Note: Correspondence is listed alphabetically by correspondent.
W. E. B. DU BOIS
Max Weber to W.E.B. Du Bois, 8 November 1904
New York City
handwritten (incomplete)
Du Bois Papers, reel 3; Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
[letterhead:] Holland House, 5th Avenue and Thirtieth Street
167 Madison Avenue
(until 18th Nov[ember], afterwards: Heidelberg, Germany)
Dear Sir—
I learned from you at St. Louis that you hoped to be back at Atlanta after the 20th of October. Unfortunately my wife could not stand the climate of the South and so I failed to see your University and to make your acquaintance,—the few minutes at St. Louis not counting in this respect. I hope to be allowed to do so another time.
To-day I beg you to take into consideration a request I have to make as editor (together with Prof. Sombart) of the “Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik”. Until now, I failed in finding in the American (and, of course, in any other) litterature [sic] an investigation about the relations between the (so-called) “race-problem” and the (so-called) “class-problem” in your country, although it is impossible to have any conversation with white people of the South without feeling the connection. We have to meet to-day in Germany not only the dilettantic litterature [sic] à la H[ouston] St[ewart] Chamberlain & Com., but a “scientific” race-theory, built up on purely anthropological fundaments, too,—and so we have to accentuate especially those connections and the influence of social-economic conditions upon the relations of races to each-other. I saw that you spoke, some weeks ago, about this very question, and I should be very glad, if you would find yourself in a position to give us, for our periodical, an essay about that object. So I bid you to write me, whether you should be willing to do so, and at what time?
17 November 1904
New York City
handwritten
Du Bois Papers, reel 3; Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Dear Sir—
I received your kind letter dated Nov. 8th and am indeed very glad, that you are disposed to give us the essay I asked you for. I shall with pleasure read the studies about the race problem you kindly promised to send me, and hope to be allowed to ask you also for a report and schedule of the lectures of the Atlanta University, showing if possible the text books used in the social-science-lectures, if I could get them.
I am quite sure to come back to your country as soon as possible and especially to the South, because I am absolutely convinced that the “colour-line” problem will be the paramount problem of the time to come, here and everywhere in the world.
My German address is, simply: Prof. M[ax] W[eber], Heidelberg. I am going there this Saturday, and am
Yours very respectfully
Max Weber
Max Weber to W.E.B. Du Bois
30 March 1905
Heidelberg
handwritten
Du Bois Papers, reel 3, Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Dear Sir,
I was glad to receive your kind letter. When, at the 15th, your article was not yet at hand, I supposed you might perhaps be prevented of writing the same now, and so we had to dispose about the space of the next number of the “Archiv.” So, your article will be published at the head of the number to be edited November 1st of this year,—it would be hardly possible at any earlier time. —
Your splendid work: “The souls of black folk” ought to be translated in German. I do not know, whether anybody has already undertaken to make a translation. If not, I am authorized to beg you for your authorisation to Mrs. Elizabeth Jaffé = von Richthofen here, a scholar and friend of mine, late factory inspector at Karlsruhe, now wife of my fellow-teacher and fellow-editor Dr. Jaffé. I should like to write a short introduction about Negro-question and -litterature [sic], and should be much obliged to you for some information about your life: viz. only: age, birthplace, descent, positions held by you,—of course, only if you give your authorization. I think Mrs. Jaffé would be a very able translator, which will be of some importance, your vocabulary and style being very peculiar: it reminds me sometimes of Gladstone’s [idioms], although the spirit is a different one. —
I should like to give in one of the next numbers of the “Archiv” a short review of the recent publications about the “race problem” in America. Besides your own work and the “Character-Building” of Mr. Booker Washington, I got only the book of Mr. Page (“The Negro, the Southerner Problem”—very superficial me thinks), the “Occasional papers” of your Academy and the article of Mr. Wilcox in the Yale Review. If there is anything else to be reviewed, I should be much obliged to you for any information. (Of course I saw the article of Viereck in the official publication). —
Please excuse my bad English—I seldom here had the opportunity to speak it, and realize a language in speaking and writing it is very different.
Yours very respectfully
Professor Max Weber
Max Weber to W.E.B. Du Bois
17 April 1905
Heidelberg
handwritten
Du Bois Papers, reel 3; Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Dear Sir —
your manuscript came to my hands to-day. We shall provide for the translation as soon as possible, and it will be printed in the number of November 1st of this year. I hope you have received my letter on behalf of Frau Dr. Jaffé.
I thank you very much for your very useful article and am
Yours very respectfully
Prof. Max Weber
W.E.B. Du Bois to Max Weber
18 April [1905]
handwritten copy (incomplete)
Du Bois Papers, reel 3; Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
My Dear Professor Weber:
It is very kind for you to offer Madame Jaffa [sic]-von Richthofen’s services in the translation of my book & if the necessary business arrangements can be made I shall be delighted to accept her services. I have written my publishers, Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co., in whose name my book is copyrighted & told them of your offer. They reply that they are negotiating for a French translation with their Paris representative, M. Terquem & that thru him they will take up your proposition & see if they can interest some German publishers.
Meantime may I ask if you know of any German publisher who would probably be willing to undertake the publishing of a German translation. If you do kindly let me know. I will write you on this matter again as soon as I hear further.
I trust my manuscript is by this time in your hand. It is a rather hurried piece of work & if it is not just what you want do not hesitate to cut it down or reject it.
As to literature on the Negro problem the recent publications include:
Sinclair: Aftermath of Slavery (Sewell Maynard & Co.)
Johnson: Light Ahead for the Negro (Grafton Press)
Collins: Domestic Slave Trade (Broadway Pub. Co.)
Max Weber to W.E.B. Du Bois
1 May 1905
Heidelberg
handwritten
Du Bois Papers, reel 3; Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
My dear colleague!
I thank you very much for your kind letter. We have engaged a publisher—Dr. P[aul] Siebeck (Firma: J. C. B. Mohr), Tübingen, the publisher of the “Archiv für Sozialpolitik” —, of course with reservation of your previous consent to the making of the translation. I beg you to inform your publisher and hope there will be no difficulties.
The library of our University will certainly be very glad to have your University publications. I thank you very much for your useful informations.
Will you not have your “Sabbath-year” one of the next years? I hope you will come to Germany then, once more, and visit us. As to me, [perhaps] I shall come to the United States, I think, 1907 or 8.
Yours very respectfully
Prof. Max Weber
JACOB H. HOLLANDER
Max Weber to Jacob Hollander
27 October 1904
Philadelphia, Aldine Hotel
handwritten
Hollander Papers, series I, box 11; Eisenhower Library, the Johns Hopkins University
Dear Professor Hollander—
Allow me to express, again, how much I enjoyed my visit in your seminary, the acquaintance I made of your students and of your assistant fellow-teacher. I was deeply impressed by the intensity of the work done in your department and, before all, learned with pleasure, that—at least in your university—the ambition to get the largest number of students, so dangerous even now to almost all our German universities—is not allowed to lower the high standard of scientific investigation. In Germany we suffer much more than you are able to imagine from that illness resulting out of our system of paying the teacher by taxes paid by the students for each lecture.—When I come again after some years—as I hope to do—[I] think my English will be improved so that I will be more able to express myself. —
I talked with you about the questions of the Indian Territory and asked you, during our conversation, if you would be inclined to give us for the “Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft u. Sozialpolitik” an essay about the development of these questions during the time since the treaties giving existence to that territory. Do you think to be able to fulfill my request and—perhaps—to inform me about the time, at which you will probably be able to do so?
I should be even more happy, if I could get from you for our periodical an essay about the present development of economic investigation in America. I agreed so much with your statement—at St. Louis—that the rapid progress of the scientific work done in your country is almost unknown in Germany, even by many specialists in economic science. I am quite sure that critics of single works of American writers would not change the situation, if not our problem, before reading such critics as we hope to give in the future in our periodical, but get some broader information about the evolution of American economic investigation as a whole, the different methods used, the “schools” and their relations to European “schools” etc.—I don’t know where to apply if not to you and should indeed by very happy if you could give us an essay of this character. I beg you to take this request in consideration and hope to get from you a promise. I am informed that you have recently published some articles about objects like this. —
Do you think I should be able to get some recent reports of the Johns Hopkins University and, if possible, the rules for taking the Ph.D. degree, by simply applying to the Secretary of the President? or are the[y] sold by the bookseller? I should be much obliged for any information about that and am sorry having forgotten to ask you in Baltimore.
Yours very respectfully
Max Weber
(Young’s Hotel, Boston or: Holland House, New York)
P.S. For your information about the formalities of our periodical: we pay for essays 80 Mark (= ca. 19$) for each 16 pages, maximum 240 Mks. for the single essay.
Max Weber to Jacob Hollander
3 November 1904
Young’s Hotel, Boston
handwritten
Hollander Papers, series I, box 11; Eisenhower Library, the Johns Hopkins University
Dear Professor Hollander
I received with thanks your letter of Nov. 2d and am glad to see, that you are willing to contribute to our periodical. We should be interested to get specially a sketch of the present tendencies of development in American economic investigation and should be very glad if you would develop your essay in that direction—the earlier history of American economic thoughts being today rather better known in Germany than their present conditions. I beg you to write me to Heidelberg, or—if you are able to inform me already now—to New York, Holland House, at what time you think we shall have to expect your essay and how large it (approximately) will be (longer or shorter than your essay in the Yale Review). I am at N. York until 18th November.
I will try to make arrangements for an exchange of our publications so as you kindly suggest. The difficulty is that our library and our seminary both are subscribers to the Johns Hopkins Studies and, of course, the Breslau library to[o] and the number to our disposition for exchanges are very limited now—we exchange, I think, with at least 8–10 American periodicals,—and so my fellow-editors Sombart a[nd] Jaffé might perhaps not yield to your proposal. I write you about that from Germany. Sombart is—I was surprised to be informed so here—gone back to Germany October 28th.
Yours very respectfully,
Max Weber
EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN
Max Weber to Edwin R. A. Seligman
19 November 1904
New York
handwritten
Seligman Papers, Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Sehr geehrter Herr Kollege!
Wir können New York nicht verlassen, ohne Ihrer Frau Gemahlin und Ihnen nochmals unsren verbindlichsten Dank auszusprechen für die ganz außerordentliche Liebenswürdigkeit, mit der Sie uns aufgenommen und uns hier die Wege geebnet haben. Eine ganze Reihe von genuß- und lehrreichsten Abenden verdanken meine Frau und ich ausschließlich Ihrer freundlichen Fürsorge und Vermittlung.
Ich werde voraussichtlich im Lauf der nächsten Jahre die V. Staaten noch einmal besuchen, und hoffe dann nicht in dem Maße wie jetzt in der Eile und überdies durch meine ungenügende Beherrschung der englischen Sprache und außerdem durch meine auch hier gelegentlich noch recht fatal fühlbare Krankheit gehemmt zu sein.
Ich bitte Sie nochmals, die selbst für “Dutchmen” außergewöhnliche Formlosigkeit, mit der wir uns hier betragen haben, zu verzeihen,—es war tatsächlich nicht anders möglich gegenüber dem überwältigenden Maße von persönlichen Beziehungen, die sich hier alsbald entwickelten. Ich hoffe, Ihre Frau Gemahlin und Sie geben uns recht bald die Ehre eines Besuches in Heidelberg—vielleicht während Ihres “Sabbath-jahres”? Ich erlaube mir, Ihnen demnächst einige Essays zu schicken, die Sie vielleicht im Anschluß an unsere Unterhaltungen interessieren.
Mit ausgezeichneter Hochachtung und collegialem Gruß
sowie angelegentlichster Empfehlung an Ihre Frau Gemahlin
Ihr ergebenster
Max Weber und Frau
[We could not leave New York without again expressing our deepest thanks to you and your wife for the extraordinary kindness you showed in receiving us and paving the way for us. Thanks to your friendly concern and assistance my wife and I enjoyed a whole series of the most enjoyable and informative evenings.
I will probably visit the United States again in the course of the coming years, and hope then not to be rushed to such an extent, and not to be constrained by my inadequate command of English, or the unfortunate illness that I feel occasionally.
Please excuse again our uncommon informality, even for us too as “Dutchmen.” Anything else was quite impossible in view of the overwhelming number of personal relationships that developed so quickly here. I hope you and your wife will soon give us the honor of a visit in Heidelberg, perhaps during your sabbatical? I shall send you several essays that may interest you in light of our conversations.]
Max Weber to Edwin R. A. Seligman
18 December 1905
Heidelberg, Hauptstrasse 73
handwritten
Seligman Papers, Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Sehr geehrter Herr College!
Sie haben mir durch Übersendung Ihres Werkes (“Principles of Economics”) eine große Freude und Überraschung bereitet und ich beneide Sie sehr um die bedeutende Arbeitskraft, welche in dieser Leistung sich ausspricht. Ich habe erst einen Teil Ihrer Darlegungen lesen können, da ich tief in logischen Arbeiten stecke, und darf mir daher kein Urteil erlauben. Mich freut es, daß Sie ebenso wie dies überhaupt in den V. St. geschieht, das Übermaß von Historismus, welches durch den starken Einfluß Schmoller’s auf uns lastet, entschlossen bei Seite lassen und das gute alte Prinzip: “qui bene distinguit, bene docet,” nach wie vor gelten lassen. Bei uns ist zur Zeit fast jeder Muth zu theoretischer Arbeit und die Unbefangenheit in der Prägung klarer Begriffe dahin, und Sombart’s Arbeiten—so sehr hoch ich sie stelle—haben darin keine Wandlung gebracht.
Ich kann leider Ihre Sendung vorerst kaum mit einem noch so bescheidenen Gegengabe erwiedern, da meine Studien sich auf sehr entlegenen Gebieten bewegen.
Eine besondere Freude wäre es mir, und sicherlich auch Sombart, wenn Sie gelegentlich Veranlaßung nähmen, sich einmal in unserem “Archiv” zu äußern,—jetzt wo Sie diese große Arbeit abgeschloßen haben, ist ja Ihre Arbeitskraft wieder freier als bisher.
Ihr Werk wird selbstverständlich in unserer Zeitschrift eingehend besprochen werden, nur bedarf es etwas Zeit, da unser Raum zur Zeit übermäßig besetzt ist und es auch nicht leicht ist, einen geeigneten deutschen Rezensenten zu finden. Doch werden wir alle Mühe aufwenden.
Mit den besten Neujahrs-Gratulationen und Empfehlungen, auch meine Frau, an Ihre Frau Gemahlin und Sie.
Ihr hochachtungsvoll ergebenster
Max Weber
[I am very pleased and delighted to have received your book (“Principles of Economics”), and I am envious of the substantial labor and effort evident in this accomplishment. I have been able to read only a part of your exposition, as I am deeply immersed in logical work, and thus have to withhold an evaluation. I am pleased that you decisively set aside the excesses of historicism—as occurs generally in the United States, and that weighs on us because of the strong influence of Schmoller—and accept as valid the good old principle: “qui bene distinguit, bene docet” (he who distinguishes well, teaches or learns well). At the moment in Germany the courage to engage in theoretical work and the impartiality required to develop clear concepts is at a standstill. In that respect Sombart’s work, as much as I admire it, has not brought about a change.
Unfortunately I can’t respond to your book with even a modest work of my own, as my studies lie in rather remote fields.
