ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with two aspects of Tönnies’ sociological thinking. The first is an examination of a small but extremely important work entitled Die Sitte. As explained in the examination, this term is difficult to translate. This book provides a neat and tidy explication of many of Tönnies’ views of the past and the present and was an influence on a number of other sociologists. The second is a discussion of Tönnies’ decades-long involvement with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie. He was not only one of the founding members but also led this association for much of its existence until 1934 when it needed to be dissolved because of political pressure. It was Tönnies’ most public and most sustained effort to establish sociology as a scholarly discipline.
