ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways Max Weber handled both the idea of Schicksal and Schicksalsgemeinschaft. In the sociological tradition, no one was more sensitive to fate than Weber. Weber refused to believe that helplessness in the face of bureaucracy was an "inescapable fate". When, before 1914, Weber examined the attitudes of various classes to war, his attitude to the common man was significantly different. Weber's speech found sociological expression in the "Interim Reflection" essay of 1915. In contrast to the Christian religious ethic of brotherliness which rejects force and war as an abomination, the modern polity asserts that the pursuit of right frequently demands the use of violence. Weber offered various accounts of the nation but always emphasized the concept's ambiguity. Cementing idea and value is what Weber repeatedly calls a "sentiment of solidarity" or a "community of sentiment" typically derived from shared memories.
