Karl Mannheim (Mannheim Károly the original writing of his name March 27, 1893, Budapest – January 9, 1947, London) was a Jewish Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers of classical sociology. Mannheim rates as a founder of the sociology of knowledge. is the 86th day of the year (87th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Budapest (disambiguation). ... is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the scientific or systematic study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. ...

Education and Academic Career

He studied in Budapest, Berlin—in 1914 he attended lectures by Georg Simmel—, Paris and Heidelberg. During the brief period of the Hungarian Soviet in 1919 he was offered a position by his friend and mentor György Lukács. After the collapse of the government Mannheim moved to Germany. From 1922 to 1925 in Heidelberg he worked under the German sociologist Alfred Weber, brother of the well-known sociologist Max Weber. In 1926 Mannheim was official appointed to teach sociology at Heidelberg. In 1930 he became professor of sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Norbert Elias worked as one of his assistants during this period (from spring 1930 until spring 1933). Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (March 1, 1858 – September 28, 1918, Berlin, Germany) was one of the first generation of German sociologists. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... For other uses, see Heidelberg (disambiguation). ... György Lukács (April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Heidelberg (disambiguation). ... Alfred Weber (July 30, 1868 in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany - May 2, 1958 in Heidelberg) was a German economist, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography. ... For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... The Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main (commonly called the University of Frankfurt) was founded in 1914 as a Citizens University, which means that while it was a State university of Prussia, it had been founded and financed by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt am... Norbert Elias (born June 22, 1897 in Breslau, Germany (now WrocÅ‚aw, Poland); died August 1, 1990 in Amsterdam) was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen. ...

In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and settled in Britain, where he was appointed a lecturer in Sociology at the London School of Economics (LSE). In 1941 he was invited by Sir Fred Clarke, Director of the Institute of Education, University of London, to teach sociology on a part-time basis in conjunction with his role at LSE. In January 1946 he took up the full-time chair of education at the Institute of Education, which he held until his death a year later at the age of 53. Mascot: Beaver Affiliations: University of London Russell Group EUA ACU CEMS APSIA Universities UK U8 Golden Triangle G5 Group Website: http://www. ... The Institute of Education (IoE) is a postgraduate college and part of the University of London. ...

Mannheim’s biography, one of intellectual and geographical migration, falls into three main phases: Hungarian (to 1919), German (1919-1933), British (1933-1947). Among important intellectual influences are György Lukács, Georg Simmel, Edmund Husserl, Karl Marx, Alfred and Max Weber, Max Scheler and Wilhelm Dilthey. Through these and others, German historicism, Marxism, phenomenology, sociology and Anglo-American pragmatism entered his work. György Lukács (April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. ... Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (March 1, 1858 – September 28, 1918, Berlin, Germany) was one of the first generation of German sociologists. ... Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (IPA: ; April 8, 1859 – April 26, 1938) was a philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Alfred Weber (July 30, 1868 in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany - May 2, 1958 in Heidelberg) was a German economist, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography. ... For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... Max Scheler (August 22, 1874, Munich - May 19, 1928, Frankfurt am Main) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. ... Wilhelm Dilthey (November 19, 1833–October 1, 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, student of Hermeneutics, the study of interpretations and meanings, and a philosopher. ... For historicism as a method of interpreting biblical apocalypse, see Historicism (Christian eschatology). ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the scientific or systematic study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... Pragmatism is a philosophic school that originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Sanders Peirce, who first stated the pragmatic maxim. ...

Works

Hungarian phase Mannheim was a precocious scholar and an accepted member of two influential circles, one centered on Oszkár Jászi and interested above all in French and English sociological writings, and one centered on György Lukács, with interests focused on the enthusiasms of German diagnosticians of cultural crisis, notably the novels of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the writings of the German mystics. Mannheim's Hungarian writings, notably his "Structural Analysis of Epistemology," anticipate his lifelong search for "synthesis" between these currents. Oszkár Jászi (1875-1957) was a Hungarian social scientist and politician. ... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...

German phase This was Mannheim's most productive. In it he turned from philosophy to sociology, inquiring into the roots of culture. His essays on the sociology of knowledge have become classics. In 'Ideology and Utopia' he argued that the application of the term ideology ought to be broadened. He traced the history of the term from what he called a 'particular' view. This view saw ideology as the perhaps deliberate obscuring of facts. This view gave way to a 'total' conception (most notably in Marx) which argued that a whole social group's thought was formed by its social position (e.g. the proletariat's beliefs were conditioned by their relationship to the means of production). However, he called for a further step which he called a general total conception of ideology, in which it was recognised that everyone's beliefs—including the social scientist's—were a product of the context they were created in. He feared this could lead to relativism but proposed the idea of relationism as an antidote. To uphold the distinction, he maintained that the recognition of different perspectives according to differences in time and social location appears arbitrary only to an abstract and disembodied theory of knowledge. An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Marx is a common German surname. ... For the physics theory with a similar name, see Theory of Relativity. ... Relationism is a framework of social thought governing political, economic and social behaviour. ...

