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Concept
Max Weber
Summary
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (ˈveɪbər; ˈveːbɐ; 21 April 1864 - 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profoundly influence social theory and research. While Weber did not see himself as a sociologist, he is recognized as one of the fathers of sociology, along with Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim.
Born in Erfurt in 1864, Weber studied law and history at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen, and Heidelberg. After earning his doctorate in law and habilitation from the latter in 1889 and 1891, he married his distant cousin Marianne Schnitger and became a professor at the universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. In 1897, he had a psychological breakdown after he had an argument with his father, who died shortly thereafter. He ceased teaching and travelled during the late 1890s and early 1900s. Shortly before his trip to the United States, he recovered and slowly resumed his scholarship. At that point, he wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. After the beginning of the First World War, he supported the German war effort and was in charge of the army hospitals in Heidelberg. Increasingly critical of the government's actions during the war, he supported the democratisation of Germany. He participated in the Lauenstein Conferences in 1917 and gave the lectures "Science as a Vocation" and "Politics as a Vocation" during the next few years. After the war ended, Weber was among the founders of the German Democratic Party, ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament, and advised the committee that drafted the Weimar Constitution in 1919. He became frustrated with politics and resumed teaching, this time at the universities of Vienna and Munich. After possibly contracting the Spanish flu, he died of pneumonia in 1920 at the age of 56. His Economy and Society, which he had been writing at the time, was left unfinished.
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