Max Weber Biography

Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was born on April 21, 1864. Max Weber died on June 14, 1920. He was a German society Scholar, historian, jurist, and political economist who is considered to be one of the most important theorists in the development of modern Western society. His thoughts have profoundly influenced social theory and research. Although together with Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, he is recognized as one of the fathers of sociology. Weber considered himself not a sociologist but a historian. Unlike Émile Durkheim, Weber did not believe in single-cause explanations but suggested that any result can have multiple reasons. Max Weber was the main defender of methodological antipositivism, advocating the use of interpretive methods to study social action, based on understanding the purpose and meaning of individuals attributable to their own actions. Weber's main academic concern is to understand the process of rationalization, secularization, and "disenchantment". He believed that such a process is the result of a new way of thinking about the world and is related to the rise of capitalism and modernity. Here, in Max Weber's biography, we will learn interesting facts about Max Weber.

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Max Weber Short Biography 

This paragraph will help us learn interesting facts about Max Weber. Max Weber quotes on sociology were a treat to the readers. Weber was best known for his research paper, which combines economic sociology and religious sociology, and emphasized the importance of cultural influence embedded in religion as a means of understanding the origins of capitalism. Weber first expounded his theory in his seminal work "Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", where he attributed the ascetic Protestantism to market-driven capitalism. One of the main "elective affinities" related to the rise was a rational and legal nation-state in the western world. In demonstrating that the promotion of capitalism is the basic principle of Protestantism, Weber believed that the spirit of capitalism is inherent in Protestant religious values. Protestant ethics will be the earliest part of Weber's broader study of world religions, because he later studied the religions of China and India and ancient Judaism, paying particular attention to their different economic consequences and social stratification conditions. In another major book, "Politics as a Profession," Weber defined "state" as an entity that successfully claimed "a monopoly on the legal use of force in a specific territory." He was also the first to classify social authority in different ways that were charismatic, traditional, rational, and legal.  

Early Years 

Max Weber's biography tells us that Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was born on April 21, 1864, in Erfurt, Prussia, Saxony. He was the eldest of the seven children of Max Weber Sr. and his wife Helene Fallenstein, a wealthy and distinguished civil servant and member of the National Liberal Party. Young Weber and his brother Alfred thrived in that intellectual atmosphere. On Christmas Day 1876, Weber gave his parents two historical documents, entitled "On the Process of German History, Especially on the Position of the Emperor and the Pope" and "On the Roman Empire since Constantine." 

Education 

In 1882, Weber studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Heidelberg. He then transferred to the University of Berlin after a year of military service. In his early years as a student, after spending much time on "drinking beer and fencing," Weber increasingly sided with his mother and alienated his father during family disputes. While studying, he also served as a junior attorney. In 1886, Weber passed the Referendar exam, which is comparable to the Bar Exam of the Common Law System. In the late 1880s, Weber continued to study law and history. In 1889, he obtained a doctorate in law writing a legal history thesis entitled "The History of Medieval Trade Associations". This work was used as part of the longer book "On the History of Medieval Business Enterprises" that was published in the same year, which was based on Southern European sources and was published that same year. Two years later, in cooperation with August Meitzen, Weber completed his authority, the history of Roman agriculture, and its importance to public and private law. So, after becoming a private physician, Weber joined the faculty of the University of Berlin to give lectures and consultations for the government. 

Marriage 

In 1893, Weber married his distant cousin Marian Schniger, who later became a feminist activist and writer, after Weber's death. She played an important role in collecting and publishing Weber's magazine articles, and her biography is an important source for understanding Weber's life. They did not have any children. This marriage gave Webber the long-awaited financial independence, and he eventually left his parents' family. 

Initial Work 

In the years between the completion of the thesis and the obtaining of the training degree, Weber became interested in contemporary social policy. In 1888 he joined the Verein für Socialpolitik, a new professional association of German economists belonging to the historical school, the first in statistical research. He was also involved in politics, joining the left-wing in society conferences. In 1890, Verein established a research project to study the "Polish problem" when the local labor force migrated to the rapidly industrializing cities of Germany. Polish agricultural workers moved to eastern Germany. Weber was responsible for this research and wrote most of the final report. This caused considerable concern and controversy, ushering in Weber's reputation as a social scientist. 

