Klaus von Beyme

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Klaus Gustav Heinrich von Beyme (3 July 1934 – 6 December 2021) was a German political scientist who was professor of political science emeritus at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg.

Beyme was born on 3 July 1934 in Saarau, Germany.^[1] Following the German Abitur in Celle in 1954, from 1954 to 1956 Beyme initially began his studies towards a career as a publisher. Thereafter, from 1956 to 1961, he studied Political Science, History, History of Art and Sociology at the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, Munich, Paris and Moscow. The unusual choice of Moscow (1959–60) as a place of study was made, based on interest and on Beyme's personal history. He learned Russian in adult education courses and successfully applied to study in Moscow within the scope of a student exchange programme. From 1961 to 1962, Beyme was a Research Fellow at the Russian Research Centre of Harvard University and Assistant to Carl Joachim Friedrich, one of the world's leading political scientists in the post-World War II period. After obtaining his doctoral degree in Heidelberg in 1963, following a period as Academic Assistant, he completed his habilitation thesis in 1967.

Beyme then became a full professor at the Eberhard Karl University in Tübingen (1967–1973) and in 1971 was also Rector of this University for a short time. In 1972, he was appointed to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. During the period from 1973 to 1975, he was President of the German Society for Political Science.

From 1974 to 1999, Beyme was a full professor and head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg. From 1982 to 1985, he was President of the International Political Science Association, from 1983 to 1990 a member of the Research Council at the European University Institute in Florence, in 1985 visiting professor at the École des Sciences Politiques in Paris, in 1979 visiting professor at Stanford University (California), and in 1987 and the years following, he was a Member of the Academia Europaea. In 1989, he was a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne, in Australia. From 1990 to 1993, he was a Member of the Board of the Commission for Research into Social and Political Changes in the New Federal States. Since 1999, Beyme has been Emeritus Professor.

Beyme claimed there have been three extreme-right waves since 1945: The nostalgic wave: found in Germany and Italy. These parties have direct links to previous far-right governments, appearing in a time of social and economic turbulence. They quickly disappeared, however. The anti-tax wave: found mostly in France (Poujadist wave), occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. Mostly small shop-keepers complained that the little man was left behind in the process. They were also against the Jewish prime minister. The new/third wave: a pan-European trend which appeared during the 1980s. It is the most significant of the three waves and is still going on to this day.

Beyme had repeatedly been accorded recognition for his scientific activities, amongst others, in 1995 Honorary Membership of the Humboldt University in Berlin, in 1998 the University Medal of the University of Heidelberg, and in 2001 an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bern. Furthermore, he was a Member of the Academia Europaea and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he was honoured with the Schader Prize. On 2 September 2010, Beyme was honoured for his "enormous contribution to the development of Political Science in Europe and the entire world" and for his many years as professor of political science at different universities around the world with an Honorary Professorship at Lomonosov University in Moscow. In particular, he has contributed significantly to the development of relationships between Lomonosov University and German universities, as mentioned in the laudatory speeches. The conferring of this honour took place within the scope of a ceremonial act, to which the Rector of Moscow University had issued invitations, in the presence of the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Mikhaylovich Luzhkov.

On 12 July 2012, at the 22nd World Congress of Political Science of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in Madrid (Spain), was held the award session of the Prize of the Foundation Mattei Dogan awarded by the International Political Science Association for High Achievement in Political Science. The recipient of the 2012 award was Klaus von Beyme.

A study in 1998 indicated that Beyme was ranked number 10 amongst the world's Political Scientists, the only German in the Top Ten. Beyme's exceptional importance in this area is also seen at the German level. 41 per cent of the scientists questioned considered him as the most important representative of Political Science in Germany. He is ranked second regarding the question of the most important representatives in this area in respect of their "professional political importance". Once again, most of those questioned believed that he has the best reputation of all Political Scientists in the public eye.

Twice Beyme has been amongst the most important representatives of individual fields of research: both for the thematic area, "Political Theory, Political Philosophy and History of Ideas" and for the specialist area, "Comparative Political Science / System Comparison". (Klingemann/Falter 1998)

His parents, Wilhelm von Beyme (1901–1968) and wife Dorothee von Rümker (1906–1997), were landowners in Silesia and later hoteliers. Beyme was married to Maja von Oertzen (born 28 October 1935 in Rostock, Mecklenburg), daughter of the Superior Councillor and Attorney, Detlof von Oertzen, and wife Viktoria von Blücher. Since the age of 24, Beyme had been a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The Prussian minister of state, reformer and adversary of Hardenberg and Stein, Carl Friedrich von Beyme, was one of his ancestors.

Beyme died on 6 December 2021, at the age of 87.^[1]

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• Die politische Klasse im Parteienstaat, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp (1993); 2. Aufl. 1995, (span.: La classe política en el Estado de partídos, Madrid: Alianza (1995)), (ital.: Classe politica a partitocrazia, Turin: UTET (1997)).
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• Klingemann, Hans-Dieter; Falter, Jürgen W. (1998), "Die deutsche Politikwissenschaft im Urteil der Fachvertreter", in Greven, Michael Th. (ed.), Demokratie – eine Kultur des Westens? 20. Wissenschaftlicher Kongreß der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft, Opladen: Leske und Budrich, ISBN 3-8100-2074-5.
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