The object ofthis thesis is to identifY Drucker's fonnative influences during the first period of his life between 1909 and 1937, when he set out on an intellectualjoumey, not, as many would anticipate, to discover management but to find a just and workable society to replace what he regarded as the contemporary dysfunctional European ones. It will be shown that his discovery of'management' was a by-product ofhis search, not its primary objective. During this period ofhis life he lived in his native Austria, then in Germany and eventually • England, all before he emigrated to America. The justification for the selection ofhis major fonnative influences is supported by documentary evidence, which records what they were as people, and what their ideas were. Also where there is interplay between the influences this is demonstrated, as is also what their ideas meant to Drucker. It will be established which ideas .. Drucker rejected, which he accepted in part, and which he embraced. From this analysis, how Drucker dealt with the influences intellectually will be identified, and how they became part of his core ideas will be shown by straightforward adoption, synthesis or as a reaction to the proposals ofhis influences, which resulted in ideas ofhis own creation.