German Sociological Association Activity Report

This publication is the first Russian translation of Max Weber's keynote address at the First Conference of the German Sociological Association (DGS) held at the Academy of Social and Commercial Sciences in Frankfurt, Germany, from October 19-22,1910. At the first session on the morning of October 20, he delivered the business report of the German Sociological Association that had been founded in Berlin the year before. Weber was given the floor as a chairman of the auditing board immediately after the opening speech The Pathways and Objectives of Sociology by the Association's president, Ferdinand TOnnies. In the conference transcript, Weber's presentation is referred to as the DGS"Business Report", though it is essentially the classic's attempt to delineate a framework research program for the then-institutionalizing German sociology. At the outset, Weber talks about the principles of the Association's activity as exemplified in its charter. First of all, he refers to the imperative of value neutrality, a central tenet to all Weberian sociology implying a purely scientific focus, i.e., free from political, ethical and other evaluations of scholarly interest in the subject. Additionally, he emphasizes the pragmatic nature of the DGS, since it is not a purely status-based association of academic"nobility". In the main part of the paper, Weber discusses the specific clusters of topics that the Association has chosen to study as its priorities, including the sociology of the media, the sociology of unions and public associations, and the sociology of key professions in modern society. The scholar concludes by speaking about the DGS financial situation, and its general dependence on promoting a culture of scholarly sponsorship patterned after the American model.