Holger Michaelis

Holger Michaelis (born February 14, 1942 in Halle) is a German sociologist, economist and professor emeritus at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Academic Life
Holger Michaelis received his university-entrance diploma in 1961 and commenced studies in sociology and business and economic science at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin in the former GDR. He followed a scientific career at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; from May 1968 he worked as a scientific assistant, 1972 he did a doctor’s degree conferral of a doctorate (PhD) and became first scientific assistant. After his appointment as professor in the year 1975, Michaelis lectured at this traditional Berliner university in history of sociology. From 1979 he represented the chair as director for education and formation and as deputy director for the department of sociology and focused on the field of industrial sociology.

Michaelis was a member of the 1979 founded „Institut für Marxistisch-Leninistische Soziologie“ („Institute for Marxist-Leninist sociology“) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, which aimed at the professional development of the employees and the research of international trends in sociology, as far as this was possible under the political ideology of the SED regime SED, being suspicious against all sociological discussion.

Michaelis belonged to those scientists, who „considerably influenced and formed the further progression of sociology within the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and beyond“ (Helmut Wollmann).

Michaelis experienced the events of the German reunification during his active academic practice. End of 1992 he left the active academic practice as a result of a severe accident suffered in 1992.

From 2000 Michaelis concentrates again on scientific work, focusing on the solving of socio-economic problems, resulting in three publications from 2009 ((1) Social roles and objective necessities – an overview of the metamorphosis of the necessities attached to the acting within certain social roles; (2) Exchange and value – an explanation of the development of the exchange value; (3) Sociology – an explanation of the so far unsuccessful attempts of adequately defining the objects of sociology) – see publications.

Since 2010 Michaelis occupies himself with essential matters of political economy and the observation of economical influences on the social change resulting in a new publication (Political economy of capitalism – unideologized) (est. 2011).

Holger Michaelis has two sons together with Dr. Angela Michaelis. He lives and works in Berlin.

Reception
Michaelis inquired a range of fundamental sociological research, which is being frequently referred to e.g. in the work of scientific regeneration of the social general conditions especially of teenage employees in the former GDR. From the beginning the research of Michaelis was basis of studies from scientists of the former GDR as well as from scientists from BRD and was used to assess the inner political situation and the social environment of teenagers within the former GDR. E.g. the essay in the magazine Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, Issue 1 (1975), u. a. published by J. G. Herder-Forschungsrat quotes and interpretes the in 1967 published examinations of Michaelis about the social integration of youngsters into the GDR-industries. Also the publisher of an academic paper in the special edition ''Wissenschaftssoziologie. Studien und Materialien of the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, published 1975 by the Forschungsinstitut für Sozial- und Verwaltungswissenschaften of the Universität zu Köln and made public in the Westdeutschen Verlag, refers several times to and uses the work of Michaelis from 1967 The magazin 3/1975 of the Cologne Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie was published as a monography in 1977 under the title Jugend im doppelten Deutschland'' (Youth in both parts of Germany) in additioned, revised and updated reprint; it contains several references to the work of Michaelis. The political scientist Peter-Claus Burens too utilizes the studies of Michaelis within his dissertation of 1981 at the Universität Bonn, which he published the same year in the Berlin Wissenschaftsverlag Duncker & Humblot under the title of Die DDR und der „Prager Frühling“.

Also the economist Wolfgang Zimmermann uses the results of the studies of Michaelis in his dissertation of 2000 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum concerning the integration of young employees, which was published in 2002 under the title Die industrielle Arbeitswelt der DDR unter dem Primat der sozialistischen Ideologie (The industrial working environment in the GDR under the primacy of the socialist ideology) in Lit Verlag in the series Studien zur DDR-Gesellschaft (studies to the GDR-society).

Publications (selection)

 * Einige Probleme der sozialen Integration Jugendlicher im Industriebetrieb, in: Soziologische Aspekte der Arbeitskräftebewegung, Ed. Kurt Braunreuther, Fred Oelssner and Werner Otto, Berlin 1967.
 * Zu einigen theoretischen Voraussetzungen für die Analyse der Sozialstruktur, in: Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der TU Dresden, Issue 3, 1968.
 * Die soziale Mobilität von Leitern in sozialistischen Industriebetrieben, Dissertation at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 1972 - (Reprint 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-37454-0).
 * article in: Jahrbuch der Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Berlin 1975.
 * article in: Zwischen Wende und Wiedervereinigung. Analysen zur politischen Kultur in West- und Ost-Berlin, Ed. Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Lutz Erbring and Nils Diederich, Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1995, ISBN 3-531-12653-9. (= Schriften des Zentralinstituts für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung der Freien Universität Berlin; Vol. 77.)
 * Soziale Rollen und objektive Notwendigkeiten - Eine Darstellung der Metamorphose der dem Handeln inhärenten Notwendigkeiten in sozialen Rollen, Grin, München 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-30404-2.
 * Tausch und Wert – Eine Erklärung der Herausbildung des Tauschwertes, Grin, München 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-30406-6.
 * Die Soziologie und das Soziale – Eine Erklärung der bislang vergeblichen Versuche einer adäquaten Bestimmung des Gegenstandes der Soziologie, Grin, München 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-40722-4.
 * Politische Ökonomie des Kapitalismus – entideologisiert, Kovac, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8300-5529-7.