Hans Paul Bahrdt (3 December 1918 - 16 June 1994)
Born in Dresden, he studied philosophy and sociology in Heidelberg and Göttingen from 1945. In 1952 he completed his dissertation on Herder with Helmuth Plessner. From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a research assistant in the Social Research Centre in Dortmund. In the same year he began his promotion to professor at the University of Mainz. He worked as an adjunct professor from 1959 – 1962 at the Technical University Hannover. In 1962 he was appointed to the Helmuth Plessner Professorship, which he occupied until he received his emeritus status in 1982. Bahrdt’s research foci covered the areas of sociology of industry and engineering (“The Worker’s Concept of Society”, 1957, “Engineering and Industry Work”, 1964 (both in collaboration with Heinrich Popitz and Ernst-August Jueres, Hanno Kesting), “Between the Lathe and the Computer. The Changing Face of Industrial Work”, 1970 (in collaboration with Horst Kern and Martin Osterland)), urban and regional sociology (“The Modern City. Sociological Thoughts on Urban Development”, 1961, “Humane Urban Development. Thoughts on Housing Policy and City Planning for the Near Future”, 1968), sociology of science (“Sociology of Science – ad hoc”, 1971) and phenomenologically oriented sociology (“Basic Forms of Social Situations. A Small Grammar of Everyday Life”, 1996; “Heavenly Planning Errors. Essays on Culture and Society”, 1999.)
The full estate can be found in its original form in the Social Science Archive.