Arnold Bergstraesser (14 July 1896,

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

– 24 February 1964,

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

) was a German

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

. Along with

Wolfgang Abendroth Wolfgang Walter Arnulf Abendroth (2 May 1906 – 15 September 1985) was a socialist German jurist and political scientist. He was born in Elberfeld, now a part of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia. Abendroth was an important contributor to the c ...

Karl Dietrich Bracher Karl Dietrich Bracher (13 March 1922 – 19 September 2016) was a German political scientist and historian of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Born in Stuttgart, Bracher was awarded a Ph.D. in the classics by the University of Tübingen in ...

, Theodor Eschenburg, and

Eric Voegelin Eric Voegelin (born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, ; 1901–1985) was a German-American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna, where he became an associate professor of poli ...

, he was one of the founders of political science in West Germany after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Biography

Bergstraesser was a founding member of the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD (german: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), was founded in 1925 and is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation. Organisation ''DAAD'' is a ...

in 1925. He received his doctorate from

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1923 and earned his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1928. He fled Germany in 1937, as his university service at Heidelberg was terminated due to his family's Jewish origins. He taught until 1954 at several American universities including the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where

Georg Iggers Georg Gerson Iggers (December 7, 1926 – November 26, 2017) was an American historian of modern Europe, historiography, and European intellectual history. Iggers was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1926. Being a German Jew he fled Germany with ...

was among his students.Wilma and Georg Iggers: Zwei Seiten der Geschichte. Lebensbericht aus unruhigen Zeiten. Göttingen 2002, pg. 82 He returned to Germany accepting a professorship in Political Science at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

, before he changed to a professorship in Sociology and Political Science at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

in 1954. He is the founder of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute for transregional research and comparative area studies in

References

1896 births 1964 deaths German political scientists People from Darmstadt University of Chicago faculty Academic staff of Heidelberg University Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Tübingen alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni 20th-century political scientists {{Germany-academic-bio-stub