Wolfgang Mommsen, born in Marburg, Germany, in 1930. Ph.D. from Universität Köln. Professor Emeritus of Universität Düsseldorf. († 2004)
Guest of the Rector (Spring 1999)
During my three-month stay at the institute my work focussed upon the history and the editorial problems of Max Weber’s opus magnum Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Soziologie. It became clear that Weber’s early lecture courses which presently are being edited by a research group under my guidance at the University of Düsseldorf are of considerable importance. Particular attention was given to a recently discovered manuscript by Weber on Sippe und Hausgemeinschaft that is apparently a precursor of the respective texts on Gemeinschaften in the oldest section of Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Soziologie.
Besides, I inquired into the intellectual position of Weber’s early work within the context of contemporary social science and economics. It is now possible to define Weber’s role within the spectre of the Social and Economic Sciences around 1900 more clearly than before.
Furthermore I wrote a number of smaller essays on various topics due to be published in the near future.
I greatly benefitted from my stay at NIAS. I found the time to find a new intellectual focus for my ongoing research on Max Weber.