Wolfgang Hindrichs

Wolfgang Hindrichs (born May 16, 1933 in Duisburg ; † March 13, 2012 in Bremen ) was a German educational and social scientist . His main areas of research were the world of work , trade unions and adult education and, associated with this, the introduction of long-term offers for political further education as well as the testing of new innovative approaches in practical research.

Work and life

Hindrichs studied social sciences , theology and education in Tübingen and did his doctorate with Walter Jens . He joined the SPD , but after the Godesberg Program was passed (1959) he kept his distance from the party's official course. Hindrichs campaigned against rearmament and supported u. a. the Algerian liberation movement. As a member of the then SDS he belonged to the left-wing socialist opposition to the Adenauer government . At the end of the 1950s, disputes took place in the SDS about the formation of an independent “New Left” that set itself apart from the policies of the SPD party executive and, on the other hand, specifically opposed the taking over of the SDS by representatives close to the SED for the magazine . In these disputes, Hindrichs was considered to be one of the heads of the so-called middle group of the SDS. It finally succeeded in making the SDS a focal point for critical socialists both inside and outside the SPD. The SPD leadership responded in 1961 with an incompatibility decision that excluded SDS members and sympathizers from the party.

Alongside Peter von Oertzen and Jürgen Seifert, he was a co-founder of the Elzer Circle , which was established in the 1960s and in which trade unionists and social scientists who campaigned for democratic reforms in the world of work came together. As the Social Science Association Duisburg eV , the group later worked on the concept of company-oriented workers' training for basic union officials (shop stewards, works councils, educational officers). Together with Oskar Negt , Willi Pöhler , Reinhard Hoffmann , Olaf Sund and Reinhard Welteke , Hindrichs published so-called workbooks for trade union education on topics such as the dignity of people in the world of work and industrial work and domination , which have had a major impact on the development of trade union adult education the 1960s should have. At that time, Hindrichs developed the concept of so-called “company-based educational work” with others.

“In essence, company-related trade union education work not only refers to a spatiotemporal organizational level, but also a sociological, conceptual and didactic level. Company and company (...) as a place of cooperation between capital and work, but also the constant confrontation of their opposing interests, are a social prerequisite and at the same time a central theme of trade union educational work; Workers and their representatives are the addressees. The company and the company are also the places where trade union educational work becomes effective in practice (...). Occasionally one hears the word 'operational approach' to describe this educational concept. This expresses the fact that the educational process begins in the company, focuses on the company, but is not limited to the company level. In fact, the advocates of the company approach have never seen the company in isolation and exclusively as an object of educational work. Therefore, the conception of company-related educational work must be considered in its context and with its implications: It is about the workforce, i.e. the company as a place of work and a place of collective interest formation for the workers who spend their labor there, earn their living, perhaps some remainder of finding self-realization in work. The workforce is in irrevocable conflict of interests with the entrepreneurs, who invest capital in the company, produce goods depending on the market and competition and strive for maximum use of living work. The conception is thus aimed at the company as a place of constitution and enforcement of the interests of wage earners and to that extent the nucleus of union organization and union mobilization. "

In the mid-1960s, Hindrichs became a research assistant at the chair for the science of politics at what was then the Technical University of Hanover. He was part of the founding team of the Dortmund Social Research Center , which was newly established in Dortmund in 1972 , at that time the State Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia . He led several empirical research projects on industrial sociological research topics of the time. Strikes and company conflicts were thematized as important phenomena in the world of work after the end of the economic miracle and examined with regard to the potential for development of company and social structures.

In 1979 Hindrichs was appointed professor at the chair for continuing education at the University of Bremen and established the continuing education course. This position was linked to the management of the Academy for Labor and Politics at the University of Bremen. Hindrichs was the director of the academy from 1986 to 1992. Here he focused primarily on research into trade union education and published on topics such as “strikes”, “works councils”, “shop stewards” and “co-determination in the workplace”. In the mid-1990s, he worked with a working group at the Dortmund Social Research Center on a study of the structural change in work in the heavy industry in the Ruhr area and the associated change in the work of works councils. Hindrichs was a founding member of the Otto Brenner Academy Hanover (1995). Here, too, the focus for him was political education in workers' education.

