Paternal authority once derived from a father’s social role, not private will.

Evidence

During the period in which the bourgeoisie flourished, a fruitful interaction between family and society was possible in which the authority of the father was based on his role in society, while society was renewed with the help of a patriarchal education concentrating on the exercise of authority. Now, however, the admittedly indispensable family has become a mere problem of administrative procedure … Although the form of the family itself is ultimately strengthened by recent measures, with the decreasing significance of the entire middle classes it is losing its independent strength, which was based on the free professional activity of the husband. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 175

Categorization

• DEFINE: “Authority” here is not commands but a socially grounded role that both props up and is renewed by the family.
• XREF: Feeds the book’s later Frankfurt School material on the decline of paternal authority and the ‘authoritarian personality.’ — connects to: Decline of middle-class ownership eroded the family’s role and paternal authority; Bourgeois flourishing depended on father’s societal role grounding family authority and education — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 620; A father can invoke his own authority to order the act that kills him. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 642

Broader Connections

• Bourgeois flourishing depended on father’s societal role grounding family authority and education #corroborates (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 620
• Decline of middle-class ownership eroded the family’s role and paternal authority #expands (0.85)