TONNIES,FERDINAND - UTOPIAN VISIONARY

Among the founders of classical German sociology, Ferdinand Tonnies is still relatively neglected. Many reasons are given, but the most wide spread and the most damning is that tonnies is a pessimist who wished, in the face of modernity, to return to the supposed Golden Age of rur al Germany, when the community, ruled by patriarchs, gathered on the l and. This interpretation is fundamentally flawed: although Tonnies wan ted to describe the rootless, ruthless, calculating individuals of mod ern society, he wished to recall the past primarily in order to develo p a blueprint for the future, in which the so-called feminine traits o f conscience, empathy, and care would govern the community. Rather tha n yearning for the past, Tonnies was a utopian who had a vision of the future and tried to make it a reality.