Wolfgang Hindrichs was married to Eva Hindrichs, b. Hollow field.

Fonts (selection)

• The will in the image of man in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Tübingen 1958.
• (Ed / co-author) Work and life in Lower Saxony. Series of publications.
  1. Industrial work and domination. 1968, ISBN 3-434-10074-1 .
  2. Human dignity in the world of work. 1969.
  3. Representing the interests of employees in the company. 1969.
  4. The conflict over wages and performance. 1969.
• (with Willi Dzielak, Helmut Martens, Verena Stanislawski, Wolfram Wassermann) Workers and unions on strike: Using the example of the chemical industry. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 1978, ISBN 3-593-32267-6 .
• (with Willi Dzielak, Helmut Martens, Walter Schophaus) Labor dispute for jobs: The wage conflict 1978/79 in the steel industry. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-593-32796-1 .
• (with Hans O. Hemmer) "Not standstill, but progress in social policy should be our battle cry." Basic data on the history of social reforms in Germany , 1981.
• Company-related trade union education work. In: Dieter Görs (Hrsg.): Trade union educational work: controversies and concepts. Munich / Vienna / Baltimore 1982, ISBN 3-541-41521-5 .
• (with Manfred Heckenauer) Being a socialist in difficult times: Years of gathering and reorientation (1958–1962). In: Jürgen Seifert , Heinz Thörmer, Klaus Wettig (eds.): Social or socialist democracy? Contributions to the history of the left in the Federal Republic. Gift of friend for Peter von Oertzen. Marburg 1989, ISBN 3-924800-56-1 .
• (with Hans-Jürgen Duddek, Wolfram Wassermann) Operation field. Two studies on the relationships and perspectives of trade union company policy using the example of the NGG, Academy for Work and Politics at the University of Bremen. Office for Social Research, Kassel 1995.
• (with Uwe Jürgenhake, Christian Kleinschmidt, Wilfried Kruse, Rainer Lichte, Helmut Martens) The long farewell to the painter: Social upheaval in the steel industry and the role of the works council from 1960 to the 1990s. Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-892-0 .

literature

• Manfred Dammeyer , Werner Fricke, Wilfried Kruse (eds.): In the middle of the stream: Politics by creating connections. Festschrift for Manfred Heckenauer on his 60th birthday. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-87831-433-7 .
• Claus Leggewie : "Kofferträger": The Left Algeria Project in Adenauer Germany. Rotbuch, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-88022-286-X .
• Richard Heigl: Opposition Politics: Wolfgang Abendroth and the Emergence of the New Left (1950–1968). Argument, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88619-333-2
• Gregor Kritidis: Left Socialist Opposition in the Adenauer Era: A Contribution to the Early History of the Federal Republic of Germany. Offizin, Hannover 2008, ISBN 978-3-930345-61-8 .
• Helmut Martens: industrial sociology on the move? Challenges of empirical labor research in the break of an epoch. Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-89691-662-4 .
• Oskar Negt: Sociological fantasy and exemplary learning: On the theory of workers' education. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1968.
• Jürgen Seifert , Heinz Thörmer, Klaus Wettig (eds.): Social or socialist democracy? Contributions to the history of the left in the Federal Republic. SP, Marburg 1989, ISBN 3-924800-56-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary notice in the Weser-Kurier from April 7, 2012.
2. ↑ Richard Heigl, 2007 and Gregor Kriditis, 2008
3. ↑ Gregory Kriditis, 2008
4. ^ On Elzer Kreis Sozialwissenschaftliche Vereinigung see Tilmann Fichter: SDS and SPD. Partiality beyond the party , Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1988, ISBN 978-3-531-11882-6 , p. 223 (note 10) and p. 283 (note 3)
5. ^ Negt, 1968
6. ↑ Hindrichs, 1982, p. 174 f.
7. ↑ cf. Dzielak u. a., 1978