Klaus Hurrelmann (born January 10, 1944) is a professor of public health and education at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany.
Klaus Hurrelmann was born in Gdynia (then Gotenhafen, German: Gdingen) and studied sociology, psychology and education in Berkeley (USA), Freiburg and Münster.
Biography Klaus Hurrelmann first married Bettina Hurrelmann, who later became professor of German studies at the University of Cologne and died in 2015. They have one daughter (Annette Hurrelmann, Head of Unit, DC Agriculture, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium) and one son (Achim Hurrelmann, professor of political science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada). His second marriage is with Doris Schaeffer, professor of public health, nursing and health sciences research at Bielefeld University, who brought one son into the marriage (Merlin Schaeffer, Professor of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark).
Education Hurrelmann studied sociology, psychology, and education at the universities in Münster and Freiburg as well as at the University of California at Berkeley (US). He gained his diploma in sociology in 1968. He was awarded a doctorate in sociology at the University of Münster in 1971 for his work on the social and institutional determinants of education. In 1975, he gained his postdoctoral habilitation at Bielefeld University for work on the educational system and society.
Academic career Hurrelmann started his academic career as a research assistant. In 1975, he became professor of education and socialization at the University of Essen. In 1980, he was appointed professor of socialization research at Bielefeld University. Hurrelmann was the first dean of the newly founded Faculty of Educational Science. In 1986, he founded the Collaborative Research Centre “Sonderforschungsbereich Prevention and Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence.” Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), this centre was made up of as many as 15 interdisciplinary research teams.
In 1993, Hurrelmann switched to the newly founded Faculty of Health Sciences at Bielefeld. He was elected the Founding Dean and was responsible for building up the first School of Public Health in Germany. He took over research in the field of prevention and health promotion. Commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), he founded the Collaboration Centre for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion. Until 2012, this Centre coordinated the representative health survey of 11- to 15-year-olds in Germany carried out throughout Europe as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Each assessment wave included more than 6,000 randomly selected school children from all parts of Germany. From 1996 to 2004, he was also Director of the Institut für Bevölkerungsforschung und Sozialpolitik (Institute for Demographic Research and Social Policy).
In March 2009, Hurrelmann became professor of public health and education at the Hertie School – University of Governance in Berlin. His main research interest is to develop a comprehensive theory of socialisation, on the theoretical level, and to develop comprehensive intervention strategies for preventing social disadvantage and health impairments in childhood and adolescence, on the empirical research level.
Since 2025, he has been the deputy chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the education initiative Digital School Story (DSS).
Other activities National Action Plan Health Literacy, Board of Editors Member of the Federal Minister of the Interior's Council of Experts on Demography
Recognition 2003 – Prize of the Swiss Dr. Margrit Egnér Foundation for his life's work (with an award of 25,000 Swiss francs) 2018 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Pedagogical University of Freiburg
Research The focus of Hurrelmann's research is on transferring socialisation theory to childhood and adolescence, education, and health. The theoretical approach he developed for these research topics does not only influence sociology but also research projects in the field of pedagogy, psychology, health science, and social medicine. He directed several projects on the role family and school conditions play in the development of personality and achievement, the correlation between socialisation and health, and the prevention of risk behavior, especially violence, addiction and psychosomatic health disorders.
Socialisation research
Central to Hurrelmann's theory of socialisation is the tension between the individual and society. He defines socialisation as the individual's personality development resulting from productively processing internal and external reality. An individual's internal reality is formed by bodily and mental dispositions and traits; the external reality, by the properties of the social and physical environment. The processing of reality is productive because individuals live their lives actively and try to master the developmental tasks they have to face during the entire life course.
