Bi(bli)ographics

 Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was born on April 21st, 1864 in Erfurt to Helene and Maximilian Max Weber as the oldest of eight children (of which six survived); Max Weber died during the aftermath of the Spanish flue pandemic of pneumonia on June 14th, 1920 in Munich and is regarded as one of the most important social scientists of his era.

 The brochure “Politik als Beruf” (Politics as a Vocation) (1) & (2) presented here is based upon a lecture - with the same title - which was given on January 28th, 1919 in the facilities of a book dealer and antiquarian by the name of Carl Georg Steinicke (1877-1939, nicknamed ‘Papa Steinicke’) in Munich-Maxvorstadt and was initiated by the Bavarian Section of the “Freistudentischen Bundes” - a non-corporated body of liberal students.

 Politics as a Vocation was actually the second lecture that Max Weber had held in these facilities; his first lecture was titled “Wissenschaft als Beruf” (Science as a Vocation) and was given on November 7th, 2017 and can be found online as community text in this collection at - https://archive.org/details/max-weber-1919-wissenschaft-als-beruf Both lectures were planned to be part of a series of four lectures - organized by Immanuel Birnbaum (1894-1982) under the heading “Geistige Arbeit als Beruf” (Intellectual work as a Vocation). Weber’s two lectures are known in the English speaking world as the ‘Vocation Lectures’.

 The additional two lectures planned in this series were titled “Erziehung als Beruf” (scheduled speaker: Georg Kerschensteiner (1854-1932) - Education as a Vocation) and “Kunst als Beruf” (scheduled speaker: William Hausenstein (1882-1957) - Art as a Vocation). It is not known whether or not these two lectures were ever held. Indications are that Georg Kerschensteiner had delivered a draft to Samuel Birnbaum. (3)

 Max Weber’s two lectures  - after being extensively re-edited by Max Weber - were published in the summer of 1919 as separate brochures. 3000 copies were printed of Politics as a Vocation - few seem to have survived the first 100 years.

 The ownership inscription on the title page indicates that the copy published here probably belonged once to Adolf Brandmeyer, (1899-1941), a protestant pastor, socially very active in in the northern parts of Germany.

Literature:

(1) The Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (47 volumes) has been completed in June 2020. The volume covering the so called ‘Vocation Lectures’ is listed as:

Band I/17: Wissenschaft als Beruf 1917/1919 / Politik als Beruf 1919

Hrsg. v. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Wolfgang Schluchter, in Zus.-Arb. m. Birgitt Morgenbrod                                                                                                      1992. XIII, 296 Seiten.

ISBN 978-3-16-145765-4

Details online at - https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/max-weber-gesamtausgabe-9783161457654?no_cache=1

A brochured student-edition is also offered online at: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/max-weber-studienausgabe-9783161458132?no_cache=1

The Introduction and the Editorial Report of this volume are the main sources of the above summary.

(2) Numerous commentaries about Weber’s ‘Vocation Lectures’ in about every major language as well as reprints are available online.
A scholarly English language version of both essays with an excellent introduction titled The Vocation Lectures (2004) can be found as Community Text here - https://archive.org/details/max_weber_the_vocation_lectures_science

(3) Findbuch aus dem Nachlass von Immanuel Birnbaum, (2005), edited by Claudia Bartels, published by the Institut für Zeitungsforschung, p.58, Point 1.2., Korrespondenz Freie Studentenschaft, available online at - https://www.dortmund.de/media/p/institut_fuer_zeitungsforschung/zi_downloads/nachlaesse_1/FindbuchBirnbaum.pdf                                        

(4) Werner Sombart, (1863-1941), a contemporary social scientist of Max Weber, reflected several years earlier about “Die Politik als Beruf”, (‘Politics as a Vocation’) as part of a series of articles published in: Morgen - Wochenschrift für Kultur, 1907. The series of articles is available online - at  - https://ia902309.us.archive.org/6/items/MorgenJg11907/MorgenJg11907.pdf

The eight contributions by Sombart are titled as follows: