Wolfgang Sofsky
Wolfgang Sofsky (* 1952 in Kaiserslautern ) is a German sociologist , author and essayist .
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At the center of Sofsky's writings is the analysis of the forms of social power, violence and terror. Since then he has devoted himself to the threats to freedom from the politics of security, the destruction of privacy and the various forms of human immorality. Sofsky has often triggered controversial reactions in Germany, while abroad he is counted among the most prominent analysts.
Life
Sofsky studied sociology, philosophy , political science and history , among other things . In 1981 he received his doctorate at the University of Göttingen , and in 1992 he completed his habilitation at the same location. He taught there as an adjunct professor of sociology and was visiting professor at the University of Erfurt in 1999/2000 . He currently lives as a writer, freelance publicist and private scholar near Göttingen. Sofsky writes for the Literary World , the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , the Swiss Month , the Focus , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Die Welt as well as for the WDR and the Deutschlandradio Kultur .
Sofsky's thinking is shaped by social phenomenology, the philosophical anthropology of Helmuth Plessner , the sociology of Georg Simmel and the anthropology of Elias Canetti . In 1995 Sofsky wrote about Canetti: “ Mass and power have become indispensable to me. Canetti teaches those who are concerned with understanding what people do to each other to have a clear view. He creates the freedom of thought from which one can start again. His sentences are of crystalline harshness, without irony and contempt, but also without that edifying humanism that plunges the worst into the dim light of false reconciliation. The motto of the book could only be based on the blackest of knowledge, and hope to put an end to power. Everything else is just utopia or ideology, only strengthens the superstition of optimism. "
For his habilitation thesis The Order of Terror he received the Geschwister-Scholl-Prize on November 24, 1993 in Munich . The jury's justification stated: “Since Eugen Kogon's basic account of the SS state (1946), research into and description of the concentration camp as the epitome and center of the Nazi extermination has never ceased. However, attempts to get to a comprehensive explanation of how it worked have been rare. Sofsky undertook this task and presented a work of great analytical power and clarity. Based on the survivors' reports, he describes how the mechanisms of 'absolute' power existentially break people. Space and time, work and social structures lose their orientation function in the 'order of terror'. ” Jan Philipp Reemtsma praised the book in ZEIT .
"The book should become a standard work on the subject of violence - not only in concentration camps."
One of the first critics of the work at that time was Harald Welzer . In Merkur (H. 1/1994) he spoke of a “hermetic” book and called it “stupid in that it lingers in the horror that it claims to describe”.
On September 20, 2015, Sofsky received the Holbach Prize in Edenkoben for his complete works. The jury's reasoning stated: "Wolfgang Sofsky has created an outstanding essayistic work [...] He is the narrator among the essayists and one of their best." In March 2016, Sofsky founded the Holbach Institute for Research into Cultural Power.
Works
Books
- Revolution and Utopia. Comments on the theory of emancipation in advanced capitalism. Makol, Frankfurt am Main 1971
- The order of social situations. Theoretical studies on the methods and structures of social experience and interaction . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983, ISBN 3-531-11657-6 (= Diss. Göttingen 1981)
- Power, work and humanity. On the pathology of organized work situations (with Reiner Löffler ). Cromm, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-921969-12-3 .
- Figurations of Social Power. Authority, representation, coalition (with Rainer Paris ). Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1991; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-28735-4
- The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-596-13427-7 (= Habil. Göttingen 1992)
- Treatise on Violence . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-16855-4 .
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Times of horror. Amok, terror, war . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-10-072707-X .
- Reviews: H-Soz-u-Kult and literaturkritik.de , Andreas Bock in SZ, May 13, 2002
- Operation freedom. The war in Iraq . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-10-072709-6 .
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The principle of security . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-10-072710-X ; New edition 2016: Principle of Security , with a new epilogue: War and Crisis, CreateSpace Independent Publishing ISBN 978-1539511083 .
