German Ideologies Since 1945: Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic (Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies)

German Ideologies since 1945 explores the development of German political thought in the post-war period. The contributors analyze to what extent the much debated Westernization and Americanization of German political culture was reflected in or even driven by political thinkers. They also illuminate the complex ways in which older German traditions were abandoned or adapted to the situation after 1945, while Western traditions were appropriated (or misappropriated) to suit German needs. This volume is the first comprehensively to chart the paths of post-war conservatism and neo-conservatism; the first to make sense of the political thinking of the student rebels of 1968; and the first to analyze the development of distinctively German brands of civic republicanism and multiculturalism. The contributors also pay particular attention to the shifting cultural contexts and institutional bases of political thought, such as the peculiar German university culture and the world of intellectual magazines.

Introduction: Putting German Political Thought in Context--Jan-Werner Müller * 1: The Transformation of German Political Thought in the Post-War Period * Restoring the German Spirit: Humanism and Guilt in Post-War Germany--Anson RabinbachNormative Westernization? - The Impact of Remigres on the Formation of Political Thought in Post-War Germany--Alfons Söllner * Habermas's Reconstruction of West German Law and the Sozialstaat Controversy--John P. McCormick * The Westernization of the Political Thought of the West German Labour Movement--Julia Angster * II: Critical Theory and the Legacies of 1968 * Post-War Ideologies and the Body Politics of 1968--Dagmar Herzog * 1968 as Event, Milieu and Ideology--Jan-Werner Müller * 3: German Conservatism: From Technocratic Conservatism to the New Right* From the Conservative Revolution to Technocratic Conservatism--Dirk van Laak * German Neo-Conservatism, c.1968 to 1985: Hermann Lübbe and Others--Jerry Muller * From National Identity to National Interest: The Rise (and Fall) of Germanys New Right --Jan-Werner Müller * 4: German Republicanism and the Politics of Recognition* A Tolerant Republic--Rainer Forst * The Many Faces of the Republic--William A. Barbieri