It would be a real pleasure for me and surely Sombart as well, if you could find the occasion to contribute to our “Archiv.” You may have a freer work schedule than previously, now that you have completed the great work.
Your book will obviously be comprehensively reviewed in our journal, though it may take a while, as our space is overloaded at the moment, and it also isn’t easy to find a suitable German reviewer. But we will make every effort.]
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Max Weber to Booker T. Washington
25 September 1904
St. Louis
handwritten
Washington Papers, containers 96–97, reel 88; Library of Congress
Dear Sir,
Being here a speaker at the Congress of Arts and Science, I should be very glad to visit—if I am allowed to do so—your world-known Normal and Industrial School at Tuskegee. I am going now to Oklahoma and the Indian Territory and shall come, I think, the 1st October to New Orleans, so that I could be October 3d at Tuskegee. I should be very obliged to you, if you kindly would write me to New Orleans, St. Charles Hotel, if I may have the honour to visit you and see your Institute. I made here the acquaintance of Mr. Dubois [sic], from Atlanta, and am exceedingly interested in your great and humanitary work.
Yours very respectfully
Max Weber
Professor of social science
at the University of
Heidelberg, Germany
Booker T. Washington to Max Weber
30 September 1904
typescript copy
Washington Papers, containers 96–97, reel 88; Library of Congress
Mr. Max Weber,
St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana
My dear Sir:
I write to assure you that we shall be very glad to have you include Tuskegee in your itinery [sic] and shall expect you to be here September 3rd [sic]. It will give us great pleasure to have you accept the hospitality of the school while here and for you to remain just as long as you possibly can. We shall afford you every opportunity to look into the work we are doing at Tuskegee. If you will be good enough to advise me as to just when you will reach Tuskegee, I shall see that you are met at the Station.
I think I ought to say that it is very probable that I myself shall not be here at the time of your visit, but the Acting Principal and all of the officers of the Institute will take pleasure in seeing that you are given opportunity to thoroughly investigate our work and in making your stay pleasant and profitable.
Very truly yours
Max Weber to Booker T. Washington
6 November 1904
167 Madison Avenue, New York
handwritten
Washington Papers, Containers 96–7, reel 88; Library of Congress
Dear Sir,
I was, some weeks ago, at Tuskegee, and my wife and myself were so deeply impressed by all we saw and learned there, that we hoped to be in a position to come again before leaving the country. I should especially have been very glad to meet you, yourself, after having read your works and seen your work. But my wife could not stand the climate of the South and so we went back and have now, the 19th, to cross the ocean to Germany.
Before going, allow me to express our respectful and hearty thank[s] to Mrs. Washington and to the officers and teachers of your Institute, especially 1) Mr. Warren Logan, 2) Mr. Taylor, 3) the professor of Agriculture and 4) Miss Clark. I hope to come again after some 2 or 3 years latest and then to have the opportunity to express [to] you the high admiration and consideration, which I, as I think everybody who saw Tuskegee, feel for you and your important work. It was—I am sorry to say that—only at Tuskegee I found enthusiasm in the South at all.
I hope to get some reports of your Institute here by the booksellers; if not, I hope not to trouble too much your secretary in applying to him.
With high respect
Yours very truly
Professor Max Weber
Booker T. Washington to Max Weber
[10] November 1904
typescript copy
Washington Papers, Containers 96–7, reel 88; Library of Congress
Prof. Max Weber
167 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
My dear Sir:
I am very glad indeed to have your letter of a few days ago and to learn that you so thoroughly enjoyed the short time that you spent at Tuskegee. I am very sorry that I myself was not here to have the pleasure of meeting you, but I have been very glad to hear so much of you from those here who did meet you. Our only regret is that you were not able to spend a longer time at Tuskegee and to look more thoroughly into the work that we are trying to do. I am very glad however to know that you hope to visit Tuskegee again, and assure you we shall be very glad to receive you at any time you can come.
I am sending a copy of my last Annual Report, and other printed matter, which contains information with reference to our work.
Very truly yours,
Enc.