# Weber hardens the Werturteilsstreit against value-judgments in the Verein and DGS

Date: 1909

## The fact

In 1909–10 [Max Weber](/people/max-weber) pressed the Werturteilsstreit inside the Verein für Sozialpolitik and the new DGS, demanding that association science strip value-judgments from claims of fact, a procedural fight that silenced some reformist sermons from the same lectern. Reformers heard a muzzle; methodologists heard hygiene. A justice path here is extra-legal professional policing, not a criminal code.

## Context

Kathedersozialisten had preached from chairs. Weber wanted a colder association. Sombart and others were both allies and targets at times. Sharing DGS founding (improving cohesion) does not erase this fight. Do not treat later US ‘value-free’ ideology as this 1909 quarrel only.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Werturteilsstreit is not the 7 November 1917 lecture. Mixed effects of Weber hardens the Werturteilsstreit against value-judgments in the Verein and DGS are separate paths.

## Evidence and sources

MWG at https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/max-weber-gesamtausgabe-mwg-alle-baende-9783161595219/ collects the association speeches and letters of the Werturteilsstreit. SEP at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/ independently treats value-neutrality as a lifetime methodological politics, not a neutral adjective.

Official or archival record: Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe — Mohr Siebeck (https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/max-weber-gesamtausgabe-mwg-alle-baende-9783161595219/; Mohr Siebeck / MWG).

## Significance

Justice/professional-police path of modest weight, medium confidence on who was actually silenced. 1917 Wissenschaft als Beruf remains a separate education row.

The contribution type is direct. The attached driver is justice-[judicial-independence](/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion)-erosion. The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Weber drove value-judgment fights in 1909–10 associations. Not established: a unique expulsion count from DGS that year. Contribution is recorded as He fought value-judgments in social-scientific associations. Opponents in the Verein shared the quarrel; he did not hold a court. The impact note is Using association rules to police colleagues’ value-statements is a due-process path inside learned societies, modest weight. The dated heading stays Weber hardens the Werturteilsstreit against value-judgments in the Verein and DGS on 1909-10-01, not a later statue, UNESCO listing, or school film. Printers, unnamed clerks, and later editors may appear in the same file without becoming this instrument. Later competitions, monuments, and adaptations are refused as extra lifetime acts of this person on this date.

Shared responsibility is part of Weber hardens the Werturteilsstreit against value-judgments in the Verein and DGS. Naming Max Weber does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1909-10-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

## People

- Max Weber: https://factrail.ai/people/max-weber

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/
- https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/max-weber-gesamtausgabe-mwg-alle-baende-9783161595219/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/weber-werturteil-1909