He spent much of 1904 touring the United States, notes and letters of which letters have recently been published. During that time, he wrote much that would be published after his death, on matters sociological and political. He made one brief foray back into teaching in 1902 but left again in 1903 and would not return to an official posting until 1919, one year before his death. Eventually, he had to leave teaching altogether to spend some time in recovery. He became depressed and suffered insomnia. Max and his father had quarreled two months before, particularly about his father’s treatment of his mother, and every biographer points out that the death hit Max very hard. Instead, they maintained a vibrant social circle of intellectuals. He spent his time researching and writing on economics and legal history. In 1896, they moved to the Heidelberg, where Weber continued as an Economics Professor. In 1894, the newly married couple moved to Freiburg, where Weber was appointed Professor of Economics. I would never have thought I was beaming so.” Career The engagement was still supposed to be kept secret, but as Weber remarked, “Every jackass here gives me a meaningful look and asks me whether something has happened to me. The seriousness of their relationship was lightened by their sparkling humor and impish banter. Here is how Marianne tells the story of their engagement: When his cousin came to visit, moving from the country to the city, they quickly became attached. He repressed everything.” He urgently wanted to leave. Max, she says, “was reserved and never asked relieved himself by a frank discussion of the problems. During this time, Marianne tells us, he felt oppressed by his father, who ran his house with strong authority, requiring obedience of his children and his wife, who suffered a great deal. He did not leave home until his marriage in 1893, to his cousin Marianne Schnitger. For seven years he lived in the family home, studying further and teaching classes when he could. He returned to university and eventually earned a law degree in 1889, with a dissertation on the history of trading companies in the Middle Ages. Despite becoming a squad leader, he complained in a letter home that “the military existence is gradually getting too stupid and loathsome, especially since in recent weeks it has left no room whatsoever for anything else.” He liked the military much more after entering into officer’s training, and he left the following year with admiration of the “machine” and a greater sense of patriotism. In his second year, he took time off to serve in the military, but found military life difficult. Marianne tells us he had no talent for saving money and would often ask for increases to his allowance. By all accounts he led an active social life in college, visiting other bourgeois families, drinking, fencing, and even dueling (from which he suffered a distinctive scar on his face for the rest of his life). He also took up fencing at his father’s fraternity house. At age 18, he enrolled at the University of Heidelberg, where he followed in his father’s footsteps by studying law. In 1882, Max earned his high school diploma and, according to his wife’s biography, “also helped his friends to cheat their way through.” His teachers, she claimed expressed some doubts about his moral maturity, finding him a troublesome if intelligent student. Max grew up in bourgeois comfort, in a home devoted to politics and intellectual pursuits. In fact, Weber’s younger brother, Alfred, would also become a sociologist. The Webers had been a prosperous family for many generations, making their money in the linen trade. Weber was the first of eight children, born to a wealthy statesman (Max Weber, Sr.) and his somewhat devout wife Helene (Fallenstein). Weber would also come to create a particular approach to sociological inquiry, more focused on interpretation and less focused on policy proposals than Durkheim’s. His most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, was a partial answer to that question. Weber spent his life in a rapidly industrializing and increasing militaristic Germany, living through the devastations of the first World War, and witnessing the rise of fascism during the early years of the Weimar Republic. Like many writers and thinkers of his day, he was interested in how this new industrial society came to be. Max, full name Maximilian Karl Emil, Weber was born in Erfurt, a bustling commercial city in what is now central Germany, on April 21, 1864.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |