Is Wealth Thicker than Blood? The Social Order of Wealthy Families

Franziska Wiest

The intergenerational transmission of wealth in families is a major cause of increasing social inequalities. However, it is only recently that there has been a growing sociological interest in the role of the family and kinship networks in cross-generational wealth accumulation. To understand the dynamics of long-term wealth perpetuation, the dissertation project analyzes the interplay of family relationships and wealth reproduction practices in the richest families in Germany. Drawing on in-depth interviews with members of wealthy entrepreneurial German families, it reconstructs the often conflicted trajectories of their family wealth. The dissertation discusses belonging and boundary-making, representation and deviance, control and power, destruction and reconciliation around questions of family wealth. It argues that through the intimate connection between family and capital, these families persisted as units of economic production throughout different phases of capitalism, adapting their modes of economic, social, and legal reproduction. At the same time, the cultural ideal of the family as a site of emotionality and care has profoundly affected how these families structure and manage wealth reproduction. The dissertation contributes to the question of the economic embeddedness of the family in contemporary capitalism and to the study of wealth and social inequality. This project is also part of the research focus "Wealth and Social Inequality" at the MPIfG.