Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

Elisabeth Noelle - Neumann ( born December 19, 1916 in Berlin, † 25 March, 2010 Allen Bach, officially last Elisabeth Noelle ) was a professor of communication studies at the University of Mainz and founder of the Institute for demo copy ( IfD ) in Allen Bach. It is considered a pioneer of Demoskopie in Germany and was the founder of the theory of the spiral of silence.

Life

Elisabeth Noelle was born in Berlin as the second of four children of the couple Eva and Ernst Noelle in an upper middle class family. Her father was a doctor of law and founded the Tobis Film Company. Their grandfathers were the producer Ernst Noelle and the sculptor Fritz Schaper.

After Elisabeth Noelle first attended schools in Berlin, her parents sent her later on the educational reform Schloss Salem boarding school. This she left after half a year and put 1935 in Göttingen, the Abitur. She then studied philosophy, history, journalism and American studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, the Albertina in Königsberg and the University of Missouri in the United States. During her student years she was cell leader of the Association of National Socialist students, a sub-organization of the National Socialist German Student Union. During a visit to the Obersalzberg they met Adolf Hitler. This is " one of the strongest and strangest experiences " of her life, she later remarked. They have received " no warning".

1937/38, she spent a scholarship from the DAAD an exchange year in the U.S., where she learned the latest demo copy methods know. Then she took a trip around the world (Japan, China and the Middle East). In 1940, she was with Emil Dovifat, the Nestor of German newspaper science, doctorate in Berlin opinion and mass research in the United States. Subsequently, she completed a traineeship at Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. From 1940, she wrote The Kingdom, a weekly newspaper whose editorials were often written by Goebbels, edited by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda newspaper. Some of her articles dealt with the subjects of the Jews and other " enemies" of the Hitler regime. After her release at The kingdom she went to the Frankfurter Zeitung. She was a member of the Association of National Socialist students, but did not occur in the NSDAP.

In Noelle - Neumann's dissertation entitled "American mass surveys on politics and the press " of 1940, she led Germany's bad reputation in the world mainly due to the propaganda of the U.S. media: " Since 1933, the Jews concentrate a large part of America's have monopolized intellectual life, their demagogic skills to the Germany -baiting ". To this end, in 2010 was established the TIME, her dissertation containing anti -Semitic statements. Goebbels wanted to make on the basis of their work on public opinion research in the U.S. in 1942 to his aide. However, it prevented a longer disease from proceeding with this office. The Tagesspiegel she said in 2005 to the indirect question " Goebbels wanted that you would his aide. " I should work for him. Because he wanted that I made polls for him. Systematic surveys there were not so far in Germany. I was raised by a man sergeant, received the Propaganda Ministry, who told me that the minister wants you to work for him. I went home and asked myself, what now? And what happened? I was seriously ill. This means that the course had finished. Addition.

In 1946 she married the journalist and conservative politician Erich Peter Neumann. This was during her time at The Empire there also edited articles. In the Spiegel article of 15 December 1965 is: "With, Reich' editor and husband Erich Peter Neumann she founded in 1946, Society for the Study of Public Opinion ' (annual sales today: two to three million dollars) and explored henceforth the political views and consumption habits of the German public. " Noelle - Neumann's first husband died in 1973. 1979 she married the nuclear physicist Heinz Maier- Leibnitz and bore the name Noelle -Neumann- Maier- Leibnitz. After his death in 2000 she took her maiden name Elisabeth Noelle again, but continued to publish under the name Noelle - Neumann.

Career after 1945

In 1947, Noelle - Neumann and her husband Erich Peter Neumann Institute for Allensbach the first German research institute. Under her leadership, the Institute has developed into a concept for business, politics and journalism - especially in Germany by the new method of representative surveys. Divided since 1989 Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, the head of IfD with a diploma in economics Renate Kocher.

From 1961 to 1964, Noelle - Neumann researcher at the Free University of Berlin. In 1964 she was appointed with the support of Helmut Kohl as a professor at the University of Mainz, where she established the Institute of Journalism, which she ran until her retirement in 1983 as a Director.

From 1968 to 1970 she was president of the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies, 1978-1980 President of the World Association for Public Opinion Research ( WAPOR ), and from 1980 to 1991 she was a board member of the Study Foundation of the German people. 1978-1991 she read as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and 1993/94 on the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich. Since 1989, she was co-editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research ( IJPOR ), which is published by the WAPOR.

Her students have included Professors Wolfgang Donsbach, Hans Mathias Kepplinger, Klaus Schoenbach, Winfried Schulz and Jürgen Wilke.

Scientific Work

In scientific work Noelle-Neumann was especially known for the "theory of the spiral of silence " (1980): The representatives of each putative dominant opinion verträten this offensive; the representatives of the alleged minority opinion silenced the more, the more they believed in the minority. Described shortened, the man watched as "social skin " with a " quasi- statistical organ of perception " political opinion distribution, and then pounce on the winning side.

The concept of the spiral of silence reserved the possibility to change the socially prevailing opinion, the one who does not know fear of isolation or she overcomes. This theory of public opinion is an internationally wide rezipierte work of the German communication research. To date, the book has been translated on the spiral of silence in over two dozen languages. However, it was - especially in Germany - Noelle - Neumann's theorem discussed controversially. One of the main criticisms is the alleged lack of empirical foundation of the theory.

Were kept Critical Noelle - Neumann, some anti-Semitic passages from her doctoral thesis in 1940. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s developed repeated controversies about their work in the Nazi era.

Electoral influence was also among the repeated loud becoming allegations of Noelle - Neumann. She was referred to several times as "House pollster " of the CDU. She argued corresponding allegations from always.

Others

" Pythia from Lake Constance " is considered as a nickname Elisabeth Noelle - Neumann; the survey researcher has the importance of intuition in science never underestimated.

The municipality Allen Bach and the Bezirkssparkasse Reichenau have the Prof.- Dr. Elisabeth Noelle - price donated to the 90th birthday of Elisabeth Noelle - Neumann, 2006. It is endowed with 5,000 euros and is awarded every three years to young scientists at the University of Konstanz in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of social sciences.

Following the example of Noelle - Neumann Uwe Timm described in the novel Vogelweide a merely " the Norne " said pollster who wants to make the desire predictable.

Quotes

" Between what we get at raw results, and what we publish as a forecast, sometimes there is a difference of ten or eleven percent." ( Rhenish Mercury September 11, 1987 Note: The term " raw results [n ] " refers on the replies of respondents)

Honors

Publications (selection)

• Public as a threat. Contributions to the empirical communication research. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1977, ISBN 3-495-47352-1.
• Sick power work: together with Burkhard Strümpel? Power work happy? A current controversy. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-492-02897-7.
• Public opinion. The discovery of the spiral of silence. Ullsteinhaus, Frankfurt / Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-550-06427-6.
• The spiral of silence. Public opinion - our social skin. 6th edition. Langen Müller, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7844-2835-5.
• The memories. Herbig, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7766-2485- X.

Editorship

• Hans Mathias Kepplinger and Winfried Schulz: Alber Paperback communication. 20 volumes, Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich from 1975 to 1995.
• Winfried Schulz and Jürgen Wilke: Fishing Encyclopedia journalism mass communication. 5, updated, completely revised and enlarged edition. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-18192-6; is the author of the article: Thomas Petersen: Methods of Journalism and Communication Science. Pp. 291-328.
• Public opinion. Pp. 427-442.