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'Gunnar Heinsohn' (born 1943 in Gdynia, Poland) is a German sociologist. Since 1984, he has been a tenured professor at the University of Bremen, where he heads the Raphael-Lemkin-Institute for Comparative Genocide Research. His list of publications includes about 400 scholarly articles and books^[1] His research has been focused on developing new solutions to a number of previously unsolved problems regarding the history and theory of civilization:
: (1) the so-called "Dark Ages" of antiquity, where Heinsohn proposed a revision of ancient chronology based upon stratigraphy.^[2] Taking Immanuel Velikovsky´s revised chronology as a starting point, Heinsohn went on to criticize Velikovsky's chronology as Biblical fundamentalism, proposing an even more drastic revision that is being disputed in circles of chronological revisionists^[3], but is generally being rejected by mainstream historians. What seems to be unique with Heinsohn's approach is that his relative chronology is exclusively based on stratigraphy.
: (2) the origin of sacrifice and priest kingship in Mesopotamia, where Heinsohn suggested an explanatory model based upon a catastrophist view of ancient history and a psychoanalytic interpretation of sacrificial rituals^[4].
: (3) the origins and structure of antisemitism. Heinsohn holds that the Jewish people were the first in occidental history to abolish sacrifice in the name of a general prohibition of killing, thereby providing an example to other religions still practicing sacrifice that this is unnecessary. As the Jewish prophet Hosea stated: "''For kindness I desired, and not sacrifice, And a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings."''^[5]. According to this view that is in some respects similar to a psychoanalytic view, antisemitic hatred has its origins in the feelings of guilt towards the sacrificed human or animal; turning those feelings of self-hatred towards those who do not take part in the ritual of sacrifice allows for continuing with the sacrificial practice^[6]. Heinsohn contrasts Jewish abstinence from sacrifice with the Christian belief in jesus as someone who died for the Christian's sins, which he interprets as a regression to sacrificial practices of prehistory and as a core source of Christian-Jewish controversy^[7]. While this view may illuminate some aspects of antisemitism, but it leaves unclear why other religious groups who abolished sacrificial practices like Buddhism or enlightenment philosophy are not confronted with similar hatred.
: (4) the historical origin and theory of property, interest and money and the role of free wage labour for the technical progress and continual process of innovation of modern European civilization that is seen as a central feature of capitalist modernization (whereas socialist modernization has been mainly imitative and not innovative)^[8].
: In collaboration with his colleague, economist Otto Steiger, Heinsohn criticized the "exchange paradigm", the idea that money was historically invented as a medium of exchange to facilitate barter. He replaced it with a property based credit theory of money that stresses the indispensable role of secure property titles, contract law and especially contract enforcement, liability and collateral to create secure, transferable debt titles that central banks will accept as collateral for issuing bank notes^[9]. This paradigm provides institutional microfoundations for monetary theories of production developed in the keynesian tradition. Credit theories of money have existed since mercantilism but have not become the dominating paradigm in monetary theory^[10]. Besides promoting their paradigm it as an alternative foundation for triggering economic development (much in line with the insights of Hernando DeSoto^[11], Tom Bethell^[12] and Richard Pipes^[13]), Steiger has applied it to an analysis of the eurosystem^[14].
: While this approach has similarities with institutional economics, its major differences are (1) a non-universalist, cross-cultural approach that is in line with results from economic anthropology (Marshall Sahlins, Karl Polanyi, Marcel Mauss and others) and strongly doubts "homo oeconomicus", providing instead a specific explanation for how strategies of economic efficiency become functional only in monetary economies based on property and enforceable contracts^[15]; (2) a systematic reconstruction of the connection between property, enforceable contracts, interest, credit/money and the banking system as a basis of a monetary theory of production, and (3) a systematic explanation for technical progress and innovation based on this reconstruction and the phenomenon of free wage labour, which explains the differences in innovativity and progress between the monetary economics of antiquity and modern times^[16]. Heinsohn and Steiger's model has been discussed in some postkeynesian circles^[17], and it has been criticized by Nikolaus K.A. Läufer^[18].
: (5) the historical origin and theory of large scale modern European demographic patterns (starting with an intense increase in population growth in early modern times, leading to sub-replacement fertility at the dawn of the 21st century), including an interpretation of the European witch-hunts of early modern times as pro-natalist re-population policy of the then dominant catholic church after the population losses the black death had caused^[19]
: (6) comparative genocide research - in this field his major contributions include an encyclopaedia of genocides^[20] , a generalized version of youth bulge theory^[21] and a new theory of Hitler´s motivation for the Holocaust^[22].
He is known most widely for his theory of the 'Youth Bulge'. He argues that an excess in especially young adult male population predictably leads to social unrest, war and terrorism, as the "third and fourth sons" that find no prestigious positions in their existing societies rationalize their impetus to compete by religion or political ideology. Heinsohn claims that most historical periods of social unrest lacking external triggers (such as rapid climatic changes or other catastrophic changes of the environment) and most genocides can be readily explained as a result of a built up youth bulge, including European colonialism, 20th century Fascism, and ongoing conflicts such as that in Darfur The Palestinian uprisings in 1987-1993 and 2000 to present, and terrorism.
His work on ancient chronology, based on an exhaustive examination of the stratigraphic record, has reached some dramatic conclusions. He finds, for example, that 19th century archaeologists constructed their picture of the region around the chronology provided in the Old Testament, with the result that they created a "phantom" history which began two thousand years before any real history began. In other words, the scientific evidence suggests that Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations arose around 1,100 BCE, not 3,200 BCE, as the textbooks say.

