ABSTRACT
Alfred Schütz, after reading The Structure of Social Action (1937), enthusiastically asserted that he had found the American counterpart to Max Weber, whom he so admired. Similarly, Joseph A. Schumpeter commented that his work is characterized by German forms of thought and expression. Parsons's obvious affinity for German intellectual life might be rooted in the history of his education, which included earning his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. There he had studied, as he later wrote, with the ghost of the recently deceased Max Weber, whose influence remained prominent at the university. His studies initiated an enduring, indeed, life-long engagement with Weber's works. Parsons remained in connection with Germany and German-language culture, especially academic culture, in various ways, including his critical analyses of the rise of Nazism, his participation in the Salzburg seminars in the postwar years, and his ties to German social scientists in the postwar decades. Since his death in Munich in 1979, Parsons's theory of action has had a greater impact in Germany than in the United States and likely any other country. The center of this impact has been the theories developed by Luhmann and Habermas as well as the controversies between them and between their followers.