- Reviews: Hans-Martin Lohmann in Die Zeit , Eckart Conze in H-Soz-u-Kult , Konstantin Sakkas in Tagesspiegel, January 17, 2006 , Claus Leggewie in SZ, August 3, 2006, 14; Andreas Rosenfelder: " Damn all who shy away from risk and courage " - FAZ, November 18, 2005; KLAUS PETER KRAUSE: " Safety first " - FAZ of September 4, 2006
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Defense of the private. A polemic. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56298-3 .
- Reviews: Katharina Rutschky : “ The private man on the hook ” - Die Welt from August 18, 2007. ACGrayling Privacy: A Manifesto, The Times October 17, 2008 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books /non-fiction/article4961761.ece . Josie Appleton Why Privacy matters, The spiked Review of Books 36, July 2010 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/9364/
- The Book of Vices. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59135-8 .
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Types of death. About images of violence. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-557-1 ; New edition 2016: CreateSpace Independent Publishing ISBN 978-1518707629 .
- Reviews: Thomas Macho : Killing types. Wolfgang Sofsky on "Images of Violence" , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of October 8, 2011. Lorenz Jäger in [1] - FAZ of November 26, 2011; Arno Orzessek in [2] - Deutschlandradio Kultur from January 2, 2012; Herfried Münkler : Blood stains in the snow , in: Sueddeutsche Zeitung from 7./8. January 2011; Eduard Beaucamp : The permanent hell of history in [3] - Deutschlandradio Kultur / Reading from February 19, 2012;
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Loner. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-032-3 .
- Review: Mark-Georg Dehrmann : Wir Einsamen , in: Sueddeutsche Zeitung of May 13, 2013; Wolfgang Himmel , in: KZfSS , 66, 2014: 328–330;
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Weisenfels. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-95757-005-5 .
- Reviews: Nicolas Freund : Texts look at you , in: Sueddeutsche Zeitung from November 10, 2014; Carsten Hueck in [4] Deutschlandradio Kultur from December 6, 2014; Barbara Sichtermann : In the Museum of Masks , in: [5] Deutschlandfunk from April 2, 2015; Klaus Kufeld : The story of a suicide , in: Chaussee. Journal for Literature and Culture of the Palatinate, issue 34/2015;
- Silent. Short stories . CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2017, ISBN 978-1-5454-5602-6 .
- Mental pictures . CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2017, ISBN 978-1-9746-6047-6 .
- Coalitions . CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2017, ISBN 978-1-9757-4218-8 .
- Privacy . CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2018, ISBN 978-1-9863-1376-6 .
- Vice. Faces of immorality . CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2018, ISBN 978-1-9866-3826-5 .
- Luftgeister, KDP / Amazon, Independently published KDP / Amazon 2019, ISBN 978-1090655196 .
- Power and Representation, Independently published KDP / Amazon 2019, ISBN 978-1093388749 .
Essays
- Security through normality. Keywords for the analysis of everyday life . In: Frankfurter Hefte 33 (1978) 29-36.
- On the value of work . In: Frankfurter Hefte 36 (1981) 29-36.
- End times. Cultural sociological notes on the end of the world . In: Frankfurter Hefte 37 (1982) 59-66.
- Machine people and society machines . In: Frankfurter Hefte 39 (1984) 54-60.
- Terrifying city. Stations of modern city criticism . In: The Old City . Quarterly magazine for urban history, urban sociology, monument preservation and urban development 13 (1986) 1–21.
- Threats. About a method of interaction power (with Rainer Paris). In: Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology 39 (1987) 15–39.
- Absolute power. On the sociology of the concentration camp . In: Leviathan 18 (1990) 518-535.
- Selected . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 9, 1995.
- Time of violence . In: Trutz von Trotha (ed.), Sociology of Violence , Opladen 1997, 102–121.
- Participate in the power of the dead. About the violence of the masks and their demise in times of conformity . In: SZ, February 8, 1997.
