Preparing for the Political German Intellectuals Confront the Berlin Republic

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New German ritique

Preparing for the Political: German Intellectuals Confront the "Berlin Republic"Author(s): Jan MüllerSource: New German Critique, No. 72 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 151-176Published by: Duke University Press

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Preparing or

the

Political.

German ntellectuals

onfront

the Berlin

Republic

Jan

Miller

The German

ord

Begriindung

as a

double

meaning.

t

signifies

ot

only

foundation,

ut lso

providing

rationale.We are now

approach-

ing

the

Begriindung

f whathas

been

variously

alledthenew Federal

Republic,

he

Third

Republic,

r,

most

ommonly,

he

Berlin

Republic.

Of course,one could arguethat the real historical reakalready

occurred

ight

years go,

with he

unification

f

the

two

Germanies

n

October

1990

as

its official

ompletion.

ut while

3

October1990

might

ave

been a formal

oundation,

herewas

arguably

nsufficient

time

for he other imension f

Begriindung

n

the rush o

unity. l

More

mportantly,

he

federal

overnment's

ove

to

Berlin,

cheduled

for

1999,

s a

highly ymbolic,

lmost onstitutional

egriindung

f

the

Berlin

Republic

n

a

way

that he

anticlimactic

nification

n 1990

neverwas.2

Moreover,

999 is the

official

tarting

ate for

EuropeanEconomicnd

Monetary

nion.

Consequently,

e can

speak

ofa loom-

ing

doublefoundationhat

oses

the

challenge

f

establishing

orma-

tive

oundations

nd

creating

ublic

meaning.

In

this

paper,

want o

analyze

he

public

nterventionsf

German

intellectuals

ho

have

attempted

o

lay

down

normative oundations

for he

future

olity

f

the Berlin

Republic.

ecause of the

relatively

1.

See Konrad

arausch,

he

Rush

o German

nity

New

York:Oxford

P,

1994).

2. See also Friedrichieckmann,Fiinfhundertilometerstnordost:as bedeu-

tet ie

Verlagerung

erdeutschen

undeshauptstadt?

erkur1.4

1997):

308-18.

151






152

Preparing

or

thePolitical

drawn-out

eriod

betweenGerman nificationnd the final

move

of

theFederal arliamentoBerlin,ntellectualsave hadampleopportu-

nity

o formulate

ormative

rameworks

or he

new

republic

nd

to

provide

whatGerman

olitical

cientists

all

a

legitimation

arrative.

Unlike

he cases

of Bonn

or

Weimar,

nd unlike he situation

f

the

rush

o

unification,

erman ntellectualsave

been able to

project

the essons

rom 989 nd ts ftermath

nto 999 nd

beyond.

Recent

years

have

seen

a

growing

iterature

hich

deals

explicitly

with

he

Berlin

Republic.

his

foundational

iteraturelso contains

whole

other

imension,amely

discourse boutwhat onstitutes

he

foundationf

politics,

r

rather,

the

political,

s such.Thiscurious

linguistic

onstruction

f

the

political,

hat

s,

the transformation

f

the

djective political

nto henoun the

political,

as madefamous

-

or

rather,

otorious

by

Carl Schmitt's1927 book The

Concept of

the Political

[Der

Begriff

es

Politischen].3

efore

Schmitt,

he

concept

ofthe

political

was

in

use,

but

n

the

German

raditionf

general

onsti-

tutional

aw

doctrines

Allgemeine

taatsrechtslehre]

t

was

equivalent

to the tate.4

eorg

Jellinek

ould till

write

hat

in

the

oncept

f the

political ne has already houghtheconcept f thestate, view

shared

y

Max

Weber.5

chmitt as thefirst

o

point

ut

thecircular

reasoning

rom he tate

o the

political

ndback.He detachedhe

polit-

ical

from he

tate,

nd

opened

his

most amousworkwith he

dictum

that the

oncept

f

the

tate

resupposes

he

oncept

f

the

political. 6

Schmitt

enton to

argue

hat the

political

s

the most ntense

nd

extreme

ntagonism,

nd

every

concrete

ntagonism

ecomes that

muchmore

political

he closer t

approaches

he most xtreme

oint,

that

f the

friend-enemyrouping.

ust s much

s

Schmittxercised

a subterraneannfluencen conservativeonstitutionalhoughtnWest

Germany,

his

oncept

f the

political,

efined

s a

friend/enemy

ela-

tionship,

ameto

hauntWestGerman

olitical

cience,

which

xplicitly

3.

Carl

Schmitt,

he

Concept

f

the

Political,

rans.

George

chwab

Chicago:

Chicago

UP,

1996).

See

also

Christian

eier,

Zu Carl

Schmitt's

egriffsbildung

das

Politische

und der

Nomos,

Complexio Oppositorum:

Uber

Carl

Schmitt,

d. Helmut

Quaritsch

Berlin:

uncker

Humblot,

988)

537-56.

4.

See Kari

Palonen,

Politik ls

Handlungsbegriff:

orizontwandel es

Politikbegriff

inDeutschland

890-1933

Helsinki:

heFinnish

ociety

fSciences nd

Letters,

985).

5. AndreasAnter,Max WebersTheoriedes modernen taates: Herkunft,truktur

und

edeutung

Berlin:

uncker

Humblot,

995)

51.

6.

Schmitt,

oncept of

thePolitical 19.

7.

Schmitt,

oncept

of

thePolitical 29.






Jan

Miiller

153

understood

tself s

a

science

f

democratic

e-education.8

olf

Stern-

bergernparticular,oyen f this emocraticcience, riedowrest he

concept

rom he

right

nd redefine

he

political

s the area of all

endeavor o seek and

secure

eace. 9

But

Schmit's

gonistic

efinition

remained

provocation

and

an

ideologicalweapon)

in

a

country

which

had the

largest eace

movementn the Western

world,

nd

which emained

argely

heltered

romctual

nternationalonflict.

Recently,

here as been an

inflationary

se of the

expression

the

political,

nd

the

number

f

books

dealing

with ts nature as

grown

exponentially.

0

This

preoccupation

ith he

political,

owever,

s not

just

a

response

o theBerlin

Republic:

most bviously,t s also a reac-

tion

o whathas now become ne of the

great

dces

recus

post-1989,

namely

he often ll-defined

otion

f a

return

f the

political

fter

thefallof

the

Wall,

which s also

subject

o much ebate

n

theUnited

States

nd western

Europe.11

erman

ntellectuals

lso

respond

o what

in the

arly

nd

mid-1990s as

perceived

s

widespread

issatisfaction

with

politics,

phenomenon

oined

as

Politikverdrossenheit,

iterally

being

fed

up

with

politics.

his sensewas

aptly

ummarized

n the

title fa 1993edited uhrkampollection,olitik hneProjekt?Poli-

tics

without

Project?].12

hen,

s

now,

arge

ections

f

theGerman

population

iewedthe

political

lass as

unresponsive

nd

as

lacking

vision.

On

a more

ubtle

evel,

one could

argue

hat

ntellectuals,

nd

in

particular

eft-wing

ntellectuals,

ave

engaged

with the

political

because

hey

elt

he

need

to rebut he onservative

harge

f

failure

8. On Schmitt's

nfluence

hrough

he conservative

ircles

Gesprdichskreise]

around

im,

ee

Dirk an

Laak,

Gespriche

nder

icherheit

es

Schweigens:

arl

Schmitt

inder

Geistesgeschichte

erfriihenundesrepublik

Berlin:

kademie,

993).

9. Dolf ternberger,iePolitiknd erFriedeFrankfurt/Main:uhrkamp,986) 6.

10. Ulrich

eck,

Die

Erfindung

es

Politischen:

u

einer

Theorie

eflexiver

oder-

nisierung

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

993);

Oskar

Negt

ndAlexander

luge,

MaJfver-

hdltnisse

es Politischen:

5

Vorschldge

um

Unterscheidungsvermdgen

Frankfurt/Main:

Fischer,

992);

Metamorphosen

es Politischen:

rundfragen

olitischerinheitsbildung

seitden

20er

Jahren,

ds.Andreas

G6bel,

irk an

Laak,

nd

ngeborg illingerBerlin:

Akademie,

995);

Thomas

Meyer,

ie

Transformation

es

Politischen

Frankfurt/Main:

Suhrkamp,

994);

Frank

.

Pfetsch,

andlung

nd

Reflexion:

heoretischeimensionen

des

Politischen

Darmstadt:

issenschaftliche

uchgesellschaft,

995);

andDie

Zukunft

des

Politischen:

heoretischeusblicke

uf

Hannah

Arendt,

d.

Peter

emperFrankfurt/

Main:

Fischer,

993).

11. Forthemost amous,eeChantalMouffe,heReturnf he oliticalLondon:

Verso,

993).

12.

See Politik

hne

rojekt?

achdenken

iber

eutschland,

d.

Siegfried

nseld

(Frankfurt/Main:uhrkamp,

993).






154

Preparing

or

the

Political

and

being apolitical

efore nd

during

nification.

inally,

here s

the mpact fglobalizationn Germany:woScottish ames ncreas-

ingly

come to haunt

the lives of

ordinary

Germans,

namely

McDonald's,

s shorthandor

low-wage

ervice

conomy,

hichGer-

mans ee

prefigured

n the

United

tates;

nd

McKinsey,

s

shorthand

for

thoroughly

ationalized

tate

nd

economy

hich

ettisons

elfare

benefits

nd dissolves

he onsensus

nderlying

he ocialmarket

con-

omy.

The

McKinsey

tate

has become

synonym

or streamlined

administration,

hich

satisfies heresentment

hichmost Germans

feel

owards

ureaucrats,

ut lso

puts

n end

to

anypaternalist

otion

of the

state,

tillbest

expressed

nThomasMann's reverenceor he

General

r.

von

Staat.

