Ratten und Schmeißfliegen oder Gewissen der Nation? Zum Verhältnis von Politikern und Schriftstellern bei der Wiederherstellung der deutschen Zivilgesellschaft in der jungen Bundesrepublik

Authors

• Christoph Parry Universität Vaasa

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70484/vakki.149154

Keywords:

Demokratie, Zivilgesellschaft, Nachkriegszeit, Nachkriegsliteratur

Abstract

Unlike in the older Western democracies civic society in Germany has tended to be rather weak. After the failed revolution of 1848 the nation state created in 1871 was a top down solution reflecting the interests of the rulers, not the ruled. The weakness of civic society is generally seen as one of the reasons why the national socialist dictatorship met with so little resistance. After World War 2 the restitution of civic society was a priority. After a brief historical introduction the paper deals with the problems met by intellectuals striving to encourage public debate. A major problem in the immediate post-war period was the difficulty in finding appropriate means of expression in the German language after twelve years of abuse through Nazi propaganda. A further difficulty in the 50s and 60s was the rise of a political class that had been socialised in the years of dictatorship and had little respect for intellectual opinion. The paper presents some famous examples of abusive language used by politicians to dismiss the arguments of prominent intellectuals. Despite such setbacks public debate and civic society became stronger throughout the post-war period, especially since the 1960s. The article concludes with the suggestion that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the GDR dictatorship can be interpreted as a vote of confidence in German civic society as a whole.