Hilda Weiss (29 August 1900 – 29 May 1981; alternatively Hilde Weiss, Hilde Rigaudias-Weiss, Hilda Weiss Parker, Hilde Weiß) was a sociologist,

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. She lived in Germany until 1933, when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power, when she escaped to France. In 1939, she emigrated to the United States and lived there until her death in 1981.

Early research

Weiss was one of the first doctoral students at the

Institute for Social Research Institute for Social Research may refer to: * Norwegian Institute for Social Research, a private research institute in Oslo, Norway * University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, a research institute in Frankfurt, Germany * University of ...

in Frankfurt, joining in 1924. She wrote her thesis on a comparison of the

Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter * Juan Pablo Zeiss (born 1989), Argentine rugby union player * Mary Zeiss Sta ...

optical factory, based on her personal experiences working there, and the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

in Detroit. Her main interest was in the differential impact of the ideologies of

Ernst Karl Abbe Ernst Karl Abbe (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Ca ...

, the founder of Zeiss, and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

. She describes the challenges of working at Zeiss in her autobiography, where she was the only woman in her department. Initially the men there harassed her:

They told obscene jokes and laughed so maliciously when I could not understand them. But after a little while they found out that I was a member of the union. Then they no longer treated me as a little girl, but talked about labor conditions and union meetings.

Study of Working Class people in Germany

In 1930,

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...

was given responsibility for directing a large empirical survey of workers' conditions in Germany. The survey was "largely carried out" by Weiss and involved distributing questionnaires to 3,300 participants. It is likely that Weiss was influenced by a questionnaire developed by

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

in 1880 which she uncovered whilst working in an archive. Friedman notes that:

Hilde Weiss turned out to be the most valued associate in the undertaking; she was charged with the distribution of the questionnaire and taking the measures necessary to guarantee a high return rate from the respondents. Weiss had studied earlier German survey research ventures, especially Max Weber’s pioneering protocols to solicit data about the social psychology and feelings of German workers. She familiarized Fromm with Weberian survey research approaches.

Escaping Nazi Germany

Weiss was Jewish, so with the rise of Nazism it was extremely dangerous for her to stay in Germany. She decided to leave for Switzerland in April 1933. Just before she boarded a train, a dining car waiter recognised her and attracted her attention. It turned out that he had also worked at Zeiss. He helped her to escape, concocting cover stories whenever she was approached by German police (which by then were controlled by the Nazis). She arrived safely in Basel. After a brief time in Geneva, she moved onto Paris. Then, in 1939 at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she escaped to the United States.

Early and personal life

Weiss was born on 29 August 1900, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In October 1935, Weiss married Louis Rigaudias, a French Trotskyist leader. They divorced in 1938. She married Joseph P. Parker on 6 April 1955; however, a number of letters suggest this marriage took place in summer 1950. Parker died in a car accident on 6 February 1958, aged 80, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

.Garz, D. ed., 2004.

Published works

* Weiss, Hilde: Rationalisierung und Arbeiterklasse: Zur Rationalisierung der deutschen Industrie. Berlin: Führer-Verlag 1926. * Weiss, Hilde: Abbe und Ford: Pläne für die Errichtung sozialer Betriebe. Dissertation. Frankfurt a.M. 1927. * "My life in Germany before and after January 30, 1933." Autobiographisches Manuskript: Houghton Archive, Harvard University; Folder: bMS Ger 91 (240). * Rigaudias-Weiss, Hilde: Les Enquêtes Ouvrières en France. Entre 1830 et 1848. Dissertation. Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France 1936. * Weiss, Hilde: Die "Enquêtes Ouvrières" von Karl Marx. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 5, 1936, 76–98
Translated
by Maciej Zurowski in Clark McAllister (Ed.). (2022). Karl Marx's Workers’ Inquiry: International History, Reception, and Responses. Notes from Below. * Weiss, Hilde: Materialien zum Verhältnis von Konjunktur und Familie. Bericht über ein Manuskript von 109 Seiten. In: Horkheimer, M. Fromm, E. Marcuse, H. u.a.: Studien über Autorität und Familie. Paris 1936, 579–581. * Weiss, Hilda: Human Relations in Industry. From Ernst Abbe to Karl Mannheim. In: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 8, 1949, 287–297. * Weiss Parker, Hilda: Industrial Relations, Manipulative or Democratic? In: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 18, 1958, 25–33. * Weiss, Hilda P.: Durkheim, Denmark, and Suicide: A Sociological Interpretation of Statistical Data. In: Acta Sociologica 7, 1964, 264–278.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Hilda 1900 births 1981 deaths German sociologists German women sociologists Jewish sociologists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Frankfurt School philosophers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States