Marianne Weber

Painting of Marianne Weber.

Marianne Weber, (born Marianne Schnitger on August 2, 1870 in Oerlinghausen, died March 12, 1954 in Heidelberg), sociologist, women's rights activist and wife of Max Weber.

Biography

Girlhood, 1970-1893

Marianne Schnitger was born on August 2, 1870 in Oerlinghausen to medical doctor Eduard Schnitger and his wife Anna Weber, daughter of a prominent Oerlinghausen businessman Karl Weber^[1]. After the death of her mother in 1873 she moved to Lemgo and was raised for the next fourteen years by her grandmother and aunt. During this time, both her father and his two brothers went mad and were institutionalized. When Marianne turned 16, Karl Weber sent her off to fashionable finishing schools in Lemgo and Hanover, from which she graduated when she was 19. After the death of her grandmother in 1889, she lived several years with her mother's sister Alwine in Oerlinghausen.

In 1891, Marianne began to spend time with the Charlottenburg Webers, Max, Jr. and his mother Helene in particular. She became very close to Helene, who she would refer to as being "unaware of her own inner beauty ^[2]." In 1892, Max broke off his engagement with his unstable cousin Emmy and proposed to Marianne. In 1893 she and Max Weber married in Oerlinghausen and moved into their own apartment in Berlin.

Marriage, 1893-1920

Marianne and Max Weber, 1894

During the first few years of their marriage, Max taught first in Berlin, then, in 1894, at University of Heidelberg ^[3]. During this time, Marianne pursued her own studies. After moving to Freiburg in 1894 she studied with leading neo-Kantian philosopher Heinrich Rickert. She also began to engage herself in the women's movement after hearing prominent feminist speakers at a political congress in 1895. In 1896, in Heidelberg, she co-founded a society for the circulation of feminist thought. She also worked with Max to raise the level of women students attending the university.

In 1898, Max suffered a psychological collapse, possibly brought on after his father's death, which happened shortly after Max confronted him regarding abuse of Helene. Between 1898 and 1904, Max withdrew from public life, moving in and out of mental institutions, traveling compulsively and resigning from his prominent position at University of Heidelberg. During this time, their roles reversed somewhat; as Max worked toward recovery and rested at home, Marianne attended political meetings, sometimes until late at night, and published her first book in 1900: Fichtes Sozialismus und sein Verhältnis zur Marxschen Doktrin ("Fichte's Socialism and its Relation to Marxist Doctrine").

In 1904, the Webers toured America ^[4]. In America, Marianne met both Jane Addams and Florence Kelley, both staunch feminists and active political reformers ^[5] Also during that year, Max re-entered the public sphere, publishing, among other things, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Marianne also continued her own scholarship, publishing her landmark work in 1907: Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwicklung ("Marriage, Motherhood and the Law").

In 1907, Karl Weber died, and left enough money to his granddaughter Marianne for the Webers to live comfortably. During this time, Marianne first established her intellectual salon. Between 1907 and the start of WWI, Marianne enjoyed a rise in status as an intellectual and scholar as she published "The Question of Divorce" (1909), "Authority and Autonomy in Marriage" and "On the Valuation of Housework" (both in 1912), and "Women and Objective Culture" (1913). While the Webers presented a united front in public life, as Max defended his wife from her scholarly detractors, Max carried on an affair with Else Jaffe, a mutual friend.

In 1914, WWI broke out. While Max busied himself publishing his multiple volume study of religion, lecturing, organizing military hospitals, serving as an adviser in peace negotiations and running for office in the brand-new Weimer Republic, Marianne published many works, among which were: "The New Woman" and "The Ideal of Marriage" (both 1914) "War as an Ethical Problem" (1916), Changing Types of University Women" (1917), "The Forces Shaping Sexual Life" and "Women's Special Cultural Tasks" (both 1919)^[6].

In 1919, Marianne Weber became a member of the German Democratic Party and shortly thereafter, the first woman elected as a delegate in the federal state parliament of Baden. In 1920, she was elected to be president of the Federation of German Women's Organizations^[7][8]. Also in 1920, Max's sister Lili suddenly committed suicide, and Max and Marianne adopted her four children. Shortly thereafter, Max Weber contacted pneumonia and died suddenly, on June 14th, 1920, leaving Marianne a widow with four children to raise.

Widowhood, 1920-1954

Following Max's unexpected death, Marianne withdrew from public and social life, funneling her physical and psychological resources into preparing ten volumes of her husband's writing for publication^[9]. In 1924, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg, both for her work in editing and publishing Max's work as well as her own scholarship. Between 1923 and 1926, Weber worked on Max Weber: Ein Lebensbild (Max Weber: A Biography), which was published in 1926. Also in 1926, she re-established her weekly salon, and entered into a phase of public speaking in which she spoke to audiences of up to 5,000. During this phase, she continued to raise Lili's children, with the help of a close-knit circle of friends.

