Wolfgang Abendroth Papers

Period 1918-1985 (-2000)
Total size   26.15 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

Abendroth, Wolfgang; born in Elberfeld, Germany 1906, died in Frankfurt am Main 1985; studied law 1924-1930; excluded from the juridical training in 1933, Jur.D.Berne 1935; bank employee until his arrest in 1937; joined the communist youth movement in 1920, then Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD); adhered to the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands-Opposition (KPD-O) in 1929; participated in clandestine anti-Nazi activities 1933-1937, convicted to four years of hard labour; forced to serve in the `Strafdivision 999' in Greece, he cooperated with and deserted to the ELAS-partisans in 1944; prisoner of war 1944-1946; joined the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) in London in 1946; member of the juridical administration of the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany 1947-1949 and professor in Jena in 1949, when forced to flee Stalinist repression of social democrats; rector of the School for Social Sciences at Wilhelmshaven and, from 1951 to his retirement in 1972 professor of political sciences at Marburg University; member of the state (constitutional) courts of Bremen 1951-1963 and Hessen 1959-1963 and various learned societies; established an interpretation of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) as an incentive for democratization of all sectors of society; as a historian of the labour movement he tried to counterbalance official communist and social democratic views; opposed capitalist restoration in the FRG; opposed German rearmament and the ban of the KPD in 1956;

published in left-socialist papers of the time and was a main critic of the SPD's Godesberg program in 1959 and her turn to the right; expelled from the SPD in 1961 he was a mentor for the socialist left, which regrouped around the Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund (SDS), the Sozialistische Bund (SB) and the Kampagne gegen Atomrüstung.

Content

Personal documents 1923-1988, including documents concerning the `Strafdivision 999'; general correspondence including letters from political friends, scholars and academic colleagues 1949-1972, correspondence with periodicals including Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Sozialistische Politik and Stimme der Gemeinde 1964-1972, with editors 1954-1972 and broadcasting stations 1963-1972, 1985;

Manuscripts 1952-1985, including his dissertation from 1935; texts of speeches 1950-1975; transcripts, drafts and notes of his university courses in Jena, Wilhelmshaven and Marburg and of his postgraduate teachers training in Bad Wildungen;

Files on his membership of the two state courts 1951-1963; on his membership of learned societies and professional organizations, including the Deutsche Vereinigung für politische Wissenschaft 1951-1972 and the Vereinigung deutscher Staatsrechtslehrer 1951-1954, 1956-1972; on political processes in West Germany 1964-1972; on his affiliation to or cooperation with political organizations, including the SPD 1952-1961, the SDS 1953, 1959-1968 and the SB 1961-1971, the Kampagne gegen Atomrüstung 1964-1971, the International War Crimes Tribunal and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation 1966-1972; separate prints and clippings of publications in periodicals, including early publications from the prewar period, and other printed material 1925-1985;

Letters from the Gestapo- und Untersuchungshaft in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Kassel to his family 1937 and from the Zuchthaus Luckau to his family 1937-1941; documents regarding his stay in prison 1937, 1940; notes from Elisabeth Abendroth on the prison-letters by Wolfgang Abendroth 1988, 2000; notes on Arab, Italian, Persian and Spanish languages learnt by Abendroth in Zuchthaus Luckau c. 1938-1940;

Letters from his period in Gestapo- und Untersuchungshaft to his family 1937 and from the Zuchthaus Luckau to his family 1937-1941; documents regarding his stay in prison 1937, 1940; notes from Elisabeth Abendroth on the prison letters by Wolfgang Abendroth 1988, 2000; notes on the Arab, Italian, Persian and Spanish languages c. 1938-1940. Miscellaneous correspondence 1954-1955, 1957-1964; lectures, papers and typescripts by others and other documents acquired as director of the Institut fr wissenschaftliche Politik in Marburg 1951-1961; typescripts, including Sozialgeschichte der europĩschen Arbeiterbewegung 1953-1965; files on his membership of state courts 1952-1962; on his membership of the Deutsche Rat der Europäischen Bewegung 1949-1950 and the Vereinigung fr die Wissenschaft von der Politik 1951-1955, 1960; file on the International Political Science Association (IPSA) Freudenstadt Round Table Meeting 1962; file on the relation between SDS and SPD 1959; congress and conference documents of the Internationale der Kriegsdienstgegner (IdK) 1961-1963; legal pamphlets and offprints 1951-1952, 1961-1963; newsletters 1953-1966; documentation on economical democracy c. 1918-1933, on the Deutsche Friedens-Union 1960-1963 and other documentation and printed material 1930, 1945-1947, 1950-1952, 1956, 1958, 1961-1967.

Typescripts by Abendroth and others 1961-1975; documents on his membership of the Königsteiner Kreis, Vereinigung der Juristen, Volkswirte und Beamten aus der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone 1950-1968, the Kommission für Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien 1951-1953, the Vereinigung für die Wissenschaft von der Politik 1953-1957 and the board of the Notstand der Demokratie 1962-1968; documents relating to the discussion on the compatibility of the membership of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) and the Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund (SDS) or the Sozialistische Förderer-Gesellschaft 1961; documents on his 80th birthday 1985-1986.

Documents relating to the resistance in Germany during the NS-regime: manuscripts with notes of a series of lectures by Abendroth on Der Widerstand im Dritten Reich' 1964; papers by his students 1958-1959; correspondence 1954-1973; questionnaires on various left-wing parties and political groups 1955 and n.d.; correspondence with Kurt Kliem on the Neu Beginnen-Gruppe 1956-1957 and with Reinhard Kühnl on the Schwarze Front 1958-1965; documents on the resistance by conservative parties, the Catholic and Protestant churches and left-wing parties and radical groups and on the study of the resistance 1933-1967; documents on conferences of the Internationale Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer 1955-1966.

Processing information

Inventory (inv.nrs. 1-943) made by Jaap Haag 1997

Inventory accrual 2002 (inv.nrs. 944-947) made by Götz Langkau in 2002

Inventory accruals 2002, 2003 and 2004 (inv.nrs. 948-1176) made by Tiny de Boer in 2002 and 2004