First years of life
Max Weber was born in April 21, 1864 in Erfurt, in Prussia. He was the last born of six brothers. Weber’s mother was called Helene and her father was Max Weber Sr, an important and rich official. Weber grew up in a family surrounded by academia and politics and it was normal for public figures and scholars to visit his family. As a result of Weber’s first exposure to prominence, he found his niche in the academic world and is said to have secretly read forty volumes of Goethe’s work. His training began as a law student at the University of Heidelberg in 1882. He later moved to the University of Berlin. At the end, he worked as a junior lawyer and in 1889 he obtained his doctorate in law with a thesis on the subject; “The history of commercial collaborations in the Middle Ages. “
- The challenges
Weber has received much criticism of the bureaucracy. This also causes customer dissatisfaction because very long processes are involved. Bureaucracy has also received criticism for its slow decision-making process. Weber also accepted the marginal theory of value, although many historicists denied its practicality.
- career
Immediately after completing his studies, Weber returned to the faculty of the University of Berlin as a professor and consultant to the government. He later worked as a professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg and later at the University of Freiburg. As a professor, his research focused on legal history and economics. Weber also joined a professional association called Verein für Socialpolitik whose main concern was to find solutions to the social problems of society. He left his teaching profession in 1899 due to insomnia and depression. Weber co-founded the Sociological Association where he served as the first treasurer. He also contributed to strengthening the parliament.
- More contributions
Weber’s main contribution in politics and government has been to categorize political leadership into a charismatic domain, legal domain and traditional domination. He is known to have supported studies on bureaucracy that he considered a threat to people’s freedom. Weber also worked on social stratification in which he formulated three distinct social elements, namely the welfare state, the social class and the political party. According to Weber, social status is defined by non-economic factors such as honor, religion and prestige. A party is a political affiliation of an individual while the social class is a relationship based on the economy, like an employee or an employer. In economics, Weber has paved the way for the delineation of the concepts of capitalism and exceptionality.The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism is a relationship between religion and capitalism.
- Death and inheritance
Weber died at 1920 in the city of Munich, Germany. He became known as the greatest of the German sociologists of his time. Together with Èmile Durkheim and Karl Marx, he contributed to modern sociology. In his book The nature of social action describes sociology as a form of social action that implies citizens’ interest in the politics of their countries. Weber has also influenced other social theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Leo Strauss.
