HIST363: Global Perspectives on Industrialization

Maximilian Weber was born in Erfurt, Germany, the eldest of seven children of Max Weber Sr., a prominent politician and civil servant, and his wife Helene Fallenstein. While both his parents came from Protestant families, it was his mother who held strong religious commitments and exemplified the Calvinistic sense of duty. His younger brother, Alfred, was also a sociologist and economist. Max grew up in a household immersed in politics, and his father received a long list of prominent scholars and public figures in his salon. At the time, Max proved to be intellectually precocious.

 

Max Weber and his brothers Alfred and Karl in 1879.

In 1882, Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. Weber chose as his major study his father's field of law. Apart from his work in law, he attended lectures in economics and studied medieval history. In addition, Weber read a great deal in theology. In the fall of 1884, Weber returned to his parents' home to study at the University of Berlin. In 1886, he passed the examination for "Referendar," comparable to the bar examination in the American legal system. He earned his doctorate in law in 1889, writing his dissertation on legal history entitled The History of Medieval Business Organisations.

 

Max Weber and his wife Marianne in 1894.

Weber first became engaged to his cousin, Emmy Baumgarten, who was in ill health both physically and mentally. After six years, during which he suffered agonizing doubts and feelings of guilt, Weber finally broke the engagement. In 1893, he married his distant cousin, Marianne Schnitger, later a feminist and author in her own right, who after his death in 1920, was decisive in collecting and publishing Weber's works as books. In 1894, the couple moved to Freiburg, where Weber was appointed professor of economics at Freiburg University, before accepting the same position at the University of Heidelberg in 1897. That same year, his father died two months after having a severe quarrel with him. Following this incident, Weber was more and more prone to "nervousness" and insomnia. He spent several months in a sanatorium in the summer and fall of 1900.

After his immense productivity in the early 1890s, he finally resigned as a professor in the fall of 1903. In 1904, Max Weber began to publish some of his most seminal papers, notably his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It became his most famous work, and laid the foundations for his later research on the impact of cultures and religions on the development of economic systems.

 

Max Weber in 1917.

In 1915 and 1916, he was a member of commissions that tried to retain German supremacy in Belgium and Poland after the war. Weber was a German imperialist and wanted to enlarge the German empire to the east and the west.

In 1918, Weber became a consultant to the German Armistice Commission at the Treaty of Versailles and to the commission charged with drafting the Weimar Constitution. He argued in favor of inserting Article 48 into the Weimar Constitution. This article was later used by Adolf Hitler to declare martial law and seize dictatorial powers.

From 1918, Weber resumed teaching, first at the University of Vienna, then in 1919 at the University of Munich. In Munich, he headed the first German University institute of sociology. Many colleagues and students in Munich despised him for his speeches and left-wing attitude during the German revolution of 1918 and 1919. Right-wing students protested at his home.

Max Weber died of pneumonia in Munich on June 14, 1920.