Robert Michels

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Robert Michels
Title page On the sociology of the party system ...  (1911)

Willhelm Robert (o) Eduard Michels (born January 9, 1876 in Cologne , † May 2, 1936 in Rome ) was a German - Italian sociologist . He is one of the founding fathers of modern political science . His political path in life led him from left-wing socialism in the German SPD via syndicalism to Italian fascism . Michels is one of the most important political-sociological party critics of the 20th century .

Michel's main work is the study of the socialist-social-democratic party system, first published in 1911. Here Michels developed the “ iron law of the oligarchy ”, which is central to elite theories : the shift in idealistic objectives caused by power politics by a party clique only interested in maintaining its own power. Michels illustrates his guiding thesis with empirical material from German social democracy at the beginning of the 20th century.

Life

Michels came from a merchant family in Cologne. After private lessons, he attended the Collège Français in Berlin from 1885 to 1889 and then switched to the Carl Friedrich Gymnasium in Eisenach , where he graduated from high school in 1894. In 1895 he did a year of military service at the war school in Hanover and in Weimar. From 1896 to 1900 he studied history and economics at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the universities of Munich , Leipzig , Halle an der Saale and Turin . At the University of Halle, he heard lectures from Prof. Theodor Lindner (1843–1919), his future father-in-law.

In 1900 he received his doctorate with the dissertation "On the prehistory of Louis XIV. Invasion of Holland". phil. and married Gisela Lindner. In 1901 Michels joined the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) in Italy and in 1903 in Marburg the SPD, for which he ran unsuccessfully for a Reichstag mandate in the Alsfeld constituency in Vogelsberg (Grand Duchy of Hesse) in the same year . He was a delegate at the social democratic party congresses of 1903 (in Dresden), 1904 (in Bremen) and 1905 (in Jena). The experiences of these party congresses shaped his work. Because of his participation in socialist agitation, he was denied his habilitation in Germany. Even Max Weber sat in vain for a Michels.

In 1907 Michels left Germany and went to Turin as a private lecturer . In August 1907 he took part in the international socialist congress in Stuttgart. Then he left the socialist parties and turned to revolutionary syndicalism . Michels became an Italian citizen in 1913 . Soon afterwards (1914) he was appointed professor of economics and statistics at the University of Basel without giving up his title as lecturer at the University of Turin. Michels subsequently maintained close contact with Vilfredo Pareto .

In 1928 Michels joined the Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) of Benito Mussolini . In Benito Mussolini he saw the leader ( duce ) of a movement that wanted to realize his ideal of the selfless man (and who, like him, had also come from the syndicalist direction of socialism). Mussolini is also said to have ensured that Michels was appointed to the newly established chair for political economy and corporation in Perugia in 1928, in order to further develop his fascist theory of corporatism there. From 1928 to 1933 he was also a lecturer in the history of economic theory ( Storia delle Dottrine Economiche ) at the Faculty of Political Science in Perugia.

family

Robert Michels's parents were the textile merchant Julius Michels and Anna Schnitzler. Julius Michels was born in Cologne on September 29, 1842, Anna Schnitzler on January 4, 1854 also in Cologne. They married on July 3, 1873 in Cologne. Robert had a sister: Ella Klara Michels was born on September 10, 1879 in Cologne. She married the manor owner Alfred Winzer zu Groß-Görnow.

His wife Gisela Lindner was born on October 14th, 1878 and died on November 9th, 1954. She was the author of numerous scientific papers. Her parents were the historians Theodor Lindner and Agnes Kügler (1843–1926).

Robert Michels and Gisela Lindner were married to four children:

  • Italia (1900-1900)
  • Mario (* 1901)
  • Manon (* 1904)
  • Daisy (* 1906)

Italia died relatively early in Basel.

In 1933 Manon Michels married Professor Mario Einaudi, founder of the Fondazione Einaudi in Turin and co-founder of the Einaudi publishing house , a son of the Italian President Luigi Einaudi . They had three children: Luigi, Roberto and Marco. Mario Einaudi taught at Harvard University and Fordham University in USA and died in 1994 in Piedmont, Italy.

Daisy Michels married Filippo Gallino from one of the richest families in Italy.

