Klaus Theweleit
Encyclopedia
Klaus Theweleit is a German
sociologist
and writer
.
worker. He wrote the following about his father: "Above all he was a railroader, wholeheartedly, as he used to say, and then a human being. He was a rather good human being and a good fascist. His beatings which he gave away abundantly and brutally
as it was usual in his time and with the best of intentions were the first lessons I received on fascism, a fact I only later fully discovered."
Theweleit studied German studies
and English studies
in Kiel
and Freiburg
. From 1969-1972, he worked as a freelancer for a public radio station (Südwestfunk).
He wrote his dissertation Freikorpsliteratur und der Körper des soldatischen Mannes about Freikorps
narratives, a sub-literature
produced by pre-fascist paramilitaries
organized in Freikorps
, who, during the early Weimar republic
, had fought external or internal enemies. In academia only few historians had read and analysed this literature before Theweleit. His book Männerphantasien (1977); translated as Male Fantasies (1987), a study of the fascist
consciousness in general and the bodily experience of these former soldiers in particular, easily detected in their hatefilled, near-illiterate books, was well received. Theweleit used Wilhelm Reich
for his basic theory, but also empirical research, especially of the leading German left-wing historian of Weimar unrest, his friend Erhard Lucas and he was always discussing his findings with his wife, who has professional clinical experience. Theweleit writes in an anti-academic, highly personal style.
Theweleit lives in Freiburg
, he teaches in Germany, the US, Switzerland
, and Austria
. He was a lecturer at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Freiburg
and lecturer at the film academy in Berlin
. From 1998 until retirement he was a professor for "art and theory" at the Staatlichen Akademie für Bildende Künste, the art college, at Karlsruhe
.
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
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...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Life
Theweleit was born in East Prussia, the son of a railway companyRailway company
A railway company or railroad company is an entity that operates a railroad track and/or trains. Such a company can either be private or public...
worker. He wrote the following about his father: "Above all he was a railroader, wholeheartedly, as he used to say, and then a human being. He was a rather good human being and a good fascist. His beatings which he gave away abundantly and brutally
Brutality
Brutality or brutal may refer to:* Brutality , an American death metal band* Brutality , a 1912 film* Brutality , a finishing move in the video game Mortal Kombat* Brutalist architecture, an architectural style...
as it was usual in his time and with the best of intentions were the first lessons I received on fascism, a fact I only later fully discovered."
Theweleit studied German studies
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the...
and English studies
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
in 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...
and Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
. From 1969-1972, he worked as a freelancer for a public radio station (Südwestfunk).
He wrote his dissertation Freikorpsliteratur und der Körper des soldatischen Mannes about Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
narratives, a sub-literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
produced by pre-fascist paramilitaries
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organized in Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
, who, during the early Weimar republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, had fought external or internal enemies. In academia only few historians had read and analysed this literature before Theweleit. His book Männerphantasien (1977); translated as Male Fantasies (1987), a study of the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
consciousness in general and the bodily experience of these former soldiers in particular, easily detected in their hatefilled, near-illiterate books, was well received. Theweleit used Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
for his basic theory, but also empirical research, especially of the leading German left-wing historian of Weimar unrest, his friend Erhard Lucas and he was always discussing his findings with his wife, who has professional clinical experience. Theweleit writes in an anti-academic, highly personal style.
Theweleit lives in Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, he teaches in Germany, the US, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He was a lecturer at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
and lecturer at the film academy in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. From 1998 until retirement he was a professor for "art and theory" at the Staatlichen Akademie für Bildende Künste, the art college, at Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
.
English
- Male Fantasies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota PressUniversity of Minnesota PressThe University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota.Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its books in social and cultural thought, critical theory, race and ethnic studies, urbanism, feminist criticism, and media...