Thus,

he

process

f

globalization

nd the

xpo-

sure

of

Germany

o world

olitics

nd theworld

conomy

ave been

an additional

motive

orce

n

engaging

ith the

political,

ince

glo-

balization,

ar

from

eing

merely

matter f

objective

necessities

[Sachzwdnge],

s also

perceived

s a

political roject.

This

article

ategorizes

hesevarious ouble

or even

triple

ounda-

tional

xercises.

t

analyzes

he

deological

trategies

hich

have been

prominentnthe mergingiscourse n thefutureerlinRepublic,nd

the

attempt

o fixthe

meaning

f the

political.

shall

startwithwhat

one

might

all theOld

Right, y

which mean he iberal-conservative

opinion

makers

f the former

ederal

Republic. ubsequently,

shall

move

on

to

the hreemain

esponses y

the

eft,

nd

argue

hat

xplic-

itly,

r

implicitly,

ll

these

pproaches

ituate

hemselves ithrefer-

ence to what re

usually

een as the

two German lassics

of

thinking

the

political,

arl Schmittnd HannahArendt.

his s

notto

say

that

either

Schmittianr an Arendtian

onception

f the

political

xhausts

this oncept.WhileSchmitts oftenalled thefirsthilosopherf the

political,

he

case of Arendt

s

much

ess clear-cut.13

ohn

ly

has

recentlyrgued

hat heorists ho

marshall rendt

n their efinitionf

the

political

have

fundamentally

isconstrueder

thought

n

a

typi-

cally

German

tatist

anner.14

ly points

ut

that

he

very ttempt

o

make

Arendt nto

a

political

xistentialist

nd a

philosopher

f the

political

ttests o the

weakness f civic

republican

raditionsnd

13.

Heiner

Bielefeldt,

ampf

nd

Entscheidung:

olitscher xistentialismusei

Carl Schmitt,elmuthlessner ndKarlJaspersWtirzburg:6nigshausenndNeu-

mann,

994)

19.

14. John

ly,

Political,

ivic

nd

Territorialiewsof

Association,

hesis leven

46

(1996):

33-65.






JanMiller 155

modes

f

thought

n

Germany.

n

any

case,

shall

pay

careful

ttention

to theparticularonceptionf thepolitical eing roposed:s itposited

as

a

kind

f

system,

r

subsystem,

n

inewith

uhmann

nd,

rguably,

Weber?

A

conception

f the

political

s a

separate

phere though

ot

as a

system)

was

also Carl Schmitt's

irst ersion f

Concept

f

the

Political,

before eo Strauss

ointed

ut that uch a

differentiationf

the

political

rom

ther omains emained

ithin

he

ogic

of

liberal-

ism.15

r is

the

political

onceived s a kind

f

attribute,

hich

makes

another

hing olitical,

r as a

peculiar

elation,

r

as

something

ub-

stantive,

r

even

as a sort f

energy,

form f

raw

material,

s

Oskar

Negt and AlexanderKluge have argued?16chmitt imself, nder

Strauss's

nfluence,

hiftedo the

oncept

f

the

political

s

a

degree

f

intensity: olitical

now denoted

ny

antagonism

hich

became so

intense

s to

pose

an

existentialhreat.

annah

Arendt,

owever,

id

not seek one definitionf

the

political.17

he madea

great

umber

f

claims

about

politics

nd was

adamant hat

politics

was

primarily

action,

nd the

meaning

f

politics

reedomnd

disclosure.18ut

can

an

Arendtian

onception

f

politics

everthelesse recast

s the

politi-

cal and then e played ff gainst ie Politik s official olitics,hat

is,

the

political

ubsystem?

s we

shall

ee,

many

bservers

ake his

seemingly aradoxical

move

by claiming

hat he

political

as

disap-

peared,

r

s

at

least

being

rained,

rom

olitics.19

inally,

his

nvesti-

gation

has

to confront

gnes

Heller's

claim

that the

concept

f the

politicalyields

radical

political

hilosophies,

nd that the

malaise

which,

s

a

rule,

accompanies

he

concept

of

the

political

s the

obsession

with

xclusion. 20

hile

xclusion

s

in

fact

nherent

n

any

15. See Heinrich eier, arlSchmitt Leo Strauss: heHidden ialogue, rans. .

Harvey

omax

Chicago:Chicago

UP,

1995).

16.

See

Negt

nd

Kluge,

MafJverhiltnisse

es

Politischen.

17. Arendt id

claim hat

heGreeks discoveredhe

ssence nd

the ealm f

the

political.

he went n

to make

remark,

hich,

n

all of

her

work,

might ut

her

losest

to

Schmitt,

hen

he

wrote

hat

only oreign

ffairs,

ecause he

relationships

etween

nations tillharbor

ostilitiesnd

sympathies

hich annot e

reduced

o

economic

ac-

tors,

eem

o be

left s

a

purely olitical

omain.

ee

Arendt,

etween ast and

Future:

Eight

xercises

n

Political

Thought

New

York:

enguin,

993)

154

and 155.

18.

On the

mportance

f

the

disclosive ature f

politics

n

Arendt,

ee

the

xcel-

lent iscussion

n

Dana R.

Villa,

Arendt

nd

Heidegger:

he ate

of

he olitical

Prince-

ton: rincetonP, 1996).

19.

See

in

particular,

homas

Meyer,

ie

Transformation

es

Politischen.

20.

Agnes

Heller,

The

Concept

f he olitical

evisited,

olitical

Theory oday,

ed. David Held

Cambridge:olity,

991)

332

and

336.






156

Preparing

or

the

Political

concept

r

definition,

he

suspicion

emains hat

deinstitutionalized

political ispenses ith he iberal,hats,moderatingules f thepolit-

ical

game

and becomes

reely

vailable

o

politicize

ther

omains f

human

ife.

Moreover,

n

thewake

of

the

pre-1989

esurgence

f

civil

society

n

eastern

urope,

might

Western

ntellectualsot

be

led

to con-

fuse

anti-politics

ith the

political?21

n

short, hen,

he

question

remains

whether he

very

concept

f

the

political

works ts

own

logic,

ven

gainst

xplicitly

iberal r

republican

ntentions.

However,

efore

start,

wo caveats:

he

obvious

omission

n

my

story

bout

eft

nd

right

s

the so-called

New

Right,

ver which

much nkhasbeen

spilled

ecently.

hereason s

simply

hat do not

believethat

he New

Right, espite aving dopted

othSchmitt

nd

Gramsci

s

their

uiding pirits,

as

had much uccess n its self-con-

scious

attempt

o establish

cultural

egemony

n

Germany.

ust

ead-

ing

the

rebuttalsf JacobHeilbrunn's

care

tory

bout

heNew

Right

in

the

recent ssue of

Foreign

Affairs,

ne

senses

a

consensus oth

among

German ntellectuals

nd

foreign

bservers

hat

the

danger

posed

by

the

New

Right

has

been

effectively

anished.22

oreover,

apart romhe dea ofreplicating968 from heright,heir oliticswas

without

project ust

as

much s the conservativer liberal

main-

stream.

Whilewe

might

ive

in a

timewhen

aboo-breaking

an

pass

for

heorizing,

hefact

hat he wo

are

not he

ame s

made

painfully

obvious

when

t

comes

o

filling

olicy

with

ubstance.

n

that

egard,

theNew

Right

ouldoffer

nly

logans

which

emained

egatively

ix-

ated on

the

generation

f

1968,

or

proposepolicies

which,

by

and

large,

he

Kohl

government

as

already

ursuing.

Secondly,

more

general

emark

n

terminology,

amely

he

use of

a distinctionetweeneft ndright. post-1989

dce

recuwhich asily

beatsthe

returnf the

political

n

its

popularity,

s

the

argument

hat

left nd

right

ave lost their

meaning.

ow,

curiously, ardly nyone

on what

used to

be called

-

and

still

alls

itself the

right ctually

says

this.

t

is

a

confused

eft hat lurs hedistinctionetween

eft nd

21.

For two

very

ffective

ritiques

f the nthusiasmor

ivil

ociety,

oth

n

ts

Tocquevillian

nd astern

uropean

ersion,

ee Sheri

erman,

Civil

ociety

nd heCol-

lapse

f heWeimar

epublic,

World olitics 9.3

1997):

401-29;

ndThomaz

Mastnak,

Fascists, Liberals,

nd

Anti-Nationalism,

urope

s

New

Nationalism:

tates and Minori-

ties nConflict,ds.Richard aplan,ndJohnefferNewYork:Oxford P,1996)59-74.

22. See

Jacob

eilbrunn,

Germany's

ew

Right, oreign ffairs

5.6

1996):

80-

98;

and the etterso the ditor

y

Josef

offet

al.,

Mr

Heilbrunn's

lanet,

oreign

Affairs

6. 2

(1997):

152-61.






Jan Midler 157

right,

hereby

nwittingly

nabling

he

right

o

coopt

eftistdeas and

formerlyeft-leaningntellectualshocanpresenthemselvess origi-

nal,

taboo-shattering

hinkers.

he

right,

whether

ld or

new,

know

exactly

who

they

re,

hough

hey

o not

lways

know

what

hey

want

apart

rom

iscursive

egemony.

There

s at least ome

reason, hen,

to

believe

that

we

are

experiencing

Sternhellish oment

n

which

concepts,rguments,

nd ntellectual

iguresmigrate

rom

left,

mired

in

crisis nd

confusion,

othe

ight.24

Old

Right, ewly

olitical

In a recentarticlein the

Frankfurter llgemeine

Zeitung, Henning

Ritter sserted

hat

the

expectation

irected

owards he future er-

many

an

be

formulated

s follows: hat

he Berlin

Republic

will

be

more

political'

han

heBonn

Republic. 25

ccording

o

Ritter,

his

s

not

only

due to thefact hat

Germany

as

regained

ts

overeignty.

he

Berlin

Republic

s

also

particularlyolitical

n

contrast

ith ts

prede-

cessor,

he

first

ostwar

epublic

with ts

apolitical

asic features. he

Bonn

Republic

was

one of the

few

nstances

n

whichWalther ath-

enau's dictum hattheeconomy s fate Die Wirtschaftst das Schick-

sal] actually

urned

ut to be true.

Ritter

lso

argued

hat

Bonn had

developed

certain

topian endency

n

its

post-national

dealization f

its

own

status f

occupation,

hichwas

projected

s the future

f

nation-states

n

general.

n

retrospect,

itter

rgued,

heBonn

Republic

would

be

praised

s a

paradise, lthough

o one

noticed ts

utopian

qualities

tthe

ime

f ts xistence.

Many

conservativentellectualsave

adopted

his

contrast

nd

the

notion

f a

futurehat s somehow

more

olitical.

Whatdoes

the

politi-

cal refero nthis ontext?tsignifiesbove llregainedational over-

eignty,

ut,

ven more

mportantly,

n increased

otential

or

onflicts,

23. On movementscross

he

deological pectrum

nd some

of

central eliefs f

the

New

Right,

ee Extremismuser Mitte:

Vom

echten erstdndnis

eutscher

ation,

ed. Hans-Martinohmann

Frankfurt/Main:

ischer,

994);

for

nicely

olemical

reat-

ment fthe

ubject,

ee

Richard

erzinger

ndHannes

tein,

ndzeit-Propheten

der

die

Offensive

er

Antiwestler:

undamentalismus,

ntiamerikanismusnd Neue Rechte

(Reinbek:

owohlt,

995).

24. Zeev

Sternhell,

ithMario

znajder

ndMaia

Asheri,

heBirth

f

Fascist

de-

ology: romCultural ebellion oPoliticalRevolutionPrinceton:rincetonP, 1994).

See also

Ely,

Political,

ivic

ndTerritorialiews fAssociation 2.

25.

Henning

itter,

Translatio

ei

ublicae:

er

Umzug

on

Regierung

nd arlament

als

Grtindungsakt

er

Berliner

epublik,

rankfurter

llgemeineeitung

8

Dec. 1996.






158

Preparingor

he olitical

with

egard

o

both new

role

for

Germany

n

theworld

tage

nd con-

flictwithin ermany. ormalitys regained,ut normality,.e. Berlin

Republic

nstead

f

Bonn

Republic,

meansmost

f all the

normality

f

instability. 26

his

prediction

f

normality

s

instability

as

made

by

Johannes

ross

n his

1995 book

Begriindung

er Berliner

epublik,

which emains

o

far

he

most

omprehensive

onservativetatementn

the

Berlin

Republic.

ross,

ublicist,

olitical

undit,

elevision

erson-

ality,

nd

friend

f Carl Schmitt as

followed

he

development

f the

old Federal

Republic

with

many

ooks

ommenting

n the tate f the

Germans,

nd can be taken

s

a

generally

eliable

uide

o

center-rightsentiments.

nternally,

he

normality

f

instability

redicted y

Gross

results rom

he

disappearance

f

the

corporatist

onsensus

nderlying

the

former ederal

Republic,

s the

parties,

he

unions,

he

churches,

and

thewhole

ystem

f

proportionality

atronage

re weakened.

With

this

weakening,

he

egitimacy

f the

political ystem

s

increasingly

ot

a

matterf

legality,

ut

of

security:nly

he

tate hat

unctions

n

the

sense

of

providing

ts citizens

with

ecurity

ill

be

accepted.27

ross

repudiates

athenau's

ictumndreaffirms

apoleon's

hat

n

fact

oli-

tics s fate DiePolitik stdas Schicksal]. orGross, ollowingheurist

Ernst orsthoffnd

Forsthoff's

eacher,

arl

Schmitt,

he

old

Federal

Republic

was

apolitical,

ecause he

tate

ecame

merely

n

instrument

for he

atisfaction

f social

needs.

The

state,

ncreasinglyndistinguish-

able from

ociety,

as

all-pervasive

n

its

nterventions,

nd

yet

weak

in its

unwillingness

o exercise

uthority.28

ccording

o

Gross,

edistri-

bution,

whichknows

neither

riends or

enemies,

ut

only

ever

more

recipients,

s

apolitical,

hile

ecision-making

ndtherealizationf

dif-

ferent

olitical

ptions

s

political.

s much

s

WestGerman

oliticians

might eject hefriend/enemyhinkingf CarlSchmitt,n theirupport

of an

indiscriminate

elfare tate

hey

ctually

reserve

National

Socialist

egacy:

he dea

of

the

Volksgemeinschaft

national

ommu-

nity].29

urprisingly,

hancellor ohl

representstruly

olitical

igure,

because

he

pursues

nterests

nd

engages

n

an unlimited

riend/enemy

thinking,

hile

ublicly enouncing

t.30

26.

Johannes

Gross,

Begriindung

er Berliner

Republik:

Deutschland am Ende des

20.

Jahrhunderts

Stuttgart:

eutsche

erlags-Anstalt,

995)

42.

27. Gross 53.

28.

Gross 1.

29. Gross 2.

30.

Gross 1-72.






JanMiller 159

Externally,

ross

sounds call for

Germany

o face the

reality

f

powerpolitics ndto finally efine ts nationalnterests,hich s of

course

nother

ay

of

saying

hat

he

ountry

hould hink

more

learly

about

who its friendsnd enemies re.

On theother

and,

due

to the

EU,

Germany

s said to

experience

loss of

political

ubstance,

n

the

form

f

decision-making

apacity,

hich an

be

somewhat

ompensated

for

by

increased ational

epresentation.

n

other

words,

while he ub-

stance

f the

political

s

decision-making

apacity

n

thefaceof

conflict

is drained

way by

Brussels,

he estheticizationf

state

power

n

the

new

capital

ould t

least

preserve

hefacade f

politics.

ot

by

chance,

the coverofGross'sslim volume howsthe fakeBerlin tadtschloj3,

that

s,

the

make-believe

alace

facadewhich

Berlinersould

contem-

plate

for while o

see

whether

heymight

njoyhaving

hereal

copy

around.

owever,

hile

Europe

imits he

cope

of the

political

n

for-

eignpolicy,

erlinwill

retain reservationf

the

political

n

domes-

tic

policy.

inally,

n

Gross's

prediction,

erlinwill

be

both

he

German

Washington

nd

New

York,

metropolis

hich

inally

nites

he

lites

of

business,

media,

nd

politics,

nd which

ould

atisfy

ross'snostal-

giafor moregrofjbiirgerlichetastefulpper lass]age.Hostesseswill

keep

open

houses,

he

political

lass s

supposed

o

open

tself

p

to the

democratic

ublic

phere,

nd

the

urrentlyoralizing

edia

epresenta-

tives

might

inally

ind little

more

espect

or

olitical

ealities.

On the other

hand,

nd somewhat

urprisingly,

ross

predicts

hat

the

Berlin

Republic

will be more

olitical

ecause t will

containmore

plebiscitary

lements. his s advocated o counter he

uridification

f

German

politics

through

he constitutional

ourt,

nd to

actually

increase

tabilityy channellingolitical

nergies

hich

heold

parties

andorganizationsanno ongerttract.31

Gross's

analysis

has a

mildly

chmittian

ubtext,

ut,

more

mpor-

tantly,

ollows

pattern

f

thought

et

by

the

nfant

erriblef the

Ger-

man

ntellectual

stablishment,

arl

HeinzBohrer.

lready

n

the

arly

1980s,

Bohrerhad

combined

cultural

ritique

f the

old Federal

Republic

s

provincial

nd

apolitical,

ith n

affirmation

f

the

uton-

omy

of

the

political

frommoral

considerations.32ohrer

had

also

called for new

political

lass

capable

of

sovereign

ecision-making,

which

wouldbe similar

o the

metropolitan

lites

f London

nd

Paris.

31.

Gross

110-17.

32.

See for

nstance,

arl Heinz

Bohrer,

Die Asthetikes

Staates,

Merkur 8.1

(1984):

1-15.








Jan

Miller 161

the

narrative

f

a

global

civil

war,

nspired y

Carl Schmitt

nd,

more

recently,rnst olte,which laces heNazison the ideof the ccidental

bourgeoisie

n

its

fight

gainst

olshevism.

f

course,

Habermas

wants

to affirm

he adical

reak

f

1945,

ut lso seeks o relativizehe

egain-

ing

of

national

overeignty

n

1990:

1989

will

only

emain

happy

ate,

as

long

s

we

respect

945 s

the ne that

eally aught

s

lessons. 35

or

Habermas,

he

nation-stateas

outlived ts

usefulness

n

dealing

with

problems

hich

espect

o

national oundaries.

n thefaceof

globaliza-

tion,

new

forms

f

social cohesion

re

necessary

o

preserve

oth

democracy

nd

therule

of aw:

this

new

social cohesion

s of

course o

be a post-national,epublicanne,parts fwhichHabermaseesprefig-

ured

n

theUnited tates.36 o

cope

with

lobal hallenges,

ew

supra-

national,

more

abstract

ublic

spheres

nd new forms f social

solidarity

ave

to be created

t the

European

evel.

Thus,

the Berlin

Republic

an

only

e

thought

ith

trassbourg

nd

Brussels

n

mind.

Where

oes this

eave

the

political?

abermas

ardly

eeds

theoret-

ical

discourse

f the

political ost-1989,

ecause

his

conception

f

com-

municative

ction

lready

ontains n

implicit

ngagement

ithArendt

and Schmitt.Whetherr notthe viewofArendt'smajordisciple n

Germany,

rnst

ollrath,

s correcthatHabermas

as

misread nd con-

tinues

o

misread

Arendt

y forcing

er

conception

f a

plurality

f

opinions

nto a

consensualist

nd voluntarist

traitjacket,

he fact

remains

hatHabermaswas

one of the few thinkers

n the

eftwho

engaged

reatively

ithArendt's otion

f

praxis.37

n his recent urn

to

legal

and

political heory,

abermas as

again

ffirmedis commit-

ment

o

a

procedural

nd deliberative

emocracy,ejecting

republi-

canism

whichhe sees

a

ethically

verburdened. 38

aking

lements

from oth lassic iberalismndrepublicanisminthe enseof commu-

nitarianism),

abermas

proposes

n

understanding

f

democracy

s

bothdeliberative

nd

proceduralist.

e

rejects

n Arendtian

epublican-

ism,

whichhe

equates

with he

incidentally,

chmittian)

ategory

f a

political elf-organization

f

society,

s an

understanding

f

politics

which s

polemically

irected

gainst

he tate

pparatus. 3

Habermas

35.

Habermas,

ie Normalitdt

iner

erliner

epublik

87.

36.

Habermas,

ie Normalitdtiner erliner

epublik

81.

37.

Ernst

ollrath,

Hannah rendt ei den

Linken,

inschnitte:

annah

Arendts

politisches

enken

eute,

ds.Antonia

runenberg

ndLothar robst

Bremen:

emmen,

1995)

9-22.

38.

Habermas,

ie

Einbeziehung

es Anderen: tudien

ur

politischen

heorie

(Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

996)

277.






162

Preparing

or

thePolitical

rejects

whathe sees as Arendt's

endency

o fuse tate nd

society,

nd

herneglect f the mportancefinstitutionalizingroceduresor ublic

reasoning,

s

she

relies

olely

n

communicatively

enerated

ower.40

Against

uch n account

f both

opular

overeignty

nd

public

thical

life

Sittlichkeit],

abermas

ants

ractical

eason o retreatromhe on-

crete

ittlichkeitf a

community

nd

be institutionalized

n

the

proce-

dures

which

nsure

he

communicative

resuppositions

f

democracy.41

Habermas's

ision s thus

ot

very

ar

emoved

rom urrent merican-

style

iberalism

nd,

rguably,

he tatus

uo

of theold Federal

Repub-

lic.

It

certainly

emains loser

o

such

a status

uo

than o

any grand

republican

enewal la Arendt.

Beck

nvents hePolitical

Second,

therehas been

what

would

call an

implicitly

rendtian

approach

o

the

post-1989

onstellation.his s

particularly

lear

n

the

case

of

a

self-styled

conoclastike

the

sociologist

lrich

Beck. Beck

has

arguably

ecome

omething

ike a

sociological rophet

n

the

pub-

lic

sphere

ince

his successful risk

ociety-thesis.

he

initial

ook

RiskSociety:Towardsa NewModernity as fortuitouslyimed: tcame

out

ust

after

hernobyl

nd

crystallized

he nvironmentalnxieties f

the

1980s,

but at the same time

painted

n

optimistic

icture

f what

Beck

called different

odernity. 42

hisdifferent

odernity

n

many

ways

resembled abermas's

ncomplete

roject

f

modernity:

t

was

to

be a radicalized

modernity

hat

ranscendedndustrial

ociety,

nd was

brought

bout

by

the silent

evolution

f

a reflexive

odernization,

that

s,

by

simple

modernization's

nintended,

xternalized,

nd

nvisi-

ble

consequences,

hichwould dd

up

to a structural

upture.

his

dea

of what eterOsborne asaptlyharacterizeds a persistingut rans-

formed

modernity

as

arguably

atisfied

longing mong

he

postso-

cialist eft or

ngaging

ith

the

otalisingeritage

f the

philosophical

discourse f

modernity,

nd

for

olding

n

to the

project

f

moderniza-

tion,

while

lso

radically riticizing

t.43 n another

evel,

Risk

ociety

39.

Habermas

286. See also Carl

Schmitt,

ositionen und

Begriffe

m

Kampf

mit

Weimar-Genf-

ersailles

1940;

Berlin:

uncker

Humblot,

988)

151.

40.

See also

Habermas,

Faktizitdt nd

Geltung.:

Beitrdge

zur Diskurstheorie es

Rechts und des demokratischen echtsstaatsFrankfurt/Main:uhrkamp, 992) 182-87.

41.

Habermas,

Die

Einbeziehung

es Anderen 86.

42.

See Ulrich

Beck,

Risk

Society:

Towards a New

Modernity,

rans.Mark Ritter

(London:

age,

1992).






Jan

Midiller

163

offeredo break he

tranglehold

n

conceptual

nnovation

mposed

y

the fruitlessostmodernityebate. 44t also nonchalantlyepudiated

the dreariness

nd

paralysis

f

systems

heory

nd

Marxism,

which

could not conceive f

a

modernizationf

modernity

ithout

olitical

revolution

r

large-scale

ocial

disruptions.

eck's

emphasis

n new

spaces opening

p

for

political

ction,

n

subterranean

hanges

which

would

uddenly

rupt,

nd

on the

delegitimation

f

experts

himedwell

with

heevents f 1989 and with

hedesire o break

ut of whatGer-

man itizens

erceived

s an

immobile,

orporatist

ociety.

nother

ele-

vant actor as that

ociology ccording

o Beck

could

imply

e fun

o

read.Whilehis fellow ociologistsmightneer t Beck'spopularizing

flair,

he

certainly

id

provide

he

old Federal

Republic

with self-

image

n

which t

could

nddid

recognize

tself.

In

the

1990s,

Beck has

calledfor

nothing

ess

than he

inventionf

the

political,

rguing

hat

ourfate s thatwe

haveto invent he

politi-

cal

anew.'45

The

question

s,

of

course,

what

Beck understands

y

the

political.

e

defines

t,

n a

manner oth imited nd

optimistic,

s the

capacity

o

shape

social

reality,

onspicuously

eaving

out

questions

aboutthe egitimationf domination,ower, nd interests.46e then

makes

he

very

heoretical ovethat s

at the

heart f Carl Schmitt's

Concept

f

thePolitical:he

detaches

the

political

rom

he

notion f

the

state

nd whathe calls official

olitics,

nd then

lays

he

political

off

gainst

he state.

As Ernst

Vollrath as

pointed

ut,

Schmittmade

this

move

n

response

o

a crisis n

the

peculiar

ermanraditionf

con-

stitutinal

aw doctrines

Staatsrechtslehre]

articularly

tsformalistic

os-

itivism,

ut without

ruly

ranscending

ts

categories

nd its

perception

of

the

political.47

chmitt ad

deinstitutionalized

he

political

nly

to

thinktate ndthepolitical ogethergain, ymeans fdefiningandcir-

cular

reasoning)

he tate s

the

political nity apable

of

friend/enemy

distinctions.

t

the ame

ime,

owever,

e had

made he

oncept

f the

43. Peter

sborne,

Times

Modern),

Modernity

Conservative)?

otes n the

Per-

sistence

f

Temporal

otif,

ew

Formations8

1996):

132.

44. Ulrich

eck,

Anthony

iddens,

nd

Scott

ash,

Reflexive

odernization:oli-

tics,

Tradition

nd

Aesthetics

ntheModern

ocial Order

Cambridge:

olity, 994)

vi.

45.

Beck,

World isk

ociety

s

Cosmopolitanociety?

cological

Questions

n

Frameworkf

Manufactured

ncertainties,

heory,

ulture

Society

(1996):

11.

See

alsoBeck,TheReinventionf he oliticalCambridge:olity, 996).

46.

Beck,

Risk

ociety

90-190.

47.

Vollrath,

Wie st

CarlSchmittn

seinen

egriff

es Politischen

ekommen?

Zeitschriftfr

olitik

6.2

1989):

151-68.






164

Preparing or

thePolitical

political

reely

vailable

omovementsike

he

National

ocialists.

Beckwants o avoid bothSchmitt's tatistpproachs wellas any

constraining

f

the

political

n

an

either/or

ogic.

n

fact,

e identifies

such move

with hefunctionalifferentiation

f

subsystems

ypical

f

systems

heory,

hereby

mplicitly

ssociating

uhmann ith

chmitt.48

Beck instead

elocates

the

political

n

what

he

calls

sub-politics,

and

whatSchmitt ould

have called

the

self-organization

f

society.

Sub-politics

efers

o

the

arenawhere he

political,

efined

y

Beck

as

large-scale

ocial

change,

ctually

akes

place:

economic-technologi-

cal

development,

he

natural

ciences,

ut lso

private

ife.

atent,

nvisi-

ble side effects f

economic-technologicalevelopment,

atherhan

rational

ill-formation

n

parliaments,

re

the

ource

f the ransforma-

tive

power

f

a

radical

modernity.49

hile

his

ritique

f

parliament

s,

of

course,

lso a classic

rope

f Schmittian

hought,

eck

suggests

hat

with

ncreased

ivil nd

participation

ights,

itizens

ould

become

apa-

ble

of

exerting ower

over

subpolitical

rocesses.50

ub-politics

an

thus e both

Benjamin arber-type

strong

emocracy,

nd a

direct,

de-institutionalized,

on-legal

olitics,

hich

rucially

epends

n

medi-

atized ymbols. emocracy,ikemodernitytself,annow come nto ts

own

n

a

more

articipatory

anner. his laim bout

he

political

aral-

lels

Beck's overall laim bout

henature

f

reflexive odernization:

t

constitutes

profound

ransformationf

society,

without

ny

outward

revolutionaryhange:

Beck leaves the

system

ntact,

ut behind ts

facade,

he

hollowing

ut

[Entkernung]

f

the

political ilently

ro-

ceeds.

Thus,

ather

ike

Gross,

Beck's Berlin

Republic

would

represent

the state s

make-believe:

ehind he

facade,

he

political

as

escaped

into

ociety,

ince

ub-politics

eans

haping

ociety

rom elow.

Thus,

thedifferentiationrocess fmodernizationiveswaytooneofde-dif-

ferentiation,

n

which,

deally, olitics

ecomes ecentralizednd

open

for

wide-spread

ecision-making:

utwhile

making

oom or

decisions,

Beck

wants o avoid

decisionism,

y claiming

hat ecisions re

open

to

48.

It

is

noticeable, owever,

hat

Beck

incorporates

chmittian

hought

atterns

without

cknowledging

hem: e

repeats

chmitt's

onception

f

modernity

s a

quest

or

neutralizations

nd

depoliticizations,

utadds a

scepticism

la

Montaigne.

ee

Beck,

Erfindung

63-68,

nd

Carl

Schmitt,

Das Zeitalter

er

Neutralisierungen

nd

Entpoli-

tisierungen, ositionenundBegriffemKampfmitWeimar-Genf-Versailles20-32.

49.

Beck,

Risk

Society

185-90.

50.

Schmittt,

he

Crisis

of Parliamentary emocracy,

trans.

Ellen

Kennedy

Cam-

bridge:

MIT,

1985).






Jan

Midller

165

democratic

egotiations

nd that

ub-politics

hould

ecome n arena

n

which newpolitical ubjectivityanconstitutetself.51hepolitical,

as

it

urns

ut,

anbe reinvented

ithoutrevolution.

What

s

needed,

owever,

s what

Beck calls a

politics

f

politics,

that

s,

a

politics

hat

hanges

he

very

ules f

politics

nd at the

ame

time ontrols

he

hape

of the

political.

his

politics

f

politics,

r,

one

might ay,

reflexive

olitics,

s at

least

partially

quivalent

o Hannah

Arendt's

onception

f

politics.

WhileBeck

does not

make

any

civic

republican

r

even

civic

humanistic

laims,

e

does describe

olitics

s

a

realm

f

action nd

freedom,

nd

predicts

the

returnf individuals

into ociety. 52ikeArendt,erejects Marxist rfunctionalistrame-

work nd

emphasizes

he

scope

of action or

ndividuals. heir

apac-

ity

for

rossing

he ron orders

rected

y systems

heory,

ut lso the

imperative

or

hem o cobble

ogether

heir

wn

biographies,

s the

ec-

ond

major

spect

f

Beck's

overall hesis f

reflexive

odernization.

As the

prophet

f

individuation,

eck has

hit

yet

nother aw cultural

nerve,

his ime

hedissolution

f a

corporatist

ermany,

n

which

ndi-

vidual

flexibility

cquires premium

ndnumerousolidGerman radi-

tionsmelt nto ir. Beck's emphasis n action, he ndividual,ndthe

art

of the

impossible

its nto a

larger

aradigm

hift,

n

which he

social sciences nd

history lace greater

alue

on

individual ction

rather han

tructure,

nd on

culture

atherhan

conomics.

rguably,

thisreorientation

s a

result f both

he

social sciences'failure o

pre-

dict 1989

as well as

thecultural

mpact

f

1989,

nd the

desire f

dis-

enchanted

ounger

cholars o assert hemselves

gainst

ocial

history

[Gesellschaftsgeschichte]

nd

systems heory.53

Beck

has of course

ncurred

is share

f criticism:

is

flippanteuille-

ton tyle, istendencyever o resist badpun, nd hisoverall pti-

mismmake

him

ook ike

proponent

f

sociology

ite. tefan reuer

has

noted

hat

Beck's

theory,

ith

ts

emphasis

n

politics

s

art,

s

suffused ith estheticism.

reuer alls

it

a

Marlboro

hilosophy,

n

which

iberatedndividualside

on

horsebacknto he

unset

f

simple

modernization.54ore

importantly,

ne

might

sk whether

he whole

51.

Beck,

rfindung,

57.

52.

Beck,

rfindung

49.

53. See alsoHans-Ulrich ehler,Von derHerrschaftumHabitus, ie Zeit25

Oct

1996.

54.

Stefan

Breuer

uotedby

Wolf-Dieter

arr,

Begriffslose

olitik nd

poli-

tikarme

egriffe:

usatzliche

otizen

u Becks

Erfindung

es

Politischen', Leviathan

23.3

1995):

437.






166

Preparing

or

the

Political

theory

f reflexive odernization

ppears

o

be an

extrapolation

f the

experiencesftheold FederalRepublic fthe1980s:Beck's risk oci-

ety

s also a

rich

ociety,

hich an affordhekinds f

anxieties

hat e

posits

n

order o

explain

he oss of

faith n

industrial

ociety,

xpert

opinion,

nd

a

traditional

olitical

lass.And t s

very

much he

xperi-

ence

of

theGreens' nd citizens'movements hich nforms

he

notion

of

sub-politics.

he

question

rises,

hen,

whether

his s

merely

nother

instance

f

German

pocalyptical

ntimodernism,

ften

ypical

f

the

Greens

nd,

of

course, lder,

omanticocialtheorists?s

it a

sociology

ofAngst,

o to

speak?

The answer

s

a

resoundinges

and

no,

because

Beck,

n a

sense,

has it both

ways:

there s a

critique

f

instrumental

rationality

n

bleak,

pocalyptical

ones eminiscent

f

Horkheimernd

Adorno,

ven of Walter

enjamin,

or nstance

henBeck writes hat

the isk

ociety

s not

revolutionary

ociety,

utmore han

hat,

cat-

astrophic

ociety.

n

it,

the state

of

emergency

hreatens

o

become

the

normal tate. 55 ut Beck

combines his

apocalypticalanguage

with

the

hope

of

fulfilling

heHabermasian

romises

f

modernity

recisely

through

he

verynegativism

f

ecologicaldangers.56

orkheimer

nd

Adorno'snormativeim of enlighteningnlightenmentbout tself s

sociologically

eneralized

nd,

one would

hope,

mpiricallyrounded:

modernization

s

becoming

modernized,

alf-modernity,

alf-democracy

are

becoming

ulfilled.n

one

sense,

his s

simply

ialectical: he

sys-

tems f

modem

ndustrial

ociety roduce

heir wn

dangers,

.e.,

their

own

negation.

n

the ublation

f

this

ontradiction,

umanismnd ndi-

vidual

agency

are

miraculously

esurrected.57

ut

one

might

sk

whether

eck does not underestimatehe resourcefulnessf

simple

modernity,

nd whether

is

theory

s notdriven

y

the ame earch or

a third ay that nceanimatedhe heoristsf a legitimationrisisn

late

apitalism.

eck seems o have

imply

ubstitutedhe

cological

ri-

sis for

the contradictionsf

capitalism,

nd reassured isillusioned

Marxists

hat,

ven with he facades

f

official

olitics

nd industrial

society

ntact,

evolutionaryhange

s under

ay.58

Beck's

entire

otion

f the

nvention

f the

political

s

also

ques-

tionable.

t would seem that

Beck's definitionnd relocation

f

the

55.

Beck,

Risk

Society,

8-79.

56. See also ThomasBlanke, ZurAktualitates Risikobegriffs:berdie Kon-

struktion

erWelt

nd

die Wissenschaft

on

hr,

eviathan 8.1

1990):

134.

57.

See

also Stefan

reuer,

Das EndederSicherheit.lrich ecks

Gegengifte',

Merkur3.8

1989):

710-15.






Jan

Miiller

167

political

re

altogether

oo

optimistic,

mphasizing

he

creative le-

ments fpolitics tthe xpense fthecoercive nes. To overlook he

ineradicable

resence

f violence

n

politics

ualifies

him

forMax

Weber's

charge

hatwhoever enies his

presence

s

politically

nfan-

tile.59

Moreover,

while Beck does

present

many

ll-defined

otions

such

as

a

new artof

politics

nd

other

layful

inguistic

nventions,

the

emergence

f

the

risk

society,

s

predicted y

Beck,

implies

new

kind of moral eriousness. his

challenge

f moral eriousness

might

f course

provoke

n

empty esture

f

resoluteness

pre-

cisely

the

decisionism hichBeck wants o avoid. But to that

nd,

Beckwouldhave to indicate omenormative

uidelines

orhow ndi-

viduals

are

to

face the

decision-makingrocess.

Moreover,

s

much

as Beck

wants

o

provide sociological rgument

or

more

partici-

patory

olitics,

he has little

o

say

aboutthe constitution

f

various

public

pheres

n therealm f

sub-politics.

nd as much s thewhole

notion

f

sub-politics

s

obviously

reflectionf the

experience

f

the Greens

nd thecitizens'movementsf the West

Germany

f the

1980s,

there

s

little

n

Beck's

theory

hichwould

point

o

the con-

crete onstitutionfpolitical gency n a worldwhere thepolitical

seems to

be

crushed

y

neoliberal conomic

mperatives.

his

is the

instance

n which n Arendtian otion

f

politics

nd a

heavy

dose

of

empirical

ociology

might

escue he

theory

rom

mpty

oluntarism

and

from llusions bout the

capacity

of individuals o

overcome

obstacles

o decide

democratically

he assessment

f new risks.Con-

sequently,

eck can

hardly

laim to have reinvented

he

political,

r

even

to have

produced political heory

t all.

Still,

he has made

an

interesting

tart

n

reconceptualizing

he

autonomy

f the

political

which s notauthoritarianramoral nthewaythat heautonomyf

the

political

dvocated

y

conservativess.

Moreover,

eck

attempts

a

theory

hich

does

not

necessarily

rivilege ociety

ver and

above

the

political

n

a

way

that

ociologists

would be

expected

o

do.60

58.

Beck

admits s much

n

a footnote.ee Ulrich

eck,

VomVeralten

ozialwis-

senschaftlicher

egriffe:

rundziige

inerTheorie eflexiver

odemisierung,

esell-

schaft

m

Obergang: erspektiven

ritischer

oziologie,

d.

