Summary of Merkur 5/2008
The May issue (number 708) deals with the unavoidable 68ers. In his autobiographical vignettes, Karl Heinz Bohrer does not pander to the current dogmatisms but rather describes his experiences then – the good and the bad. Friedrich Pohlmann's expedition through the history of utopian thought, to which the student movement also clung, turns up more dark than light places. Peter Saunders wonders why so many intellectuals consider capitalism to be the "soul-destroying" stronghold of evil.
We open with an essay by law philosopher Uwe Volkmann, who analyzes society's stealthy transformation into one of a latent state of emergency. The law column by Michael Stolleis and Horst Meier plea for more freedom of speech and lend the piece their support.
Hubert Markl was president of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, and he knows what he's talking about when he warns of politics' influence on science. Volker Gerhardt dedicates his philosophy column to the current debate over the question of how oriental the Occident is – or should be. Even if Prussia no longer exists, it lives on: Bernhard Schulz on Christopher Clark's opus maximum; Detlev Schöttker on the renaissance of writers' biographies; and finally, as slightly dreamy last calls, Wolfgang Marx's speculation on the oceanic feeling and Helmut Niemeyer's opulent collection of hands.
Published 2008-04-28
Original in German
© Merkur












