See also:  [Max Weber (1881-1961) (painter/printmaker/sculptor)
                  [Calvinism]

Max Weber

Max Weber (b.1864.04.21, Erfrut, Prussia (Germany); d.1920.06.14, Munich)

[Ency.Brit] Attended Heidelberg in 1882 (18yo). In 1884 he fulfilled
his military servie at Strasbourg. "During this time, he became very
close to the family of his mother's sister, Ida Baumgarten, and her
husband, the historian Hermann Baumgarten, whose influence on
W's intellectual development was profound.

THE FRIEBURG ADDRES. In 1895 [at his inaugural address as
full professor at Univ. of Berlin], he "pulled together some 5
years of study on the agrarian [ie, farming-related] problems
of Germany east of the Elbe River, into a devastating indictment
of the rulling "Junker" Aristocracy as historically obsolete. In W's
view, the existing liberal parties [prob. indicating liberal towards
buisness; eg, "laise faire" ?sp? (let it be; hands off; "What's good
for General Motors is good for the USofA", etc] were in no position
to challenge or replace the Junkers. Nor was the working class
ready to accep;t the responsibilities of power. Only the nation
as a whole, educated to political maturity by a subconscious policy
of overseas imperial expansion, could bring Germany to the 
level of political maturity attained by the French and English.
[Thus,] W's address advanced an ideology of "liberal imperialism",
attracting to its support such imporatn publicists as 
Friedrich Naumann and Hans DelbrUck."

Pizo sez: It looks like at this point (1895&ff) he is (like most of Europe)
playing the "we have to keep up game", and the "well, France and
England are seize-ing territories, then if we don't we will be left
behind" -- odd, how like chess the world is. Action/reaction, repeat infinitely.

[Ency Brit] His "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" 
outlined the statistical evidence between the ascendency of 
protestantism and success in capitalistic ventures. "He then went 
on to attribute the relationship to certain accidental psychological 
consequences of predestination and the calling in Puitan theology, 
notions that were deduced with the greatest logical severity by Calvin 
and his followers."

Pizo sez:  This pretty much the case today, eh? Might makes right, 
                  manifest destiny, etc....



W's later influence (esp, 1916-1918, &1920).