Abstract
<jats:p>This is the first study which brings together Webers thought with his life and his predecessors and contemporaries. The author begins by explaining Webers system in terms of meaning, value and power, discussing the basic terms of his theories and revealing his main theses. He then deals with Webers life and works in chronological order, albeit with some unavoidable exceptions. Max Webers talent for politics and its logic became apparent in his youth. After a nervous breakdown, he occupied himself with questions of value and the methodology of the social sciences as well as with his famous theory about the connection between Puritan ethics and capitalism. During the last ten years of his life, he turned to literature, music and the fine arts, wrote his famous works on economy and society, and did comparative sociological studies of the major religions of the world.</jats:p>