124,074 Global Weber Family Members

Weber Family History

Weber is the sixth most numerous surname in Germany. It is an occupational name from ?weber? or weaver. Such surnames arose in the Middle Ages throughout Europe. Weaving was, of course, a trade of utmost importance in medieval society; and wevers became numerous throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, as the production of wool increased throughout the low countries, German states, France and England. The surname occurs as die Wever, Weber &c. in records from this period.

The surname can also be of Jewish (Ashkenazic) origin.

The heaviest concentrations of the name occur across western and southern Germany, with strong pockets around the cities of Hannover, Hamburg and Berlin. There are large concentrations in the south-west, through Koblenz to Frankfurt am Main, and Stuttgart in Bavaria.

Immigrants arrived in the U.S.A. early, from the beginning of the 18th century to the 19th century in New York State, Pennsylvania and Carolina.

The most popular states for the name, in the 1920 Federal Census, were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. In the U.S.A. the surname inevitably suffered transmutation into Webber, Weaver etc.

In the U.S.A. today the name ranks as 252nd with 107, 866 bearers. (U.S. Social Security Data).


Famous Webers

The surname is linked to that of the celebrated composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose wife, Constanze (1763-1842), came from a famous Mannheim family of Weber. Of course, Mozart is not the only musical link! All four sisters of this family, including Constanze, were concert singers, and her cousin Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was the famous composer.

Max Weber (1881-1961) great cubist painter, was born in Bialystok, Poland to Jewish parents. They emigrated to America when he was 10 years old. He became a leading proponent of cubism in the U.S.A.

Max Weber (1864-1920) born in Erfurt, Saxony; he is regarded as one of the three founding fathers of sociology. A key concept is his assertion that Marx?s ?historical materialism? is insufficient to explain the rise of capitalism, in the development of which he identified the cultural influences of Protestantism.