SOMBART, WERNER. — Protestant sociologist, born at Ermsleben (Harz) on 19 January 1863, died in Berlin on 18 May 1941.
He studied at the Universities of Pisa, where Toniolo was his teacher, and Berlin, and in 1890 was appointed professor at the University of Breslau, from which he subsequently moved to Berlin.
He began his scholarly activity in 1888 with an economic and social study of the Roman Campagna (Die römische Campagna), followed by a history of Italy’s commercial policy from 1861 onward (Die Handelspolitik Italiens seit der Einigung des Königreichs, in Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, Leipzig, 49 [1892], pp. 77–166). The reality of economic and social conditions, and in particular the rise of socialism, subsequently stimulated his interest and scholarly curiosity, and the result was a large number of works on capitalism, socialism, and particular aspects of economic life, among which are: Der moderne Kapitalismus (1902); Die Juden und das Wirtschaftleben (1911); Der Bourgeois (1913); Der proletarische Sozialismus (1924); Deutscher Sozialismus (1934). S.’s work constitutes the bridge between the social science of the nineteenth century and that of the twentieth.