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Eugen Kogon (February 2, 1903 – December 24, 1987), a German Catholic journalist and historian well-known for his political opposition to Nazism, survived six years as a political prisoner in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Following liberation in 1945, he introduced the idea of the SS State with his book of the same name (in German); the English edition was titled The Theory and Practice of Hell.

After the war, he returned to politics and journalism, and was an intellectual factor in establishing governmental principles for West Germany and for transnational European federalism. Along with Theodor Adorno and Ralf Dahrendorf, Kogon had been concerned if West Germany had adequately failed to reform its institutions. They did not go as far, however, as the Marxist analysis of some younger thinkers.

Early years

His 1927 doctoral dissertation, after studying economics and sociology, was on the "Cooperative State of Fascism" (Kooperativstaat des Faschismus).

Also in 1927, he went to work as the a Catholic magazine, Schönere Zukunft ("Brighter Future"), staying there for ten years. While at the magazine, he met sociologist Othmar Spann, who recommended him for the "Central Committee of Christian Unions" (Zentralkommission der christlichen Gewerkschaften). In 1934, after the Night of the Long Knives, he became asset manager for the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Nazi period

He first was arrested by the Gestapo in 1936 and again in March 1937, charged with, among other things, "work[ing] for anti-national socialist forces outside the territory of the Reich". In March 1938, he was arrested a third time and in September 1939, he was deported to Buchenwald, where he spent the next six years as "prisoner number 9093".

At Buchenwald, Kogon was chief secretary for camp doctor Erwin Ding-Schuler, and amassed considerable influence over him, using him to save prisoners. Kogon saved himself from transport to Auschwitz by hiding in the contagious tuberculosis ward.

In early April 1945, Kogon and the head prisoner nurse in the typhus experimentation ward, Arthur Dietsch found out from Ding-Schuler that their names were on a list "of the more knowledgeable prisoners, he was placed on the list of forty-six 'anti-fascists' to be executed in April 1945 before evacuation of the camp." . . Ding-Schuler concealed Kogon from the SS and shipped him out of the camp. Ding-Shuler, who committed suicide at the war's end, led the Nazi typhus and other vaccine experiments there.

Postwar

Kogon returned to journalism and politics after he was freed, and also worked as a historian for the United States Army. While at a U.S. facility, he started his book, first published in 1946.

He testified in the Medical Case at the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, against Joachim Mrugowsky, in the typhus and poison experiments. Kogon denied that the typhus subjects were "volunteers", and said they had no knowledge of the risks. With respect to the poison experiments, he clarified that two groups of Russian prisoners had been used, the one with bullets in Mrugowsky's presence at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and the other at Buchenwald.

Political philosophy

He had a vision of a new postwar society, based on his beliefs in socialism and in Christianity, and opposed to nationalism. His view of left-wing Catholic ideas did not precisely resonate either with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or Social Democratic Party (SDP), but was within the broad idea of Europe as a "third force".

Journalism

In September 1945, Kogon and other journalists, among them, Walter Dirks, later his friend and companion, published the Frankfurter Leitsätze ("Frankfurt Guiding Principles"). In this Program of the Volkspartei ("popular party"), they called for an "economic socialism on a democratic basis", laying out an important basis for the Christian-socialist founding program of the Hessian Christian Democratic Union (CDU), also for the Constitution of Hesse, which was finalized at the end of 1946 and provided for the nationalization of key industries.

In 1946, Kogon and Dirks founded the Frankfurter Hefte ("Frankfurt Notebooks"), a cultural and political magazine with a left-wing Catholic point-of-view. They quickly reached a circulation of 75,000, which was very high for that time and until 1984, remained one of the most influential socio-political and cultural magazines in the postwar era. He quickly turned away from Konrad Adenauer's CDU, which was not interested in communal ownership and nationalization of key industries. Kogon instead wrote many essays taking a critical look at the Adenauer government. Among other issues, he turned against the Wiederbewaffnung, nuclear weapons and the "madness of excessive armament".

Alternatives to nationalism

As a lesson from Nazism, Kogon early called for departure from a traditional nation-state and supported European federalism. Among others, he was involved in the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the German section of the UEF, where he served as the first President from 1949 to 1954. From 1951 to 1953, Kogon was also president of the German council of the European Movement.

Later years

Kogon became chairman of the political science department at the Technische Universität Darmstadt In 1951, teaching there till his retirement in 1968. University president Johann-Dietrich Wörner later attested to Kogon's importance, saying, "He shaped the moral conscience of the university to the present day." From January 1964 to January 1965, Kogon headed the political magazine, "Panorama", broadcast by the German station, ARD. He began serving as the program's moderator in March 1964.

Later, Kogon supported the Eastern policy of the Socialist-Liberal coalition and actively promoted the reconciliation of Poland with the Soviet Union. The state of Hesse honored Kogon in 1982 with the newly created Hessian Culture Prize. His final years were spent in quiet retirement Königstein im Taunus, where there is now a street named for him. In 2002, the city began awarding an annual "Eugen Kogon Prize for Democracy in Action". The first winner was the former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski.

MOVE TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Der SS-Staat. Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager, Alber, Munich (1946) Numerous subsequent editions, most recently by Heyne, Munich (1995) ISBN 3-453-02978-X
• Gesammelte Schriften in 8 Bänden. Beltz, Weinheim 1995–1999
  • 1. Ideologie und Praxis der Unmenschlichkeit (1995) ISBN 3-88679-261-7
  • 2. Europäische Visionen (1995) ISBN 3-88679-262-5
  • 3. Die restaurative Republik (1996) ISBN 3-88679-263-3
  • 4. Liebe und tu was du willst (1996) ISBN 3-88679-264-1
  • 5. Die reformierte Gesellschaft (1997) ISBN 3-88679-265-X
  • 6. Dieses merkwürdige wichtige Leben (1997, ISBN 3-88679-266-8
  • 7. Bedingungen der Humanität (1998) ISBN 3-88679-267-6
  • 8. Die Idee des christlichen Ständestaats (1999) ISBN 3-88679-268-4

Works as co-editor

• Kurt Fassmann with contributions by Max Bill, Hoimar von Ditfurth and others (Editors), Die Großen - Leben und Leistung der sechshundert bedeutendsten Persönlichkeiten unserer Welt. Kindler Verlag, Zurich (1977)
• Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein, Adalbert Rückerl and others (Editors), Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas. Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1986) ISBN 3-596-24353-X

Sources

• Hubert Habicht (Editor), Eugen Kogon - ein politischer Publizist in Hessen. Essays, Aufsätze und Reden zwischen 1946 und 1982. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1982) ISBN 3-458-14046-8
• Karl Prümm, Walter Dirks und Eugen Kogon als katholische Publizisten der Weimarer Republik. Catholic Press, Heidelberg (1984) ISBN 3-533-03549-2
• Jürgen Mittag, Vom Honoratiorenkreis zum Europanetzwerk: Sechs Jahrzehnte Europäische Bewegung Deutschland in 60 Jahre Europäische Bewegung Deutschland. Berlin (2009) pp. 12-28

MOVE TO EXTERNAL LINKS

• Ansgar Lange: Eugen Kogon als christlicher Publizist (Die Neue Ordnung 58 (2004))
• Netzwerk Europäische Bewegung Official website