Contribution
Description: The subject matter of the talk will show the results of the interpretation concerning the manuscript of Friedrich Reuss, an immigrant to the United States. The narrative-structural method developed by Fritz Schütze and the coding in terms of grounded theory were used to reconstruct the formation of the life process and to evaluate different social processes particular his biographical resources and the biographical reflection. With biographical resources (sources of support) we mean (a) the process of coping with casual and specially situations as well as (b) the basic process of the formation (Bildung) of meaning (Dilthey) that lead to the understanding of the self and the world per se. The concept of biographical reflection is also connected to the process of the formation of meaning and it gives a new perspective of developments, changes and stability of self- and worldviews. In this context we are able to show different kinds of knowledge: recipe-, structure-, rule- and reflexive.Both concepts are empirical research results. They are (heuristic) possibilities to analyze processes of learning and production of knowledge.The data contains an autobiography of a man from Augsburg, Friedrich Reuss, who had to leave Germany after Hitler came to power. The autobiographic manuscript was written as contribution to a scholarly prize competition announced by Harvard University 1939/40.Following the reconstructive stream in social science methods the main interest concerns the questions- what kind of experience had an influence both on the perception and the coping with the growing national socialism, - how could he handle a life situation which was marked by circumstances of 'misrecognition',- what kind of biographical resources were helpful for this process and for the decision to emigrate in general?- what kind of biographical reflection were important for the understanding of the self and the worldNow we would like to give a short insight in his biography: He was born 1904 in the southern part of Germany. He was baptized and brought up as a Protestant. Raised in a middle class family, his father being a judge, he seemed to be in a position to choose among a variety of options concerning his future. After he passed high school he began to study economics and law in 1923. As this time it was a must for a typical German student to become a member in a - usually very conservative - fraternity. It was in this context that he learned for the very first time about his Jewish roots - a fact of his life which was unknown to him so far. Because of a Jewish ancestor he was not allowed to become a member in the 'Corps'. But this experience did not change his attitude towards his family or towards himself. Instead, he became rather aware of the deep gap between his own self-description/self-consciousness, meaning his personal identity and the attribution, meaning the social definition from his peers and the outside society. In this process he developed a new independent habit (in the sense of Bourdieu).It was also this experience that 'pre-shaped' his attitude towards the upcoming National Socialism in Germany. He never adapted any Nazi-ideologies or definitions. So it comes to no surprise that he was less susceptible by National Socialist than many other people coming from a similar background.
Methodology: The data contains an autobiography of a man from Augsburg, Friedrich Reuss, who had to leave Germany after Hitler came to power. The autobiographic manuscript was written as contribution to a scholarly prize competition announced by Harvard University 1939/40.The narrative-structural method developed by Fritz Schütze and the coding in terms of grounded theory were used to reconstruct the formation of the life process and to evaluate different social processes particular his biographical resources and the biographical reflection.
Conclusions: Both concepts (biographical resources and biographical reflection) are empirical research results. They are (heuristic) possibilities to analyze processes of learning and production of knowledge. We would like to show how this works on an example (the autobiography of Friedrich Reuss). Especially with the concept of biographical reflection we are able to show different kind of knowledge and the different function for the understanding of the self and the world per se.
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