by Max Weber
EDITORS’ NOTES
1. See Appendix I, a).
2. Weber’s essay, published in two parts, appeared originally as “Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus,” in the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 20 (1905), pp. 1–54; and 21 (1905), pp. 1–110. “The Problem” (= Part 1) was written before his American sojourn (see Introduction, pp. xiiiff., for details of the trip).
3. This subheading and later similar ones are not shown in the 1905 edition. They are included here to assist the reader.
4. For want of a better word, we have here used “bourgeois” to approximate to bürgerlich, but it should be noted that there is no real equivalent in English to the German word, as Lassman and Speirs have explained in their glossary to Weber: Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 373). Bürgerlich (and the associated noun Bürgertum) is more positive and wide ranging; it implies civic virtues rather than the smugness suggested by “bourgeois” in English. (Bürger is German for “citizen”).
5. See Appendix I, b).
6. Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), son of a merchant, rose to become one of the most powerful men of seventeenth-century France. Under the tutelage of Louis XIV, Colbert, as controller general of finance and secretary of state for the navy, proved to be an indefatigable and effective reformer of French industry, commerce, and taxation.
7. Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a theologian and religious reformer who initiated the Protestant Reformation. As an Augustinian monk, he first came to public notice in 1517 when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg, opposing the Church’s practice of selling indulgences (offering reduction in time spent in purgatory) and using the money to build Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In 1521 Luther was summoned to appear before the emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms where he was called upon to recant from his writings. He defiantly refused with the words, “Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God.” He had to flee for his life but was given protection by the elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who gave him shelter in Wartburg Castle, in Eisenach. Here he began his translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into German. This work was to be one of the foundations of the modern German language.
At the heart of Luther’s theology was his belief in justification by faith alone. He even added the word allein (“alone”) to his translation of Romans 3.28, although it was not present in the original. By making the Bible available to the people in their own tongue, he gave them immediate access to God’s word, so that they no longer needed to rely on the mediation of the priesthood. He also taught that all legitimate callings are of equal worth in the sight of God. Luther was, however, a conservative in political matters and preached the duty of obedience to the Obrigkeit, the “authorities.” His influence was greatly assisted by the invention of the printing press, which enabled his writings and his Bible translation to be widely circulated.
8. John Calvin (1509–1564) was the leading figure of the second stage of the Protestant Reformation and gave the movement begun by Luther a new direction.
He first began to train for the priesthood in Paris but became attracted to the humanist and reforming movements. However, the authorities became less tolerant of the movement for reform, and when in 1535 the rector of the University of Paris came out in support of Martin Luther, both he and Calvin, who had been closely associated with the rector, were forced to flee the country. He settled in Geneva, where, apart from a brief spell of exile in Strasbourg, he spent most of his life. While there, he gradually attained a dominant position on the Council and succeeded in organizing the government of the city as a theocracy, where the civil authorities were subject to the Church. Strict rules of behavior and religious observance were enforced.
While he agreed with Luther on many central issues of the faith, Calvin was more of a logical thinker and systematizer. His great doctrinal study (with versions in both Latin and French) was the Christianae Religionis Institutio (Institutes of the Christian Religion). The first edition, which appeared in 1536, was a fluent and succinct doctrinal statement, whereas the final revised and greatly extended edition of 1559 included copious footnotes in which he vigorously defended his position against his critics. His most characteristic doctrine is that of the absolute sovereignty of God and the consequent denial of free will in man. Since nothing can happen unless God wills it, the doctrine of predestination is a natural corollary. God elects some people to eternal salvation, while the rest, by implication, are assigned to eternal damnation. All people in their natural state are deserving only of death, and it is solely by the grace of God that some are chosen for eternal life. The doctrine is discussed extensively in Weber’s Protestant Ethic; indeed, his whole thesis is built around it.
Calvin’s theology was extremely influential and formed the doctrinal basis for various branches of Protestantism, notably, Puritanism in sixteenth century England, and several nonconformist churches.
9. John Knox (1514–1572) led the Scottish Reformation. Trained to be a priest, Knox abandoned Catholicism to take up the cause of the Reformed Church. Knox served under the Protestant English government of Edward VI (Scotland was in Roman Catholic hands) but was forced to flee on the accession of Mary Tudor, a Catholic, in 1553. He went to Frankfurt am Main, and thence to Geneva. His final return to Scotland came in 1559. Knox’s First Book of Discipline and Book of Common Order played a vital role in shaping the constitution and liturgy of the Reformed Church of Scotland.
10. Gisbert (or Gijsbert) Vöet (1589–1676), also known as Gisbertus Voetius, was a theologian who participated vigorously in the Synod of Dort (1618–19), pushing for firm action against the Arminian “Remonstrants.” From 1634, he was an influential Protestant theologian at the University of Utrecht, constructing a kind of reformed scholasticism. In the 1640s, he clashed with Descartes, claiming him to be atheist.
