Editing Niklas Luhmann (section)

==Biography==
Luhmann was born in [[Lüneburg]], [[Free State of Prussia]], where his father's family had been running a [[brewery]] for several generations. He entered the Gymnasium Johanneum at Luneburg in 1937.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Luhmann-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung|last1=Jahraus|first1=Oliver|last2=Nassehi|first2=Armin|last3=Grizelj|first3=Mario|last4=Saake|first4=Irmhild|last5=Kirchmeier|first5=Christian|last6=Müller|first6=Julian|date=2012|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-3-476-05271-1|location=Berlin|pages=441}}</ref> In 1943, he was conscripted as a [[Luftwaffenhelfer]] in [[World War II]] and served for two years until, at the age of 17, he was taken [[prisoner of war]] by American troops in 1945.<ref>In an interview Luhmann once said: "''... die Behandlung war{{mdash}}gelinde gesagt{{mdash}}nicht nach den Regeln der internationalen Konventionen'' [... the way I was treated was{{mdash}}to put it mildly{{mdash}}not according to the rules of the international conventions]". Source: Detlef Horster (1997), ''Niklas Luhmann'', München, p. 28.</ref> After the war Luhmann studied law at the [[Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg|University of Freiburg]] from 1946 to 1949, where he obtained a law degree, and then began a career in Lüneburg's public administration. During a sabbatical in 1961, he went to [[Harvard]], where he met and studied under [[Talcott Parsons]], then the world's most influential social systems theorist.

In later days, Luhmann dismissed Parsons' theory, developing a rival approach of his own. Leaving the civil service in 1962, he lectured at the national [[Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften]] (University for Administrative Sciences) in [[Speyer]], Germany.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Social Lens: An Invitation to Social and Sociological Theory|last=Allan|first=Kenneth|date=2006|publisher=Pine Forge Press|isbn=978-1-4129-1410-9|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=453}}</ref> In 1965, he was offered a position at the {{Interlanguage link|Sozialforschungsstelle an der Universität Münster|de}} (Social Research Centre of the [[University of Münster]]), led by [[Helmut Schelsky]].
From 1965/66 he studied one semester of sociology at the University of Münster.

Two earlier books were retroactively accepted as a PhD thesis and [[habilitation]] at the University of Münster in 1966, qualifying him for a university professorship. In 1968/1969, he briefly served as a lecturer at [[Theodor Adorno]]'s former chair at the [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main|University of Frankfurt]] and then was appointed full professor of sociology at the newly founded [[University of Bielefeld]], Germany (until 1993). When asked about his research plan, he said, "The theory of modern society. Duration 30 years. No costs."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bechmann |first=Gotthard |last2=Stehr |first2=Nico |date=January 2002 |title=The legacy of Niklas Luhmann |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF02717531 |journal=Society |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=67–75 |doi=10.1007/BF02717531 |issn=0147-2011}}</ref>

He continued to publish after his retirement, when he finally found the time to complete his magnum opus, ''Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft'' (literally, "The Society of Society"), which was published in 1997, and has been translated into English as ''Theory of Society'' (volume I in 2012 and volume II in 2013). This work describes segmented societies divided into specialized functional subsystems.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Sociological Theory of Law|last=Luhmann|first=Niklas|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-14255-1|location=Oxon|pages=xxxii}}</ref>