Kurt Lewin

German-American psychologist (1890-1947)

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Lived 1890–1947, aged 57Germany

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Era
1890–1947
Aged 57

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He turned psychology outward—from the couch to the conference room, the factory floor, the committee meeting. Lewin made the group itself the subject, watching how people actually behave when they're together, not alone.

Biography

About

Born in Prussia in 1890, Lewin trained in Berlin before fleeing to the United States as the Reich closed in. He landed at Cornell, then Iowa, then MIT, carrying a conviction that psychology shouldn't just describe the world but change it. His research focused on applied problems—how groups make decisions, how organizations evolve, how action and inquiry could fold into one process. The work earned him a reputation as the founder of social psychology and a place among the first to study group dynamics seriously. A 2002 survey ranked him the 18th-most cited psychologist of the twentieth century.…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin

said1939

It is not the similarity or dissimilarity of individuals that constitutes a group, but interdependence of fate.

— Kurt Lewin (1939) "When facing danger". In Lewin, G. W. (Ed.), Resolving Social Conﬂict. London: Harper & Row.

Kurt Lewin

said1939

The scope of time ahead which inﬂuences present behavior, and is therefore to be regarded as part of the present life-space, increases during development.

— Kurt Lewin (1939) "Field theory and experiments in social psychology" in: American Journal of Sociology. Vol 44. p. 879.

Kurt Lewin

said1935