SIEGFRIED STREUFERT: BRIEF SUMMARY OF LIFE EXPERIENCE
The following pages present three sections about the life and work of Dr. Siegfried Streufert:
1. A brief description of his life, his experiences and his professional work from the years 1934 through 2016,
2. Excerpts from his short stories and poetry written for the general public from the books “Arch of Fire” (in German published as “Drachenwind”), “America! America?”, “The Katia Stories” and “Rhythm of Life” (as well as some samples from books in press and unpublished fictional stories and poems.)
3. Dr. Streufert’s “curriculum vitae” listing his professional work as a professor at American and European universities. The list includes numerous professional and literary books as well as 500 publications and references to his activities in the fields of psychology, management, medicine and pharmacology.
Siegfried was born in 1934 in Berlin as the only child of August and Elli Streufert. August Streufert had been elected to the German national parliament during the Weimar Republic and had been the author of several national labor laws. He actively opposed the Nazi and Communist parties. With the Nazi take-over of the German government in 1933, his Social Democratic Party was outlawed. The new Nazi government declared August Streufert to be an “Enemy of the State.” All German companies or organizations were forbidden to hire him. He finally found a job with the Dutch VanHouten corporation and moved to Kiel, a Baltic Sea harbor city in the northern German state of Holstein, just south of Denmark.
Siegfried grew up in Raisdorf (now the city of Schwentinental), a suburb of Kiel – amid hills, forests and lakes. Yet, despite the natural beauty of the area, it was not to be a peaceful and pleasant life for the child: Nazi persecution of the family, the politically motivated arrest and death of August Streufert in a concentration camp, starvation in the 1940s and early 50s had a serious impact. Nearly daily allied Second World War air-attacks on Kiel generated serious problems. The events of that time are described in Siegfried Streufert’s book Arch of Fire (the German language edition is titled Drachenwind).
Beginning with the fifth grade (1944), Siegfried attended a high school that was to prepare students for future entrance to a university. In early 1951, the now 17 year old applied for an American Field Service scholarship to spend a year in the United States. He was one of three teens who were selected from more than a thousand applicants in Kiel. Siegfried’s host family resided in Amarillo, Texas. Experiences in Amarillo were fascinating and life-changing. While Siegfried was an exchange student in the United States, his mother Elli Streufert died of cancer. When Siegfried returned to Kiel in 1952, he was told that his U.S. high school graduation was not equivalent to the German High School “Abitur” graduation and he had to once more attend High School in Germany for an additional year. With both parents deceased and all remaining family property in the then communist eastern Germany, Siegfried did not have the funds to attend college in Germany: In the early 1950s, it was not permissible to study at a college and to simultaneously hold a job (a rule that has been changed since).
Life in Amarillo and events after Siegfried’s return to Germany are described in his book America! America? Siegfried was aware that he would be able to both work and pursue a university education in the US. Consequently, he applied for a U.S. immigration visa. In 1956, he returned to Amarillo, worked full time, yet completed two years of college by Spring 1957.
An unanticipated offer of a scholarship from SMU brought him to Dallas, Texas, where he completed another two years of college by 1958. He stayed at SMU to obtain a master’s degree in social psychology in 1960. Subsequently, he accepted an offer of a graduate research assistantship from Princeton University where he was awarded a Ph.D. in experimental (social/organizational) psychology in early 1962. He remained at Princeton as a lecturer and research associate for two more years before moving to Rutgers University as an Assistant Professor in 1964. His next position as Associate Professor and three years later as Professor and Head of the Social Psychology and Personality Programs took him to Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. A semester as Visiting Professor at the University of Mannheim, Germany, was followed a year later by an offer of a chair professorship (Ordinarius H4/C4) from the University of Bielefeld in Germany. Professor Streufert held that position from 1974 to 1978, but returned to the United States (Washington, D.C.) when the National Institutes of Health invited him to a one-year appointment as ‘Resident Scholar.’ In 1989 he accepted a professorship at Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, where he spent the rest of his full time career until retiring in 2001 as Professor Emeritus at age 67.
At that time, Upstate Medical University (State University of New York) asked him to accept a professorship. He continued to work part-time with Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, as well as with various corporations and medical systems until 2010. Following his second retirement (from Upstate Medical University) Siegfried founded Streufert Consulting, LLC. As the sole owner of that company, Dr. Streufert obtained and administered research and training programs in cooperation with US and foreign universities, primarily medical schools. This work was accomplished cooperatively with Dr. Satish of SUNY Upstate Medical University and other professionals.
Professor Streufert is known for sixteen books and about 500 scientific articles . His professional books focus on complexity theory, decision making, on pharmacology and on stress effects upon competency as well as a number of other domains in the fields of human thought, health and behavior. He is known for the development of experimental and quasi-experimental simulation technology, and as the founder and first editor of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. His work has influenced the fields of psychology, mental and physical health, pharmacology and management. More extensive information on Siegfried Streufert’s scientific interests, his efforts and publications can be found in the curriculum vitae below.
Siegfried lives on Kauai, Hawaii. He is married to Professor Dr. Glenda Nogami who has held several high level directorships with the US government (e.g. Immigration and Naturalization Service and Department of Homeland Security). Earlier, she held a professorship at the U.S. Army War College and toward the end of her full time career retired from university work with the position of Professor and Academic Dean of the U.S.A. Management Staff College in 2007. After retirement from federal service Glenda was persuaded by the administration of the islands of Kauai and Niihau (Hawaii) to direct civil defense. She agreed to serve in that capacity until the end of the year 2014. In subsequent years she has voluntarily served on the planning board for Kauai. Since then she has repeatedly been active training senior US government personnel from and at various locations around the world.
Siegfried has three (adult) sons: Karsten Streufert, I.T. Manager for U.S. Courts; Kevin Streufert, who resigned from the position of Senior Vice President at Goldman-Sachs to become a writer and an independent manager of travel services and Justin Streufert who has worked as Internet Applications Developer for several public and private organizations.
The next section of this site will deal with Dr. Streufert’s literary writing for the general public. His earlier two books s contain short stories, each +6 of them describing ten years of his own experiences (as a child in Nazi Germany and as a teen ager upon his presence in the United States of America as an exchange student in New York and in Texas). Later books contain fictional short stories, poetry and intellectual discussions. If you wish to read the entries on this site in the sequences that was used to prevent the site, please click on “next page.” If you want to select any specific entry in the site, please click on “Glossary.”