The »Heimkehrerstudien« by the Institute for Social Research. Probing the relation between academia, public sphere, and democratization in postwar Western Germany from a sociology-historic perspective

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stephan Lessenich
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 515765948

The project analyzes the role of West German sociology in the conflictual democratization process of the early Federal Republic. The guiding research perspective combines sociological history and historical social analysis. The specific objects of analysis are the two so-called »Heimkehrerstudien« conducted by the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research from 1956 to 1959, which are among the most extensive empirical surveys of this period. Here, the Institute analyzed Germany’s largest veterans’ association, the Verband der Heimkehrer, Kriegsgefangenen und Vermisstenangehörigen Deutschlands (German Association of Returnees, Prisoners of War and Relatives of Missing Persons), on the one hand regarding the political attitudes of its members and, on the other, from an organizational-sociological perspective. Based on these studies, educational programs for democratizing the war veterans were to be developed. Due to political resistance, however, the publication of the results of both studies was blocked, and the results remain unpublished to this day. The aim of the study is an exemplary analysis of conflicts over democratization in post-war Western Germany and the role of sociology in these conflicts. The research project is based on the hypothesis that the democratization of the post-National Socialist Federal Republic was the subject of conflicts with uncertain outcomes. On the basis of disputes over the »Heimkehrerstudien«, the central contradictions and axes of conflict can be worked out exemplarily. From a praxeological perspective, the project pursues three related research questions: Actor-related, it asks what interests and motivations guided the actions of the actors involved. Process-related, it will examine the political-institutional processes that were responsible for preventing the publication and blocking the political-pedagogical objectives. Structure-related, it will ask what insights can be gained against this background about the role of sociology in conflicts over the democratization of the early Federal Republic.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants