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Leopold Max Walther von Wiese und Kaiserswaldau (2 December 1876,Glatz,German Empire – 11 January 1969,Cologne,West Germany) was a Germansociologist andeconomist, as well as professor and chairman of theGerman Sociological Association.
Leopold von Wiese was the only son of a prematurely deceased Prussian officer and received his education at the cadet schools inWahlstatt and Lichterfelde. After leaving the cadet corps, he then studied economics at theFriedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin where he got hisPh.D. in 1902. Subsequently, he was scientific secretary of the "Institute for the common good" (Institut für Gemeinwohl) inFrankfurt. In 1905, he was Associate Professor of Economics at theUniversity of Berlin. In 1906, he was appointed professor of political science at the Royal Academy inPosen; in 1908, he joined theTechnical University of Hannover as a professor of economics and business management. In 1912, he became director of studies at the Academy for Local Government (Akademie für kommunale Verwaltung) inDüsseldorf, and in 1915 a professor at the Graduate School of Cologne (Handelshochschule Köln).
After the First World War, in 1919, Wiese was appointed as Director at the Research Institute for Social Sciences (Forschungsinstitut für Sozialwissenschaften) in Cologne and as Professor of Economic and Political Sciences, meaningsociology, at theUniversity of Cologne (refounded in 1919). He had thus held the first chair of sociology in Germany. He was also Director of the Department of Sociology Founded "Institute for Social Research" which has been founded on the initiative of the MayorAdenauer. An academic journal he co-founded in 1921, theKölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, still exists today.
Until 1933, Wiese was secretary of theGerman Society for Sociology (DGS). After the forced closure of the DGS byHans Freyer and the Research Institute for Social Sciences by the Nazis in 1934 Wiese went for a year to theUnited States. His successor wasWilly Gierlichs. Upon his return, Wiese taught economics to a closed circle of listeners.
In 1946 he became chairman of the revived DGS, which he reformed until 1955 as its chairman. In 1954 he became vice-president of theInternational Sociological Association.
Wiese is the father of the literary scholarBenno von Wiese and the actress and writerUrsula von Wiese.
Wiese is known for his works on social studies. He tried to establish the presence of sociology as an independent social science, divorced from history, psychology and philosophy. Leopold von Wiese focused on the social relations between people as "social processes" and the significance of structures as "social constructs." Together withGeorg Simmel, he is considered the founder offormal sociology. His relationship doctrineBeziehungslehre lost its effect today at universities.
Among his pupils wasKarl Gustav Specht, co-founder of gerontology and medical sociology in Germany and Professor of Sociology at the Economic and Social Science Faculty of theUniversity Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Wiese's grandchildren includeIrina von Wiese.
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