Hans Freyer
Encyclopedia
Hans Freyer, born July 31, 1887 in Leipzig
, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Baden-Baden
, was a conservative German
sociologist and philosopher.
, national economics, history
and philosophy
at the University of Greifswald in 1907, with the aim of becoming a Lutheran theologian. A year later he moved to Leipzig
, where he initially took the same courses, but then gave up the theological parts. He gained his doctorate in 1911. His early works on the philosophy of life
had an influence on the German youth movement. In 1920 he qualified as a university lecturer, and in 1922 he became a professor at the university of Kiel
.
In 1925, moving on to the University of Leipzig
, Freyer founded the university's sociology
department. He led the department until 1948. In Leipzig, he developed a branch of sociology with a strongly historical basis, the Leipzig School
. Sympathizing with the Hitlerite movement, he forced 1933 Ferdinand Tönnies
, an outspoken enemy of it, and then president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, out of office. Nevertheless, being Tönnies' successor he abstained from making the Gesellschaft a Nazi tool by stopping all activities from 1934 onwards. From 1938 to 1944 Freyer was the head of the German Institute for Culture in Budapest
.
Freyer was Protestant and married Käthe Lübeck; they had four children together.
After the Second World War, Freyer's position in Leipzig, now in the Soviet
occupation zone, became untenable, and in 1948 he took up a position in Wiesbaden
at the Brockhaus
publishing company. He took up lecturing again for only another three years, from 1953 to 1955, at the University of Münster
and for a short time in 1954 in Ankara
where he helped set up an institute for sociology.
' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft
(community and society). The last stage, Staat, was the ideal state for society: "the essential quality of the state (...) was its ability to forge living humanity with all its forces into a unity".
In 1929 Freyer wrote Soziologie als Wirklichkeitswissenschaft (Sociology as a "Science of Reality") (using Max Weber
's term). This looked into the origins of sociology, saying that it came from the philosophy of history
; that it had emerged from people's attempts to understand the connections between the past and the present. In Freyer's view, sociology was needed as a science to understand why changes in society had happened and, based on these findings, to help transform society.
Freyer's 1931 article Die Revolution von Rechts studied freedom, saying that people should only be free if they were part of a common will; that individual freedom should be limited for the sake of the community.
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
, was a conservative German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
sociologist and philosopher.
Life
Freyer began studying theologyTheology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, national economics, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the University of Greifswald in 1907, with the aim of becoming a Lutheran theologian. A year later he moved to Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, where he initially took the same courses, but then gave up the theological parts. He gained his doctorate in 1911. His early works on the philosophy of life
Philosophy of life
There are at least two senses in which the term philosophy is used, a formal and an informal sense. In the formal sense philosophy is an academic study of the fields metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, logic, and social philosophy...
had an influence on the German youth movement. In 1920 he qualified as a university lecturer, and in 1922 he became a professor at the university of Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
.
In 1925, moving on to the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
, Freyer founded the university's sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
department. He led the department until 1948. In Leipzig, he developed a branch of sociology with a strongly historical basis, the Leipzig School
Leipzig school (sociology)
The Leipzig school was a branch of sociology developed by a group of academics led by philosopher and sociologist Hans Freyer at the University of Leipzig, Germany in the 1930s....
. Sympathizing with the Hitlerite movement, he forced 1933 Ferdinand Tönnies
Ferdinand Tönnies
Ferdinand Tönnies was a German sociologist. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft...
, an outspoken enemy of it, and then president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, out of office. Nevertheless, being Tönnies' successor he abstained from making the Gesellschaft a Nazi tool by stopping all activities from 1934 onwards. From 1938 to 1944 Freyer was the head of the German Institute for Culture in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
.
Freyer was Protestant and married Käthe Lübeck; they had four children together.
