Ralf Dahrendorf
From Philosopedia
Ralf Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, FBA (1 May 1929 - 17 June 2009)
Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist, and liberal politician.
Born in Hamburg, he and his father Gustav were sent to concentration camps by the National Socialist regime for their anti-Nazi activities.
Between 1947 and 1952, he earned a doctorate of philosophy and classics at Hamburg University. He completed research under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics in 1953 - 1954, earning a Ph. D. in 1956. He taught sociology in Hamburg (1957 - 1960), Tübingen (1960 - 1964), and Konstanz (1966 - 1969).
Dahrendorf became a Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Commissioner for External Relations and Trade, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education, and Member of the British House of Lords. In 1993 he was created a life peer and was known in the United Kingdom as Lord Dahrendorf.
He was married three times: to Vera (1954, with whom he had Nicola, Alexandra, and Daphne Dahrendorf; to Ellen Joan Krug (1980 - 2004, a historian and translator); and to Christiane Dahrendorf (2004), a physician from Cologne. Lord Dahrendorf died at the age of 80 after suffering from cancer.
