Biography Klaus Mollenhauer

Lebenslauf

The following overview of biographical data was compiled by Klaus Mollenhauer himself between his retirement and his death (SUB Göttingen, Cod. Ms. K. Mollenhauer: Lebensdokumente 20 02). According to Alex Aßmann, Mollenhauer worked on an autobiography during this period (Aßmann, 2015, pp. 35–39). This is also reflected in various unpublished and published texts, such as the article “Ego-Histoire”, a lecture he gave in 1997 at a conference in Trier and published in 1998 after his death (KMG 147). Apart from minor corrections, which are indicated by square brackets, we reproduce this autobiographical sketch unchanged. In addition, the right-hand column of the table contains explanations and corrections that supplement Mollenhauer's sketch.

1928 born on October 31 in Berlin
1935/37 Kindergarten and first grade in Cottbus. 1935 with my parents Trip to Switzerland to visit an emigrated pastor, a religious socialist, and visit to a “Bruderhof”
1937/43 School days, Hitler Youth, high school in Naugard/Pomerania
1943/45 Luftwaffe auxiliary personnel, first in Stettin, then retreating “Eastern Front”
1945 prisoner of war
1946 ff. High school, youth movement in Wolfenbüttel
1948 Abitur
From 1948 to 1950, Klaus Mollenhauer studied at the University of Education in Göttingen.
1950/52 primary school in Bremen
1952/54 Studied in Hamburg; equal emphasis on three-month internships in youth prison, residential education, youth work, residential adult education center. Subjects studied: education, history, psychology
1954/58 Continued studies in Göttingen. Subjects: education, literature, sociology. Most important university teachers: H. Pleßner (sociology), W. Kayser (literature), E. Weniger (education). 1958 Doctorate (Dr. phil.). Title of the dissertation: Die Ursprünge der Sozialpädagogik in der industriellen Gesellschaft
1958/62 Research assistant to E. Weniger, since 1961 to H. Roth. In addition: involvement in extracurricular youth education, continuing education and training of social workers, etc.; member of the “Gilde soziale Arbeit” (Social Work Guild). Research topic: pedagogy and sociology
1962/65 Scientific and Academic Advisor at the Free University Berlin. Collaboration with Fritz Borinski. Scientific topic: “Theory” of social work; “theory” of extracurricular youth education. – Since 1964, however, above all: Is a pedagogy based on “critical theory” possible? In this regard, numerous discussions with Herwig Blankertz (then Berlin)
1965/68 Adjunct professor at the PH Berlin-Lankwitz In fact, Klaus Mollenhauer was only a professor at the PH Berlin-Lankwitz in 1965 and 1966.
1966/67 Full professor and director of the Department of Education at the University of Kiel. Academic focus: Intensification of the debate on critical theory, general education, critical socialization research. Expert opinion for the German Education Council. Einführung in die Sozialpäd[a]gogik, Weinheim 1966; Erziehung und Emanzipation, Munich 1968.
1969/72 o. Full professor of education at the University of Frankfurt/M.; Member of the Executive Board of the DGfE. Collaboration on the Federal Government's Youth Report. Head of Department at the Education Technology Center Wiesbaden. Academic topics: Structural problems of the youth welfare system (DFG project), general education (Theorien zum Erziehung[s]prozeß, Munich 1972), in particular education and interaction theory, education and politics Contrary to his own statements, Klaus Mollenhauer was a member of the DGfE executive committee from 1976 to 1980.
Since 1972 University professor of education at Georg August University Göttingen. Development of a master's degree program in social pedagogy. Collaboration on the German government's second family report. Publication of “Grundfragen der Erziehungswissenschaft” (Fundamental Questions of Educational Science) by Juventa-Verlag Munich. Scientific topics: Family education (completed in 1975 with book publication), youth research (DFG project), methodology of educational research (book with Rittelmeyer 1977); General pedagogy, now with a shift in emphasis and perspectives: images (1980) and other cultural sources with regard to the ideas formulated there about education and intergenerational relations (1983 Vergessene Zusammenhänge [Forgotten Connections], 1985 Umwege [Detours]), outlining an “aesthetic” problem in the context of general pedagogy. Correct title of the book by Mollenhauer and Rittelmeyer: Methoden der Erziehungswissenschaft.
„Umwege“ was published in 1986.
1986/87 Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. There: Intensification of studies on the relationship between pedagogy and aesthetics. Minor works on paintings by Duccio, Rembrandt, Chardin, Friedrich, Bacon, each as historical sources for “educational theory”. Preparation of a DFG project on “Aesthetic Education” (from 1988, now current, practice-oriented, and designed as basic research). At the same time: first doubts about the future of the discipline.
1990, summer term Lecture: Educational aesthetics – first attempt at a summary, on images, music, architecture, children's drawings, artwork by the mentally ill, aesthetic symbolism.
In parallel: empirical research project (third-party funding: Stiftung Deutsche Jugendmarke) in the field of youth welfare, practical: Social pedagogical diagnoses and treatment opportunities for very severely behaviorally disturbed adolescents – qualitative descriptions and demographic data. As both projects progress, a fairly solid relationship is emerging – despite apparent serious differences in terms of the established division of labor within pedagogy.
1993 Honorary doctorate, Free University of Berlin
1994 Completion of the project „Sozialpädagogische Diagnosen“ [Social Pedagogical Diagnoses] (two publications: Sozialpädagogische Diagnosen I and II, with Uwe Uhlendorff)
1990-94 Research project on aesthetic education (DFG)
1995 Publication of final report as a book: Grundfragen ästhetischer Bildung, Weinheim l996
1996 Retirement

