From Berlin to Chicago and further. Georg Simmel and the voyage of his ''Stranger''

Journal/Book: Berl J Soziol. 1998; 8: Postfach 300 551, D-51334 Leverkusen 3, Germany. Leske Verlag Budrich GmbH. 125.

Abstract: It is argued here that Georg Simmel's essay on the stranger resonated with or directly influenced all major German sociologists of his time: Max Weber, Werner Sombart, Ferdinand Tonnies, and Robert Michels. Soon thereafter, the Chicago School, in particular Robert Park and Everett Hughes, transposed Simmel's idea as ''marginal man'' into American sociology. In contrast to Simmel, however, who defined the stranger as one who ''comes today and stays tomorrow,'' and also in contrast to the American literature, his German contemporaries saw the stranger as a temporary and unassimilable intruder. After the Holocaust, beginning with Lewis Coser, and mostly in Germany, Simmel's essay and Simmel's biography experience a reading which construct Simmel as a Jewish stranger isolated from his surroundings. In light of Simmel's actual, highly integrated, social position in the Germany of his time, this view is untenable.

Note: Article Bodemann YM, Univ Toronto, 100 Coll St, Toronto, ON, CANADA

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