Most noted and also often discussed at schools and universities, particularly in pedagogy, social sciences and health sciences, is his “Model of Productive Processing of Reality (PPR)”. The core assumption of this model is that “personality does not form independently from society any of its functions or dimensions but is continuously being shaped, in a concrete, historically conveyed life world, throughout the entire space of the life span”.Hurrelmann, K. 1988 Social Structure and Personality Development. New York: Cambridge University Press (reprint 2009), p. 42
The PPR model places the human subject in a social and ecological context that must be absorbed and processed subjectively. The human being as an autonomous subject has the lifelong task to harmonize the processes of social integration and personal individualization. Across the entire life span, individuals master this task in age-appropriate steps matching their level of development.Hurrelmann, K. & Bauer, U. 2018 Socialisation During the Life Course. London/New York: Routledge These “developmental tasks” are: education/qualification, attachment/social contacts, consumption/regeneration, and participation/value orientation. In this sense, socialisation consists in a complex “continuous work on one's own personality.” It may succeed, but, under unfavorable conditions, it may also fail. Failure leads to problems with identity, personality, and health.Hurrelmann, K. & Quenzel, G. 2019. Developomental Tasks in Adolescence. London/New York: RoutledgeSchulenberg, J., Maggs, J. & Hurrelmann, K. (Eds.) 1997 Health Risks and Developmental Transitions during Adolescence. New York: Cambridge University PressHurrelmann, K. & Hamilton, S.F. (Eds.) 1996 Social Problems and Social Contexts in Adolescence. New York: Aldine
Childhood, adolescence, and generation research
Klaus Hurrelmann has concentrated on applying his developmental task concept to the life phases of childhood and adolescence. He identifies the central developmental tasks in infancy and early childhood as gaining a basic emotional trust, developing communication skills and attachment behavior, developing the ability to express oneself verbally, identifying with one's own gender, and building up basic sensory and motor skills. In later childhood from the age of six onward, these tasks are joined by developing female or male role behavior; learning basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and forming competencies in dealing with the media and leisure time. This approach understands children as autonomous subjects who are productively engaged in shaping their lives.Neubauer, G. & Hurrelmann, K. (Eds.) 1996 Individualization in Childhood and Adolescence. Berlin/New York: De GruyterAndresen, S., Fegter, S., Hurrelmann, K. & Schneekloth, U. (Eds.) 2017 Well-being, Poverty and Justice from a Child’s Perspective. Cham: Springer International Publishing
Hurrelmann conceives adolescence as an autonomous life phase that has inserted itself between childhood and adulthood over the last 100 years. This phase of life generally lasts for about 15 years. Nowadays, it is beginning earlier than ever before in human history, because children reach puberty at an increasingly early age.Hurrelmann, K. (Ed.) 1994 International Handbook of Adolescence. Westport: Greenwood PublishersChisholm, L. & Hurrelmann, K. 1995 Adolescence in modern Europe. Pluralized transition patterns and their implications for personal and social risks. Journal of Adolescence 18, 129-158Hurrelmann, K. & Quenzel, G. 2013 Lost in transition. Status insecurity and inconsistency as hallmarks of modern adolescence. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2013.785440 At the other end, however, adolescence is more open than ever before and has become basically unplannable. This impacts on the mastering of developmental tasks: In the areas of education and qualification the demands are rising; the separation from parents and the development of own attachments are being postponed, and the acquisition of competencies as a consumer, user of media, economic citizen, as well as participation in politics and society are more and more considered as tasks that have to be managed on one's own responsibility. As a consequence, several developmental problems arise.Hurrelmann, K. & Engel, U. (Eds.) 1990 The Social World of Adolescents. Berlin/New York: De GruyterNestmann, R. & Hurrelmann, K. (Eds.) 1994 Social Network and Social Support in Childhood and Adolescence. Berlin/New York: De GruyterHurrelmann, K. & Lösel, F. (Eds.) 1990 Health Hazards in Adolescence. Berlin/New York: De GruyterHurrelmann, K. 1990 Health promotion for adolescents. Preventive and corrective strategies against problem behavior. Journal of Adolescence 13, 231-250 According to Hurrelmann, social background and gender are the main determinants for the successful completion of the developmental tasks to be mastered during this phase of life. In this regard, male adolescents seem to have problems coping with these developmental tasks to an increasing extent.
Drawing on the work of Karl Mannheim, Hurrelmann links this approach to generational research. He postulates that different generations develop specific strategies for coping with reality. The young generation born after 2000, often referred to as Generation Z, responds with strong political activism. In his book GenZ, he analyzes the emergence of this politicization in the face of global crises such as the pandemic, climate change, and economic instability. However, because in most highly developed societies the political majority is held by middle-aged and older generations, the demographic weight of younger people remains weak. As a result, their concerns are often marginalized in government decision-making, even though they are disproportionately affected by these crises. This lack of political influence has begun to fuel doubts among many young people about the responsiveness of democratic structures.
As a response, Hurrelmann proposes establishing “generation dialogues” across all areas of society. These dialogues aim to integrate the perspectives and life experiences of all age groups while ensuring that younger generations gain an active and recognized role. He emphasizes that such dialogue must address not only rational arguments but also emotional dimensions, including values and identity. Hurrelmann warns that a society which fails to provide room for the ideas and impulses of younger generations risks eroding their trust in democratic institutions and, in the long run, undermining its own capacity for renewal.