VIERKANDT, ALFRED (1867–1953), was a German sociologist. His early work focused on anthropology and social psychology. Born in Hamburg, Vierkandt studied at the University of Leipzig, where he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in 1892. He began teaching at the University of Berlin in 1900. In 1921 he was given the newly founded chair in sociology at Berlin, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1932 by the University of Würzburg. Forbidden by the Nazis to lecture and give examinations, he was forced into retirement in 1934. After 1945 he took over the leadership of the Kant Society, and in 1946 he resumed teaching at the University of Berlin. He died in Berlin in 1953.

The influence of his teacher at Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt, can be seen in Vierkandt's first major anthropological work, Naturvölker und Kulturvölker (1896), in which his differentiation between "primitive" and "civilized" peoples reflects Wundt's distinction between association...