Hans Gerth is shown here in an undated photo. Gerth taught at the University of Wisconsin while Arthur Vidich was completing his graduate studies in Sociology. His influence on Vidich's work was profound. Gerth arrived in Madison Wisconsin in 1940 at age 32. As an emigre from pre-war Nazi Germany, he had many difficulties getting adjusted to America. However, his knowledge of Max Weber's work made him one of the key arbitrers of Weber's sociology in America. Arthur Vidich and Guy Oakes astutely noted:
"Some year ago, a Weberian scholar consumed by enthusiasm for his subject proclaimed that whoever controlled the interpretation of Weber's work would control the future of sociology."** Gerth would soon become one of the gate keepers of Weber's sociology, thereby influencing thousands of sociologists and the agenda for sociological inquiry in the second half of the 20th century.
**Vidich and Oakes, Collaboration, Reputation, and Ethics in American Academic Life: Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, University of Illinois Press, 1999, p. 6
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