Four Dedications and a Crucial Passage

Abstract: The first instalment of Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft and the three volumes of the Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie came out in the year following Max Weber’s death in June 1920. Each of these books carries a dedication—to Max Weber’s mother, Helene, to his wife, Marianne, and to his two intimate friends, Mina Tobler and Else Jaffé-Richthofen, respectively. In the first part of this article, I try to provide a definitive answer to the question: who formulated these dedications and who decided to have them printed? In the second part of the article, I focus on the wording of the dedication to Marianne Weber, which contains a quotation from the ’Intermediate Reflections’ ( Zwischenbetrachtung ) forming part of the Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie . The passage from which the quotation is lifted exists in two different drafts, and with the aid of these, as well as of notes and letters written by Marianne Weber and Else Jaffé-Richthofen, I try to depict the relationship between these two women and the dying scholar.