Katholische Wegbereiter des Nationalsozialismus

The fateful year 1933 has been and is still being extensively investigated, but one can still make discoveries. For example, in the Catholic city of Münster, the group of prominent Catholic authors animated by Hitler's Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen to make hesitant centrist voters move over to National Socialism. They were such prominent professors of theology as Michael Schmaus and Joseph Lortz. The Catholic writer Josef Pieper also assiduously made his voice heard. Their common aim was to "prove" what they believed to be the providential kinship of the Church and National Socialism. Kurt Flasch examines their reasoning and describes their historical position. It is not a matter of debunking or late denazification. The perpetrators who wrote are well known. They became most respected teachers in the early German Federal Republic; this makes them an element of post-1945 German continuity worth exploring.

Filozofia polityczna Hegla w interpretacji Joachima Rittera

Hegel’s Political Philosophy in Joachim Ritter’s InterpretationThis article outlines Joachim Ritter’s attempt to detach Hegel’s political and social philosophy from its Marxist interpretation. The first section examines the differences between the reception of Hegel’s legacy by Ritter and by the Frankfurt School. The latter views Hegel primarily as a forerunner of Marx, while Ritter perceives Hegel as committed theorist and advocate of modern state and civil society. The second section focuses on Ritter’s attitude towards the post-revolutionary society. In particular, it explores Ritter’s interpretation of the concept of modern university and interest in history as a reaction to rapid modernization. The last section turns to Ritter’s criticism of the rejection of the contemporary social and political realities – represented by both right-winged reactionaries and far-left progressivists – and also demonstrates Ritter and his School’s contribution to intellectual legitimization of the post-war German Federal Republic.

La República Federal de Alemania y la Europeización de España (1970-1986). Introducción = The German Federal Republic and the Europeanisation of Spain (1970-1986). Introduction

Introducción al dossier

Der Rechtsstaat und sein Missbrauch

The German Federal Republic is a state under the rule of law (Art. 20 and 28 of the German Constitution). However, there are frequent complaints concerning the „misuse“ of lawsuits, which allegedly undermine the rule of law. Looking closely, those accusations can not really be confirmed. No systematic misuse can be found in the field of environmental law (matters like diesel driving ban or lawsuits filed by environmental associations) or in the field of asylum law. What can be found instead is a jeopardy to the rule of law because of a decreasing acceptance of court rulings. Public authorities sometimes simply ignore such rulings. This unlawful development must be counteracted.

THE POLITICS OF TIME AND STATE IDENTITY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

ABSTRACTThe communist regimes of Eastern Europe carried a particular set of assumptions about the way past, present and future related to one another. In the case of the German Democratic Republic (the GDR), these assumptions manifested themselves in official language and propaganda as a defence of the regime's dynamic and forward-looking historicity against the ‘ahistorical’ and ‘nostalgic’ modes of understanding that supposedly typified the historical consciousness of its West German adversary. By this view, the German Federal Republic – and the capitalist West more generally – lacked both a meaningful past and a meaningful future. This article investigates how the East German regime articulated its historicity as a direct expression of its state identity. In particular, it examines how it sought to rationalise newly emerging historical and cultural practices in the GDR within the framework of a modern and progressive socialist historicity, and how it deployed these as an argument against the ‘nostalgic’ practices of the Federal Republic.

Deutschland einig Vaterland?

Thirty years on from the peaceful revolution in the former communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) Germany remains profoundly divided between the perspectives of Germans living in the eastern and the western parts of the country, which is becoming ever more obvious by the polarization of domestic politics. Hence, Germany today resembles a nation which is formally unified but deeply divided internally in cultural and political terms. This article examines the background to the growing cleavages between eastern and western regions, which have their roots in the mistakes that were made as part of the management of the domestic aspects of German reunification. From a historic-institutionalist perspective the merger of the pathways of the two German states has not taken place. Instead, unified Germany is characterized by the dominance of the institutional pathway of the former West German Federal Republic, which has substantially contributed to the self-perception of East Germans as dislocated, second-class citizens.

Obozy koncentracyjne jako nowoczesna forma zwalczania przestępczości w Republice Federalnej Niemiec?

CONCENTRATION CAMPS AS A MODERN FORM OF FIGHTING CRIME IN THE GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLICThe problem of participation of the Nazi elites in the structures of the German Federal Republic is increasingly engaging for German historians. Popular, non-academic works also address the issue of joining the police force by former officials of the Third Reich. However, in the German texts it is consistently stressed that Nazi elites did not influence the social and political life of the German Federal Republic. Nevertheless, the debate on reintroducing concentration camps shows the high standing of national socialism ideology long after World War II.

Hans Blumenberg

The interest taken in the philosophy of Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996) is growing both in Germany and abroad. Yet it almost always focuses on the later Blumenberg. The reasons for the neglect of his early writings are easy to point out: they seek their way between Husserl and Heidegger in interpretations of texts of medieval philosophy, and the greater part of them remains unpublished to this day. This monograph by Kurt Flasch, one of Germany´s most renowned experts on medieval philosophy and the history of philosophy, is based on archival studies and draws on lifelong source work on medieval philosophy and the early modern period. It reconstructs the philosophical development of Blumenberg from his earliest texts up to the discussion centered upon the Legitimität der Neuzeit (1966). It philosophically and philologically discusses their lines of argumentation and juxtaposes them with the contemporaneous historical development of the German Federal Republic. It does not eschew criticism, but at the same time does not deny the author´s personal empathy for his subject. Despite the scholarliness of the presentation, the extensive study is an eminently good read – just as one has come to rightfully expect from this author.