Ferdinand Tönnies and academic ‘socialism’

Abstract

Modern sociology emerged in part out of the milieu of 'state socialists' in imperial Germany. An exploration of the milieu and its discourses provides insights as to the sense of the founding work of German sociology, Ferdinand Tönnies' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, the political context in which historicist economics were transformed into sociology, explicit and implicit influences behind sociology in the writings of von Stein, Rodbertus, Wagner and Schmoller, the response of the 'socialists of the lectern' to Tönnies' sociology, and differing responses to the debate between the historicist human sciences and rational theory.

Ferdinand Tönnies’ appraisal of Karl Marx: Debts and distance

“…The Verein had been founded by academics rejecting the presentation of the economy by the Manchester liberal Congress of German Economists (Kongress deutscher Volkswirte) as a place for the natural equilibrium of the interests of economic agents, industrialists and labour alike. Although ‘state socialists’ ( Staatssozialisten ) or the ‘socialists of the lectern’ ( Kathedersozialisten ) often had little sympathy for Marx, the left-wing of the Verein were able to carve out a place in which the serious discussion of Marx became possible (Bond, 2011a).…”