The origins of social science as a discipline are analyzed in terms of the German scientific community before 1920, which tended to define itself according to the theories of Karl Marx or Immanuel Kant. Following a brief introduction about the nature of social science debates in intellectual Germany, section 2 of the paper considers whether the distinguishing character of social science was its form or its substance and concludes that the discipline began with a far more substantive element than is generally recognized. Sections 3 and 4 outline differences in neo-Kantian and neo-Marxist social science in terms of epistemology, logical status of concepts, cognitive goal, method, type of ethics, role of philosophy, institutional locus, and audience. Section 5 examines the institutionalization of social science by contrasting establishment social science (created before 1855) and the modernist opposition led by Max Weber after 1855. The principal location, academic position, educational policy, type of research, role of theory, relation to socialism, ideology, relation to centers of political power and professional associations of each are categorized. Section 6 analyzes the modernist opposition in relation to contributors of its official publication, "Archiv." The Kant-Marx debate is characterized as located within the modernist opposition. Section 7 focuses on Max Weber and the politics of scientific activity. (KC)