Georg Simmel

One of the foundational figures of modern sociology and social theory, Georg Simmel produced a complicated and idiosyncratic body of sociological inquiry about the dialectics of society making and individuality formation that remains influential in fields as diverse as economic sociology, social psychology, the history and sociology of urban life, and the sociology of love and intimacy. Though baptized and raised a Protestant, Simmel’s Jewish ancestry denied him a professorship in the German system for many years; but his personal wealth allowed him to pursue his scholarly career. Perhaps not accidentally, both the dynamics of exclusion (or “strangerhood”) and the cultural affordances provided by money became enduring interests in his thinking. Well regarded in academic circles in Berlin, Simmel maintained a close professional relationship and friendship with the older founding figure of sociology Max Weber. Along with Weber and Ferdinand Tönnies, Simmel helped found the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie in 1909, and in 1914 he received a full professorship at the University of Strasbourg, though his tenure there was disrupted by World War I. Simmel’s contributions to sociology had a significant influence on European and American sociology. His seminal essay on “the Stranger,” excerpted here, marks one of the few sites where his thought engaged directly with the Jewish Question; it would later prove important for Theodor Adorno’s mature theorization of the connections between modernity and antisemitism.