Mental Health Problem 

In 1897, old Webber died two months after a serious dispute with his son, but it was never resolved. Since then, Weber became increasingly prone to depression, nervousness, and insomnia, making it difficult for him to perform his duties as a teacher. His condition forced him to cut back on teaching, and he eventually dropped out of his course in the fall of 1899. During the summer and fall months of 1900, after spending time in the nursing home, Weber and his wife left for Italy at the end of the year and did not return to Heidelberg until April 1902. He retired from teaching again in 1903 and did not return until 1919. Weber described his torture of mental illness in detail in a personal chronology destroyed by his wife. This chronicle is said to have been destroyed because Marianne feared that if Weber's experience with mental illness was widely known, his work would be discredited by the Nazis. 

Participation in the First World War 

When the First World War broke out, the 50-year-old Weber volunteered and was appointed as a reserve officer in charge of organizing the Heidelberg Army Hospital, which he held until the end of 1915. Weber's views on the war and the expansion of the German Empire changed during the conflict. Previously, he supported nationalist rhetoric and war efforts. Despite some doubts, he believed that war was a necessary condition for fulfilling Germany's responsibilities as an important country. However, over time, Weber became one of the most prominent critics of German expansionism and German war policy. Weber publicly criticized Belgium's annexation policy and unrestricted submarine warfare and later supported calls for constitutional reform, democratization, and universal suffrage.

The Last Years of His Life 

Out of frustration with politics, Weber resumed teaching during this period, first at the University of Vienna and then at the University of Munich after 1919. His lectures during this period were included in important works such as "General Economic History", "Science as a Profession", and "Politics as a Profession". In Munich, he directed the first university institute of sociology in Germany but never held a chair in the field. Many colleagues and students in Munich criticized his reaction to the German revolution, while some right-wing students staged protests in front of his house. On June 14, 1920, Max Weber contracted the Spanish flu and died of pneumonia in Munich. At the time of his death, Weber had not yet completed his masterpiece on the sociological theory that was Economics and Society. His widow Marianne helped prepare its publication between 1921 and 1922. 

Methodology 

Sociology, for Max Weber, is "a science that attempts to interpret social behavior to make causal explanations of its processes and effects." It is clearly stated in his methodology that Weber distinguished himself from Durkheim, Marx, and other classical figures because his main focus was on individuals and culture;  and unlike theorists like Comte and Durkheim, he did not attempt to create specific rules to govern sociology or the social sciences in general. Durkheim pays attention to society, while Weber pays attention to individuals and their actions. 

Max Weber Sociology

Interesting facts about Max Weber were that Weber's Science of Sociology begins with the article Protestant Ethics and the Capitalist Spirit and goes on to discuss Chinese religions, Indian religions, and ancient Judaism. However, his work on other religions was interrupted by his sudden death in 1920, which prevented him from pursuing ancient Jewish studies on early Christianity and Islam. The three main themes of the thesis were the influence of religious concepts on economic activities, the relationship between social stratification and religious concepts, and the most outstanding characteristics of Western civilization. Weber regarded religion as one of the central forces in society. Its objective is to find the reasons for the different developmental paths of Western and Eastern cultures, although they have not been judged or evaluated, as have some contemporary thinkers who follow the Darwinian social paradigm. Weber mainly wanted to explain the unique elements of Western civilization. He insisted that Calvinist religious thought had a significant impact on social innovation and the development of the Western economic system, but noted that they were not the only factor in this development. Other notable factors mentioned by Weber include the rationalism of scientific pursuit, the combination of observation and mathematics, academic science and jurisprudence, the rational systematization and bureaucratization of government management and economic enterprises. Finally, according to Weber, the study of the sociology of religion has focused on a significant part of Western culture, that is, the decline of magical beliefs, or what he called the "disillusionment of the world."