Post-war German sociology ignored American social theory and its empirical grounding

Evidence

Among a number of interesting projects which were considered during the 1950s but which never came to fruition, and which kept faith with the Institute’s traditions within the conditions of a restoration society, was the plan to publish a series of German translations of American works of sociology. … The post-war period has brought with it, in Germany, a remarkable revival of interest in the social sciences … The impact on German sociology of the techniques of social research, developed and refined in the US to so large an extent, has already been considerable … Most people, however, students and laymen alike, are not aware of the contributions of American sociologists to social thought and social theory, nor do they realize that, in the US as everywhere, social theory and social research are closely interdependent and influence each other in their progress. The present plan is designed to close this gap … by presenting to a German public the works of independent thinkers who, while being inspired by the spirit of empiricism and pragmatism, tried to grasp with a bold sweep the totality of the society in which they live. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2047

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why did the German translation project fail? Adorno attributes it to resistance and disinterest — worth digging into what this reveals about the restoration-era German academy.
• XREF: connects to: American occupiers funded empirical sociology to promote democracy in Germany. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1861; American occupation policy and funding drove West German empirical sociology — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1865; Old-guard German sociology remained abstractly opposed to empirical research after the war — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1926 (+3 more)