Niklas Luhmann, a renowned sociologist of the twentieth century, was born in Lüneburg, Germany in 1927. After World War II, he studied law at the University of Freiburg until 1949. Early in his career, he worked for the State of Lower Saxony, where he was in charge of educational reform. In 1960—1961, Luhmann had the chance to study sociology at Harvard University, where he was influenced by Talcott Parsons, one of the most famous social system theorists. Later, Luhmann developed his own social system theory. In 1968, he became a professor of sociology at the University of Bielefeld. He researched a variety of subjects, including mass media and law. Although his books are known to be difficult to translate, they have in fact been widely translated into other languages.