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External links

References

1. for a detailed bibliography sorted by date, refer to this Bibilography 1969-2007
2. see in English: G. Heinsohn: The Restoration of Ancient History; for details refer to G. Heinsohn (1988): Die Sumerer gab es nicht. Frankfurt/M.: Eichborn; G. Heinsohn (1990): Wann lebten die Pharaonen? Frankfurt: Eichborn and G. Heinsohn: Wie alt ist das Menschengeschlecht? Gräfelfing: Mantis 2000, all published in German only as of June 2007
3. see [http://www.newchronology.eu/]
4. G. Heinsohn (1997): Die Erfindung der Götter. Das Opfer als Ursprung der Religion. Reinbek: Rohwolt; G. Heinsohn: The Rise of Blood Sacrifice and Priest Kingship in Mesopotamia: A Cosmic Decree? Religion Vol. 22, 1992, pp. 309-334 online here
5. Hosea 6:6
6. G. Heinsohn (1988): Was ist Antisemitismus? Der Ursprung von Monotheismus und Judenhaß. Frankfurt/M.: Eichborn
7. G. Heinsohn (1997): Die Erfindung der Götter. Das Opfer als Ursprung der Religion. Reinbek: Rohwolt
8. G. Heinsohn, Otto Steiger (1981): Geld, Produktivität und Unsicherheit in Kapitalismus und Sozialismus oder von den Lollarden Wat Tylers zur Solidarität Lech Walesas. Leviathan 1981, Bd. 9, Nr. 2, pp. 164-194; English version: G. Heinsohn, Otto Steiger: Money, Productivity and Uncertainty in Capitalism and Socialism, in: Metroeconomica,
Vol. 33, Nr. 1-3, 1981, pp. 41-77[1]
9. G. Heinsohn (1984): Privateigentum, Patriarchat, Geldwirtschaft. Eine sozialtheoretische Rekonstruktion zur Antike. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp; G. Heinsohn, Otto Steiger (1996): Eigentum, Zins und Geld. Ungelöste Rätsel der Wirtschaftswissenschaft. Reinbek: Rohwolt (English: "Property, Interest and Money", London: Routledge, forthcoming); also see G. Heinsohn/Otto Steiger: Private Property, Debts and Interest or: The Origin of Money and the Rise and
Fall of Monetary Economies, in: studi economici, Napoli, Nr. 21, 1983, pp. 3-56 and G. Heinsohn, O. Steiger: The Property Theory of Interest and Money. In: J. Smithin (Ed.): What is Money? London: Routledge 2000, pp. 67-100
10. for an overview, see the dissertation by Charlotte Bruun: Logical Structures and Algorithmic Behavior in a Credit Economy[2], Chapter 1: "The Nature of Money" and Chapter 3: "The Development of the Theory of Credit" and Randall Wray (Ed.): Credit and State Theories of Money: The Contribution of Mitchell Innes. London: Routledge 2004
11. Hernando DeSoto: The Mystery of Capital. Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails everywhere else. New York: Basic Books 2000
12. Tom Bethell: The Noblest Triumph. Property and Prosperity Through the Ages. New York: St. Martin's Press 1998
13. Richard Pipes: Property and Freedom. New York: Vintage Books 1999
14. Otto Steiger: The Eurosystem and the Art of Central Banking, Bremen 2002 [3]; Otto Steiger: Which Lender of Last Resort for the Eurosystem? Bremen 2004 [4] Dieter Spethmann, Otto Steiger: The four Achilles Heels of the Eurosystem: Missing Central Monetary Institution, Different Real Rates of Interest,
Non-Marketable Securities, and Missing Lender of Last Resort, Bremen 2005 [5]
