Wolf Lepenies

Wolf Lepenies (born January 11, 1941 in Allenstein, East Prussia, now Olsztyn, Poland) is a German sociologist, political scientist, and author.

Lepenies grew up in Koblenz, where his family moved after World War II. He studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia and graduated with a promotion in 1967. In 1970 he habilitated at the Free University of Berlin. He traveled abroad, first to the Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris, then to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. In 1984 he joined the faculty of the Wissenschaftskollegs in Berlin before becoming a professor of sociology at the Free University of Berlin. He frequently returned to Princeton to conduct research. In 1986 he succeeded Peter Wapnewski as president of the Wissenschaftskollegs. In 2001 he was succeeded by Dieter Grimm. In 2006 he became a professor emeritus.

Since 2004 he has been a member of the supervisory board of Axel Springer AG.

[edit] Awards and honors

Melancholie und Gesellschaft, 1969 (his 1967 doctoral dissertation)
Mit Hans Henning Ritter: Orte des wilden Denkens. Zur Anthropologie von Claude Levi-Strauss, 1970
Soziologische Anthropologie. Materialien, 1971
Das Ende der Naturgeschichte. Wandel kultureller Selbstverständlichkeiten, 1976
Geschichte der Soziologie (in vier Bänden), 1981
Die drei Kulturen. Soziologie zwischen Literatur und Wissenschaft, 1985
Autoren und Wissenschaftler im 18. Jahrhundert. Linné - Buffon - Winckelmann - Georg Forster - Erasmus Darwin, 1988
Gefährliche Wahlverwandtschaften. Essays zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 1989
Folgen einer unerhörten Begebenheit. Die Deutschen nach der Vereinigung, 1992
Aufstieg und Fall der Intellektuellen in Europa, 1992
Sainte-Beuve. Auf der Schwelle zur Moderne, 1997
Benimm und Erkenntnis, 1997
Sozialwissenschaft und sozialer Wandel. Ein Erfahrungsbericht, 1999
Kultur und Politik. Deutsche Geschichten, 2006
The Seduction of Culture in German History, 2006