After the Second World War, Freyer's position in Leipzig, now in the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
occupation zone, became untenable, and in 1948 he took up a position in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
at the Brockhaus
Brockhaus
Brockhaus may refer to:* Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus , German encyclopedia publisher and editor** Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, German-language encyclopedia**Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Russian-language encyclopedia...
publishing company. He took up lecturing again for only another three years, from 1953 to 1955, at the University of Münster
University of Münster
The University of Münster is a public university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The WWU is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a society of Germany's leading research universities...
and for a short time in 1954 in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
where he helped set up an institute for sociology.
Works
In Der Staat (1926), Freyer identified three stages of history which repeated themselves in a cycle: Glaube, Stil and Staat (belief, style, the state). These were partly, although not openly, based on Ferdinand TönniesFerdinand Tönnies
Ferdinand Tönnies was a German sociologist. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft...
' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are sociological categories introduced by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies for two normal types of human association...
(community and society). The last stage, Staat, was the ideal state for society: "the essential quality of the state (...) was its ability to forge living humanity with all its forces into a unity".
In 1929 Freyer wrote Soziologie als Wirklichkeitswissenschaft (Sociology as a "Science of Reality") (using Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
's term). This looked into the origins of sociology, saying that it came from the philosophy of history
Philosophy of history
The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...
; that it had emerged from people's attempts to understand the connections between the past and the present. In Freyer's view, sociology was needed as a science to understand why changes in society had happened and, based on these findings, to help transform society.
Freyer's 1931 article Die Revolution von Rechts studied freedom, saying that people should only be free if they were part of a common will; that individual freedom should be limited for the sake of the community.
List of works
- Antäus. Grundlegung einer Ethik des bewußten Lebens, 1918
- Die Bewertung der Wirtschaft im philosophischen Denken des 19. Jahrhunderts, 1921
- Prometheus. Ideen zur Philosophie der Kultur, 1923
- Theorie des objektiven Geistes. Eine Einleitung in die Kulturphilosophie", 1923
- Der Staat, 1925
- Soziologie als Wirklichkeitswissenschaft. Logische Grundlegung des Systems der Soziologie, 1930
- Einleitung in die Soziologie, 1931
- Die Revolution von rechts, 1931
- Herrschaft und Planung. Zwei Grundbegriffe der politischen Ethik, 1933
- Pallas Athene. Ethik des politischen Volkes, 1935
- Über Fichtes Machiavelli-Aufsatz, 1936
- Die politische Insel. Eine Geschichte der Utopien von Platon bis zur Gegenwart, 1936
- Vom geschichtlichen Selbstbewußtsein des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1937
- Gesellschaft und Geschichte, 1937
- Machiavelli, 1938
- Weltgeschichte Europas, 2 Bände, 1948
- Theorie des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters, 1955
- Schwelle der Zeiten. Beiträge zur Soziologie der Kultur, 1965
- Entwicklungstendenzen und Probleme der modernen Industriegesellschaft, in: Industriegesellschaft in Ost und West, Mainz
- Herrschaft, Planung und Technik. Aufsätze zur Soziologie, published and introduced by Elfriede Üner, 1987
See also
- Arnold GehlenArnold GehlenArnold Gehlen was an influential conservative German philosopher and sociologist.-Biography:His major influences while studying philosophy were Hans Driesch, Nicolai Hartmann and especially Max Scheler....
- Gotthard GüntherGotthard GüntherGotthard Günther , was a German philosopher.- Biography :...
- Ernest ManheimErnest ManheimErnest Manheim was an US sociologist, anthropologist and composer born in Hungary, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire....
- Heinz Maus
- Helmut SchelskyHelmut SchelskyHelmut Schelsky, , was a German sociologist, the most influential in post-World War II Germany, well into the 1970s.-Biography:...
Further reading
- Freyer, Hans, 1998. Theory of Objective Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Culture. Translated and with an introduction by Steven Grosby.
- Muller, Jerry Z., 1988. The Other God that Failed : Hans Freyer and the Deradicalization of German Conservatism. ISBN 0-691-00823-X
- ------, 2002. The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought. Anchor Books.
External links
- Fascism and the primacy of the political by Dick Pels