The New Old World (50 page)

17
. ‘Confronting Defeat: the German Communist Party',
New Left Review
I/61, May–June 1970, p. 92.

18
. The immediate background to Lafontaine's exit lay in a violent, national and international, press campaign against him: Joachim Hoell,
Oskar Lafontaine: Eine Biographie
, Braunschweig 2004, pp. 197–205.

19
. For financial and political details of Kohl's malfeasance, see Edgar Wolfrum,
Die geglückte Demokratie
, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 477–8.

20
. While traditional contrasts in former West Germany between an SPD north and a CDU/CSU south were accentuated, the principal novelty of the vote was its gender distribution, women for the first time favouring the SPD over the CDU/CSU by virtually the same margin—some 4 per cent—as men preferred Christian to Social Democrats. For the data, see Dieter Roth, ‘A Last Minute Success of the Red-Green Coalition',
German Politics and Society
, Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 2003, pp. 49–50.

21
. The standard view, expressed as an incontrovertible—foreign and domestic—consensus, could be found in the
Economist
: ‘Most analysts readily agree on what is wrong with the German economy. First and foremost, the labour market is far too sticky. Second, taxes and social-security contributions are too high and profits too low. Third, and not unconnected, social security payments, pensions and health-care arrangements are too generous. And fourth, there is far too much red tape'. See ‘A Survey of Germany', 7 December 2002, p. 10.

22
.
The Economist
, 22 December 2007.

23
. For Schröder's sense of the priorities of a statesman, see the self-portrait in his mistitled
Entscheidungen
, Hamburg 2006: ‘For me an electoral campaign is the most interesting time in the life of a politician. I have taken part in countless campaigns, spoken in hundreds of town squares, shaken thousands of hands, given innumerable autographs. Certainly doing and shaping politics, reaching decisions, is the central task of a politician, his duty so to speak. But for me the elixir is the electoral campaign, the direct encounter with voters, the competition and struggle for votes, the exchange of argument. Technocrats can make decisions too, journalists can also be know-alls; but politicians alone can and should conduct electoral campaigns': p. 496.

24
. By 2003–4, the number of those who identified themselves with the East still far outnumbered those who did so with Germany as a whole: Katja Neller, ‘Getrennt vereint? Ost-West Identitäten, Stereotypen und Fremdheitsgefühle nach 15 Jahren deutscher Einheit', in Jürgen Falter et al.,
Sind wir ein Volk? Ost-und Westdeutschland im Vergleich
, Munich 2006, pp. 23–5. For some comparative observations on the outcome of unification in the ex-DDR, see Claus Offe,
Varieties of Transition. The East European and East German Experience
, Cambridge, MA 1997, pp. 148–58.

25
. See
International Herald Tribune
, 9 November 2007. Demographically, Germany as a whole has one of the lowest rates of reproduction in the world. In the 2009 federal elections, voters over the age of fifty will be as large a bloc as all other age-groups combined.

26
. For the emergence of Die Linke, see Dan Hough, Michael Koss and Jonathan Olsen,
The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics
, Basingstoke 2007, pp. 134–53, a study also covering the evolution of the PDS under the Red–

27
. See, respectively, David Conradt, ‘The Tipping Point: The 2005 Election and the De-Consolidation of the German Party System?',
German Politics and Society
, Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring 2006, p. 13; Hermann Schmitt and Andreas Wust, ‘The Extraordinary Bundestag Election of 2005',
German Politics and Society
, Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring 2006, p. 34. For the statistics, see Table 1 in Oskar Niedermeyer, ‘Parteimitglieder in Deutschland: Version 2008',
Arbeitshefte aus dem Otto-Stammer-Zentrum
, 13, Berlin 2008.

28
. For a lucid analysis of the systemic obstacles to the taking of radical measures by any German government to date, and a pessimistic forecast for the Grand Coalition, see Wolfgang Merkel, ‘Durchregieren? Reformblockaden und Reformchancen in Deutschland', in Jürgen Kocka (ed.),
Zukunftsfähigkeit Deutschlands
, Berlin 2006, pp. 27–45.

29
. In the words of a satisfied historian: ‘Joschka Fischer embodies the integrative achievement of Federal Germany's successful democracy: beginning as a rebellious streetfighter, he rose through various posts to the summit of the Foreign Office, where he won respect beyond partisan frontiers. Fischer marched so long through the institutions that he became an institution himself': Wolfrum,
Die geglückte Demokratie
, p. 479. For a more astringent portrait, see Michael Schwelien,
Joschka Fischer. Eine Karriere
, Hamburg 2000. Schwelien is a writer for
Die Zeit
who spotted in advance the likely successor to Fischer in his favourite, the ‘eel-smooth' Cem Özdemir, current Green chairman: pp. 62, 65–6.

30
. For vigorous raising of this alarm, see Hans-Ulrich Wehler's intervention, ‘Wird Berlin doch noch Weimar?',
Die Zeit
, 5 July 2007.

31
. ‘The Coming Powers: How German Companies are Being Bound to the Interests of Foreign Investors',
Financial Times
, 1 April 2005. Lower down, the
Mittelstand
remains traditionally patriarchal, with 94 per cent of all German companies family-controlled, some of them large concerns:
Financial Times
, 9 December 2008.

32
.
Financial Times
, 30 March 2007.

33
. Rainer Hank, ‘Angekommen im Globalen Kapitalismus. Die Manager der Berliner Republik',
Merkur
, No. 689–90, September–October 2006, p. 909.

34
.
Financial Times
, 28 August 2008.

35
. In the summer of 2007, nearly three-quarters of those polled thought the government was doing too little for social justice, 68 per cent wanted to see a minimum wage enacted, and 82 per cent a return to retirement at the age of sixty-five: Thomas E. Schmidt, ‘Demoskopie und Antipolitik',
Merkur
, No. 709, June 2008, p. 532.

36
. For a pungent version of this complaint from the chief editor of
Die Zeit
, see Josef Joffe, ‘Was fehlt?',
Merkur
, No. 689–90, September–October 2006.

37
.
The Seduction of Culture in German History
, Princeton 2006, p. 128.

38
. Schmitt's juridical influence is documented in Dirk van Laak,
Gespräche in der Sicherheit des Schweigens. Carl Schmitt in der politischen Geistesgeschichte der frühen Bundesrepublik
, Berlin 1993; and his wider intellectual impact in Jan-Werner Müller,
A Dangerous Mind: Carl Schmitt in Post-War European Thought
, New Haven 2003 pp. 76ff, which as its title indicates, extends beyond the German field itself.

39
. Habermas: ‘Eine Art Schadensabwicklung', in Piper Verlag, ‘
Historikerstreit
', Munich 1987; Wehler:
Entsorgung der deutschen Vergangenheit?
, Munich 1988.

40
. Within a year of the
Historikerstreit
, there had appeared sociologist Claus Leggewie's knockabout tour through what he took to be the emergent forms of a new conservatism,
Der Geist steht rechts. Ausflüge in die Denkfabriken der Wende
, Berlin 1987. In this constellation, the most significant figure was Armin Mohler, secretary to Jünger and friend of Schmitt, famous as the author of
Die konservative Revolution in Deutschland, 1918–1932. Grundriss ihrer Weltanschauungen
, which had appeared in 1950, on whom see pp. 187–211.

41
. ‘Kann keine Trauer sein',
Merkur
, No. 367, December 1978, p. 1180: Paeschke took the title of this beautiful farewell to the journal he had edited from Gottfried Benn's last poem, written a few weeks before his death, published in
Merkur
.

42
. ‘Vorbemerkung', in
Merkur: Gesamtregister für die Jahrgänge I–XXXII, 1947–1978
, Stuttgart 1986, p. x. The phrase comes from Burckhardt.

43
. ‘Die Missverstandene Rebellion',
Merkur
, No. 238, January 1968.

44
. ‘Surrealismus und Terror',
Merkur
, No. 258, October 1969.

45
. ‘Die ausverkauften Ideen',
Merkur
, No. 365, October 1978.

46
. ‘Der gefährliche Augenblick',
Merkur
, No. 358, March 1978; themes developed in
Plötzlichkeit: zum Augenblick des ästhetischen Scheins,
Frankfurt 1981, of which there is an English translation,
Suddenness: on the Moment of Aesthetic Appearance
, New York 1994.

47
. ‘Die Ästhetik des Staates',
Merkur
, No. 423, January 1984. For a striking analysis of Bohrer's style of attack in this and later texts, see Gustav Seibt, ‘Vom Bürgerkönigtum,' in
Deutsche Erhebungen
, Springe 2008, pp. 142–54.

48
. ‘Die Unschuld an die Macht',
Merkur
, No. 425, March 1984;
Merkur
, No. 427, May 1984;
Merkur
, No. 431, January 1985.

49
. ‘Provinzialismus',
Merkur
, No. 501, December 1990;
Merkur
, No. 504, March 1991;
Merkur
, No. 505, April 1991;
Merkur
, No. 507, June 1991;
Merkur
, No. 509, August 1991;
Merkur
, No. 510, November 1991.

50
. ‘Ästhetik und Politik sowie einige damit zusammanhängende Fragen',
Merkur
451–2, September–October 1986.

51
.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, 13 January 1990; for an English version of this text, see
New German Critique
, Winter 1991, No 52. Its translator, Stephen Brockmann, would later describe Bohrer's arguments as ‘a foundational discourse for the triumphal conservatism that emerged on the German right in the wake of reunification'. For this judgement, see his
Literature and German Reunification
, Cambridge 1999, p. 57.

52
. ‘Die Ästhetik des Staates revisited',
Merkur
, No. 689–90, September–October 2006. The title of the special number alludes, of course, ironically to the official daily of the former DDR.

53
. For a mocking tour of the fixtures and fittings of the new Bundestag, and of the government district at large, see Gustav Seibt's deadly squib, ‘Post aus Ozeanien',
Merkur
, No. 689–90.

54
. ‘Was heisst unabhängig denken?',
Merkur
, No. 699, July 2007, p. 574.

55
. ‘Acht Szenen Achtundsechzig',
Merkur
, No. 708, May 2008, p. 419.

56
. ‘Hans Paeschke und der Merkur. Erinnerung und Gegenwart',
Merkur
, No. 510–11, September–October 1991.

57
. For a penetrating critique of his major recent work,
Imperien
, which came out in 2005, see Benno Teschke, ‘Empires by Analogy',
New Left Review
II/40, July–August 2006.

58
. Münkler, ‘Der Selbstbehauptung Europas. Fabelhafte Überlegungen',
Merkur
, No. 649, May 2003.

59
. ‘Die selbstbewusste Mittelmacht. Aussenpolitik im souveränen Staat',
Merkur
, No. 689–90, September–October 2006.

60
. ‘Heroische und postheroische Gesellschaften',
Merkur
, No. 700, August–September 2007.

 

Italy has long occupied a peculiar position within the concert of Europe. By wealth and population it belongs alongside France, Britain and Germany as one of the four leading states of the Union. But it has never played a comparable role in the affairs of the continent, and has rarely been regarded as a diplomatic partner or rival of much significance. Its image lacks any association with power. Historically, that has no doubt been one of the reasons why Italy has long been the favourite country of foreigners. Germans, French and English alike have repeatedly expressed a warmth of affection for it they have rarely felt for one another, even if the objects of their admiration have differed. Few of their comments are without some contemporary ring. Escaping from the pruderies of Weimar to Rome, Goethe found it ‘morally salutary to be living in the midst of a sensual people'.
¹
In Italy, Byron decided that ‘there is, in fact, no law or government at all; and it is wonderful how well things go on without them'.
²
Stendhal, who knew the country better, felt at times that ‘music alone is alive in Italy, and all that is to be made in this beautiful land is
love
; the other enjoyments of the soul are spoilt; one dies poisoned of melancholy as a citizen'. Yet Italians were also, paradoxically, masters of another practice: ‘Never, outside Italy, could one guess at the art called
politics
(way of making others do what is agreeable to us, when force or money is not to hand). Without patience, without absence of anger, no one can be called a politician. Napoleon was
truly small in this respect, he had enough Italian blood in his veins to be subtle, but was incapable of using it'.
³
The list of such fond dicta could be extended indefinitely.