Sociology has been a part of academic programmes for so long that it is difficult to imagine a time when not only was it not recognized as a discipline but it did not really even exist. Today, the names Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel and Ernst Troeltsch are familiar to most sociologists. However, none of these was an academic or professional sociologist, because neither of those classifications existed during their formative years, before 1890. The first sociology professorship in Germany began in 1918, the year that Simmel died. Weber's death occurred two years later; and Troeltsch died in 1923. Only Tönnies lived long enough to see sociology become an academic and professional discipline.

Simmel and Tönnies read philosophy, Weber was educated as a lawyer and Troeltsch was trained as a theologian. Yet these four thinkers were instrumental in fostering sociology in Germany. Specifically, Tönnies, Simmel, and Weber helped form the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (D.G.S.) (German Society for Sociology) in 1909. A year later, they, along with Troeltsch, Sombart and a few others took part in the first sociology conference in Germany. They arranged to have their papers published with the discussions that followed some of the lectures, and their publication appeared in 1911. Five of the nine papers are translated here in their entirety; and I present synopses of the others with some of the discussions that followed. The five major papers cover a wide range of issues, including natural law, journalism and technology, but all treat the topics from a sociological standpoint. Three can be considered to focus mostly on substantial issues, whereas two are primarily methodological in scope.

None of the five thinkers (Weber, Simmel, Tönnies, Troeltsch, or Sombart) founded any ‘school’ and all five fell out of favour. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in Weber and Simmel for several decades, and for Tönnies and Troeltsch for close to 15 years. Because of his later writings, Sombart has been dismissed as a Nazi sympathizer, but regardless of the merits of this charge, we should not be blind to the greatness of his earlier work, especially his work on the origins of capitalism.