Max Weber was a German sociologist, who was sometimes involved in the field of politics. Politics played an important role in Weber’s life and intellectual activity. Prussia was dominated by the Junk­ers, aristocratic landowners who were opposed to free trade in grain and to liberal, capitalistic reforms, Germany was still divided into separate principalities at the time of Weber’s birth, it was at war with Austria and France.

By 1871, Count Bismarck had unified Germany and Prussia “attained complete control over most of German-speaking Europe” Weber’s mother, Helene Weber, was a Protestant and a Calvinist, with strong moral absolutist ideas. Weber was strongly influenced by her views and ap­proach to life.

Although, Weber did not claim to be religious himself, religion was an important for them through much of his thought and writings. Weber studied religion extensively, and The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, his most famous work, is a model of Weber’s historical and socio­logical method.

In this work, his main contribution was to show the connection of Calvinism with the emergence of capitalism. He studied history, economics, sociology, religion and languages.