The German Sociological Association (''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie'', DGS) is a professional organization of social scientists in Germany. Established in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

on January 3, 1909, its founding members included Rudolf Goldscheid, Ferdinand Tönnies, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel. Its first president was Tönnies, who was forced out of office by the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1933; his successor,

Hans Freyer Hans Freyer (31 July 1887 – 18 January 1969) was a German conservative revolutionary sociologist and philosopher. Life Freyer began studying theology, national economics, history and philosophy at the University of Greifswald in 1907, with the ...

, attempted to reform the DGS on Nazi lines but ultimately decided to suspend its activities the following year. The DGS was revived after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

under the chairmanship of

Leopold von Wiese Leopold Max Walther von Wiese und Kaiserswaldau (2 December 1876, Glatz, German Empire – 11 January 1969, Cologne, West Germany) was a German sociologist and economist, as well as professor and chairman of the German Sociological Association ...

in 1946, and has remained active since then, with about 3,200 members .

Presidents and chairpersons

The following members have served as heads of the organization: *1909–1933: Ferdinand Tönnies as president () *''1933:''

Werner Sombart Werner Sombart (; ; 19 January 1863 – 18 May 1941) was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the "Youngest Historical School" and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century. ...

, and

unconstitutionally as joint chairs () *1933–1934:

as chair; suspended the DGS in 1934 *1946–1955: Leopold von Wiese; office titled president *1955–1959: Helmuth Plessner *1959–1963:

Otto Stammer Otto is a masculine German given name and a Otto (surname), surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name ...

*1963–1967:

Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of criti ...

*1967–1970:

Ralf Dahrendorf Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and a ...

; office titled chair *1970: Erwin K. Scheuch (interim chair) *1971–1974: M. Rainer Lepsius *1974–1978: Karl Martin Bolte *1979–1982: Joachim Matthes *1983–1986: Burkart Lutz *1987–1990:

Wolfgang Zapf Wolfgang Zapf (* Frankfurt am Main 25 April 1937; † Berlin 26 April 2018) was a German sociologist. Education Zapf visited basic school and secondary school emphasizing modern languages in Frankfurt am Main. He obtained his final examinatio ...

*1991–1992: Bernhard Schäfers *1993–1994: Lars Clausen *1995–1998: Stefan Hradil *1999–2002: Jutta Allmendinger *2003–2007: Karl-Siegbert Rehberg *2007–2011: Hans-Georg Soeffner *2011–2013: Martina Löw *2013–2017: Stephan Lessenich *2017–2019: Nicole Burzan *2019–2021: Birgit Blättel-Mink *2021–present: Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky

References

External links

DGS - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie
(in German; cf. the history in
Geschichte

33rd Congress of the DGS, ''The Nature of Society'', “Die Natur der Gesellschaft“), 2006
{{Authority control Sociological organizations 1909 establishments in Germany