- The law of slaughter. What type of people is behind the excesses in Algeria, Rwanda and Bosnia? In: Die Zeit, April 2, 1998.
- Hero, martyr and terrorist rolled into one: the suicide bomber . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 19, 2001.
- The process of violence . In: Michael Klein (Ed.), Violence - interdisciplinary , Münster 2002, 173–184.
- The pig, the man. Elias Canetti's poetic zoology . In: SZ, March 20, 2002.
- How just is vengeance? In: Psychologie Heute 29 (2002), No. 4, 56–61.
- The halved memory . In: SZ, December 5, 2002, 13.
- Before the war. An urge, a hesitation, a wait . In: SZ, March 6, 2003.
- The normal face of evil . In: Die Welt , March 20, 2003.
- Bounties, headhunting, assassinations. Political murder and the art of war . In: SZ, September 29, 2003, 14.
- Yes or no! What is so difficult for democracy: the decision . In: SZ, October 8, 2003, 13.
- Neither a headscarf nor a cross . In: Die Welt, March 18, 2004.
- In the dungeons of war . In: Die Weltwoche No. 19/2004, May 6, 2004.
- Everyone keeps their eyes open. The dangers of terrorist prevention . In: SZ, August 1, 2005.
- The principle of freedom . In: Ulrike Ackermann (ed.), Pleading for an Open Society , Berlin 2007, 40–61.
- Amok, the intoxication of absolute power . In: Tages-Anzeiger , March 13, 2009.
- Vengeance and justice . In: Berner Zeitung , May 7, 2011.
- "The real element". About evil, in: Kursbuch 176, 2013, pp. 34–46.
- Denial and other processes of ignorance, in: Chaussee. Journal for literature and culture of the Palatinate 34/2015.
- Scarbo, in: Chaussee. Journal for literature and culture of the Palatinate 41/2018.
- Homeland. An apolitical view, in: Chaussee. Journal for literature and culture in the Palatinate, 42/2018.
- The people just watch. Because in the end democracy is oligarchy. , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 19, 2019.
- The social is dried up, the values evaporate, the executive takes over: a new era begins. [6] , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 23, 2020.
Interviews
- No therapy for terrorists . In: FAZ, November 9, 2001.
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: people are used to doing evil ). In: WZ No. 454, 2002 (
- We are returning to historically normal, dangerous times . In: SZ, August 24, 2006, 11.
- How does violence come about? It's about rituals, not content . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung No. 22, June 3, 2007, 30.
- Freedom is not an idyll, but a task . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung No. 29, July 22, 2007, 22.
- Bombing War: Calling Things By Their Name . In: GEO Magazin No. 02/2003
literature
- Michael Saager: The future of violence . Wolfgang Sofsky is the hand-to-hand fighter among the sociologists of violence. In: Jungle World No. 52/2002.
- Martin Endress : Removing the boundaries of the human. On the transformation of the structures of human relation to the world through violence . In: Wilhelm Heitmeyer , Hans-Georg Soeffner (Ed.): Violence. Developments, structures, analysis problems . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-12246-0 , pp. 174-201.
Web links
Literature by and about Wolfgang Sofsky in the catalog of the German National Library
- Hartmut Böhme : Violence in the 20th Century. Democide from the perspective of memory literature, statistics and qualitative social analysis. ( Memento from April 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Laudation by Norbert Frei 2003
- Short biography at Fischer-Verlag with picture
- Greatest good. Wolfgang Sofsky warns of the end of privacy. Interview at 3Sat- Kulturzeit on October 18, 2007 (video 9:30 min)
- Sofky's vices . A "Culture Time" series in six episodes (February 2008)
- Blog: Holbach Institute: [7]
Individual evidence
- ↑ W. Sofsky: ErlesenZerlesen . In: SZ, March 9, 1995.
- ↑ Holbach Institute
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Sofsky, Wolfgang |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sociologist and publicist |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1952 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Kaiserslautern |