Class conflict theorist Ralf Dahrendorf is a leading expert in the analysis of class divisions in modern society. He is the author of numerous articles and books, of which “Class and Conflict in Industrial Society” (1959) and “Essays in the Theory of Society” (1968) are among the most notable.

Ralf Dahrendorf is known for his strong support of anti-Nazi activities in his homeland. As a teenager, he and his father, an SPD member of the German parliament, were sent to concentration camps for anti-regime acts. In 1944, during the last year of the Second World War, he was arrested again and sent to a camp in Poland, from which he was released in 1945.

He studied philosophy, classical philology and sociology at the University of Hamburg, then continued his research at the London School of Economics, where he obtained a doctorate in sociology. He returned to Germany, where he became a university professor and co-founded the University of Konstanz. He was also visiting professor of sociology at Columbia University in New York.

Ralf Dahrendorf is renowned for his analysis of social conflict. In his view, it is the unequal distribution of authority that lies at the root of social conflict in a society. Each social class has an opposed view of authority. The dominant class will strive to maintain its position, while the dominated class will act to change this situation. Social conflict is a struggle to maintain or modify the distribution of authority, not a struggle for possession of the means of production, as Karl Marx argued.

In the early 1970s, he was a Liberal member of the German parliament and a European Commissioner. Between 1974 and 1984, he was Director of the London School of Economics, before becoming Dean of St. Anthony’s College at Oxford University. In 1988, Ralf Dahrendorf became a British citizen. Five years later, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II as Lord Dahrendorf, Baron of Clare Market.