Ernest Manheim

Ernest Manheim ( till 1920 Ernő, then to 1934 Ernst in the U.S. then Ernest ) ( born January 27, 1900 in Budapest, † July 28, 2002 in Kansas City ) was a native of Hungary American sociologist, anthropologist and composer.

Life

Manheim was a younger of two children of businessman József (Joseph ) Manheim ( 1863-1925 ) and Hermione, who was born Wengraf ( 1870-1953, later married Deri ) was born in Budapest. He grew up bilingual (Hungarian, German ) on. Since 1909, he attended an upper secondary school in Budapest, where he took off in 1917, the Matura. He attended the Military Academy of Honvéd in Budapest and began at the same time a study of chemistry at the Royal Technical Joseph College in Budapest. In 1918, he was with the rank of corporal soldier of the Austro-Hungarian army. After the end of the First World War, he continued his studies in chemistry and mathematics at the University of Budapest, but also heard lectures on philosophy and music and literature.

1919 Manheim joined it as a volunteer in the army of the Hungarian Soviet Republic ( March-July 1919) by Béla Kun, and was taken prisoner. He escaped from the Romanian camp, but could not stay long in Budapest because he as a follower of the Soviet Republic was threatened with arrest,. In 1920 he sat down to Austria, where he graduated from the University of Vienna continued (initially Chemistry and Physics, since 1921 then philosophy and history).

In 1923 he moved to Kiel, where he continued his studies in philosophy at the local Christian -Albrechts- University until 1925 and in addition also visited sociological courses with Ferdinand Tönnies. In Kiel, Manheim friend of Hans Freyer, who was a professor of philosophy there. As Freyer was appointed to the chair of sociology in Leipzig, followed him Manheim. There he continued his Philosophiestudieum, but also attended courses in economics and sociology. In 1928 he was awarded his doctorate by Theodor Litt and Hans Freyer, the title of his dissertation was: On the Logic of the specific term.

From 1926 to 1933 Manheim worked as an assistant with no budget at Freyer at the University of Leipzig, where he also offered himself courses. He was also from 1926 to 1933 lecturer at the folk high school in Leipzig. 1932 Manheim put his habilitation thesis on the support of public opinion. Studies on the sociology of the public. This had already been accepted by the faculty, as Manheim his habilitation in 1933 withdrew voluntarily request. He would have had as a Jew and foreigner no chance of a habilitation after the Nazi seizure of power. He traveled with his family to Budapest, where he spent the second half of 1933. In December 1933 he moved with his wife to London.

In London he studied from 1934 Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of London and the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he 1937 Ph.D. ( Anthropology ) received his doctorate. He also wrote an extensive manuscript for the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, which was lost but. 1936, however, a summary was published under the title: Contributions to a History of the authoritarian family.

Finally, in 1937 emigrated to Manheim in the United States, where he became an American citizen in 1943. He initially worked as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago ( Illinois), which was at that time a stronghold of empirical social research. Since then, the combination of philosophical competence based theory with empirical social research so special about the scientific work Manheim. From 1940 he was professor of sociology at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. 1955/56, he spent a year as a visiting professor in Graz and Vienna, 1960/61, at the University of Tehran. In 1970, he should have been retired in the grounds of age in Kansas City, however, taught on a privately funded Chair (Henry Haskell Chair of Sociology ) married until 1991. 1928 Manheim Anna Sophie Witters ( 1900-1988 ) from Osnabrück. Her son, Frank Tibor Manheim was born in Leipzig in 1930. 1991 Manheim married a native of Canada American psychologist Sheelagh Graham Bull ( b. 1943 ). Ernest Manheim died in 2002 at the age of 102 years in Kansas City, Missouri.

The scientist

The years in Germany form the time of the theorist Manheim. Natural Sciences, philosophical and social science trained, he moved under the influence of Hans Freyer from philosophy to sociology. His thesis is still in a strong philosophical tradition, but is already read as a contribution to the sociology of knowledge. With the invalid Habilitationsschrift The support of public opinion. Studies on the sociology of the public was a pioneer in communication theory. Typical of Manheim and the Leipzig school of sociology is the historical argument.

The years in London form the phase of anthropologists Manheim. He extends his work to cultural anthropological studies and socio-psychological approaches

The years in Chicago and Kansas City are that of the empiricist Ernest Manheim. He has worked and published on the links between metropolitan life and mental illness, about youth issues, crime prevention, minorities and prejudice.

In practice, Manheim dedicated to improving education opportunities for African- Americans at the University of Missouri- Kansas City, Missouri.

The composer

Manheim was also a composer. In Budapest and Vienna he attended the conservatories in addition to his scientific studies. Around 1922, he composed his Quintet for flute, violin, viola, cello and lute. In Leipzig he created choral works, to texts by Martin Luther. In London he created choral works and songs to texts of Irish and English poet. In Kansas City, his compositions experienced the climax. His most important works are the entrance music for the Chinese drama The Chalk Circle ( after editing Klabund ), Symphony in B Minor, the Rhapsody for four strings and his arrangements of Hungarian folk songs Ritkabúza, ritkaárpa, ritkarózs.

Honors

Writings (selection )

• On the Logic of the specific term. Munich: C. H. Beck Verlagshandlung 1930, XI, 156 S.
• The support of public opinion. Studies on the sociology of the public, publishing Rudolf M. Rohrer, Brno / Prague / Leipzig / Wien 1933.
• Education and public opinion. Studies on the sociology of the public in the 18th century. Edited and introduced by Norbert Schindler, frommann / holzboog, Stuttgart / Bad Cannstatt 1979 ( = culture and society, new historical research. 4 ) revision.
• Contributions to a History of the authoritarian family, in: "Studies on Authority and Family. Research Reports from the Institute for Social Research " to cleats, Lüneburg 1987 ( = Institute for Social Research. Writings. 5 ), pp. 523-574