, 1987; Polity Press, 1987. - Object-Choice: (All You Need Is Love...: On Mating Strategies & A Fragment of a Freud Biography. London ; New York: Verso, 1994 (ISBN 0860916421)
German and English
- Antony Gormley: A Conversation with Klaus Theweleit and Monika Theweleit-Kubale = ein Gespräch mit Klaus Theweleit und Monika Theweleit-Kubale edited by Hans-Werner Schmidt, et al. Bielefeld : Kerber Verlag, 1999.
German
- Männerphantasien, 2 Vols., Verlag Roter Stern/Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main/Basel 1977-1978. Various paperback editions, first with Rowohlt, Reinbek 1983–1994, then with DTV, Munich and now with Piper, Munich 2000.
- K.Th. with Martin Langbein: Bruch, Verlag Roter Stern/Stroemfeld 1980. Only sold together with the German edition of Art SpiegelmanArt SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
's: Breakdowns. Also sold with the recent re-edition. - Buch der Könige, Stroemfeld 1988–2003.
- Vol. 1, Buch der Könige. Orpheus und Euridike, Stroemfeld 1988.
- Vol. 2 Buch der Könige in 2 books (2x, 2y), Stroemfeld 1994 (sold together):
- Buch der Könige 2x. Orpheus am Machtpol, Stroemfeld 1994.
- Buch der Könige 2y. Recording Angel's Mysteries, Stroemfeld 1994.
- Vol. 1, Buch der Könige. Orpheus und Euridike, Stroemfeld 1988.
- Objektwahl. All You Need Is Love. Über Paarbildungsstrategien & Bruchstücke einer Freudbiographie, Stroemfeld 1990.
- One Plus One. Rede für Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
zur Verleihung des Theodor W. AdornoTheodor W. AdornoTheodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
Preises an J.-L. Godard, Brinkmann u. Bose, Berlin 1995. ISBN 3-922660-65-7 - Das Land das Ausland heißt. Essays, Reden, Interviews zu Politik und Kunst, DTV, Munich 1995.
- Heiner MüllerHeiner MüllerHeiner Müller was a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht...
. Traumtext, Stroemfeld 1996. ISBN 3-87877-579-2 - Ghosts. Drei leicht inkorrekte Vorträge, Stroemfeld 1998.
- Der Pocahontas Komplex, Stroemfeld 1999.
- Vol. 1: Pocahontas in Wonderland. Shakespeare on Tour, Stroemfeld 1999, ISBN 3-87877-751-5
- Vol. 4: "you give me fever". Arno Schmidt. Seelandschaften mit Pocahontas. Die Sexualität schreiben nach WW II, Stroemfeld 1999. ISBN 3-87877-754-X
- Der Knall. 11. September, das Verschwinden der Realität und ein Kriegsmodell, Stroemfeld 2002. ISBN 3-87877-870-8
- Deutschlandfilme. Godard, Hitchcock, Pasolini. Filmdenken & Gewalt, Stroemfeld 2003, ISBN 3-87877-827-9
- Tor zur Welt. Fußball als Realitätsmodell, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2004. ISBN 3-462-03393-X
- Friendly Fire. Deadline Texte, Stroemfeld 2005.
- Übertragung, Gegenübertragung, Dritter Körper. Zur Gehirnveränderung durch die Medien, (=International FlusserVilém FlusserVilém Flusser was a Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo, Brazil and later in France, and his works are written in several different languages....
Lectures), Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2007. - Jimi Hendrix: Eine Biographie, Rowohlt, Berlin, Germany, 2010.
Audio CDs
- Das RAFRed Army FactionThe radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
–Gespenst, 2 CDs, Cologne, 2001. - Extasen der Zeitenmischung. Geschichtsdarstellung in der Kunst, 2 CDs, Cologne, 2001.
External links
- Personal website, at the Institute for Sociology at the University of FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
(in German) - A collection of links to Theweleit articles (in German)
- Godard: The Virtual and the Subject. Opening lecture at the Symposium Control and the Virtual at the College of Fine Arts, Hamburg, Germany, November 3–8, 2008.