Karl Mannheim

" Als ich, hauptsaechlich aus Neugier, in seine Vorlesung ging, war ich unmittelbar fasziniert, vor allem von zwei Dingen(voller Geheimnis sind die Wege Gottes, oder war es die List der Vernunft?): Mannheims ungarischem Akzent und seinen seidenen Hemden. Spaeter, in seinen Seminaren, nachdem ich weit tiefer beeindruckt worden war, fiel mir eine andere Merkwuerdigkeit auf:Er konsumierte nicht-angezuendete Zigaretten, indem er an ihnen saugte und kaute....Da war eben etwas an Mannheim, das mich an seinem Akzent, seinen Hemden, seinem Zigarettenbrei kleben liess."(Kurt Wolf, Soziologie in der gefaehrdeten Welt, S.68)

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"But within a year the young Mannheim, subsequently renowned as one of the founders of sociology of knowledge, made a name for himself among the students as an interesting and stimulating lecturer" "What was Mannheims attraction? His lectures were not carefully reasoned presentations that his listeners would passively absorb. Rather, he drew his students along with him as the process of his reasoning unfolded, and I felt I could easily follow his way of thinking, as it closely matched my own."(With My Own Eyes, S. 78)

"Mannheim liess immer den Abstand fuehlen, der zwischen ihm und seinen Schuelern bestand. Seine Vorlesungen und Seminare waren fuer mich, einen Anfangsstudenten, nicht immer leicht zu folgen. Er liebte, wie so viele deutsche Professoren, seine Gedanken in eine Terminologie einzukleben, eine Art Geheimsprache, die nur seinen Schuelern verstaendlich war."(Human Figurations, Giselè Freund, S.12)

"Mannheim was concerned with the main lectures, with large audiences, not only of students but also of visitors from the town's intelligentia, and with all the varied aspects of university politics(which he did very well). He and his wife, Julia, came from Budapest and always spoke Hungarian when alone. Consequently, as German was not his mother tongue, he was haunted by the fear that he might make mistakes when lecuring in German and Elias often went to his lectures simply to reassure him that he didn't make any mistakes(which he didn't)(Human Figurations, Ilse Seglow, S.16)