Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe

In 1908, Max Weber accepted Paul Siebeck's offer to provide a new edition of the Handbook of Political Economy, first published under the editorship of Gustav von Schönberg. The previous publication was regarded as being outdated. Due to legal problems, the title of the Handbook was changed into Compendium of Social Economics in 1914. In the same year, the publication of the series of articles under this title began. In this connection Weber himself prepared a contribution entitled »Economy and Society,« which title he changed into »The Economy and the Societal Orders and Powers« in 1914. At the beginning of the First World War, however, this article had not yet been finished, and after the war he began again, using these unfinished pre-war manuscripts as material. The first results of this endeavor were already in print when he died, and thus the new contribution also remained unfinished. It was Marianne Weber who, with the assistance of Melchior Palyi, combined the manuscripts in print with those found in the literary estate to create a book in three parts. After her death, Johannes Winckelmann reduced the three parts to two. Economy and Society was translated into many languages as one book in parts, and was well-received worldwide. This does not however do justice to the situation after Weber's death. Economy and Society is not one book in parts, but one project in several versions, and its development is intrinsically related to the development of the Compendium, a fact which is demonstrated in this volume, and supported by a wealth of documents.