Germany: A Durkheimian Case Study

Abstract

The essence of Durkheim’s theory was the importance of relations that informed consciousness and created a collective knowledge and that these relations had to embrace the whole of a collective for them to form a society, or nation. In addition, there had to be some spontaneity to such relations, i.e. rooted in reality and with a historical background. It has also been argued that Durkheim derived many of his ideas on society from German philosophy, which itself played a major role in developing the concepts of nationalism. This being the case it is therefore apt to look at Germany as a case study in assessing Durkheim’s general theory, since prior to 1871 it was not unified but a collection of states which often had little in common with each other apart from language. Indeed, it was the German experience of attempting to provide internal social unity to match formal political unity that so influenced Durkheim.