Christoph

Org

Darmstadt:

Wissenschaftliche

uchgesellschaft,

994)

41.

59.

Max

Weber,

The ProfessionndVocation f

Politics,

Weber: olitical

Writ-

ings, ds.Peter assmanndRonald peirsCambridge:ambridgeP, 1994)309-69.

60. See

also

Kari

Palonen,

Die

jtingste rfindung

es Politischen: lrich

eck's

'Neues

W6rterbuch

es

Politischen'ls

Beitrag

ur

Begriffsgeschichte,

eviathan

3. 3

(1995):

417-36.






168

Preparing or

thePolitical

But

it

is still ronic

hat

he

return f

rehashed

Arendtian

lements

shouldbe embeddedn a sociological heory,ivenArendt's ttempt

to

separate

he ocialfrom he

political.

A

More

Republican

Germany?

Finally,

ome intellectuals

ave

argued

for a Berlin

spirit

hat

drawson the

constitutional

chievements

f

the Federal

Republic

s

well

as the

memory

f

the

revolutionary

ctionof East

Germans

n

1989.

Here,

heGDR

revolutionariesre

portrayed

s

acting

pontane-

ously

nd as

experiencing

heir

apacity

o

act

politically,herebypen-

ing

up

new

republican erspectives.61

or intellectuals

ollowing

his

interpretation,

hebelated

nation

an

finally

rrive

n

the

basis of the

common

xperience

f

republican

reedomnd

an act of mutual

ecog-

nition:

West

Germans ave

to

acknowledge

he

great

chievement

f

theEast German

evolution,

hileEast Germans ave

to

recognize

he

free

nstitutionsf the

old Federal

Republic.62

n the

basis of sucha

self-recognition,

he

Berlin

Republic

will

be

capable

of

coping

with he

challenges

f the

political.

n

other

words,

where he

conservatives

demand elf-consciousness[SelbstbewuJftsein]or he tate,herepubli-

cans ask

for

self-recognition

Selbstanerkennung]

f the

republic.

or

advocates f

a new Berlin

republicanism,

ntellectuals

ike Habermas

and

Gross

remain

horoughlyaught

p

in

the

experience

f

the old

Federal

Republic.63

ather han

rojecting

hefeatures

f theold

Fed-

eral

Republic

nto

Berlin,

s

Gross

nd Habermas

o,

a

recognition

f

the

genuinely

ew and

a broad

public

discourse re

required.

n this

project,

rendt

s

singled

ut

s a

guiding

pirit

nd

as

providing

pos-

sible answer

or he

meaning

f

politics.64

n

recent

ears,

Arendt

as

beenthe ubject fa remarkableenaissancenGermany.lthougher

thought

emains till

more

opular

n

theUnited

tates,

here s

now a

growing

iteraturend

recognition

f her

possible

mportance

or he

Berlin

Republic.

he

city

nd the

University

f

Bremen

stablished

HannahArendt

rize

for

political

hought

n

1993,

which

has so far

61.

Bernward

aule,

Freiheit nd Revolution: ie

Bedeutung

on

1989

fiir

ie

Berliner

epublik,

annah

Arendt

nd

die Berliner

epublik:

ragen

n

das

vereinigte

Deutschland,

d. Bernward

aule

Berlin:

ufbau,

996)

86.

62. Baule, Einleitung, annahArendtnd ieBerliner epublik.

63.

Baule,

Einleitung,

0.

64. For

similar

oncerns

n

Austria,

ee

Sagen,

was ist: Zur

Aktualitdt

annah

Arendts,

d.

Ursula

Kubes-Hofmann

Vienna:

Verlag

ir

Gesellschaftskritik,

994).






JanMfiller

169

been awarded

o

Agnes

Heller

nd Francois uret.65ome

of

the ntel-

lectuals ssociatedwith heprizehavetried o nfluencereen olicies,

shiftingrassroots

emocracy

Basisdemokratie]

n

a

more

republican

direction.

oreover,

here

s now a

HannahArendtnstitute

n

Dres-

den,

which

mainlyponsors

esearch

n

totalitarianism.

Arendt's

olitical heory

s taken

up

fortwo

reasons

n

particular:

first,

989 is

interpreted

ith

Arendt's

heories,

oth as

a

historical

moment

n

which

non-violent

evolutionaries

pontaneouslyrought

about

omething

ntirely

ew,

experiencing

hat

Arendt alled natal-

ity. 66

he GDR revolutionaries

xperienced

he

power hey

ould

con-

stitute y acting together,heircapacityfor responsible olitical

judgment

nd

action,

nd the

feeling

f

publichappiness

which

goes

along

with

t;

finally,

hey

ealized

what t meant

o constitutend to

move n

a

public

pace.

n an

Arendtianiew

of

unification,

his

xperi-

ence of

politics

was crowded ut

by

the

ocial,

ust

as the

French

evo-

lutionwas

distorted

nd

ultimatelyestroyedy people's

real

wants. 67

While

n

Germany

here

was no effort

o solvethe ocial

questions

y

political

means,

ndtherefore

o

terror,

t still emainsrue hat

o con-

stitutional

iscussion,

ithert thenationalevel

or in

German ownhall

meetings

ook

place.68

Given hese

deficits,

ome Arendtians

an

only

hope

that

arrating

989 over ime

will

keep

this

xperience

f

politics

alive,

ndthat

paces

for

olitical

ction

s freedom

an be

strengthened

withinhe nstitutional

ramework

f heBerlin

epublic.

On another

evel,

Arendt's laimthat otalitarianismeant

radical

break

n historical

ontinuity

nd theWestern

hilosophical

radition

s

applied

o 1989

in reverse.n

other

words,

Arendt,

s the theorist

f

natality,

s viewed as

offering way

out

of

the

historical

ategories

such s progressndprocessnheritedrom henineteenthenturynd

the

Enlightenment.

rendt's

ategories

re

mobilized

gainst

those

intellectuals

ho

respond

o the

radically

ew,

the

great

aesura of

1989,

with he

familiar

ategories

nd

strategies

f

nationalism

nd

geo-

politics

n

the

ight,

nd

ntifascism

n

the

eft.69

Finally,

Arendtian

hought

s

mobilized

gainst

neoliberal

olitics

which

ntirelyccupies

tself ith conomic onstraintsnd the ocial.

65. For infomation

n theHannah

Arendt ssociation orPolitical

hought,

ee

http://zfn.alf.uni-bremen.de/blaha/verein.html.66. Arendt,heHuman onditionChicago: hicagoUP, 1989)176-78.

67.

Arendt,

n

Revolution

New

York:

Penguin, 990)

109.

68.

Arendt,

n

Revolution12.

69. Antonia

runenberg,

'Machtkommton

m6glich

..',

Einschnitte3.






170

Preparing

or

thePolitical

But at a time

whenmore nd more

eople

re

involuntarily

reed rom

theburdensf abor,Arendtsreproachedor othavingealized hatn

modem

democracies,

he

ob

constituteshe

underpinnings

ordemo-

cratic

itizenship.

hus,

he nswer

o

the

present redicament

as

to

be

sought

n

therealm

f

the ocial first. raditionalriticismsf

Arendt

as an elitist aristocratic

iberal,

ho

gnored

oth ocial

equality

nd

the

nstitutionalization

f

freedom,

re

rearticulated,

verlooking,

ow-

ever,

hat

he

question

f how

to deal with the ocial s

itself

gain

political uestion

nd thatArendt id

pay

attention

o

the

mportance

f

political

nstitutions

s manifestationsf

power.70

n

a

more undamen-

tal

level,

Arendts

yet

againreproached

ith

nostalgia

or he Greeks

and

for

gnoring

he differentiation

ains

f

modernity.71

Butcould

he

post-1989

onstellatione a

genuinely

ew

departure

or

the eft? fterhe

eft adshunned er

or

eing

cold

warrior,

n

elitist

and

a

philosophical

nthropologist,

oes a

rediscovery

f

Arendt ow

provide epublican

esources

or renewal f an

emancipatoryroject?72

The answer an

hardly

e affirmative.

s

in

the

work

f Habermas nd

Beck,

Arendt's

epublicanism

s shorn f

tsmore adical

lements,

nd

notmuchmore emainshan classicalHabermasianallformore oliti-

cal

participation.

er

emphasis

n a

human

lurality

f

opinions,

n the

formation

f

politicaludgment

nd

on

the

power

f

narrativere

alluded

to,

but

hardly xplored

n

their

meaning

or more

epublican ermany.

On

theother

and,

he

danger

hat

republicanism

f

virtue

might ose

is

hardly

iscussed

t

all.

Thus,

he

relationship

etween

rendtnd

the

left emains

argely

history

f

rendezvous

anques.

Moreover,

he

right's

eaction

o

Beck,

the Bremen

roup,

nd

the

contributorso Baule's bookhas

been omewhat

redictable.

n

a recent

issue ofMerkur,anRosshasappealed oErnst orsthoff'sritiquef

the

old Federal

Republic

o reassert he

authority

f the

state,

nd

defended hestate s

protecting

raditionsnd

individualitygainst

he

70.

Wolfgang ngler,

Berliner

epublik

n

Bedrdingnis

derDie neoliberale

er-

ausforderung

es

politischen

Liberalismus,

Hannah

Arendt und die Berliner

Republik

184-87;

Otto

Kallscheuer,

MitArendt

iber

rendt inausdenken:

ffene

ragen

n das

neue Deutschlandund

die

europaiische

ukunft,

annah

Arendt nd die

Berliner

Repub-

lik

205,

and Michael

Th.

Greven,

HannahArendt

Pluralitit

nd

Griindung

er

Freiheit,

ie

Zukunft

es Politischen 2-83.

71. See in particularHauke Brunkhorst,emokratieundDifferenz:Vomklassis-

chen

zum

modernen

egriffdes

olitischen

Frankfurt/Main:

ischer,

1994).