11. The Spirit of the Laws, translated and edited by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989 [1748]), p. 343.
12. Weber is here applying the theoretical principles that he had recently expressed in the article “Die “Objektivität” sozialwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis,” published in the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 19 (1904), pp. 22–87.
13. The following emphases are Weber’s.
14. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was a remarkable American of astonishing versatility, whose accomplishments include those of printer, author, diplomat, and scientist. Born in Boston, the tenth son of a tallow chandler, he learned the printing trade from his brother James, with whom he jointly published a liberal weekly, the New England Courant. The years 1723 to 1726 were spent in London, where he worked as a printer. Back in Philadelphia, he soon achieved prosperity through a number of printing and publishing ventures, including the printing of Philadelphia’s paper currency, which he had first advocated in a pamphlet. His Poor Richard’s almanacs, printed annually from 1732 to 1757, with their homespun philosophy, had wide appeal. The extracts from Franklin’s writings quoted by Weber are written in the same vein. Weber’s nephew, Eduard Baumgarten, has expressed the view that his uncle took Franklin too seriously, failing to detect the element of humor in these writings. [See Guenther Roth’s introduction to Lehmann and Roth (eds.), Weber’s Protestant Ethic: Origins, Evidence, Contexts (Cambridge, 1993)]. Certainly, Franklin himself was involved in a number of risky ventures that were hardly in the spirit of his own advice.
Franklin advocated such community projects as the foundation of a police force and a volunteer fire company. In science, he conducted experiments in electricity and introduced lightning conductors. He also invented a more efficient type of stove that was widely adopted. He played a leading role in diplomatic negotiations with France and England before and during the American War of Independence. In his last years he helped to frame the U.S. Constitution. He enjoyed tremendous popularity, particularly in France,
where he was recognized as a precursor of the French Revolution.
Franklin’s most important literary legacy is his autobiography, begun in 1771 and left unfinished at the time of his death, which encapsulates his philosophy of life.
15. Jakob Fugger (1459–1525), also known as Jakob II the Rich, was a major figure in the renowned Catholic Fugger family, whose activities as bankers and merchants brought fame and notoriety. Jakob’s interests in silver and copper mines and precious stones gave him enormous wealth and influence—he alone raised 544,000 guilders to finance the election of Charles V as emperor—but also attracted the anathema of Martin Luther among others who decried his policy of charging interest on loans and his support of the sale of indulgences.
16. See Appendix I, c).
17. That is, concerned with the pursuit of happiness.
18. See Appendix I, d).
19. See Appendix I, e).
20. See Appendix I, f).
21. “The accursed hunger for gold,” Virgil, Aeneid, iii.57.
22. See Appendix I, g).
23. “Putting out” refers to the giving out, for example, to cottage weavers, by merchants of raw materials (such as raw wool, flax, cotton), which, as a finished product, is then collected by the merchants and sold. The putting-out system conflicted with, and undermined, the traditional market monopoly of the guilds. See David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (New York: Norton, 1999), pp. 43–44, 208–09.
24. Geschlossener Betrieb is a reference to the transition from a decentralized domestic economy to a centralized industrial operation.
25. That is, money oriented.
26. See Appendix I, h).
27. That is, radically opposed to moneymaking.
28. That is, something to be ashamed of.
29. This is an allusion to the humanism of Erasmus, as contrasted with Lutheranism.
30. This phrase translates to “mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16.9).
31. Weber elaborates on the significance of the concept of Werkheiligkeit in Part II of his Protestant Ethic essay here in this volume.
32. A contemporary of Luther, Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) was a leader of the Swiss Protestant Reformation. A Swiss patriot and classical scholar who was much influenced by the humanism of Erasmus, Zwingli was appointed “people’s priest” at Grossmünster at Zurich in 1518, a position he used to preach openly for church reform. Zwingli was involved in a number of prominent disputations, and the reform movement he initiated spread from Zurich to the cantons Basel and Bern, prompting the formation of a Protestant Christian Civil League. The five Roman Catholic forest cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden were attacked by the League in 1529 in the first Kappel War. During the second Kappel War (1531), in which he served as an army chaplain, Zwingli was slain in battle. Zwingli and Luther disagreed, among other things, on the interpretation of the Eucharist, but shared much in common including a belief in the primacy of Scripture and in justification by faith alone, a commitment to a vernacular liturgy, and opposition to clerical celibacy and monasticism.
