Karl Mannheim

Karl Mannheim (March 27, 1893, Budapest - January 9, 1947, London) was a Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century. In 1914 he attended lectures by Georg Simmel in Berlin and he worked from 1922 to 1925 in Heidelberg under the German sociologist Alfred Weber, brother of the well-known sociologist Max Weber. Norbert Elias worked as one of his assistants (from spring 1930 until spring 1933).

Important work: Ideology and Utopia. Mannheim rates as a founder of the sociology of knowledge.