Klaus Mollenhauer died on March 18, 1998, in Göttingen. Posthumously, the German Society for Educational Science awarded him the the Ernst Christian Trapp Prize in 2000.

Course record book 1952-1957

From the summer semester of 1952 to the summer semester of 1958, Klaus Mollenhauer studied education, German language and literature, and sociology at the universities of Hamburg and Göttingen. In his student record book, he listed all the lectures and seminars he had attended, many of them with short titles. Some course titles were added from the course catalogs. Unless otherwise stated, the courses were lectures.

Universität Hamburg

Sommersemester 1952

* This event has been removed from the digital course catalog.

Wintersemester 1952/53

Sommersemester 1953

* Entered in the study book as “Obersem. Gruppenpsychologie” with the course number 492. However, under this number, the course title noted here can be found in the course catalog. The course title.

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Wintersemester 1953/54

* Hans Hubrig was Weniger's assistant at that time.

Sommersemester 1954

Wintersemester 1954/55

* Originally entered in the study book as “ethnic psychology”; “psychology” then crossed out and “sociology” written over it. The course catalog lists “ethnic psychology.”

Sommersemester 1955

Wintersemester 1955/56

* So it says in the study book; a corresponding course could not be verified in the course catalog.

Sommersemester 1956

Wintersemester 1956/57

Sources:

Courses

Klaus Mollenhauer taught for almost fifty years, from his time as an assistant in Göttingen in 1958 until his retirement in 1996, first at the Georg August University of Göttingen, then at the Free University of Berlin, the Berlin University of Education, the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, and finally for 24 years back at Georg August University in Göttingen. The following overview includes all courses announced in the course catalogs of the aforementioned universities under Mollenhauer's name. The lead time for the creation of the respective course catalogs meant that short-term changes were generally not reflected there, especially in the case of transitions between locations.

Materials are available in Mollenhauer's estate for many of his courses. In the following, corresponding references are included for courses that we were able to supplement or attribute to Mollenhauer on the basis of the estate. The information on the courses was taken from the course catalogs in their original form.

The information on the courses has been taken directly from the course catalogs. Information on the type of course has only been included if it is contained in the title of the announced course. Comments on individual courses are marked with an asterisk and always follow the courses for the respective semester. In the overview, In the overview, lectures are marked with the addition “(V)” at the end of the event title; all unmarked events (exercise, proseminar, intermediate seminar, seminar, advanced seminar, colloquium) were announced as events in seminar form.

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

For the courses from the winter semester of 1958/59 to the summer semester of 1962, we have included the courses that are listed under the names of the senior professors Erich Weniger and Heinrich Roth as being taught “by” or “with” assistants. From the summer semester of 1958 to the summer semester of 1961, Klaus Mollenhauer and Theodor Schulze, in the winter semester 1961/62 only Klaus Mollenhauer, and in the summer semester 1962 Klaus Mollenhauer and Hans Thiersch were listed as assistants in the course catalog of the Georg August University of Göttingen. At the time of printing the course catalog for the winter semester 1961/62, Erich Weniger had already died and Heinrich Roth had not yet been appointed, so that the course announcements for this semester can only be found under “N.N. by assistants” or “N.N. with assistants.”

As an assistant, Klaus Mollenhauer conducted at least one of the courses per semester. Only in a few cases is it possible for us to determine exactly which events can be attributed to him based on materials in Mollenhauer's estate (the corresponding notes in the following list); we have therefore decided to list all events “by” or “with assistants.”

Wintersemester 1958/59

Sommersemester 1959

Wintersemester 1959/60

Sommersemester 1960

Wintersemester 1960/61

Sommersemester 1961

Wintersemester 1961/62

* This event can be definitively attributed to Klaus Mollenhauer based on the archival materials (SUB Göttingen, Cod. Ms. K. Mollenhauer: Uni-Lehre 60 01-002).

