Richard Stöss (born 18 March 1944) is 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 ...

and extraordinary professor at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. The focus of his research is on

right-wing extremism Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

and on

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

Life

Richard Stöss was born during the final part of

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 ...

Sankt Goar Sankt Goar is a town on the west bank of the Middle Rhine in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (Districts of Germany, district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Hunsrück-Mittelrhein, whose seat is in Emmelshausen. ...

, a small wine producing town on the left bank along the narrow section of the

Rhine Gorge The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage S ...

between

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

and

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

. He passed his school final exams (''Abitur'') in 1965, just a few weeks short of his twenty-first birthday. Between 1969 and 1996 he worked at the Central Institute for Social Sciences Research at the

, which is where in 1970 he received his first degree, in

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

s . Till 1971 he combined his studies with part time work as a research assistant. Between 1971 and 1976 he was a research assistant, and between 1976 and 1996 he was a research associate (initially on the DFG "Party systems" project, and subsequently unrestricted). He was supervised for his doctorate, which he received in 1978, by . 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 ...

, also awarded by the

, followed in 1984, was received in return for a dissertation on the "structure and development of the party system" in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, which was subsequently adapted for wider publication. In 1996 Stöss became a member of the Department of Political Sciences (today the Department of Political and Social Sciences) at the

, also taking on the top job at the Otto Suhr Institute's "Otto-Stammer-Zentrum". In 2004 he was appointed an extraordinary professor. Richard Stöss is a member of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

. He has been retired from his full-time university commitments since April 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stöss, Richard German political scientists Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Social Democratic Party of Germany 1944 births Living people