After the Wall: The Failure of German Intellectuals

Abstract

The patterns of intellectual and political discourse in the new unified Germany are undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift. Innumerable feuilleton and magazine essays, books and conference proceedings, lecture series and round table discussions of the past year and a half reveal a far-reaching crisis in the self-understanding and public role of German intellectuals. A certain high-pitched tone betrays raw nerves. Tempers are fraying; irritation and exasperation abound. The threshold from reasoned argument to confession and last judgment is crossed ever more quickly and ever more frequently. A rhetoric of accusation and self-righteousness accompanies the escape from critical reflection into the realm of pure morality. Something is rotten in the state of German culture.