33. This excerpt is quoted from Norton Anthology of English Literature, 3rd ed., 1974.
34. George Fox (1624–1691) was the founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). At the age of nineteen, he experienced a divine call that led him to break off associations with his own friends and wander the country in solitude. In 1648, he began his public ministry. Much persecuted and often imprisoned, Fox vehemently opposed formalism, pomp, and convention, and refused to take off his hat in court and submit himself to oath. Against rigid sacerdotalism, he emphasized simplicity and the overriding importance of experiencing the “inner light” of Christian devotion.
35. John Wesley (1703–1791) was an evangelist and founder of Methodism. In 1728, he was ordained a priest. While a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, he joined the Holy Club, a religious study group derisively known as the Methodists. Voyaging to America in 1735 to preach to the Indians, he met some Moravian emigrants who were to have a great spiritual influence on him. Back in London in 1738, Wesley underwent a conversion experience at an evangelical meeting on Aldersgate Street, where he “felt his heart strangely warmed.” From then on, he devoted his life to preaching the gospel, mainly at open-air meetings, since the pulpits of the Church of England were closed to him. He traveled extensively throughout the country, delivering several sermons a day. He organized his followers into societies and class groups for mutual encouragement and admonition. Thanks to their frugal and disciplined habits, many Methodists eventually became prosperous. Wesley did not intend to found a new church, but separation did, nevertheless, eventually occur. Wesley was also concerned with social questions, and it is commonly said that the British Labour Party owes more to Methodism than to Marxism.
The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism
Part I: The Problem
Weber’s Notes
1) Most of these, though not all, can be explained by the fact that, of course, the denominational allegiance of the workforce of an industry depends primarily on the religious denomination prevalent where that industry is located, or on that of the catchment area from which its workers are drawn. At first sight, this might appear to distort the picture presented by many denominational statistics—for example, those of the Rhine Province. In addition, of course, the figures can only be conclusive where the individual specialized occupations [Berufe] have, as far as possible, been considered separately. If this is not done, it could happen that, for instance, really big entrepreneurs are lumped together with self-employed “masters” under the heading of “works managers.”
2) Compare, for example, Schell, Der Katholizismus als Prinzip des Fortschrittes, Würzburg, 1897, p. 31, and Georg von Hertling, Das Prinzip des Katholizismus und die Wissenschaft, Freiburg, 1899, p. 58.
3) A few years ago, one of my students made a study of the most detailed body of statistics we possess on these matters, the denominational statistics of Baden. Cf. Martin Offenbacher, Konfession und soziale Schichtung: Eine Studie über die wirtschaftliche Lage der Katholiken und Protestanten in Baden. Tübingen and Leipzig, 1901, vol. 4, no. 5 of the Volkswirtschaftlichen Abhandlungen der badischen Hochschulen [Vol. 4, no. 5 of the Economics Transactions of the Universities of Baden]. The facts and figures to be presented by way of illustration all derive from this research.
4) Here, too, further details for Baden can be found in Offenbacher’s first two chapters.
5) For example, in 1895 in Baden:
For every 1,000 Protestants, the average taxable income was 954,060 marks.
For every 1,000 Catholics, the average taxable capital income was 589,000 marks.
True, at over 4 million marks, the Jews are way out in front.
(Figures from Offenbacher, op. cit., p. 21)
6) On this matter, see the entire results of Offenbacher’s work.
7) Of the population of Baden in 1895, 37 percent were Protestants, 61.3 percent were Catholics, and 1.5 percent were Jews. However, in 1885–91, the denominational allegiance of students attending noncompulsory schools beyond elementary level was as follows (according to Offenbacher, op. cit., pp. 16f.):
Protestants Catholics Jews
Gymnasien1 43% 46% 9.5%
Realgymnasien 69% 31% 9%
Oberrealschulen 52% 41% 7%
Realschulen 49% 40% 11%
Höhere 51% 37% 12%
Bürgerschulen — — —
Average 48% 42% 10%
Similar results in Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, the Reich lands (that is, Alsace-Lorraine), and Hungary (see Offenbacher, op. cit., pp. 18f.).2
8) See the figures in the preceding note, according to which it is only at the Gymnasien that the total attendance of Catholics (which is one-third below the norm for their proportion of the population) at secondary [mittleren] schools exceeds that of Protestants—and that by only a few percent. No doubt this is because these schools provide the foundation for the study of
theology. The study goes on to show that in Hungary the proportion of those of the Reformed faith attending secondary schools is even greater than that typical of Protestants (Offenbacher, op. cit., p. 19 note).
9) Figures in Offenbacher, op. cit., p. 54; tables at the end of his study.
10) This is not to say, of course, that the latter has not also had extremely important consequences. Neither is it any contradiction that, as we shall go on to show, it was of decisive importance in the development of the whole atmosphere of life of many Protestant sects (with an effect on their economic life as well) that they represented small and therefore homogeneous minorities. This was in fact the case for the strict Calvinists outside of Geneva and New England, for example, wherever they were politically in control.
