Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

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Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann : biography

19 December 1916 – 25 March 2010

In private letters and in written responses, Noelle-Neumann acknowledged being in a Nazi student organization but denied being a Nazi. "I am anguished by the suffering of Jews in Nazi Germany," she wrote.Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, New York Times, December 14, 1991, p. 14; Noelle-Neumann, letter, Commentary, January 1992, pp. 9-15; D. Wertheimer, "Noelle-Neumann and her critics spar in print," Chicago Jewish Star, January 17, 1992, p. 2. Bogart, Mearsheimer and others remained dissatisfied with her response.John J. Mearsheimer, "Apology sought," New York Times, December 28, 1991, p. 12; "The Noelle-Neumann Case," Commentary, April 1992, pp. 11-12 (a letter signed by Political Science Department faculty at the University of Chicago, including John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt); Leo Bogart, New York Times, December 28, 1991, p. 12; Bogart, letter, Commentary, January 1992, pp. 17-18; Editorial, "The Professor’s Silence," Chicago Jewish Star, November 15, 1991, p. 4; Editorial, "Lest we remember," Chicago Jewish Star, December 20, 1991, p. 4.

Noelle-Neumann completed her visiting position at Chicago in mid-December 1991 and returned to Germany. When some University of Chicago students learned that she was to return there on March 13, 1992, they called a rally to protest her appearance.Ethan Putterman and Michael Kochin, letter, "Noelle-Neumann rally," Chicago Maroon, March 10, 1992, p. 21; D. Wertheimer, "Student protest planned with return of Noelle-Neumann to the U of C," Chicago Jewish Star, March 13, 1992, p. 1. Reached by telephone at her office in Allensbach am Bodensee, Germany, on March 10, Noelle-Neumann told a reporter she was unaware of the proposed rally but intended on coming to the university as planned.Douglas Wertheimer, "Noelle-Neumann cancels U of C talk," Chicago Jewish Star, March 27, 1992, p. 3. That day, her hosts at the National Opinion Research Center announced that she had cancelled her appearance "in light of serious threats."Julia Angwin, "Noelle-Neumann cancels planned visit," Chicago Maroon, April 3, 1992, p. 9.

Several years later, Noelle-Neumann’s Nazi connection came under scrutiny from another American academic,William H. Honan, New York Times, August 27, 1997, p. A13. Christopher Simpson, the American professor, claimed that Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence was riddled with totalitarian ideology. but she never explicitly apologized for her past.Editorial, "Silent to the end," Chicago Jewish Star, August 27, 2010, p. 4. Interviewed on the subject in 1997, she said, "I did my duty and would do my duty again in a second life. I’d even say I was proud of what I did back then because I opposed the Nazis by working from within."William H. Honan, "U.S. Professor’s Criticism of German Scholar’s Work Stirs Controversy," New York Times, August 27, 1997, p. A13.

John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago wrote in The New York Times on December 16, 1991:"She has admitted she was not hostile to the Nazis before 1940. She says she was anti-Nazi after 1940, but has produced no evidence that she criticized the Nazis then. She wrote anti-Semitic words in 1938–41, and there is no evidence she was compelled to write them. Queried on her anti-Semitic writings, she told me: "I have never written anything in my life that I did not believe to be true."

Personal life

She was married to the Christian Democratic politician Erich Peter Neumann (1912–1973) from 1946 until his death. She was married to the physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (1911–2000) from 1979 until his death.

In an interview in the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Noelle-Neumann said that while holding a scientific point of view she also believed in angels and predestination.

Awards

  • Great Cross of Merit (1976)
  • Alexander Rüstow Medal (1978)
  • Baden-Württemberg’s Medal of Merit (1990)
  • Helen Dinerman Award (issued by WAPOR; 1990)
  • Gerhard Löwenthal Honor Award (issued by Junge Freiheit; 2006)

Footnotes