Marianne Weber - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Marianne Weber, sociologist, women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

activist and wife of Max Weber

Max Weber

Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...

Girlhood, 1870-1893

Marianne Schnitger was born on August 2, 1870 in Oerlinghausen to medical doctor Eduard Schnitger and his wife Anna Weber, daughter of a prominent Oerlinghausen businessman Karl Weber. After the death of her mother in 1873 she moved to Lemgo

Lemgo

Lemgo is a city in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of c. 42,000.It was founded in the 12th century by Bernhard II at the crossroad of two merchant routes. Lemgo was a member of the Hanseatic League, a medieval trading association of free cities in several...

and was raised for the next fourteen years by her grandmother and aunt. During this time, both her father and his two brothers went mad and were institutionalized. When Marianne turned 16, Karl Weber sent her off to fashionable finishing school

Finishing school

A finishing school is "a private school for girls that emphasises training in cultural and social activities." The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the educational experience, with classes primarily on etiquette...

s in Lemgo and Hanover, from which she graduated when she was 19. After the death of her grandmother in 1889, she lived several years with her mother's sister Alwine in Oerlinghausen.

In 1891, Marianne began to spend time with the Charlottenburg Webers, Max, Jr. and his mother Helene in particular. She became very close to Helene, who she would refer to as being "unaware of her own inner beauty ." In 1892, Max broke off his engagement with his unstable cousin Emmy and proposed to Marianne. In 1893 she and Max Weber married in Oerlinghausen and moved into their own apartment in Berlin.

Marriage, 1893-1920

During the first few years of their marriage, Max taught first in Berlin, then, in 1894, at University of Heidelberg . During this time, Marianne pursued her own studies. After moving to Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

in 1894 she studied with leading neo-Kantian philosopher Heinrich Rickert

Heinrich Rickert

Heinrich John Rickert was a German philosopher, one of the leading Neo-Kantians.-Life:He was born in Danzig, Prussia and died in Heidelberg, Germany.-Thought:...

. She also began to engage herself in the women's movement after hearing prominent feminist speakers at a political congress in 1895. In 1896, in Heidelberg, she co-founded a society for the circulation of feminist thought. She also worked with Max to raise the level of women students attending the university.

In 1898, Max suffered a psychological collapse, possibly brought on after his father's death, which happened shortly after Max confronted him regarding abuse of Helene. Between 1898 and 1904, Max withdrew from public life, moving in and out of mental institutions, traveling compulsively and resigning from his prominent position at University of Heidelberg. During this time, their roles reversed somewhat; as Max worked toward recovery and rested at home, Marianne attended political meetings, sometimes until late at night, and published her first book in 1900: Fichtes Sozialismus und sein Verhältnis zur Marxschen Doktrin ("Fichte's Socialism and its Relation to Marxist Doctrine"). .

In 1904, the Webers toured America . In America, Marianne met both Jane Addams

Jane Addams

Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...

and Florence Kelley

Florence Kelley

Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...

, both staunch feminists and active political reformers Also during that year, Max re-entered the public sphere, publishing, among other things, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician. Begun as a series of essays, the original German text was composed in 1904 and 1905, and was translated into English for the first time by Talcott Parsons in 1930...

. Marianne also continued her own scholarship, publishing her landmark work in 1907: Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwicklung ("Marriage, Motherhood and the Law").

In 1907, Karl Weber died, and left enough money to his granddaughter Marianne for the Webers to live comfortably. During this time, Marianne first established her intellectual salon

Salon

Salon may refer to:* Salon , a meeting for learning or enjoyment* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments* Drawing room, an architectural space in a home* Salon , a regular art exhibition...

. Between 1907 and the start of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Marianne enjoyed a rise in status as an intellectual and scholar as she published "The Question of Divorce" (1909), "Authority and Autonomy in Marriage" and "On the Valuation of Housework" (both in 1912), and "Women and Objective Culture" (1913). While the Webers presented a united front in public life, as Max defended his wife from her scholarly detractors, Max carried on an affair with Else Jaffe, a mutual friend.

In 1914, World War I broke out. While Max busied himself publishing his multiple volume study of religion, lecturing, organizing military hospitals, serving as an adviser in peace negotiations and running for office in the brand-new Weimer Republic, Marianne published many works, among which were: "The New Woman" and "The Ideal of Marriage" (both 1914) "War as an Ethical Problem" (1916), Changing Types of University Women" (1917), "The Forces Shaping Sexual Life" and "Women's Special Cultural Tasks" (both 1919).

In 1919, Marianne Weber became a member of the German Democratic Party and shortly thereafter, the first woman elected as a delegate in the federal state parliament of Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

. In 1920, she was elected to be president of the Federation of German Women's Organizations. Also in 1920, Max's sister Lili suddenly committed suicide, and Max and Marianne adopted her four children. Shortly thereafter, Max Weber contacted pneumonia and died suddenly, on June 14th, 1920, leaving Marianne a widow with four children to raise.