15. Gunnar Heinsohn, Otto Steiger: Money, Markets and Property. In: Giacomin, Alberto and Marcuzzo, Maria (Eds.): Money and Markets. A doctrinal approach. New York: Routledge 2007, pp. 59-79
16. see Otto Steiger: Property Rights and Economic Development: Two Views. Marburg: Metropolis 2007 (forthcoming); Otto Steiger: Property Economics. Property Rights, Creditor's Money and the Foundations of the Economy. Marburg: Metropolis 2007 (forthcoming). This volume is a collection of papers that were presented at an International Symposium on the Economic Role of Property Rights at University of Bremen, Nov.28-30 2003.
17. Karl Betz, Tobias Roy: Privateigentum und Geld. Kontroversen um den Ansatz von Heinsohn und Steiger. Marburg: Metropolis 1999 and John Smithin (Ed.): What is Money? London: Routledge 2000
18. Nikolaus K.A. Läufer: The Heinsohn-Steiger confusion on interest, money and property. online here (accessed June 28, 2007)
19. G. Heinsohn, Otto Steiger, Rolf Knieper (1979): Menschenproduktion. Allgemeine Bevölkerungstheorie der Neuzeit. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp; Gunnar Heinsohn/Otto Steiger: "Witchcraft, Population Catastrophe and Economic Crisis in Renaissance Europe: An Alternative Macroeconomic Explanation.", University of Bremen 2004 [6]
20. G. Heinsohn (1999): Lexikon der Völkermorde. Reinbek: Rohwolt
21. G. Heinsohn (2003): Söhne und Weltmacht. Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen. Bern: Orell Füssli, available as a free downloadable e-book here; Gunnar Heinsohn: Demography and War (brief outline of Heinsohn's Youth Bulge Theory of social unrest); Gunnar Heinsohn: Population, Conquest and Terror in the 21st Century (applies Youth Bulge Theory of social unrest to European imperialism as well as today's islamist terror);
22. G. Heinsohn (1994): Warum Auschwitz? Hitler's Motiv und die Ratlosigkeit der Nachwelt. Reinbek: Rohwolt and G. Heinsohn: What Makes the Holocaust a Uniquely Unique Genocide?, in: Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 411-430

See also

★

★ Youth Bulge

★ Sub-replacement fertility

★ War (see subsection "demographic theories")

★ Witch-hunt

★ Money

★ Interest

★ Credit

★ Property

★ Sacrifice

★ Antisemitism

External links

★ Raphael-Lemkin-Institute for Comparative Genocide Research at University of Bremen

★ A Continent of Losers. Interview with Heinsohn by Lars Hedegaard. Covers youth bulge theory in context with world demographic trends and European demographic decline

★ Gunnar Heinsohn: Babies Win Wars

★ Gunnar Heinsohn: Why Gaza is fertile ground for angry young men - financial times article

★ Youth and War: A deadly duo: Christopher Caldwell discusses Heinsohn's generalized youth bulge theory (financial times article)

★ Weltproblem Radikalismus: Heinsohn on German TV, commenting on terrorism from the perspective of youth bulge theory (in German)

★ Heinsohn on german TV, commenting on 2005 civil unrest in France (in German)

★ Articles by Heinsohn available online (mostly in German)

★ The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict after the Cold War

★ The "Youth Bulge" Anne Hendrixon criticizes Youth Bulge Theory