Marianne Weber in Nazi Germany

Weber's career as a feminist public speaker ended abruptly in 1935, when Hitler dissolved the Federation of German Women's Organizations. During the time of the Nazi regime up until the Allied Occupation of Germany in 1945, she held a weekly salon ^[10]. While criticisms of Nazi atrocities were sometimes subtly implied, she told interviewer Howard Becker in 1945 that "we restricted ourselves to philosophical, religious and esthetic topics, making our criticism of the Nazi system between the lines, as it were. None of us were the stuff of which martyrs were made." Weber did claim, however, to know people who were involved in the 20 July plot.

Weber continued to write during this time, however, and published Frauen und Liebe ("Women and Love") in 1935 and Erfülltes Leben (The Fulfilled Life) in 1942.

Work

Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber

Some mention has been made of Georg Simmel and scholarly connection to Max Weber, particularly in terms of their influence on the Frankfurt School, but Marianne Weber, too, was a colleague of Simmel's^[11]. In addition to a more than 20 year friendship, in which Weber and Simmel conversed and wrote letters often, Marianne Weber wrote a critical response to Simmel's 1911 essay, "The relative and the absolute in the problem of the sexes, in which she criticized his "concept of gender relations."^[12]. Both sociologists dealt with the "woman question" and, more broadly, "the interrelation between gendered modes of individuation, social differentiation and gender difference^[13]."

"Authority and Autonomy in Marriage," 1913

In this essay, published in 1913, Marianne Weber studied marriage as an institution, both historically and in her current context. "Authority" referred to the domination a man has over a woman within the institution of marriage, and "autonomy" referred to what she saw as a replacement for that authority- namely, a woman's right to choose whether or not she wished to be subordinate to her husband. "Modern women," she argued, "value marriage as it should be- that is, a life's partnership that is founded on the affinity of souls and senses.^[14]

References

1. ^ Lengermann, Patricia M, and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
2. ^ Weber, Marianne. 1975. Max Weber: a biography. New York: Wiley
3. ^ "Marianne Weber: A Woman-Centered Sociology." Patricia M. Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
4. ^ Scaff, Lawrence A. 1998. "The `cool objectivity of sociation': Max Weber and Marianne Weber in America." History Of The Human Sciences 11, no. 2: 61. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 11, 2011)
5. ^ "Marianne Weber: A Woman-Centered Sociology." Patricia M. Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
6. ^ "Marianne Weber: A Woman-Centered Sociology." Patricia M. Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
7. ^ "History of the German Women's Movement". Translated by Robert Burkhardt, assisted by members of the Translation Workshop organized by the Goethe-Institut. Boston, January-March, 1998. http://www.trip.net/~bobwb/gwmtext/index.htm
8. ^ "Marianne Weber: A Woman-Centered Sociology." Patricia M. Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
9. ^ Lengermann, Patricia M, and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930 : a Text/reader.
10. ^ Becker, Howard and Marianne Weber. "Max Weber, Assassination and German Guilt: An Interview with Marianne Weber." American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol 10, No. 4 (July, 1951), pp 401-405.
11. ^ "Elective affinities: Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber on gender and modernity." Theresa Wobbe. Engendering the Social: Feminist Encounters with Sociological Theory. eds. Barbara L. Marshall and Anne Witz. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2004. pp 54-68.
12. ^ "Elective affinities: Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber on gender and modernity." Theresa Wobbe. Engendering the Social: Feminist Encounters with Sociological Theory. eds. Barbara L. Marshall and Anne Witz. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2004. pp 54-68.
13. ^ "Elective affinities: Georg Simmel and Marianne Weber on gender and modernity." Theresa Wobbe. Engendering the Social: Feminist Encounters with Sociological Theory. eds. Barbara L. Marshall and Anne Witz. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2004. pp 54-68.
14. ^ "Authority and Autonomy in Marriage." Marianne Weber and trans. Craig R. Bermingham. Sociological Theory, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 85-102

Partial list of Published Works

• Fichtes Sozialismus und sein Verhältnis zur Marxschen Doktrin ("Fichte's Socialism and its Relation to Marxist Doctrine", 1900)
• Beruf und Ehe ("Occupation and Marriage", 1906)
• Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwicklung ("Marriage, Motherhood and the Law", 1907)
• Die Frage nach der Scheidung ("The Question of Divorce") (1909)
• Autorität und Autonomie in der Ehe ("Authority and Autonomy in Marriage", 1912)
• Über die Bewertung der Hausarbeit ("On the Valuation of Housework" 1912)
• Frauen und Kultur ("Women and Objective Culture" 1913)
• Max Weber. Ein Lebensbild ("Max Weber: A Biography", 1926)
• Die Frauen und die Liebe ("Women and Love", 1935)
• Erfülltes Leben ("The Fulfilled Life", 1942- republished in 1946)
• Lebenserinnerungen ("Memoirs", 1948)

See also

• History of feminism
• Max Weber
• Allied-occupied Germany
• Weimar Republic
• German Women's Movements, 20th century
• Federation of German Women's Movements
• Georg Simmel
• Gender

External links

• [1] (in German)

Persondata
Name	Weber, Marianne
Alternative names	Marianne Schnitger Weber, Marianne Schnitger
Short description	German feminist, sociologist, wife of Max Weber
Date of birth	August 2, 1870
Place of birth	Oerlinghausen, Germany
Date of death	March 12, 1954
Place of death	Heidelberg, Germany