Abstract
This chapter discusses the life and work of the sociologist and political scientist Heinz Otto Ziegler (1903-1944), a native of Prague. Ziegler received a doctorate from Heidelberg university in 1925 and habilitation from the University of Frankfurt in 1927, both of them in sociology.
The chapter reviews his published work from early studies on democracy and theory of ideology to his major work, The modern Nation (1931), to his texts about the authoritarian state, the nationality problem in Central Europe or the socioeconomic structure of society. A victim of National Socialism, Ziegler lost his academic position in Germany in 1933 and emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the UK in 1938.
He died as a RAF crew member in 1944. New information on Ziegler provided in this chapter originates from archival documents and publications.