Library Norbert Elias

Norbert Elias (* June 22, 1897 in Breslau; † August 1, 1990 in Amsterdam) was a sociologist of German-Polish origin. Elias studied Medicine and Philosophy after World War I,  soon moved to Sociology and became an inofficial assistant to Karl Mannheim. In 1933 he emigrated from Germany via Paris to England. From 1954 to 1962 he was a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester, and from 1965 on he held various visiting professorships in Germany and elsewhere. Greater recognition did not set in until the broad reception of his main work The civilizing process. Norbert Elias is considered one of the most important sociologists of the 20th century. His name is associated with the terms "figuration" as well as "process and figuration sociology", which characterize a methodological rewriting of sociology in connection with Karl Mannheim.

Biography in: The Blackwell companion to major social theorists/George Ritzer

Nearly 3000 sociological works, mostly in German and English, from Elias' academic library were acquired for the UB Erfurt in 1995.