TÖNNIES, FERDINAND. - Sociologist, born at Oldensworth (Schleswig) on 26 July 1855, died on 9 Apr. 1936.
Having taken a doctorate in philosophy, he devoted himself to social studies. In 1881 he became a Privatdozent at the University of Kiel and subsequently titular professor (1891), extraordinary professor (1908), and ordinary professor (1933). He was a councillor at Regensburg. In recognition of his distinguished reputation, he was awarded honorary degrees in law and political science; he was president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie and of the International Hobbesian 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 Gesellschaft; the latter, which is a conscious and free creation of man, is the culmination of the historical process that proceeds from the natural character of the former.
Among his principal writings: Hobbes Leben und Lehre (Stuttgart 1896 and 1925); Über die Grundthatsachen des sozialen Lebens (Berne 1897); Das Wesen der Soziologie (Dresden 1907); Die Entwicklung der sozialen Frage (Leipzig 1907 and 1919); Die Sitte (Frankfurt am Main 1900); Weltkrieg und Völkerrecht (Berlin 1917); Kritik der öffentlichen Meinung (there 1922); Soziologische Studien und Kritiken (Jena 1925-26); Einführung in die Soziologie (Stuttgart 1934); Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Leipzig 1926 and 1935).