NAME: Max Weber
OCCUPATION: Educator, Philosopher, Scholar, Anti-War Activist, Economist, Literary Critic, Political Scientist, Journalist, Sociologist
BIRTH DATE: April 21, 1864
DEATH DATE: June 14, 1920
EDUCATION: Heidelberg University, University of Berlin, Göttingen
PLACE OF BIRTH: Erfurt (Prussia), Germany
PLACE OF DEATH: Munich, Germany
FULL NAME: Maximilian Karl Emil Weber
AKA: Maximilian Karl Weber
AKA: Maximilian Weber
AKA: Karl Emil Weber
HISTORY Max Weber was a 19th century German sociologist and one of the founders of modern sociology. He wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905. Max Weber was a precocious child, born in Germany in 1864. He went to university and became a professor, but suffered a mental breakdown in 1897 that left him unable to work for five years. In 1905 he published his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He returned to teaching in 1918 and died in 1920. He is considered the father of modern sociology. Max Weber was born on April 21, 1864. His father, Max Weber Sr., was a politically active lawyer with a penchant for “earthly pleasures,” while his mother, Helene Fallenstein Weber, preferred a more ascetic lifestyle. The conflicts this created in their marriage acutely influenced Max. Still, their house was full of prominent intellectuals and lively discourse, an environment in which Weber thrived. Growing up, he was bored with school and disdained his teachers, but devoured classic literature on his own.
After graduating from high school, Weber studied law, history, philosophy and economics for three semesters at Heidelberg University before spending a year in the military. When he resumed his studies in 1884, he went to the University of Berlin and spent one semester at Göttingen. He passed the bar exam in 1886 and earned his Ph.D. in 1889, ultimately completing his habitation