Bendix, Reinhard.

Reinhard Bendix was born in Berlin, Germany in 1916 and received his formal education at the Gymnasium in Berlin from 1927-1933. Upon his return to Germany in 1935, he found employment as a clerk in the export firm of L. Hecht & Co. and later (1937) in the Palaestina Treuhandstelle in Paltreu, Berlin. It was also during these same years that Reinhard became a member of both HaShomer HaZair and the anti-Fascist underground organization Neu Beginnen. In 1938, he was forced to flee Hitler-Germany and immigrated to the U.S. With the help of family friends, Bendix immigrated to the United States in September of 1938 and immediately enrolled in undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago. He received the B.A. in 1941, M.A. in 1943, and Ph.D. in Sociology in 1946, studying under Professor Charles Merriam. During this time, he also met and married Jane Walstrum (1940). After completing his studies, Bendix spent one year at the University of Colorado in Boulder, but relocated to California and the University of California, Berkeley in 1947. He became a member of the Faculty of the Department of Sociology, and later the Department of Political Science, and remained at Berkeley until his retirement. Bendix's main research interests centered around the areas of comparative social stratification, political and industrial sociology, and the history of social theory. He was also instrumental in introducing and popularizing the works of Max Weber among American social scientists. His works include Class, Status and Power, Work and Authority in Industry, Social Mobility in Industry, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, Nation Building and Citizenship, Kings or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule, and From Berlin to Berkeley: German Jewish Identities, as well as over sixty contributions to professional journals.

From the description of Reinhard Bendix papers, 1929-1998. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122599388