Wolf Lepenies

Wolf Lepenies (born 1941) is a German sociologist and historian. From 1986 to 2001, he was rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and a professor of sociology at Freie Universität Berlin. In 1991–92, he held the Chaire Européenne at the Collège de France in Paris and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton on several occasions. Lepenies is an honorary doctor of the Sorbonne and the University of Bucharest and an officer of the French Legion of Honour. His distinctions include the Alexander von Humboldt Prize, the Karl Vossler Prize, the Breitbach Prize, the Theodor Heuss Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (2006), and the Kythera Prize (2016). His works include Sainte-Beuve, Kultur und Politik, Auguste Comte, and Die Macht am Mittelmeer.