First, let me say that I very much appreciate the honor of having been asked to give this address, and let me thank Hans-Georg Soeffner who did the asking. Secondly, let me apologize for speaking to you in English. German was my first language, and if a pistol is put to my head I can compose a lecture in that language – but English has been for many decades my primary medium of intellectual discourse, and it comes much more easily to me. Since I have now reached a truly patriarchal age – perilously close to the age of the German Sociological Association – I prefer to do things that come easily.