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Oskar Negt

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Oskar Negt
Negt in 2007
Born(1934-08-01)1 August 1934
Kapheim,East Prussia,Germany
Died2 February 2024(2024-02-02)(aged 89)
Hanover,Lower Saxony, Germany
Education
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • Critical social theorist
Organizations
AwardsAugust Bebel Prize

Oskar Reinhard Negt(German:[ˈneːkt];1 August 1934 – 2 February 2024) was a German philosopher andcriticalsocial theorist. He was a professor of sociologyin Hanoverfrom 1972 to 2002, regarded as one of Germany's most prominent social scientists.[1]

A member of theSocialist German Students' Union,Negt studied philosophy and sociologyin FrankfurtwithTheodor Adorno,and was an assistant ofJürgen Habermas.He was one of the mentors of theAußerparlamentarische Opposition,and when the protest movement fragmented, tried as leader of the Sozialistisches Büro in Offenbach to establish an "over-factional consciousness".[2]Negt's focus was on the education of workers as political action, believing that democracy was a form of government that had to be learned. He is known for his collaboration with the filmmaker and visual artistAlexander Kluge,including books that were translated into English asPublic Sphere and ExperienceandHistory and Obstinacy.

Life and career

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Negt was born inKapheimnearKönigsberg[3]on 1 August 1934,[3][4]the son of a small farmer[5]and the youngest child of seven. His father was involved in theSocial Democratic Party(SPD) during World War II, facing pressure under the Nazi regime.[6]In 1944, Negt and two of his sisters were separated from their parents and displaced to Denmark following the Red Army's invasion of Königsberg. In Denmark, they stayed in an internment camp for two and a half years.[6][3]He was emerited in 2002.[1]When the camp doors were finally reopened, Negt and his sisters were reunited with their parents in Soviet-occupied Berlin after having been placed in quarantine near Rostock on their return to Germany. Negt's childhood was deeply affected by missing out on early development, with no exposure to schooling. In 1951, with rising political pressure on Negt's family due to his father's involvement in the SPD, the family fled to West Berlin, where they would spend six months as asylum seekers. In 1955, the Negt family settled intoOldenburgin Lower Saxony.[6][3]

After his Abitur in 1955,[3]Negt followed a wish of his father[3]and studied law at theUniversity of Göttingen;[3][4]he found the commitments entailed by membership in the localBurschenschaftoverly burdensome.[7]He later left, joined theSocialist German Students' Union(SDS), and enrolled in theUniversität Frankfurt(now Goethe University Frankfurt) for the study of sociology and philosophy withMax HorkheimerandTheodor W. Adorno,[1][4]He metJürgen Habermasthere who was impressed with one of Negt's class papers.[7]His dissertation in philosophy, supervised by Adorno, was titledStrukturbeziehungen zwischen den Gesellschaftslehren Comtes und Hegels(Structural relationships betweenComte's andHegel's social theories).[4]Negt was offered a position as a research assistant for Habermas (on the topic of Marxism and the SDS) at theUniversity of Heidelbergin 1961,[7]where he wrote his habilitation about the education of workers (Arbeiterbildung) in 1968.[4]In 1968 Negt upset his mentor Habermas[7]by editing a collection of essays on him (titledThe Left answers Jurgen Habermas), some of which were highly critical.[8][2]

Negt worked towards a collaboration of marxists and the labour unions.[4]In the1968 student movementhe was one of the mentors of theAußerparlamentarische Opposition,[1]and later director of theSozialistisches Büro[de]in Offenbach,[4]trying to influence anüberfraktionelles Bewußtsein,an "over-factional consciousness" of the fragmenting protest movement, with the goal not to train professional revolutionaries, but to accompany revolutionaries in their professions.[2]

Negt held a chair of sociology at theTechnische Hochschule Hannoverfrom 1970, called by the minister of culture of Lower Saxony,Peter von Oertzen[de],who was then in the process of expanding the technical school to a university (later called the Leibniz University Hannover).[2]He founded one of the first reform schools in Germany, theGlockseeschule[de]in Hanover, in 1972.[4][2]The same year he refused solidarity with theRed Army Faction(RAF), which took courage at the time.[9]He was emerited in 2002.[1]

Negt published his autobiography in two instalments in 2016 and 2019, titled respectivelyÜberlebensglück(Survivors' Luck: An Autobiographical Search for Tracks) andErfahrungsspuren (Tracks of Experience: An Autobiographical Thought-Journey).He also collaborated with the filmmakerAlexander Klugeon three films about post-socialist Europe. Negt's work with Kluge has been described as "highly unconventional" but significant in "an attempt to reinstate the human body to its rightful place in critical theory."[10]

Personal life

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Negt died in Hanover on 2 February 2024 after a long illness, at age 89.[4][2][9]

Intellectual influences

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Negt's work is said to be difficult to classify due to the enormous range of influences found in it from so many texts and philosophers.[7]These includeImmanuel Kant,Georg Hegel,Karl Marx,Auguste Comte,and some of the majorWestern Marxists.He drew on work in labour sociology, organizational theory, political journalism and more. Negt's primary concerns relate to labor, teaching, and politics.[7]

Negt was brought up as the son of a small farmer and a member of theSocial Democratic Party,and this "rural and... proletarian existence" led him to have ties with SPD causes, including trade unions.[5]These experiences led him to feel that while standard education for union members in metal working factories in Germany was sufficient for teaching legal questions, it was insufficient in political education. Negt thus understood genuine education to be inherently political, because democracy must be learned, making education existential for a democratic society. Negt was thus suspicious of the ideology and logic of capital and the market replacing all other forms of social reality. This informed his views on education as the holistic development of the person, limited not only to "processing knowledge and information" but also the ability to deal with emotions, to compromise, negotiate, and share with others. Thus for Negt, "good political education" means that the students can "think for themselves."[5][2]

Work with Alexander Kluge

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Negt was especially known for his public interventions in politics in collaboration with the artist Alexander Kluge.[11]Their seminal workPublic Sphere and Experiencewas an analysis of the limits of the bourgeois public sphere, which shapedpublic opposition.[12]

Awards

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In 2011 Negt was awarded theAugust Bebel Prize[de]for his political work.[1]

Publications

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In English

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  • The Misery of Bourgeois Democracy in Germany.Telos34 (Winter 1974). New York: Telos Press.[13]
  • (with Kluge)Public Sphere and Experience: Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Sphere,Verso;[14]Reprint edition (2 February 2016) Originally issued as Public Sphere and Experience: Toward an Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Sphere (Theory & History of Literature) by Univ of Minnesota Pr; First edition (1 December 1993).[15]
  • Adult Education and European Identity.Policy Futures in Education.6(6): 744–756. (2013)[16]
  • (with Kluge)History and Obstinacy,Zone Books (11 April 2014)[17]

In German

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Negt's complete works were published by Steidl Verlag in twelve volumes in 2016.[1]

  • Strukturbeziehungen zwischen den Gesellschaftslehren Comtes und Hegels.(dissertation) Frankfurt 1964.[4]
  • Soziologische Phantasie und exemplarisches Lernen. Zur Theorie der Arbeiterbildung.(habilitation) Frankfurt 1968.[4][9]
  • Politik als Protest. Reden und Aufsätze zur antiautoritären Bewegung.Frankfurt 1971.
  • (with Kluge)Öffentlichkeit und Erfahrung. Zur Organisationsanalyse von bürgerlicher und proletarischer Öffentlichkeit.Frankfurt 1972.[5]
  • Keine Demokratie ohne Sozialismus. Über den Zusammenhang von Politik, Geschichte und Moral.Frankfurt. 1976.
  • (with Kluge):Geschichte und Eigensinn. Geschichtliche Organisation der Arbeitsvermögen – Deutschland als Produktionsöffentlichkeit – Gewalt des Zusammenhangs.Frankfurt 1981.
  • Lebendige Arbeit, enteignete Zeit. Politische und kulturelle Dimensionen des Kampfes um die Arbeitszeit.Frankfurt /New York 1984.
  • Alfred Sohn-Rethel.Bremen 1988.
  • Modernisierung im Zeichen des Drachen. China und der europäische Mythos der Moderne. Reisetagebuch und Gedankenexperimente.Frankfurt 1988.
  • Die Herausforderung der Gewerkschaften. Plädoyers für die Erweiterung ihres politischen und kulturellen Mandats.Frankfurt/New York 1989.
  • (with Kluge)Maßverhältnisse des Politischen: 15 Vorschläge zum Unterscheidungsvermögen.Frankfurt 1992
  • Kältestrom.Göttingen 1994.ISBN3-88243-358-2
  • Unbotmäßige Zeitgenossen. Annäherungen und Erinnerungen.Frankfurt 1994.
  • Achtundsechzig. Politische Intellektuelle und die Macht.Göttingen 1995.
  • Kindheit und Schule in einer Welt der Umbrüche.Göttingen 1997.
  • (withHans Werner Dannowski[de])Königsberg–Kaliningrad: Reise in die Stadt Kants und Hamanns.Göttingen 1998.
  • Warum SPD? 7 Argumente für einen nachhaltigen Macht- und Politikwechsel.Göttingen 1998.
  • (with Kluge):Der unterschätzte Mensch.Frankfurt 2001. (*ISBN3-88243-786-3
  • Kant und Marx. Ein Epochengespräch.Göttingen 2003.
  • Wozu noch Gewerkschaften? Eine Streitschrift.Steidl Verlag, 2004,ISBN3-86521-165-8
  • Die Faust-Karriere. Vom verzweifelten Intellektuellen zum gescheiterten Unternehmer.Göttingen 2006.ISBN3-86521-188-7

References

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  1. ^abcdefg"Oskar Negt".Steidl Verlag.Archivedfrom the original on 7 November 2018.Retrieved7 November2018.
  2. ^abcdefgSpäter, Jörg (2 February 2024)."Oskar Negt ist gestorben".FAZ(in German).ISSN0174-4909.Archivedfrom the original on 4 February 2024.Retrieved2 February2024.
  3. ^abcdefg"Negt, Oskar".Munzinger Archiv(in German). 3 February 2024.Retrieved8 February2024.
  4. ^abcdefghijk"Nachruf: Wir trauen um Oskar Negt".Sozialismus(in German). 3 February 2024.Archivedfrom the original on 4 February 2024.Retrieved5 February2024.
  5. ^abcdPohl, Kerstin; Hufer, Klaus-Peter (2016)."An Interview with Oskar Negt (2004)".International Labor and Working-Class History.90:203–207.doi:10.1017/S0147547916000120.ISSN0147-5479.
  6. ^abcNegt, Oskar (2016).Überlebensglück.Steidl Books.ISBN978-3-95829-212-3.
  7. ^abcdefGrama, Adrian (May–June 2020)."Negt without Kluge".New Left Review(123): 150–160.Archivedfrom the original on 11 July 2020.Retrieved8 July2020.
  8. ^Abendroth, Wolfgang. (1968).Die Linke antwortet Jürgen Habermas.OCLC164464576.
  9. ^abcReinecke, Stefan (3 February 2024)."Es gibt immer eine Lösung".taz(in German).Archivedfrom the original on 6 February 2024.Retrieved6 February2024.
  10. ^Adelson, Leslie A. (February 1987). "Contemporary Critical Consciousness: Peter Sloterdijk, Oskar Negt/Alexander Kluge, and the" New Subjectivity "".German Studies Review.10(1): 57–68.doi:10.2307/1430443.ISSN0149-7952.JSTOR1430443.
  11. ^Hottman, Tara (2015). "Message in a Bottle".Qui Parle.23(2): 215–227.doi:10.5250/quiparle.23.2.0215.ISSN1041-8385.S2CID142732197.
  12. ^Krause, Monika (February 2006)."The Production of Counter-Publics and the Counter-Publics of Production: An Interview with Oskar Negt"(PDF).European Journal of Social Theory.9(1): 119–128.doi:10.1177/1368431006060481.ISSN1368-4310.S2CID142970446.Archived(PDF)from the original on 19 July 2018.Retrieved4 September2020.
  13. ^Negt, Oskar (21 December 1977)."The Misery of Bourgeois Democracy in Germany".Telos.1977(34): 123–135.doi:10.3817/1277034123.ISSN0090-6514.S2CID146844406.Archivedfrom the original on 8 July 2020.Retrieved8 July2020.
  14. ^Negt, Oskar; Kluge, Alexander (2016).Public sphere and experience: toward an analysis of the bourgeois and proletarian public sphere.Verso Books.ISBN978-1-78478-241-2.OCLC991594772.
  15. ^Negt, Oskar. (1993).Public sphere and experience: toward an analysis of the bourgeois and proletarian public sphere.Kluge, Alexander, 1932–. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.ISBN0-8166-2031-8.OCLC27725297.
  16. ^Negt, Oskar (2013), "Adult Education and European Identity",Learning with Adults,Rotterdam: SensePublishers, pp. 113–130,doi:10.1007/978-94-6209-335-5_9,ISBN978-94-6209-335-5
  17. ^Negt, Oskar; Kluge, Alexander (2014). Fore, Devin Fore (ed.).History and Obstinacy.Translated by Langston, Richard. Princeton University Press.ISBN978-19-3-540846-8.Archivedfrom the original on 7 February 2024.Retrieved7 February2024.
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