In this volume, M. Rainer Lepsius analyzes the establishment and the institutionalization of sociology as a discipline by demonstrating how it developed as an empirical science with the purpose of analyzing social processes systematically and permanently.

The forty-eight texts collected in this volume provide an account of the development of Germany sociology in the twentieth century. M. Rainer Lepsius analyzes the establishment and the institutionalization of sociology as a discipline by demonstrating how it developed as an empirical science with the purpose of analyzing social processes systematically and permanently. Special attention is paid to the intellectual breach of 1933 and the contribution of emigrant scholars, many of them independently recognized by Lepsius, as well as to the establishment of sociology in the new Länder after German reunification in 1990. Autobiographical reflections complete the book, which in total is an historical analysis of the growth and development of sociology as a discipline in Germany.

Inhalt
I. Anfänge und Abbruch
II. Neubegründung
III. Konsolidierung
IV. Zur Soziologie in der DDR und zum Aufbau der Soziologie in den neuen Bundesländern
V. Soziologen
VI. Biographische Rückblicke