Sulzbach, Walter
SULZBACH, WALTER
SULZBACH, WALTER (1889–1969), sociologist. Sulzbach was born in Frankfurt and was a professor at the university there until the Hitler regime. In 1937 he immigrated to the United States, where he assumed various teaching and research positions. Sulzbach's writings are chiefly concerned with the sociology of nations, social classes, and political parties. He conceived of a nation entirely as a political unit, disregarding other criteria such as language and ethnicity. His position regarding imperialism and social classes was Marxist with the addition of socio-psychological components. It was from this point of departure that he wrote Vorurteile und Instinkte; Eine Untersuchung ueber die Rassenabstossung und den Anti-semitismus (1923). His most important contribution was an article on the concept of the nation, "Begriff und Wesen der Nation," in Dioskuren, 2 (1923). He also wrote Nationales Gemeinschaftsgefuehl und wirtschaftliches Interesse (1929) and National Consciousness (1943).
bibliography:
W. Bernsdorf (ed.), Internationales Soziologenlexikon (1959), incl. bibl.
[Werner J. Cahnman]