[1] Freyer began studying theology, national economics, history and philosophy at the University of Greifswald in 1907, with the aim of becoming a Lutheran theologian.

Sympathizing with the Hitlerite movement, he forced Ferdinand Tönnies, an outspoken enemy of it, and then president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, out of office in 1933.

Also in 1933 Freyer signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.

He made a big impact in the 1950s with his work The Theory of the Present Era, in which he developed a form of conservatism adaptable to the industrial age.

In 1926, in Der Staat, Freyer described the interrelated dimensions of history, which in his view repeat in a circular fashion: faith, style and state.

These were partly, although not openly, based on Ferdinand Tönnies' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (community and society), which he did not quote in his works.

This looked into the origins of sociology, saying that it came from the philosophy of history; that it had emerged from people's attempts to understand the connections between the past and the present.

alongside his pupil Arnold Gehlen as well as Ernst Jünger and Martin Heidegger as a spiritual forerunner and supporter of National Socialism.

The leader who refers radically to this plan embodies the will of the people, which must be shaped through race, discipline, education, violence and coercion.

After the end of the Second World War, the following writings by Freyer were included in the list of literature to be discarded in the Soviet occupation zone : Revolution from the Right (Diederichs, Jena 1931), The Political Semester.

As before, he belonged to the representatives of an extremely conservative current and had some influence on thinking in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany .

In particular, he is concerned with the rapid development of industrial society in the 20th century, characterized by the expansion of technology, the displacement of small companies by large ones and the concentration of human masses in metropolitan areas.

Freyer draws the conclusion that earlier descriptions of industrial society are currently (1955) no longer applicable and that new key concepts must be formulated.

Although he rejects all historical optimism, he approves of cultural criticismPhilosophers of history, who conjure up an ongoing "crisis myth" and want to condemn and limit technical development, do not agree.

However, recourse to tradition should not refer to “primitive instincts” or “primeval things”, but to the “unused” forces that can be mobilized “without falsification” from the “deep layers” of human heritage are based, which become active under the conditions of modern times and thus show their ability to change.