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Was Max Weber himself ascetic?
Sociology and Philosophy
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Yes. Weber’s father was hedonistic and shallow, his mother cultured, and he found intellectual and moral discipline in the household of his aunt and uncle. When, in the 1880s, he embarked on a study of the East-Elbian agricultural workers, writing 900 pages in one year, it was combined with a lectureship at the University of Berlin and a full-time legal job. His regime was rigid, and he divided his daily schedule into hourly components. In 1893, he married Marianne Schnitger, a cousin on his father’s side. The marriage was based on close intellectual companionship, but was never consummated sexually. Only in an affair in his late forties did Weber accomplish that.