Ralf Dahrendorf

The Right Honourable The Lord Dahrendorf KBE FBA
Dahrendorf in 1980
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 15 July 1993 – 17 June 2009 Life Peerage
European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education
In office 6 January 1973 – 5 January 1977
President	François-Xavier Ortoli
Preceded by	Fritz Hellwig
Succeeded by	Guido Brunner
European Commissioner for Trade
In office 1 July 1970 – 5 January 1973
President	Sicco Mansholt Franco Maria Malfatti
Preceded by	Jean-François Deniau
Succeeded by	Christopher Soames
Parliamentary Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 22 October 1969 – 2 July 1970
Chancellor	Willy Brandt
Preceded by	new appointment
Succeeded by	Karl Moersch
Member of the Bundestag
In office 28 September 1969 – 2 July 1970
Constituency	FDP List
Personal details
Born	Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf (1929-05-01)1 May 1929 Hamburg, Weimar Republic
Died	17 June 2009(2009-06-17) (aged 80) Cologne, Germany
Resting place	Ohlsdorfer Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Hamburg-Nord, Hamburg, Germany
Citizenship	British German
Political party	Liberal Democrats (UK) FDP (Germany)
Spouse(s)	Vera Dahrendorf (née Vera Banister) Ellen Dahrendorf (née Ellen Joan Krug) (1980–2004) Christiane Dahrendorf (née Christiane Klebs) (2004–2009)
Relations	Frank Dahrendorf (Brother)
Children	Nicola, Alexandra, and Daphne Dahrendorf
Parent	Lina Dahrendorf (Mother) Gustav Dahrendorf (Father)
Alma mater	University of Hamburg London School of Economics
Profession	Sociologist
Awards	1975: elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1977: Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) awarded by the University of Bath., 1977: elected member of the American Philosophical Society, 1977: elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1982: Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1989: Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1993: Life Peer (Baron Dahrendorf), 1997: Theodor-Heuss-Preis, 1999: Medal of Merit of Baden-Württemberg, 1999: Honorary Senator of the University of Hamburg, 2002: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2003: Pour le Mérite

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and analysing class divisions in modern society. Dahrendorf wrote multiple articles and books, his most notable being Class and Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) and Essays in the Theory of Society (1968).

During his political career, he was a Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Foreign Office of Germany, European Commissioner for Trade, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education and Member of the British House of Lords, after he was created a life peer in 1993. He was subsequently known in the United Kingdom as Lord Dahrendorf.^[1]

He served as director of the London School of Economics and Warden of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He also served as a Professor of Sociology at a number of universities in Germany and the United Kingdom, and was a Research Professor at the Berlin Social Science Research Center.