Wolfgang Abendroth Papers

Period  1918-1985 (-2010)
Total size   27.17 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

Wolfgang Abendroth; born in Elberfeld, Germany 2 May 1906, died in Frankfurt am Main 15 September 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 1947-1948 and professor in Jena in 1948; forced to flee the Zone in December 1948 because of the 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.

Lisa Abendroth was born as Lisa Hörmeyer in Bremen 27th February 1917; Wolfgang Abendroth and Lisa Hörmeyer met in 1942; Lisa Abendroth died on 4th February 2012 in Frankfurt am Main.

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.nos. 1-943) made by Jaap Haag 1997

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

Inventory accruals 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 (inv.nos. 948-1186) made by Tiny de Boer in 2002, 2004 and 2005

Inventory accruals 2011 and 2012 (inv. nos. 1187-1262) made by Bouwe Hijma in 2011 and 2012