HELLER, HERMANN

HELLER, HERMANN (1891–1933), German political scientist. Born in Austria he was active in the Socialist movement, and contributed to a non-Marxian social democratic theory, believing that it would more easily fit the framework of national traditions. He warned against the danger of Fascism and dictatorship and had to leave Germany early in 1933. He died that year in Madrid where he had been offered a professorship. Heller was one of the small group who revived political science in Germany in the 1920s, after it had stagnated through legal positivism and normativism from the middle of the 19th century. He was regarded as one of the leading political   scientists of his time; as such he contributed the article on political science for the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (1934). He placed political science firmly among the social sciences, stressed social power relationships as one of its major focuses, while denying the contention that political science is necessarily devoid of moral content. His major work, Staatslehre, was published posthumously and unfinished (1934). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: IESS, S.V. (Edwin Emanuel Gutmann)