Release of version 1.2 of the Ferdinand Tönnies letter edition
1,725 freely available letters from the sociologist
15.10.2024 | General, Project News
Heidelberg University Library, Letter from Ferdinand Tönnies to Gustav Radbruch — Kiel, 9.12.1927, https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/heidhs3716IIIF-1249_7/0002 sowie Ferdinand Urbahns -https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Ferdinand_T%C3%B6nnies.jpg b p k Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte Märkisches Ufer 16-18 DE - 10179 Berlin
The correspondence of the sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies (https://www.ftbe.de/) offers a unique insight into the emergence and development of sociology as a discipline in its transnational and transdisciplinary communication context. At the same time, it reveals the importance that the medium of letters had on scientific network formation and knowledge formulation well into the 20th century. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the epistolary styles and conventions of letter writing strongly influenced both epistemic and social virtues and guiding ideas of the forming discipline.
Four institutions are working together to realize the project: 1. the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen, where the editing and research work is being done; 2. the Schleswig-Holstein State Library (SHLB) in Kiel as the institution holding the Tönnies estate; 3. The Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH) of the University of Trier for the IT conception and support of the project; 4. The Communication, Information, Media Center (KIM) of the University of Konstanz, which on the one hand provides the technical infrastructure and on the other hand accompanies the editorial work with the Social Science Archive (SAK).