Helmut Schelsky’s Family Sociology: Between National Socialism and International Social Science

Helmut Schelsky was the leading sociologist in postwar West Germany, in an age when sociology, and the social-scientific disciplines more broadly, were exercising increasing sway over public policy. His works on sexuality, law, and the youth argued for a strong defense of traditional gender roles and the nuclear family, providing the social-scientific rationale for the “conservative restoration” that took place in the aftermath of World War II. Nonetheless, mirroring the fate of conservative social science more broadly, Schelsky’s intellectual formation and contribution have been little-studied. Taking advantage of materials from his newly-opened archive in Münster, this paper will follow Schelsky’s career from the National Socialist party in the 1930s to the heart of the West German academic and policy elite.

The paper focuses specifically on Schelsky’s theory of the family, which he developed through a famous study of East German refugees. In some ways, Schelsky’s theories of the family were in keeping with his reactionary intellectual upbringing. At the same time, though, Schelsky was participating in a broader, Atlantic turn towards a theorization of the family as the nucleus of the social order. His study was the first in Germany to adopt American methods of family sociology, to which Schelsky was exposed through his pioneering work at the Red Cross in the 1940s, as well as his participation at international conferences on the family sponsored by institutions like UNESCO and the World Congress on Family and Population. This paper argues, therefore, that Schelsky’s ideas and influence must be understood in both domestic and international contexts, deepening our understanding of the role and consolidation of the social sciences after World War II.