GEMEINSCHAFT/GESELLSCHAFT
All intimate, private and exclusive living together is
understood as life in Gemeinschaft (community). Gesellschaft (society)
is public life - it is the world itself. In Gemeinschaft (community) with
one’s family, one lives from birth on bound to it in weal and woe. One
goes into Gesellschaft (society) as one goes into a strange country. A
young man is warned against bad Gesellschaft (society), but the expression
bad Gemeinschaft (community) violates the meaning of the word. Lawyers
may speak of domestic Gesellschaft (society) thinking only of the legalistic
concept of a social association, but the domestic Gemeinschaft (community)
or home life with its immeasurable influence upon the human soul has been
felt by everyone who ever shared it. Likewise, each member of a bridal
couple know that he or she goes in to marriage as a complete Gemeinschaft
(community) of life. A Gesellschaft (society) of life would be a contradiction
in and of itself. One keeps or enjoys another’s Gesellschaft (society or
company) but not his Gemeinschaft (community) in this sense. One becomes
a part of a religious Gemeinschaft (community); religious Gesellschaften
(associations, or societies), like any other groups formed for given purposes,
exist only in so far as they, viewed from without, take their places among
the institutions of a political body or as they represent conceptual elements
of a theory; they do not touch upon the religious Gemeinschaft as such.
There exists a Gemeinschaft (community) of language, of folkways or mores,
or of beliefs, but, by way of contrast, Gesellschaft (society or company)
exists in the realm of business, travel or sciences. So of special importance
are the commercial Gesellschaften (societies or companies), whereas, even
though a certain familiarity and Gemeinschaft (community) may exist among
business partners, one could indeed hardly speak of commercial Gemeinschaft
(community). To make the word combination ‘joint-stock Gemeinschaft’ would
be abominable. On the other hand, there exits a Gemeinschaft (community)
of ownership in fields, forest and pasture. The Gemeinschaft (community)
of property between man and wife cannot be called Gesellschaft (society)
of property. Thus many differences become apparent... Gemeinschaft (community)
is old; Gesellschaft (society) is new as a name as well as a phenomenon...
All praise of rural life has pointed out that the Gemeinschaft (community)
among people is stronger there and more alive; it is the lasting and genuine
form of living together. In contrast to Gemeinschaft, Gesellschaft (society)
is transitory and superficial. Accordingly, Gemeinschaft (society) should
be understood as a living organism, Gesellschaft (society) as a mechanical
aggregate and artifact.
- Ferdinand Tonnies, Community and Association, London, Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1955, pp. 37-9. First published in German in 1887.