Sommersemester 1962

* This event can be definitively attributed to Klaus Mollenhauer based on the archival materials (SUB Göttingen, Cod. Ms. K. Mollenhauer: Uni-Lehre 60 01-001).

Free University of Berlin

At the Free University, courses can be found under Mollenhauer's name starting in the summer semester of 1963. The fact that the seminar “Grundbegriffe der Sozialpädagogik” is marked as a continuation course in the summer semester of 1963 suggests that Mollenhauer had already taught at the Free University in the winter semester of 1962/63, but that the announcement of this course could no longer be included in the printed course catalog.

Wintersemester 1962/63

Sommersemester 1963

Wintersemester 1963/64

Sommersemester 1964

Wintersemester 1964/65

Gruppentheorie und Gruppenforschung

Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin

Mollenhauer taught at the Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin for two semesters. No record of him teaching there can be found in the course catalog for the summer semester of 1965; however, materials relating to a lecture were found among his papers.

Sommersemester 1965

* This lecture was not listed in the course catalog, but materials relating to it are available in Mollenhauer's estate (SUB Göttingen, Cod. Ms. K. Mollenhauer: Uni-Lehre 60 02).

Wintersemester 1965/66

Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel

In the summer semester of 1966, Mollenhauer began his work at Kiel University, where he taught and conducted research until the end of the winter semester of 1968/69. The courses announced for the summer semester of 1969 did not take place, as Mollenhauer had already started at the University of Frankfurt by that time. In the Kiel University course catalogs, all seminar-style courses are apparently marked as such, so we can infer that all courses not marked as such were lectures, which is confirmed in some cases by archival materials.

Sommersemester 1966

Wintersemester 1966/67

Sommersemester 1967

Wintersemester 1967/68

Sommersemester 1968

Wintersemester 1968/69

Sommersemester 1969*

* In the summer semester of 1969, Mollenhauer was on leave from the University of Kiel and had already taken up the professorship in Frankfurt am Main, so that these events no longer took place in Kiel.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Mollenhauer had already been appointed to the professorship in Frankfurt for the summer semester of 1969. However, his courses in that semester could no longer be listed in the general course catalog. Therefore, the entries only begin with the winter semester of 1969/70. It is noteworthy that in that semester, three introductory seminars and two working groups were announced under his name. Whether the courses in Frankfurt took place in the summer semester of 1972 is not entirely clear from the documents in his estate. In any case, Mollenhauer had already been holding the professorship in Göttingen since March 1972 and was also teaching courses there.

Sommersemester 1969

No announcements listed in the course catalog.

Wintersemester 1969/70

Sommersemester 1970

Wintersemester 1970/71

Sommersemester 1971

Wintersemester 1971/72

Sommersemester 1972

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Mollenhauer already held the professorship in Göttingen from March 1972 onwards and offered courses, so that courses are listed for this semester in both the course catalog of the University of Frankfurt and in that of the University of Göttingen.

Sommersemester 1972

Wintersemester 1972/73

Sommersemester 1973

Wintersemester 1973/74

Sommersemester 1974

Wintersemester 1974/75

Sommersemester 1975

Wintersemester 1975/76

Sommersemester 1976

Wintersemester 1976/77

Sommersemester 1977

Wintersemester 1977/78

Sommersemester 1978

Wintersemester 1978/79

Sommersemester 1979

Wintersemester 1979/80

No courses

Sommersemester 1980

Wintersemester 1980/81

Sommersemester 1981

Wintersemester 1981/82

Sommersemester 1982

Wintersemester 1982/83

Sommersemester 1983

Wintersemester 1983/84

Sommersemester 1984

Wintersemester 1984/85

Sommersemester 1985

No courses

Wintersemester 1985/86

Sommersemester 1986

Wintersemester 1986/87

Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin

Sommersemester 1987

Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin

Wintersemester 1987/88

Sommersemester 1988

Wintersemester 1988/89

Sommersemester 1989

Wintersemester 1989/90

Sommersemester 1990

Wintersemester 1990/91

On leave

Sommersemester 1991

Wintersemester 1991/92

Sommersemester 1992

Wintersemester 1992/93

Sommersemester 1993

Wintersemester 1993/94

Sommersemester 1994

Wintersemester 1994/95

Sommersemester 1995

No courses

Wintersemester 1995/96

Initial reviews of dissertations and habilitation theses

The following list contains all doctoral and postdoctoral theses known to us in which Mollenhauer served as primary supervisor, in chronological order. Multiple dissertations in one year are listed alphabetically.

Sources