TÖNNIES, FERDINAND. - Sociologist, b. at Oldensworth (Schleswig) on 26 July 1855, d. on 9 Apr. 1936.
Having obtained his doctorate in philosophy, he devoted himself to social studies. In 1881 he became a lecturer at the University of Kiel and subsequently a tenured professor (1891), associate professor (1908), full professor (1933). He was a councillor at Regensburg. Because of his clear fame he was awarded honorary degrees in law and in political science; he was president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie and of the international Hobbes Society and a member of the most celebrated international scientific Academies. The central point of his sociological conception lies in the identification of the two stages of Gemeinschaft and of Gesellschaft; the latter, which is the conscious and free creation of man, is the point of arrival of the historical process that departs from the naturalness of the former.
Among his principal writings: Hobbes Leben und Lehre (Stuttgart 1896 and 1925); Über die Grundthatsachen des sozialen Lebens (Bern 1897); Das Wesen der Soziologie (Dresden 1907); Die Entwicklung der sozialen Frage (Leipzig 1907 and 1919); Die Sitte (Frankfurt on the Main 1900); Weltkrieg und Völkerrecht (Berlin 1917); Kritik der öffentlichen Meinung (ibid. 1922); Soziologische Studien und Kritiken (Jena 1925-26); Einführung in die Soziologie (Stuttgart 1934); Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Leipzig 1926 and 1935).
Bibliography
Augusto Moreschini