Portrait. In memoriam Rene Konig (1905-1992)

A memoriam to German sociologist Rene Konig, who was expelled from his academic position in the 1930s, along with many others, & made to flee his country. Although he resettled in Switzerland in 1937 & found it his intellectual home, he returned to Germany in 1949 to accept a position in sociology at the U of Cologne. There he developed a new German sociology based on empirical grounds, distinct from the historical & sociophilosophical traditions of German social sciences. His profound interest in anthropology contributed to his conviction that sociology must be an international science. Konig will be particularly remembered as a teacher & inspirer of scientific research. To his students & colleagues, his way of soliciting critical opposition & reflection promoted intellectual honesty & the emancipation of the human being using the tools of sociology. S. Millett