72. See

Vollrath,

HannahArendt ei den Linken

-10,

and

Greven,

Hannah

Arendt

Pluralitit

nd

GrOndung

erFreiheit

8-89.






JanMfiller 171

Beckian

ndividuation

hich

nly

eaves

fungible,

tomized

ndividu-

als.73As theBerlinRepublic pproaches,hen,ame nitiativesromhe

left re

nswered

y

conservative

laims

romhe ld

Federal

epublic.

The

Anthropological

urn:Neither

eft

nor

Right?

Hans

Magnus nzensberger,

eter

loterdijk,

nd Botho

trauB emain

some

of themorenon-conformisthinkers

n

an intellectual

ilieu

till

very

much

uffused

ith

riend/enemyhinking.

owever,

n

thename

of

politics,

hese

ntellectualsave asserted

nthropological

nd

there-

fore,

n

Arendtian

erms,

political

laims

gainst

he

notion f

normal

politics.n thefaceofviolentonflict,hethernYugoslavia r onthe

streets

f

Rostock,

hey

ave done

nothing

ess

than educe he

political

to the

anthropological.

trauB,

n

his

infamous

iece

Anschwellender

Bocksgesang,

ounded he

clarion

all

for

he New

Right

y mixing

Girardian

nthropology

ith cultural

ritique

fthe

Federal

Republic.74

Enzensberger,lways

whisker

head

of

the

Zeitgeist,

ent

ight

ack

to

the unstable

anthropological

onstitutionf homo

apiens

and

pre-

dicted

global

civil

war.75

loterdijk,

n

his

slim

volume m

selben

Boot: Versuchiber ieHyperpolitik,ells three-phased,sychopolitical

story

f

humankind,

n

whichhe

distinguishes

etween

aleopolitics,

classical

olitics,

nd the

oming yperpolitics.76aleopolitics

s

simply

the miracle

f

human

elf-reproduction

n

a

plurality

f

primal

ordes

which ct ikeextended amilies.

n

classical

olitics,

he

polis

and then

thenation-state

retend

o act ike horde

writ

arge,

ike

giant

ocial

uterus.

ut

while

hese

arger

ntitiesllow for

ll

sorts

f

refinement

founded

pon

domination,

he

reproduction

f

humankind

s

ensured

y

theremnants

f thehorde

ulture.

ow,

with move oward ven

arger

entities hich equiremore ophisticatednddemandingorms f social

cohesion,

ew kinds f socialization

nd

political

raining

re needed

tomake

p

for

man's

anthropological

nsufficiencies. 77

73. Jan

Ross,

Staatsfeindschaft:

nmerkungen

um neuen

Vulgarliberalismus,

Merkur 1.2

1997):

93-194.

74.

Botho

StrauB,

Anschwellender

ocksgesang,

ie

Selbstbewuf3te

ation:

'Anschwellender

ocksgesang'

nd weitere

eitrdge

u einer

deutschen

ebatte,

ds.

Heimo

chwilk

nd

Ulrich chacht

Frankfurt/Main:

llstein,

994)

19-40.

75. Hans

MagnusEnzensberger,

ivil Wars:

From

L.A.

to Bosnia

(New

York:

New,

1994).

76. Peter

loterdijk,

m selbenBoot:

Versuch

iiber

die

Hyperpolitik

Frankfurt/

Main:

Suhrkamp,

993).

77.

Sloterdijk

4.






172

Preparingor

he

olitical

Sloterdijk

redicts revenge

f the ndividualnd the ocal

against

theglobal, nd a newwaveof conservativeevolutionsnthewake

of

post-politicalanics. 78

o

survive

n

the

age

of

hyperpolitics,

fully

nsular

eople

have

to

find ew

ways

to

reconfigure

he

relation-

ship

between he small communitieshat

llow for

both

regeneration

and

reproduction,

nd the

global.

f

they

want

o avoid

being

iterally

last

men,

human

eings

have to recreate social uterus nd a horde

which llows them

o

reproduce.

hus,

hyperpolitics

eeds

to

be

the

continuation

f

paleopolitics

ith thermeans.

The

anthropological

urn

y

StrauBl,

nzensberger,

nd

Sloterdijk

re

notwithout

recedent

nGerman

istory.

he

peculiar

raditionf

philo-

sophical nthropology

lourished

n the

1920s,

when

t

was associated

mainly

withHelmuth

lessner nd

Max Scheler.

he

argument

bout

anthropological

nsufficiency

as most

rominently

eiterated

y

Arnold

Gehlen.79

utwhat he ecentommentators

ostly

gree

n s that

omo

sapiens

s

a

dangerous et

vulnerable

eing.

Once

again,

chmitt

aid

t

first:

n

the

Concept

f

the

olitical,

chmitt

ave

he

disquietingiagno-

sis that

ll

genuine olitical

heories

resuppose

an o

be

evil, .e.,

by

no

means an unproblematicuta dangerousnd dynamic eing. 80 he

anthropological

urn emains

he

east

isionary,

n

a sense

he east

oliti-

cal

of

all

the

pproachesurveyed

ere. t

offers

t best

remindernd

a

warning

o

utopian

acifists

nd

ntellectualsith n ethics f conviction

[Gesinnungsethiker]

f

the

ld Federal

epublic

whosenumber as

n

any

ase

substantially

ecreasedfter

he

Gulf

War

nd fter osnia.

Between chmittndArendt:

aming

he

Political

As the Berlin

Republic pproaches,

erman

ntellectualsot

only

engagen a discoursehat ims o be foundationalor heBerlinRepub-

lic

and

Europe),

ut

lso contesthe

meaning

f

what

s

to

count

s

the

foundation

f

the

political

er

se.

Not

surprisingly,

ost

ntellectuals

who confront

he Berlin

Republic

nd the

political,

ituate

hemselves

vis-a-vis he classic

thinkers

f

the

political,

arl Schmittnd

Hannah

Arendt.

n the

ase

of

eft-wing

ntellectuals,

arl Schmitts

usually

ast

in the

role of

bete

noire.

This is

particularly

he case

withHabermas

78. Sloterdijk7-58.

79. Arnold

Gehlen,

Man: His Nature

nd Place in

the

World,

rans.Clare McMillan

and

KarlPillemer

New

York:Columbia

P,

1988).

80.

Schmitt,

oncept

of

the

Political

61.






Jan

Miller

173

who

remains,

ne

mightay,negatively

ixated

n

Schmitt.

n his

recent

turno legalandpolitical heory,ustas much s in hisearlywritings,

Schmitt

s

usually

et

up

as the

one

opponent

ost

worthy

f a

lengthy

refutation.81n theother

and,

here emain number f

self-declared

leftist

chmittians

ho

adopt

his

decisionism

nd his

theory

f the

state.82

Moreover,

he

politicalanthropology

roposedby

Strauss,

Enzensberger,

nd,

o a

lesser

xtent,

loterdijk,

evertso a

Schmittian

view of

humankind,

hich,

f

course,

eaves no

political

pace

in an

Arendtian

ense. In

conservative

ontributions,

chmitt

s

present

n

major

arguments

oncerning

he

critique

f

a

self-organizing

ociety

usurpinghe tate, foreignolicywhich ails o take ccount f neradi-

cable

conflict,

nd

any

attitude hich enies hat

olitics

s

fundamen-

tally

bout

friends

nd

enemies.

Mostly,

chmitts

only cknowledged

at the

margins.

t

s

likely

hatwith further

etrenchment

f the

welfare

state,

nd

a

reassertion

f

the

tate s

provider

f

security,

he

rguments

of Schmittnd

his

pupil

Forsthoff

ill

be heard

epeatedly.

oreover,

interest

n

Schmitts

part

f

a

larger

wave

of

interestn the

constitu-

tional

hought

uring

he

Weimar

epublic,

hich

s

perceived

s a labo-

ratory f the political, nd particularlyf differentonceptionsf

political nity Einheit].83ome

political

cientistsrgue hat hecoun-

try s facing situation, hich,n terms f sheer olitical penness, as

not

xisted ince he1920s.

ntegration

s

perceived

s

the

most

ressing

problem

f

the

present ay.

This s

obviously consequence

f unifica-

tion nd

the nternal

nity

hich

as

yet

o be realized. ut

t

s

also

a

response

o the

rifts

nd

conflicts

pening p

in

West

Germany

ith he

retrenchment

f thewelfare

tate,

enerational

hange,

nd

globalization.

The 1920s

are

taken

p

as a

period

uring

hich,

t

least

n

thought,

great umberfconceptionsfpolitical nity ere layed ut.84

On the other

and,

number f

left-wing

ntellectuals

ave tried o

81.

See,

for

nstance, abermas,

ie

Einbeziehung

esAnderen26-36

nd160-71.

82.

On

the ssueof

eftist

chmittianism,

ee Hermann

iibbe,

CarlSchmittiberal

rezipiert,

omplexio ppositorum

27-40;

Manfred

auermann,

Begriffsmagie.

Posi-

tionen nd

Begriffe'

ls

Kontinuitatsbehauptung

Bemerkungen

nliB3lich

erNeuau-

flage

988,

ie Autonomiees

Politischen: arlSchmitts

ampf

m inen

eschddigten

Begriff,

d.

Hans-Georg

lickinger

Berlin:

Acta

humaniora,

990)

97-127;

thedebate

between

llen

Kennedy,

lrich

K.

PreuB3,

artin

ay

nd Alfons

llner in

Telos

71

(Spring 987);

and

the

elationship

etween chmittndthe

egal

theorists

f

theFrank-

furtchool,William . Scheuerman,etweenheNorm ndthe

xception:

he

rankfurt

School

nd the

Rule

of

Law

Cambridge:

IT,

1994).

83.

Dirk

an

Laak,

Einleitende

emerkungen,

etamorphosen

es Politischen0.

