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Denker Negt: Fighter for democracy

Photo:

Swen Pförtner/dpa

He studied with Max Horkheimer, received his doctorate under Theodor W. Adorno, and worked as an assistant to Jürgen Habermas: Oskar Negt died on Friday in Hanover after a long, serious illness. This was announced by the Steidl publishing house in Göttingen. Negt was 89 years old.

Oskar Reinhard Negt was born in 1934 in Gut Kapkeim near Königsberg in East Prussia. In January 1945 he fled with two sisters to Denmark, where the three children lived separately from their parents in a refugee camp for two and a half years before the family reunited near East Berlin and moved to Oldenburg in 1951.

In Frankfurt am Main he studied and received his doctorate under the well-known pioneers of critical theory. The connection between sociology and philosophy also shaped Negt's subsequent academic work. From 1970 to 2002 Negt was professor of sociology in Hanover.

Spokesman of the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition

Negt was a member of the SPD from 1951 until he was expelled from the party in 1961. In 1956 he joined the Socialist German Student Association (SDS) and became one of the best-known spokesmen of the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) and "mentor of the '68ers." He achieved national attention with his great public speeches. As a young scientist, he distinguished himself as one of the most important German social philosophers.

“Negt was never just a man of theory,” writes the Steidl publishing house. He repeatedly commented on current political problems and conflicts, intervened and gave advice. “Adult political education was a subject close to his heart,” it continues. He tirelessly reminded people that “democracy is the only form of government that has to be learned.” In 1972, Negt founded a reform school in Hanover that still exists today.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, formerly a neighbor of the sociology professor in Hanover, also congratulated Negt on his 85th birthday. Steinmeier described Negt as a personality “who knows how to combine philosophical and sociological thinking and writing with political commitment.”

sak