Industrial Society (STEIG eV). From 1968 to 1989 he was also the scientific director of the Academy for Youth Issues , a federal central training facility for specialists in youth, social and educational work, in which pioneering work had been carried out, particularly in the areas of group dynamics and supervision. The experiences he made there also inspired his work at the university: For years, employees at his chair practiced innovative university didactic methods of “participant-oriented” or “self-directed learning”. His students, among them Hermann Steinkamp , Wolfgang Weigand , Carl Josef Leffers , Josef Senft , Volker Waiz and Gerhard Kruip are today in a wide variety of areas of science, general adult education, advanced training, pastoral work and the active in political activities.

Fonts

  • The family principle. A structural element of modern economic society. Münster 1960 (economic dissertation).
  • The function and ethos of consumer advertising. Münster 1965 (theological dissertation).
  • Economic and social security for marriage and family. Munster 1965.
  • Should the Church do advertising? Cologne 1967.
  • Spatial planning as land ownership and land use reform. Cologne 1968 (habilitation thesis).
  • (zs. with Reiner Kümmel): Future through controlled growth. Scientific facts - social science problems - theological perspectives; an interdisciplinary dialogue. Munster 1977.
  • Social reforms through practice-changing education. A sketch of the problem. Munster 1977.
  • Social ethics. Düsseldorf 1983.
  • Return to the future. Social-ethical signposts into a post-colonial age. Saarbrücken, Fort Lauderdale 1992.
  • (as co-editor): Discovery, Conquest, Liberation. 500 Years of Violence and Gospel in America. Wuerzburg 1993.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dreier, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic economist and social ethicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Wattenscheid , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1993
Place of death Wurzburg