Epilogue: Alfred Weber After 1933

Abstract

From the time he arrived in Heidelberg in 1907, Alfred Weber was fairly consistent in his cultural and political world view, despite the dramatic transformations in the context in which the world view was articulated. Many of the particulars of his position changed with the context, but the overall premise remained the same. Like many of his generation, he accepted the organic-mechanistic dualism that underlay the discursive coalition of the empire, but modified the assignment of institutions to the two spheres. The authoritarian state, which the coalition viewed as the embodiment of the organic unity of the nation, was transferred to the mechanistic sphere, where it now accompanied civil society rather than hierarchically subordinating it. This transfer put the academic elite in a less defined position, for they had been considered a part of the state establishment, even if they were clearly not equals of the main political actors.