Stein was born in the seaside town of Borby in
Eckernförde in
Schleswig-Holstein as Wasmer Jacob Lorentz. He studied philosophy and
jurisprudence at the universities of
Kiel and
Jena from 1835–1839, and at the
University of Paris from 1841–1842. Between 1846 and 1851 Stein was an associate professor at the
University of Kiel. He participated in the
1848 Revolutions and ran for election as a member of the
Frankfurt Parliament. He gave emphasis to the "Social Question" that the industrial worker in a capitalist country has no chance to acquire property and capital by work, which was to be addressed by a program of welfare state and social administration arranged according to the liberal principle of free and equal individual chances. Despite a similarity of his ideas with those of
Marxism, the extent of Stein's influence on
Karl Marx is uncertain. However, Marx shows by scattered remarks on von Stein that he was aware of his highly influential book from 1842 on communist thought in France. For instance in
The German Ideology (1845–46), Stein is mentioned, but only as the writer of his 1842 book. Stein died at his home in Hadersdorf-Weidlingau in the
Penzing District of Vienna and was buried at the
Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery. == Books ==