Carl Mayer (18 July 1902 - 13 May 1974)
Born in Pforzheim, Mayer studied social science and political science in Heidelberg with Alfred Weber, Eduard Heimann and Karl Jaspers. In 1929 he gained his doctorate with a thesis on Max Weber’s sociology of religion (“Church and Sect”), a work which he associated himself with for the rest of his life. At first he taught in Frankfurt am Main at the trade union college, The Academy of Work. After the academy was closed in 1933, he immigrated to New York and was offered a chair at the New School for Social Research. After the war, he directed an extensive project exploring religious life in Germany. As professor emeritus, relocated in Switzerland, he occasionally taught in Frankfurt am Main and Konstanz. His academic interest was mainly in the areas of sociology of religion and the theory of social behaviour. Carl Mayer’s complete original estate is available in the Archive. An index is available.