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‪This article outlines the reception of Vilfredo Pareto’s sociology in Germany, where he has been considered a classic since the 1950s but could never reach the importance of Max Weber or Georg Simmel. Pareto’s reception began in the 1920s with a focus on the theory of action, the concept of circulation of elites, and the sociology of knowledge. Until the late 1940s, the German image of Pareto was largely shaped by political perspectives and the discussion of his relation to fascism. Since the 1950s, Pareto’s theories were increasingly used in empirical research on elites in the social and political sciences. In addition, a small group of Paretian sociologists, in particular Gottfried Eisermann, was committed to the exegesis of the work in order to disseminate Pareto's thought as authentically as possible.‪