Wolfgang Mommsen’s Max Weber und die deutsche Politik 1890–1920, published in 1959, belongs to that category of famous dissertations that have attained major and permanent significance. Theodor Schieder had introduced him to the theme, to which he remained faithful all his life— exactly 50 years if reckoned from the beginning of his state examination in 1955.

Max Weber was for him the foremost contemporary witness for his comprehensive research into Wilhelminism, imperialism and liberalism. His large presentation of an epoch, ‘Liberal Pride and World Ambition’ (‘Bürgerstolz und Weltmachtstreben’, 1955), is shot through with citations from Max Weber. For Mommsen Max Weber was the key witness in the struggle of liberal middle-class citizens for Germany’s external place in the world and its internal democratic order—a struggle that ended in failure. Weber’s political writings and standpoints in relation to political developments and events were of particular interest to him. Weber’s judgments and prognoses of the future course of a liberal domestic politics under the pressure of an increasingly instrumental capitalistic rationality and over-mighty bureaucractic structure were pessimistic. Weber placed his hopes on countervailing forces, the equally justified political participation of the workers’ movement and the parliamentarization of the ruling system. The liberal middle-class citizenship, which has suborned itself to Bismarck’s authoritarianism and had accepted the dilettante regime of Wilhelm II, would be re-activated through these two measures. Mommsen adhered to Weber’s criteria while also clearly bringing out the ambivalences and antinomies of those judgments. What interested him greatly was Weber’s method of drawing polarizing contrasts between institutionalization and convictions—the interaction of the person with the structure of action that emphasized the conflict and struggle between parties and the claims of leadership in the establishment of value preferences. Mommsen’s themes did not however remain confined to Weber’s problematics but extended to the political history of Germany since 1848, to colonialism and to aspects of English history. In the interactions of foreign and domestic policy, of political organization and intellectual orientations, of economic interests and the calculations of political power, he analysed the driving forces of imperialism before the First World War.

Wolfgang Mommsen dedicated many essays to Weber’s methodology and concept formation, in particular the ideal type and the typology of the forms of domination. As part of his work for the edition of Economy and Society he familiarized himself with the history of the work and how it was built up from the manuscripts left behind at Weber’s death. Lastly he turned to the relationship of Weber with contemporary national-economy. From a decade of involvement with Weber he had acquired a profound understanding of Weber and possessed a comprehensive understanding of his work.

All of this predestined him for the project of a Max Weber Gesamtausgabe, in whose service he laboured for 30 years. His services in various editorial functions should not be omitted from the appreciation of his scientific achievements. Editing is an arduous and ascetic labour, even though it might be the core of the professional competence of an historian. He belonged to the main editorial board of the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe from its inception in 1974 and he became a driving force in this large undertaking. He was central in defining editorial principles and the arrangement of text, the division of the volumes, and the formatting of the text and the critical apparatus. He possessed his own archival experience, discovered unknown textual evidence, and he was able to decipher Weber’s hard-to-read handwriting and to determine the political and the historical-scientific context of the writings. Else Jaffé entrusted him with some of Weber’s manuscripts.

Wolfgang Mommsen kept the Edition going forward and was exemplary in fulfilling the tasks that he had taken on. He edited and co-edited 11 of the volumes. That is more than half of the volumes so far published of the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe. At the work station at Düsseldorf he was always able to recruit research staff, often from his students, and to motivate and lead a highly productive team over very many years. It was with this team that he edited five volumes of the political writings, four volumes of the scientific and political letters, the sub-volume on ‘Gemeinschaften’ from the unpublished manuscripts of ‘Economy and Society’, and the first volume of the lectures on ‘General (“theoretical”) Economics’. That is an impressive and huge achievement involving indefatigable work, concentration on the text, and careful decision-making on the commentary. The publication of a volume only succeeds when no mistakes come to light, and that of course is what is expected, yet the concern with detail goes unmentioned. Beyond his own editorial field he kept watch over the edition as a whole and he critically scrutinized very many volumes offering supportive advice.

He regarded his work on the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe as an obligation and it claimed much of his time. Occasionally this self-abnegating work became a burden, but he was so fascinated with Max Weber that he was prepared to continue in the service of the Edition. The Max Weber Edition, all of those involved in it and the world-wide community of Weber researchers owe Wolfgang J. Mommsen a large debt of thanks. His death is a permanent loss to Weber research, a loss of expertise and vigour, and the loss of a man fascinated by Max Weber.

As someone who grappled intensively with Max Weber, Wolfgang Mommsen had his own ‘Weber-picture’. Weber researchers are themselves seldom in agreement, and if the disagreements are often only small the controversies are nevertheless lively. That is because Weber researchers, who work closely with the Weber texts continually become fascinated with something new and develop a personal identification with it. The actual ‘Weber-picture’ acquires a subjective ‘cultural significance’, it possesses an existential relational meaning which cannot easily be shaken off. In the face of the wide range of Weber’s research and his various problematics and theoretical interests, these ‘Weber-pictures’ are influenced by selective affinity. Wolfgang Mommsen always put forward his positions emphatically and vigorously and, as was in his nature, he was not shy of conflict yet also ready to achieve compromises. Discussions with him were always both stimulating and strenuous.

There are good reasons to see in Theodor Mommsen the model for the politically active teacher/intellectual, a model that left its mark on Max Weber, and there are good reasons to see in Max Weber the mould for Wolfgang Mommsen. All three were representatives of a liberal educated middle class with a high level of scientific competence combined with a sense of responsibility for the actual political, cultural and social situation of the present. Wolfgang Mommsen argued for a German polity that had freed itself from traditional cultural orientations and the leading political ideas. He acted here in concert with his twin brother, Hans Mommsen. The ‘Brothers Mommsen’ were nationally and internationally respected and influential figures speaking for the self-awareness of the political culture of the Federal Republic, and they intervened in numerous controversies championing a culture of democratic citizenship.

We remember Wolfgang Mommsen as a lively, independent personality possessing great conceptual powers, as being idiosyncratic, challenging and demanding, as a comrade-in-arms and finally, as a friend.

* Address given in commemoration at the Faculty of Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine
University, 18 November, 2004.

© Max Weber Studies 2005, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT, UK.

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