Ludwig Gumplowicz, born March 9 1838 in Kraków, then a republic, now part of Poland, died August 19 1909 in Graz, Austria, was one of the founders of European sociology. He was also a jurist and political scientist who taught constitutional and administrative law at the University of Graz.
Life
Gumplowicz studied law in Kraków, then became a lawyer and publicist there. In 1875 he began teaching administration in Graz; in 1882 he became an associate professor, and in 1893 a full professor. In 1909 he committed suicide along with his wife after he had become ill with cancer.
Works and influence
Gumplowicz became interested in the problem of suppressed ethnic groups very early, being from a Jewish family and coming from Kraków, a city of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which was first partitioned and later as the Free City of Kraków annexed by Austria-Hungary. He was a lifelong advocate of minorities in the Habsburg Empire, in particular the Slavic speakers. Gumplowicz soon became interested in the later form of sociology of conflict, starting out from the idea of the group (then known as race). He saw the state as an institution which served various controlling elites at different times. In analysis, he leaned towards macrosociology, predicting that if the minorities of a state became socially integrated, they would break out in war. In his 1909 publication, Der Rassenkampf (Struggle of the Races) he foresaw world war. During his life he was considered a Social Darwinist. His political beliefs and his polemic character attracted many Polish and Italian students, making his theories important in Poland, Italy and other crown states (today Croatia, Czech Republic). But the fact that he published his works in German meant that he was also an important figure in German-speaking countries. Gustav Ratzenhofer was the most prominent of those influenced by him.