84.

van

Laak,

Einleitende

emerkungen

3.






174

Preparing

or

thePolitical

recover

HannahArendt's

epublicanism

or the new

polity, uilding

partlyn the iteraturen civil ociety,artlyn what sperceiveds the

already

Arendtianoundationsf

Habermas's

heory

f

communicative

action.Arendt's

epublicanism

s seen

as a

possible

ntidote

o

the

new

wave ofnationalismnd o

the

general

erosion fthe

political,

ut

lso

as

a new

perspective

n

thewake f he xhaustionf

utopiannergies.85

This

polarization

etween chmitt

nd Arendt as

to

do

with he

fact

that

989 can

be

given

Schmittian

r

an Arendtian

eading:

ranslated

into

heterms f

Schmitt's

olitical

heology,

989

was

a

miracle,

nd

constituted

challenge

f

the

exception. 86

n Schmittianonstitu-

tionalthought,989meant hat overeigntyn East European tates

was

reconstituted

y

the

pouvoir

onstituant

easserting

tself.87ut it

can

also

be

read as

the

beginning

f

ethno-nationalist

nmity,

f a

friend/enemyogic

and an ultimate

hrinking

f

political

pace

in

the

Arendtian

ense.

Schmitt,

n other

words,

ecomes

he

prophet

f

eth-

nic

cleansing,

nd

post-communism

he

period

n

which

man,

that

dynamic

nd

dangerous

eing,

s no

longer

held

in

check

by

an

authoritarian

tate.

On

an

Arendtian

ote,

he

peaceful

evolutions

f

1989 symbolize rdinaryeopleactingn concert, eneratingower,

and

engaging

n an act

of

founding

nd

constitution-making

o

less

momentous

han heAmerican ne Arendt escribed

n

On

Revolution.

Pace the

Schmittian

nterpretation

f

a

homogeneous

ill

of the

people

asserting

tself,

the

people

were

plurality

f

citizens'

roups ath-

ered

t theRound

Table.89

his

substitutionf

plural

nd self-reflexive

for

unitary

opular overeignty

nabled he revolutionarieso

avoid

what Arendt

escribed s

the

problem

f the

absolute,

nd

ulti-

mately,

he

logic

of

friend/enemyhinking,olitical

ustice,

nd

the

unleashingf violence n revolutionaryivil war.90Moreover, 989

was a

spontaneous

oment hen

ndividuals eassertedhe

power

o

set

a

new

beginning.

t also confirmed

rendt's dvice to be

prepared

for

nd

o

expect

miracles'

nthe

olitical

ealm. 91

85. Peter

Kemper,

Vorwort,

Die

Zukunft

es Politischen

7-12.

86.

Schmitt,

olitical

Theology:

Four

Chapters

on the

Concept

of Sovereignty,

trans.

eorge

chwab

1922;

Cambridge:

IT,

1985).

87.

Schmitt,

erfassungslehre

1928;

Berlin: uncker

Humblot,

970)

51.

88.

Beck,

Die

Erfindung

27.

89. See Ulrich K. PreuB,Revolution, ortschritt nd

Verfassung.:

u einem neuen

Vefassungsverstdndnis

Frankfurt/Main:

ischer,

994)

84-88.

90.

Arendt,

On Revolution

158-59 and 202-14.

91.

Arendt,

etweenPast

and Future

170.






Jan

Miller

175

It

is no

accident,

hen,

hat

hecurrentebate oincides

with

major

renaissancef scholarshipn bothSchmittndArendt,ndthat hese

two

heorists,

ometimes

umped

ogether

s

political

xistentialists,

re

consciously

r

unconsciously

nstrumentalizedor

he

new foundational

discourse.

he

question,

owever,

s whether

ny

of the intellectuals

engaging

ith chmittian

nd

Arendtian

houghtctually

ursue

he wo

theoristsn their

more

adical

laims.

chmitt'sollowers

mphasize

he

etatist,

gonal,

nd

broadly

obbesian lements

n

his

thought,

utnot n

a

way

which eviates

ignificantly

rom

ostwar

West

German onserva-

tism.

Were t not o difficulto translate

akeshott,

ne

could hink hat

conservativesightustas wellhavetaken ptheforemostritishol-

lower f Hobbes

n the wentieth

entury.

n

so far s Schmitt'sheories

of

great eopoliticalpaces

Grof3rdume]

re

revived,

t

s also reduced o

a

realist

eading

hich ould s

easily

be found

n

Kissinger

r

Hun-

tington.92

part

rom

marginalight-wingigures, obody

s

willing

o

resuscitatechmitt's

olitical heology,

heradical italistnd

authoritar-

ian elementsf

his

constitutional

hought,

r his

emphasis

n

substantial

homogeneity,

et alone

his

idiosyncratic

oman

Catholicism ith

his

peculiaraithn he iblical iguref heKatechon.93

In a

way,

he

ame holds rue

orArendt.

er

followers ant

Ber-

lin

Republic

which

s

actually

more

republican,

ut

hardly

make

any

claimsfor

ivic

humanism,

radical

olitical

ecentralization

n

coun-

cils,

or an institutionalization

f continuous

olitical

ction.The

ele-

ment hatboth

the consensus-oriented

abermas

nd the

republican-

minded

Arendt-disciples

verlook,

t

seems,

s her

emphasis

n

plural-

ity.

Thus,

rguably

oth

chmittnd Arendt

ollowers,

hile

emaining

in

a

broadly

iberal-democratic

ramework,

ailto see the

potential

or

makingheBerlinRepublic boveall a more iberalndtolerantolity.

They

amewhatever

s

radical

bout he

political

n

Schmitt

r

Arendt,

butdo not

ngage

withwhat ften trikes

oreign

bservers

s themost

obvious

uestion

boutGerman

olitical

ulture: ould here e a more

heterogeneous,

ivic,

iberal

nthe

ense f

olerant,

ermany?94

92. Erich

Vad,

Strategie

nd

Sicherheitspolitik:erspektiven

m Werk on Carl

Schmitt

Opladen:

Westdeutscher,

996).

93. On

Schmitt's

rivate olitical heology

f he

Katechon,

ee

Giinter

euter,

er

Katechon:

Zu Carl

Schmitts

undamentalistischer

ritik

er Zeit

Berlin:

Duncker

&

Humblot,994); ndHeinrich eier, ie LehreCarlSchmitts: ier apitel ur Untersc-

heidung

olitischer

heologie

nd olitischer

hilosophieStuttgart:

etzler,

994).

94.

See for

nstance harles

.

Maier,

issolution: he

Crisis

f

Communism

nd

the nd

of

East

Germany

Princeton:

rinceton

P,

1997)

334.






176

Preparing or

the

Political

Finally,

t s

important

ot o overestimatehe

mpact

f

even

n attenu-

atedArendtianismr Schmittianismn politics nderstoodn tradi-

tional ermss the ld

partyystem.

here

an be

no

one-to-one

apping

of

these

deologies

nto

he

political leavages

f

present-dayermany,

and

neitheran

any asting olitical

orce e attributedo

them,

s

long

as

no

significant

arty dopts

hem.

eturning

o the

failure

f

theNew

Right,

ne

mightay

hat

t

was

precisely

heir

nability

o

capture party-

political

ehicle,

n this ase the

DP,

which

oomed

heir

fforto estab-

lish

right-wing

ultural

egemony

nd

xercisenfluence

n

policy.

German

ntellectuals

ave

aid

outtwofutureisions

f

the

polity:

n

&tatist

ne,

ndebtedo

Schmitt,

hat akes he

egaining

f

sovereignty

n

1990

as

foundational

nd envisionsheBerlin

epublic

s more

olitical

in the

sense of a

sovereign ursuit

f nationalnterestsutside nd a

state

onfronting

more ctive

ivil

ociety

within;

he

other

republi-

can

one,

n

which

he

memories

f 1989 re

kept

live,

ivil

ociety

alo-

rized,

nd

foreignolicy

s

increasingly

ealtwith

n

European

ederated

structures

which

Arendtlso

favored).

n

a

sense,

oth isions

resume

that

ew

spaces

for ction

re

opening. onsequently,

othvisions an

be seen s counteringcurrentublic iscoursehat rimarilyonsists f

economic

nd technocratic

ecessities,

eoliberal

ieties,

nd

the

needto

adapt

o

globalization.

n

that

ense,

hey

et

he

ower

f

politics

gainst

what

Musil

calledthedominationf

objective

elations

Herrschaft

er

Sachzusammenhdnge].

n

a more

pessimistic eading,

he

Arendtian

moments a

fleeting

ne,

and

Beck

and

the

Arendtians

erely

roject

the

developmentseading

p

to

1989onto

1999,

when n

fact hefuture

belongs

o overt nd covert chmittians. third

ossibility

emains,

f

course,

amely

hat

Germany

eithermbarks

n

an

Arendtian

dven-

ture, orfollows more inisterchmittianourse, ut implyontinues

to

be as

generally

table, onsensus-oriented,

nd,

o to

speak, hankfully

boring,

s it has

n

fact

een ince1989.

Thus,

t

might

ellbe true

hat

Die Politik st das

Schicksal,

but the

fate of

the

political

n

its

friend/

enemy,

r

republican

ersion

might

ell be sealed

by

the

fact hatmost

Germans,

till

linging

o

a

culture

frestraintnd

reticence,

esire

ei-

ther more uthoritariantate

or

public rovision

f

meaning

Sinnge-

bung]

through olitical

ction.95

t

might

e

unexciting,

ut

maybe

politicsan nd hould o withouthe olitical.

95. Andrei S. Markovits

nd Simon

Reich,

The German

Predicament:

Memory

nd

Power in theNew

Europe

(Ithaca:

Cornell

UP,

1997)

xiii.

Documents

Preparing for the Political German Intellectuals Confront the Berlin Republic