- Ludwig Gumplowicz
Ludwig Gumplowicz, born
March 9 1838 inKraków , then a republic, now part ofPoland , diedAugust 19 1909 inGraz ,Austria , was one of the founders of Europeansociology . He was also ajurist andpolitical scientist who taught constitutional andadministrative law at theUniversity of Graz .Life
Gumplowicz studied law in Kraków, then became a lawyer and
publicist there. In 1875 he began teaching administration in Graz; in 1882 he became anassociate professor , and in 1893 a full professor. In 1909 he committed suicide along with his wife after he had become ill withcancer .Works and influence
Gumplowicz became interested in the problem of suppressed ethnic groups very early, being from a
Jew ish family and coming from Kraków, a city of the formerPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which was first partitioned and later as theFree City of Kraków annexed byAustria-Hungary . He was a lifelong advocate of minorities in theHabsburg Empire , in particular the Slavic speakers.Gumplowicz soon became interested in the later form of sociology of conflict, starting out from the idea of the "group" (then known as "race"). He saw the
state as an institution which served various controllingelite s at different times. In analysis, he leaned towardsmacrosociology , predicting that if the minorities of a state became socially integrated, they would break out in war. In his 1909 publication, "Der Rassenkampf" (Struggle of the Races) he foresaw world war. During his life he was considered aSocial Darwinist .His political beliefs and his polemic character attracted many Polish and Italian students, making his theories important in Poland, Italy and other crown states (today
Croatia ,Czech Republic ). But the fact that he published his works in German meant that he was also an important figure in German-speaking countries.Gustav Ratzenhofer was the most prominent of those influenced by him.Gumplowicz had another disciple in
Manuel González Prada . Prada lived in Peru and found Grumplowicz’s theories on ethnic conflict useful for understanding not only the Spanish conquest of Quechua peoples during the sixteenth century but also how the descendents of the Spanish (and other European immigrants) continued to subordinate the indigenous peoples. Most striking in this regard is González Prada’s essay "Our Indians" included in his "Horas de lucha" after 1924.External links
* [http://www.relst.uiuc.edu/durkheim/Texts/1885c.html 1885 review of "Grundriss der Soziologie" by Émile Durkheim] (in French)
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=496&letter=G JewishEncyclopedia.com - GUMPLOWICZ, LUDWIG: ] at www.jewishencyclopedia.com -Jewish Encyclopedia
*González Prada, Manuel. [http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~tward/GP/libros/horas/horas19.html" "Our Indians"] . 1900.
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