Max Weber's range of erudition was nearly universal, and he wrote much that has come to occupy an important position in modern thought. Among his lesser known yet fascinating works are these articles on university problems in imperial Germany, written from 1908 to 1919. They deal mainly with questions of academic freedom, the relations between the university and government, and the dangers of the politicization of universities. They were never collected and until recently have never been reprinted, even in Germany; they have in consequence been inaccessible both to students of Weber's writings and to those concerned with the problem of the modern university.

First translated and printed in the quarterly Manerva:A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, the articles are collected here not just because, in the words of Edward Shils, "they are rare minor works of one of the great intellects of modern times but rather because they state, although in a particular context and in controversial form, certain fundamental principles of the liberal conception of university autonomyand academic freedom"