This article suggests that Weber's cosmopolitan dimension has much to do with his extended family history, which has been relatively neglected even though it influenced his world view and oeuvre in significant respects. It first sketches the cosmopolitan family context and then turns to Weber's political and scholarly agenda, especially the little-known story of his strong political and professional engagement in the battle over exchange reform in the eighteen-nineties.
Weber family history; Economic Sociology; economic policy; exchange reform