Works

  • Storia del marxismo in Italia. Compendio critico con annessa bibliografia. Rome 1910.
  • On the sociology of the party system in modern democracy. Studies on the oligarchic tendencies of group life. (= Philosophical-Sociological Library , XXI). Werner Klinkhardt, Leipzig 1911. (4th edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-520-25004-7 ).
  • Problems of Social Philosophy. BG Teubner, Leipzig 1914 (full text) .
  • Economy and race. In: Grundriß der Sozialökonomik. II. Department , JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1914, pp. 97-102.
  • Socialism and Fascism as political currents in Italy. Historical studies. Munich 1925.
  • Materials on a sociology of the alien. In: Yearbook for Sociology. 1, 1925, pp. 296-371.
  • The psychology of the anti-capitalist mass movements. In: Grundriß der Sozialökonomik. IX. Department, Part 1, Tübingen 1926, pp. 241–359.
  • Sociology as social science (= living science. IV). Mauritius, Berlin 1926.
  • Great men. Characterological studies. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1927.
  • The patriotism. Prolegomena on its sociological analysis. Munich / Leipzig 1929 (2nd edition, with an introduction and an afterword by Rolf Rieß, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-428-14008-4 ).
  • The psychological moment in world trade. Leipzig 1931.
  • A syndicalist undercurrent in German socialism (1903–1907). In: Festschrift for Carl Grünberg on his 70th birthday. CL Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1932, pp. 343-364.
  • On the sociology of the bohemians and their connections with the intellectual proletariat. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics . Jg. 136, 1932, I, pp. 801-816.
  • Mass, leaders, intellectuals: Political-sociological essays 1906–1933. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1933 (Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-593-33640-5 ).
  • Historical-critical studies on the political behavior of intellectuals. In: Schmoller's yearbook for legislation, administration and economics in the German Empire. Vol. 57, 1933, I, pp. 807-836.
  • Shifts in the ruling classes after the war. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin 1934.

bibliography

  • Opera di Roberto Michels. In: Studi in memoriam di Roberto Michels. CEDAM [University of Applied Sciences of Perugia. Annali della facoltà di guirisprudenzan, ser. V, vol. XV], Padova 1937, pp. 39-76.

literature

  • Harald Bluhm , Skadi Krause (ed.): Robert Michels' Sociology of the Party System. Wiesbaden 2012.
  • Andreas Burtscheidt: More admiration than criticism? Mussolini and Fascist Italy in the analysis of Robert Michels and Edmund Freiherr Raitz von Frentz. In: Erik Gieseking et al. (Ed.): To the problem of ideology in history. Herbert Hömig on his 65th birthday. (= Subsidia Academica, Series A: Modern and Modern History. Volume 8). Run a. d. Pegnitz 2006, ISBN 3-931070-46-8 , pp. 405-418.
  • Werner Conze : Epilogue to the new edition . In: Robert Michels: On the sociology of the party system ... , reprint of the 2nd edition, Stuttgart 1957.
  • Timm Genett: The Stranger in War - On the political theory and biography of Robert Michels 1876–1936. ISBN 978-3-05-004408-8 , 2008.
  • Timm Genett (Ed.): Robert Michels: Social movements between dynamism and solidification - essays on the workers, women and national movements . 2008, ISBN 978-3-05-004388-3 .
  • Timm Genett: antiquated classic? On the historical status of Robert Michels' “Sociology of the Party System”. In: Harald Bluhm, Karsten Fischer, Marcus Lllanque (eds.): Ideas policy. Berlin 2011, pp. 383-296.
  • Timm Genett: Democratic social pedagogy in the crisis of the Enlightenment - on the ambivalence of a classic of the elite theory. In: Harald Bluhm, Skadi Krause (ed.): Robert Michels' Sociology of the Party System. Wiesbaden 2012, pp. 69–85.
  • Timm Genett: Lettere di Ladislaus Gumplowicz a Roberto Michels (1902–1907). In: Annali della Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. Vol. XXXI, Torino 1997, pp. 417-473.
  • Timm Genett: Lettere di Roberto Michels e di Julius Springer (1913–1915). In: Annali della Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. Vol. XXX, Torino 1996, pp. 533-555.
  • Dirk Kaesler :  Michels, Robert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 451 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wilfried Röhrich : Robert Michels. From the socialist-syndicalist to the fascist creed. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972.
  • Karlheinz Weißmann : On the sociology of the party system in modern democracy . In: State Policy Handbook . Volume 2, Verlag Antaios, Schnellroda 2010, pp. 256-257. Online .
  • Heinrich August Winkler : Robert Michels. In: Hans-Ulrich Wehler German historian. Volume 4, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1972, pp. 441-456.

Web links

Commons : Robert Michels  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Professore Ordinario d'Economia generale e corporativa
  2. ^ Biography Roberto Michels in the Internet Lexicon: 50 Classics of Sociology .
  3. ↑ full text on Archive.org ; also in english .
  4. ↑ Max Bloch: Review of: Genett, Timm: The Stranger in War. Berlin 2008. In: H-Soz-u-Kult. March 27, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Michels, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michels, Roberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Italian sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1936
Place of death Rome