Das Trauma von “1968”: Liberale Hochschullehrer in Westdeutschland und Frankreich
Abstract
This contribution sheds light on the reaction of liberal university teachers to the students’ revolt of “1968”. For university professors such as Ernst Fraenkel and Richard Löwenthal “1968” was a traumatic experience : an experience of extreme emotional intensity which overtaxed their possibilities to cope with it and lastingly shook the way in which they understood themselves. By “1968” they saw their mission of a consensus - liberal democratization of West Germany seriously endangered. Again, the “shadows of Weimar” seemed to threaten the Federal Republic. For them, “1968” was the most recent chapter of the apparent medical history of an anti - Western German special path. Beyond the Rhine, where in 1968 the fights on the barricades were raging, Raymond Aron tried to cope with the shocking “events” by interpreting them as a theatrical re - staging of the February Revolution of 1848. However, also this way of national - historic narrativization was hardly able to alleviate the traumatic effect of “1968”.
Citation
Bavaj , R 2009 , ' Das Trauma von “1968”: Liberale Hochschullehrer in Westdeutschland und Frankreich ' , Totalitarismus und Demokratie , vol. 6 , no. 1 , pp. 101-114 .
Publication
Totalitarismus und Demokratie
Status
Peer reviewed
Type
Journal article
Rights
© Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH und Co. KG, Göttingen 2009. This work is made available online with permission from the publisher. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published by Totalitarismus und Demokratie, http://www.hait.tu-dresden.de/TD/home.asp
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