THE LIFE OF GEORG SIMMEL xxvii
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Yet at least some recognition of his work was forth-
coming. The University of Heidelberg conferred upon him
the degree of Dr. rer. pol. honoris causa in 1911.
In 1914 Simmel was called to Strassburg to take the
position of professor of philosophy (Ordinarius). He dis-
liked to leave Berlin, which, in spite of many disappoint-
ments, had become very dear to him. His lectures at the
university had been attended by large and interested audi-
ences, and there had been no lack of appreciation on the
part of his hearers. But financial reasons forced him to
leave the place where he had worked and taught for nearly
thirty years for a more lucrative position in a less con-
genial environment.
A short time after he arrived in Strassburg the war
broke out, and with it came the complete demoralization
of academic life. The youth of the country was called to
the front, and the faculty no less than the students con-
tributed to the gruesome total of dead and wounded.
From the academic point of view the Strassburg period
was a great disappointment. The university had dwindled
in size, the classes were small, and the selective process
of military conscription had left a student body of a pecu-
liar composition. Under these conditions Simmel lectured
until shortly before his death, on September 28, 1918.
Simmel had a great influence on the numerous students
who passed beneath his touch during his thirty years of
teaching. But he made no school in the narrow sense of
the term. He aided his students in finding themselves
rather than encouraged them to continue his own work.
This was due also to the peculiar characteristics of his
philosophy. Containing practically no structure, being a
method rather than a system, it was not likely to suggest
any substantial additions. The only field in which he has
obtained a more or less definite following is the field of
