羅爾夫·魏格豪斯，1944年齣於德國的伍珀塔爾（Wuppertal），在西奧多·W.阿多諾等人指導下學習哲學、社會學和德國文學，並於1974年在於爾根·哈貝馬斯指導下取得博士學位。一直擔任自由撰稿人並兼任多所大學講師。代錶作《法蘭剋福學派：曆史、理論及政治影響》齣版於1986年（2001年再版），並被譯成多種語言齣版。此外，他還齣版過研究維特根斯坦、阿多諾、霍剋海默和哈貝馬斯的數本專著。

This is the definitive study of the history and accomplishments of the Frankfurt School. It offers elegantly written portraits of the major figures in the school's history as well as overviews of the various positions and directions they developed from the founding years just after World War I until the death of Theodor Adorno in 1969.The book is based on documentary and biographical materials that have only recently become available. As the narrative follows the Institute for Social Research from Frankfurt am Main to Geneva, New York, and Los Angeles, and then back to Frankfurt, Wiggershaus continually ties the evolution of the school to the changing intellectual and political contexts in which it operated. He also interweaves these accounts with incisive summaries of substantive works by Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, Fromm, Kirchheimer, Lowenthal, Marcuse, Neumann, Pollock, and Habermas.The book is self-contained and can serve as a general introduction to critical theory, but it also has a wealth of new material to offer those who are familiar with this tradition but would like to learn more about its history and context.Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought