Ralf Dahrendorf

The Lord Dahrendorf
Dahrendorf in 1980
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
15 July 1993 – 17 June 2009
Life Peerage
European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education
In office
6 January 1973 – 5 January 1977
PresidentFrançois-Xavier Ortoli
Preceded byFritz Hellwig
Succeeded byGuido Brunner
European Commissioner for Trade
In office
1 July 1970 – 5 January 1973
PresidentSicco Mansholt
Franco Maria Malfatti
Preceded byJean-François Deniau
Succeeded byChristopher Soames
Parliamentary Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
22 October 1969 – 2 July 1970
ChancellorWilly Brandt
Preceded bynew appointment
Succeeded byKarl Moersch
Member of the Bundestag
In office
28 September 1969 – 2 July 1970
ConstituencyFDP List
Personal details
Born
Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf

(1929-05-01)1 May 1929
Hamburg, Weimar Republic
Died17 June 2009(2009-06-17) (aged 80)
Cologne, Germany
Resting placeOhlsdorfer Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Hamburg-Nord, Hamburg, Germany
CitizenshipBritish
German
Political partyLiberal Democrats (UK)
FDP (Germany)
Spouse(s)Vera Dahrendorf (née Vera Banister)
Ellen Dahrendorf (née Ellen Joan Krug) (1980–2004)
Christiane Dahrendorf (née Christiane Klebs) (2004–2009)
RelationsFrank Dahrendorf (Brother)
ChildrenNicola, Alexandra, and Daphne Dahrendorf
ParentLina Dahrendorf (Mother) Gustav Dahrendorf (Father)
Alma materUniversity of Hamburg
London School of Economics
ProfessionSociologist
Awards1975: elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1977: Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) awarded by the University of Bath., 1977: elected member of the American Philosophical Society, 1977: elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1982: Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1989: Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1993: Life Peer (Baron Dahrendorf), 1997: Theodor-Heuss-Preis, 1999: Medal of Merit of Baden-Württemberg, 1999: Honorary Senator of the University of Hamburg, 2002: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2003: Pour le Mérite
Ralf Dahrendorf
Known forProviding a new definition of class conflict based on authority relations

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, FBA (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and analysing class divisions in modern society. Dahrendorf wrote multiple articles and books, his most notable being Class and Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) and Essays in the Theory of Society (1968).

During his political career, he was a Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Foreign Office of Germany, European Commissioner for Trade, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education and Member of the British House of Lords, after he was created a life peer in 1993. He was subsequently known in the United Kingdom as Lord Dahrendorf.[1]

He served as director of the London School of Economics and Warden of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He also served as a Professor of Sociology at a number of universities in Germany and the United Kingdom, and was a Research Professor at the Berlin Social Science Research Center.

I.G Patel And R.G Dahrendorf, 1993
  1. ^ Mann, Douglas (2008). A Survey of Modern Social Theory. Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press. p. 42.