Transcript Max Weber

Max Weber
Best Known For:
A founding figure of the field of sociology
Thesis of the "Protestant Ethic"
Ideas on bureaucracy
Birth:
Max Weber was born April 21, 1864.
Death:
He died June 14, 1920.
Early Life And Education:
Max Weber was born in Erfurt, Prussia (present day Germany).
Weber’s father was greatly involved in public life and so his home was
constantly immersed in both politics and academia. Weber and his
brother thrived in this intellectual atmosphere. In 1882, he enrolled at
the University of Heidelberg, but after two years left to fulfill his year
of military service at Strassburg. After his release from the military,
Weber finished his studies at the University of Berlin, earning his
doctorate in 1889 and joining the University of Berlin’s faculty, lecturing and
consulting for the government.
Career and Later Life:
In 1894, Weber was appointed professor of economics at the
University of Freiburg and then was granted the same position
at the University of Heidelberg in 1896. His research at the time
focused mainly on economics and legal history. After Weber’s
father died in 1897, two months after a severe quarrel that was
never resolved, Weber became prone to depression,
nervousness, and insomnia, making it difficult for him to fulfill
his duties as a professor. He was thus forced to reduce his
teaching and eventually left in the fall of 1899. For five years he
was intermittently institutionalized, suffering sudden relapses
after efforts to break such cycles by travelling. He finally
resigned his professorship in late 1903.
Also in 1903, Weber became the associate editor of the Archives
for Social Science and Social Welfare where his interests lied in
more fundamental issues of social sciences. Soon Weber began
to publish some of his own papers in this journal, most notable
his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,
which became his most famous work and was later published
as a book.
In 1909, Weber co-founded the German Sociological
Association and served as it’s first treasurer. He resigned
in 1912, however, and unsuccessfully tried to organize a
left-wing political party to combine social-democrats and
liberals. At the outbreak of World War I, Weber, aged 50,
volunteered for service and was appointed as a reserve
officer and put in charge of organizing the army hospitals
in Heidelberg, a role he fulfilled until the end of 1915.
Weber's most powerful impact on his contemporaries came
in the last years of his life, when, from 1916 to 1918, he
argued powerfully against Germany's annexationist war
goals and in favor of a strengthened parliament. After
assisting in the drafting of the new constitution and in the
founding of the German Democratic Party, Weber became
frustrated with politics and resumed teaching at the
University of Vienna and then at the University of Munich.