Werner Sombart facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Werner Sombart
Sombart
Born	(1863-01-19)19 January 1863 Ermsleben, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	18 May 1941(1941-05-18) (aged 78) Berlin, Nazi Germany
Nationality	German
Known for	Coining the term "late capitalism"
Scientific career
Fields	Economics, sociology, history
Institutions	University of Breslau, Handelshochschule Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
Doctoral advisor	Gustav von Schmoller Adolph Wagner
Doctoral students	Wassily Leontief Richard Löwenthal
Influences	Max Weber, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx
Influenced	Karl Polanyi, Joseph Schumpeter, Oswald Spengler

Werner Sombart (1863–1941) was an important German thinker. He was an economist, historian, and sociologist. He led a group of economists called the "Youngest Historical School." He was one of the most important social scientists in Europe in the early 1900s.

Sombart is known for creating the term "late capitalism." He also came up with the idea of "creative destruction," which is about how new ideas and businesses replace old ones in a capitalist system. His most famous work was a book called Der moderne Kapitalismus (Modern Capitalism). It was published in three parts between 1902 and 1927. In this book, he described how capitalism developed through different stages, from its very beginnings to what he called "late capitalism" after World War I.

Life and Work
Legacy
See also

Life and Work

Early Career and Ideas

Werner Sombart was born in Ermsleben, Germany, in 1863. His father, Anton Ludwig Sombart, was a rich politician and businessman. Werner studied law and economics at universities in Pisa, Berlin, and Rome. He earned his Ph.D. in Berlin in 1888. His teachers were Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner, who were leading German economists.

Early in his career, Sombart was seen as a very progressive thinker. Because of his strong views, it was hard for him to get a job at a major university. He first worked as a lawyer for the Bremen Chamber of Commerce. Later, he became a junior professor at the University of Breslau. Even though famous universities like Heidelberg wanted him, the government often stopped these appointments.

At this time, Sombart was very interested in the ideas of Karl Marx. He used and explained Marx's theories so well that Friedrich Engels, who worked with Marx, said Sombart was the only German professor who truly understood Marx's famous book, Das Kapital. Sombart even called himself a "convinced Marxist." However, he later said that Marx had made mistakes on many important points.

Social Studies and Movements

Around 1888, Sombart joined the Verein für Socialpolitik (Social Policy Association). This was a new group of German economists, including his friend Max Weber. They believed that economics should help solve social problems. They were pioneers in using large-scale studies to understand economic issues.

In 1896, Sombart wrote a book called Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung (Socialism and Social Movement). This was one of the first books to focus entirely on the idea of a social movement. He believed that the rise of workers' movements was a natural result of problems within capitalism. He thought that the situation of the working class created a "love for the masses" and a desire for a "communistic way of life."

Understanding Capitalism

Sombart's most important work was Der moderne Kapitalismus (Modern Capitalism). This book tells the story of economic development over many centuries. It describes how capitalism grew and changed. He divided the development of capitalism into three main stages:

Proto-capitalism: This was the very beginning, as society moved away from the old feudal system.
Early capitalism: This period ended before the Industrial Revolution.
High capitalism: This stage began around 1760.
Late capitalism: This final stage, which he named, started after World War I.

Even though some economists later criticized his work, Der moderne Kapitalismus is still considered a very important book.

In 1903, Sombart became an editor for the Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare. He worked there with his colleagues Edgar Jaffé and Max Weber.

In 1906, Sombart became a full professor at the Berlin School of Commerce. This was a good move for him because it was closer to where political decisions were made. Around this time, he wrote other books that went along with Modern Capitalism. These books looked at how things like luxury, fashion, and war affected the economy.

Also in 1906, he published a famous book called Why is there no Socialism in the United States? This book is still important today for understanding why the United States developed differently from other countries in terms of socialism.

In his 1911 book, Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews and Modern Capitalism), Sombart explored the role of Jewish people in the development of capitalism. He suggested that Jewish traders and manufacturers, who were often excluded from traditional guilds, helped create new ways of doing business that were more competitive and focused on pleasing customers.

His 1913 book, Der Bourgeois (translated as The Quintessence of Capitalism), tried to describe the personality of a modern businessman. It also looked at where the "capitalist spirit" came from. The book discussed things like the desire for money, the beginnings of private business, and different types of entrepreneurs. It also explored how things like national character, religion, and technology shaped the capitalist mindset.

Later Career and Sociology

In 1917, Sombart became a professor at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin. He stayed there until 1931 and continued teaching until 1940. During this time, he was one of the most well-known sociologists.

Sombart believed that sociology was part of the Humanities (Geisteswissenschaften). He thought that to understand people, you needed to use empathy and inner understanding (which he called "Verstehen"). This idea was not very popular at the time, as many social scientists wanted to make their field more like natural sciences. However, some modern thinkers are now looking at Sombart's ideas again. His main sociological writings were collected in a book published after he died, called Noo-Soziologie.

Later Years

During the time of the Weimar Republic in Germany, Sombart's views shifted towards nationalism. His connection to Nazism is a topic that is still debated by historians today.

In 1934, he published a book called Deutscher Sozialismus (German Socialism). In this book, he claimed that a "new spirit" was taking over, and that the age of capitalism and traditional socialism was ending. He suggested that "German socialism" (which was linked to National-Socialism) would put the "welfare of the whole above the welfare of the individual." He wrote that this new system would involve a "planned economy" and that individuals would have "no rights but only duties."

However, his 1938 book, Vom Menschen (About Man), was seen as going against Nazi ideas. The Nazis even tried to stop it from being published and distributed. Sombart's views on the Nazis were complex. He had many Jewish students, and most of them had somewhat positive feelings about him after the war, even though he wasn't a hero or a resistance fighter.

Werner Sombart passed away on May 18, 1941.

Legacy

Werner Sombart's influence today is sometimes hard to see, partly because of his later connections to National Socialism. However, in economic history, his book "Modern Capitalism" is still considered a very important work. Many of his ideas have been questioned, but the book remains a key source of inspiration.

Some of his important ideas include:

The discovery that double-entry accounting (a way of keeping financial records) was a key step for the growth of Capitalism. Sombart believed that the very idea of "capital" came from this accounting method.
His interdisciplinary study of the City in urban studies.
He also created the term "creative destruction." This idea was later used and made famous by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his theory of innovation.

In sociology, Sombart's ideas are still studied by some, especially those who look at sociology from a more philosophical or cultural point of view. He has always been very popular in Japan. Many of his works were not translated into English for a long time, which limited his influence in the United States. However, in recent years, sociologists have shown new interest in Sombart's work.