M. Rainer Lepsius

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Mario Rainer Lepsius (2006)

Mario Rainer Lepsius (born May 8, 1928 in Rio de Janeiro ; † October 2, 2014 in Weinheim ) was a German sociologist and co-editor of the historical-critical Max Weber Complete Edition .

Live and act

Mario Rainer Lepsius, usually abbreviated as M. Rainer Lepsius , was born in Brazil in 1928, grew up in Munich in 1936 and was there when the German Wehrmacht was surrendered at the age of seventeen. From 1947 to 1952 he studied history , economics and sociology at the universities of Munich and Cologne . In 1950 he obtained a diploma in economics from the University of Munich and received his doctorate there in 1955 . While he was able to take an introduction to sociology with Alfred von Martin in Munich , he was attracted to René König in Cologne , and his interest turned entirely to sociology. Gerhard Weisser interested him in urban planning. In the autumn of 1951 he got to know the London School of Economics and Political Science during a stay in London . Friedrich Lütge then offered him an assistant position in the seminar for economic history in Munich, making him a colleague of Knut Borchardt . In addition, he was commissioned with a study of the social position of the master in industrial operations, which resulted in contacts with industrial sociologists such as Theo Pirker , Burkart Lutz and Friedrich Weltz .

From 1955 to 1956 Lepsius spent on a Fulbright Fellowship at Columbia University with Robert K. Merton and Paul F. Lazarsfeld and also got in touch with the New School for Social Research . From 1957 to 1963 he was Alfred von Martin's research assistant at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Munich, which was then headed by Emerich Klaus Francis . In 1963 he completed his habilitation with a criticism of the functionalist theory of social stratification . In the same year he moved to the then business school, now the University of Mannheim , where he was professor of sociology until 1981 . From 1981 to 1993 he held the same position at Heidelberg University . Since 1993 he was emeritus there .

Lepsius was from 1971 to 1974 chairman of the German Society for Sociology . He was a member of several academies: since 1977 a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences , since 1992 a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and since 2004 a foreign member of the class for moral, historical and philological sciences of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino .

Lepsius was considered a well-known researcher and theorist of contemporary society. Like most sociologists of the post-war generation, he had started as an industrial sociologist and was a member of the “Technical Committee for Industrial Sociology of the German Society for Sociology”, to which all well-known young sociologists belonged. He was particularly interested in the work of Max Weber , in whose historical-critical complete edition he played a major role as co-editor. His research also extended to historical and contemporary social structure analyzes. He has also worked in the field of political sociology and the European Union . Lepsius had a strong influence on political cultural research through his concept of milieu .

The Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg awarded him the Dr. phil. hc The German Society for Sociology honored him in 2000 with the prize for an outstanding scientific life's work.

Lepsius was since 1958 with the publicist and later SPD member of the Bundestag Renate Lepsius , geb. Meyer, married. Their son is the constitutional law teacher Oliver Lepsius .

Fonts (selection)

List of publications are contained in: Adalbert Hepp, Martina Löw (Eds.): M. Rainer Lepsius. Sociology as a Profession. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2008, ISBN 3-593-38322-5 , pp. 161–178 and Steffen Sigmund, Gert Albert, Agathe Bienfait, Mateusz Stachura (eds.): Social constellation and historical perspective. Festschrift for M. Rainer Lepsius. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-531-15852-X , pp. 468-483.

Complete edition Max Weber

literature

  • Adalbert Hepp, Martina Löw (Eds.): M. Rainer Lepsius. Sociology as a Profession. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2008, ISBN 3-593-38322-5 .
  • Dieter Langewiesche : Scientific news. M. Rainer Lepsius and history. In: History and Society . Volume 42, 2016, pp. 195-208.
  • Wolfgang Schluchter (Ed.): In memoriam Prof. Dr. Dr. hc M. Rainer Lepsius (May 8, 1928 - October 2, 2014). Max Weber Institute for Sociology, Heidelberg 2014 ( PDF; 498 kB ).
  • Steffen Sigmund, Gert Albert, Agathe Bienfait, Mateusz Stachura (eds.): Social constellation and historical perspective. Festschrift for M. Rainer Lepsius. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-531-15852-X .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ M. Rainer Lepsius: Sociology as applied enlightenment. In: Christian Fleck (ed.): Paths to sociology after 1945: Autobiographical notes. Opladen 1996, pp. 185-197.
  2. ^ M. Rainer Lepsius: Sociology as a Profession. Autobiographical sketches. In: Adalbert Hepp, Martina Löw (Eds.): M. Rainer Lepsius. Sociology as a Profession. Frankfurt am Main / New York 2008, p. 92 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Lepsius, M. Rainer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lepsius, Mario Rainer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Rio de Janeiro
DATE OF DEATH 2nd October 2014
Place of death Weinheim