Menschen in Figurationen

Images and Self-Portraits

Who exactly Norbert Elias was still seemed somewhat unclear even shortly after his death. The German Press Agency referred to him on August 2, 1990, in the headline of its first report at 12:31 PM as a "sociologist, cultural philosopher, and psychologist." In the title of a second, later report at 1:52 PM, he was still referred to as "sociologist and cultural philosopher." It was only in the detailed obituary at 2:58 PM that the main profession of the deceased was clarified: "social scientist." Norbert Elias, who arrived late and passed away on August 1, 1990, in Amsterdam at the age of 93, is already considered one of the classics of sociology today, mentioned in the same breath as Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. By the end of his life, the Süddeutsche Zeitung regarded him as "one of the most underestimated great thinkers of our time.".