Kurt Heinrich Wolff

Kurt Heinrich Wolff ( born May 20, 1912 in Darmstadt, † 14 September 2003 in Newton, Massachusetts ) was an emigre from Germany American sociologist.

Life and work

After finishing high school in Darmstadt (1932), Wolff studied German and Romance languages ​​, philosophy and sociology in Frankfurt am Main and Munich; his most important academic teacher was Karl Mannheim. From 1933 to 1939 he lived in Italy, where he studied in Florence and the study funded by odd jobs. In 1935, he received his doctorate with a thesis on the sociology of knowledge. Until 1939 he worked as a teacher at various Italian schools.

In 1939 the Jewish couple Wolff England ( where it stayed just three weeks ) in the USA and received in 1945 the U.S. citizenship. With the assistance of a niece got Wolff in 1939 was employed as scientific assistant in sociology at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Four years later, he received a grant from the Social Sciences Research Council, which enabled him to study at the University of Chicago and operate in New Mexico fieldwork. After working as a sociology professor at Earlham College ( Indiana) he was born in 1952 at Ohio State University professor. In 1959 he moved to Brandeis University (Massachusetts), where he taught his retirement in 1982 out to 1993. From 1964 to Wolff belonged to the Board of Directors of Sociological Abstracts. 1966/67, he took a one-year visiting professorship at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau true.

Wolff was also active as a translator. In particular, works Georg Simmel, he transferred into English.

1966-1972 Wolff was Chairman of the Research Committee on Sociology of Knowledge of the International Sociological Association, 1972-1979 President of the International Society for the Sociology of Knowledge. Wolff was an honorary member of the German Society for Sociology.

In 1987 he gained his hometown Darmstadt, Johann Heinrich Merck Medal.

Works (selection)

  • Trying Sociology (1974).
  • Surrender and Catch (1976).
  • Attempt at a sociology of knowledge (1968).
  • Devotion and concept. Sociological Essays (1968).
  • The personal story of an emigrant in: Srubar, Ilya (ed.), Exile, Science, Identity. The emigration of German social scientist, 1933-1945, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988, pp. 13-22 (also source).
  • Sociology of endangered World (1998).
  • O'Loma! (1989).
  • Transformation in the Writing ( 1995).
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