Widowhood, 1920-1954

Following Max's unexpected death, Marianne withdrew from public and social life, funneling her physical and psychological resources into preparing ten volumes of her husband's writing for publication. In 1924, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg, both for her work in editing and publishing Max's work as well as her own scholarship. Between 1923 and 1926, Weber worked on Max Weber: Ein Lebensbild (Max Weber: A Biography), which was published in 1926. Also in 1926, she re-established her weekly salon

Salon

Salon may refer to:* Salon , a meeting for learning or enjoyment* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments* Drawing room, an architectural space in a home* Salon , a regular art exhibition...

, and entered into a phase of public speaking in which she spoke to audiences of up to 5,000. During this phase, she continued to raise Lili's children, with the help of a close-knit circle of friends.

Marianne Weber in Nazi Germany

Weber's career as a feminist public speaker ended abruptly in 1935, when Hitler dissolved the Federation of German Women's Organizations. During the time of the Nazi regime up until the Allied Occupation of Germany in 1945, she held a weekly salon . While criticisms of Nazi atrocities were sometimes subtly implied, she told interviewer Howard Becker in 1945 that "we restricted ourselves to philosophical, religious and esthetic topics, making our criticism of the Nazi system between the lines, as it were. None of us were the stuff of which martyrs were made." Weber did claim, however, to know people who were involved in the 20 July plot.

Weber continued to write during this time, however, and published Frauen und Liebe ("Women and Love") in 1935 and Erfülltes Leben (The Fulfilled Life) in 1942.

Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber

Some mention has been made of Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel was a major German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?',...

and scholarly connection to Max Weber, particularly in terms of their influence on the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

, but Marianne Weber, too, was a colleague of Simmel's. In addition to a more than 20 year friendship, in which Weber and Simmel conversed and wrote letters often, Marianne Weber wrote a critical response to Simmel's 1911 essay, "The relative and the absolute in the problem of the sexes, in which she criticized his "concept of gender relations.". Both sociologists dealt with the "woman question" and, more broadly, "the interrelation between gendered modes of individuation, social differentiation and gender difference."

"Authority and Autonomy in Marriage," 1913

In this essay, published in 1913, Marianne Weber studied marriage as an institution, both historically and in her current context. "Authority" referred to the domination a man has over a woman within the institution of marriage, and "autonomy" referred to what she saw as a replacement for that authority- namely, a woman's right to choose whether or not she wished to be subordinate to her husband. "Modern women," she argued, "value marriage as it should be- that is, a life's partnership that is founded on the affinity of souls and senses.

Works Cited

"Marianne Weber (1870- 1954): A Woman-Centered Sociology," Patricia M. Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
Weber, Marianne. 1975. Max Weber: a biography. New York: Wiley.
Scaff, Lawrence A. 1998. "The `cool objectivity of sociation': Max Weber and Marianne Weber in America." History Of The Human Sciences 11, no. 2: 61. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 11, 2011)
"History of the German Women's Movement". Translated by Robert Burkhardt, assisted by members of the Translation Workshop organized by the Goethe-Institut. Boston, January-March, 1998. http://www.trip.net/~bobwb/gwmtext/index.htm
Becker, Howard and Marianne Weber. "Max Weber, Assassination and German Guilt: An Interview with Marianne Weber." American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol 10, No. 4 (July, 1951), pp 401-405.
Wobbe, Theresa, 2004. "Elective affinities: Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber on gender and modernity." Engendering the Social: Feminist Encounters with Sociological Theory. eds. Barbara L. Marshall and Anne Witz. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. pp 54-68.
Weber, Marianne, 1913. "Authority and Autonomy in Marriage." trans. Craig R. Bermingham. Sociological Theory, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 85-102.

Partial list of published works

Fichtes Sozialismus und sein Verhältnis zur Marxschen Doktrin ("Fichte's Socialism and its Relation to Marxist Doctrine", 1900)
Beruf und Ehe ("Occupation and Marriage", 1906)
Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwicklung ("Marriage, Motherhood and the Law", 1907)
Die Frage nach der Scheidung ("The Question of Divorce") (1909)
Autorität und Autonomie in der Ehe ("Authority and Autonomy in Marriage", 1912)
Über die Bewertung der Hausarbeit ("On the Valuation of Housework" 1912)
Frauen und Kultur ("Women and Objective Culture" 1913)
Max Weber. Ein Lebensbild ("Max Weber: A Biography", 1926)
Die Frauen und die Liebe ("Women and Love", 1935)
Erfülltes Leben ("The Fulfilled Life", 1942- republished in 1946)
Lebenserinnerungen ("Memoirs", 1948)