The list of reviewers of the German "Ideology and Utopia" includes a remarkable roll call of individuals who became famous in exile, after the rise of Hitler: Hannah Arendt, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Paul Tillich, Hans Speier, Günther Stern (aka Günther Anders), Waldemar Gurian, Siegfried Kracauer, Otto Neurath, Karl August Wittfogel, Béla Fogarasi, and Leo Strauss. Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) was a German Jewish political theorist. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Max Horkheimer (February 14, 1895 – July 7, 1973) was a Jewish-German philosopher and sociologist, known especially as the founder and guiding thinker of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. ... Herbert Marcuse (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-born philosopher, sociologist and a member of the Frankfurt School. ... Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. ... Günther Anders (Günther Stern) (WrocÅ‚aw, July 12th, 1902 - Vienna, December 17th, 1992) was a German philosopher. ... Siegfried Kracauer (February 8, 1889, Frankfurt am Main, Germany – November 26, 1966, New York) was a German-American writer, journalist, sociologist, and cultural critic, particularly of media such as film, as well as the urban form. ... Otto Neurath (December 10, 1882-December 22, 1945) was an Austrian sociologist, political economist, and an unorthodox Marxist. ... Karl August Wittfogel was born 6 September 1896 in Woltersdorf (Germany) and died in 25 May 1988. ... Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973), was a German-born Jewish-American political philosopher who specialized in the study of classical political philosophy. ...

Mannheim's ambitious attempt to promote a comprehensive sociological analysis of the structures of knowledge was treated with suspicion by Marxists and neo-Marxists of the Frankfurt School. They saw the rising popularity of the sociology of knowledge as a neutralization and a betrayal of Marxist inspiration. During his few years in Frankfurt prior to 1933 the rivalry between the two intellectual groupings—Mannheim's seminar (with Norbert Elias as his assistant) and that of Horkheimer and the Institute for Social Research—was intense. While this contest looms large in retrospect, Mannheim's contemporary competitors were other academic sociologists, notably the gifted proto-fascist Leipzig professor, Hans Freyer, and the proponent of formal sociology and leading figure in the profession, Leopold von Wiese. For related articles, see Critical theory and Critical theory (Frankfurt School) Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. ... Norbert Elias (born June 22, 1897 in Breslau, Germany (now WrocÅ‚aw, Poland); died August 1, 1990 in Amsterdam) was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Max Horkheimer (February 14, 1895 - July 7, 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist, known especially as the founder and guiding thinker of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ... Hans Freyer, born July 31, 1887 in Leipzig, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Wiesbaden, was an important, conservative German sociologist and philosopher. ...

In his British phase, Mannheim attempted a comprehensive analysis of the structure of modern society by way of democratic social planning and education. His work was admired more by educators, social workers, and religious thinkers than it was by the small community of British sociologists. His books on planning nevertheless played an important part in the political debates of the immediate post-war years, both in the United States and in several European countries.

Mannheim's book Ideologie und Utopie (1929) was the most widely debated book by a living sociologist in Germany during the Weimar Republic; the English version Ideology and Utopia (1936) has been a standard in American-style international academic sociology, carried by the interest it aroused in the United States. The quite different German and English versions of the book figure in reappraisals of Mannheim initiated by new textual discoveries and republications. Mannheim’s sociological theorizing has been the subject of numerous book-length studies, evidence of an international interest in his principal themes. Mannheim was not the author of any work he himself considered a finished book, but rather of some fifty major essays and treatises, most later published in book form. Curiously, German National Socialism (Nazism) was not mentioned as one of four "form[s]of the Utopian mentality," and there was no mention of Hitler or of Nazism in this work, even though Mannheim was shortly to flee Germany because of it. Mussolini and Italian fascism, while also not a "form of Utopian mentality," were discussed elsewhere in the volume. Anthem Das Lied der Deutschen Germany during the Weimar period, with the Free State of Prussia (in blue) as the largest state Capital Berlin Language(s) German Government Republic President  - 1918-1925 Friedrich Ebert  - 1925-1933 Paul von Hindenburg Chancellor  - 1919 Philipp Scheidemann(first)  - 1933 Kurt von Schleicher (last) Legislature...

Works (selection)

• Mannheim, K. ([1922-24] 1980) Structures of Thinking. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Mannheim, K. ([1925] 1986) Conservatism. A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Mannheim, K. (1929), Ideologie und Utopie
• Mannheim, K. (1936) Ideology and Utopia. London: Routledge.
• Mannheim, K. (1940) Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction. London: Routledge.
• Mannheim, K. ([1930] 2001) Sociology as Political Education. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction
• Mannheim, K. (1971. 1993) From Karl Mannheim. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction

References

• Richard Aldrich, (2002) The Institute of Education 1902-2002: A centenary history, London: Institute of Education.
• David Frisby, (1983) The Alienated Mind, London: Heineman.
• David Kettler, Volker Meja, and Nico Stehr (1984), Karl Mannheim, London: Tavistock.
• David Kettler and Volker Meja, (1995) Karl Mannheim and the Crisis of Liberalism, New Brunswick and London: Transaction.
• Colin Loader, (1985) The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Volker Meja and Nico Stehr (eds), (1982[1990]) Knowledge and Politics. The Sociology of Knowledge Dispute, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Eva Karadi and Erzsebet Vezer, (1985) Georg Lukacs, Karl Mannheim und der Sonntagskreis, Frankfurt/M: Sendler.
• Reinhard Laube (2004) Karl Mannheim und die Krise des Historismus, Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

External links

• Karl-Mannheim Chair for Cultural Studies, Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany
• Studies of Karl Mannheim.
• Likenesses of Mannheim in the National Portrait Gallery.