The “Heimkehrerstudien” of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research Probing the relation between academia, public sphere and democratization in postwar Western Germany

The project is dedicated to the so-called “Heimkehrerstudien” (returnee studies) carried out by the IfS from 1956 to 1959. The focus of these studies was an investigation commissioned by the “Bundeszentrale für Heimatdienst” (Federal Agency for Homeland Service) into the political consciousness of former prisoners of war who were organized in the “Verband der Heimkehrer, Kriegsgefangenen und Vermisstenangehörigen Deutschlands” (Association of Returnees, Prisoners of War and Missing Persons of Germany). This study, one of the most extensive empirical surveys in the young sociology of the Federal Republic, was intended to provide information on the educational means that could be used to democratize returning prisoners of war. However, the Association of Reurnees prevented the publication of the study results, which are still hardly known even to experts today.

The initial aim of the project is to produce an edition of the study results and accompanying materials (such as letters, memoranda and interview transcripts) that make the history of the project comprehensible from the initiation to the prevention of publication. Building on this, the project explores the question of what insights can be gained from this background about the role of sociology in social conflicts surrounding the democratization of the early Federal Republic. By combining the history of sociology and historical social analysis, the project aims to gain insights into (early West German) sociology as a field of practice that was involved in conflicts over democratization of post-Nazi West German society.