German Politics and Society

Our Summer issue features three articles on key aspects of German

politics and society. Belinda Cooper analyzes yet another angle of the

thorny Stasi problem, in this case the role and presence of women

in the Stasi. Placing her discussion in the larger context of women

in East Germany, Cooper has fashioned a nuanced, meticulously

researched argument about an issue that remains pertinent in the

debate on Germany, women, unification, and the country’s complex

past. John Bendix and Niklaus Steiner provide a new epistemological

prism for the evaluation of Germany’s much discussed problem of

political asylum. They address this difficult topic in the context of

existing approaches in comparative politics and international relations,

featuring the notion of “national interest” in their presentation.

Ludger Helms then offers a fascinating study of an often-neglected

institution of German politics: that of the federal presidency since

1949. After a careful reading of this article, it is evident that the German

presidency deserves more attention in the future research

agenda of political scientists than it has garnered in the past.

Public debate in Germany, particularly in the western German

media, grew heated in 1991 and 1992 over the role of intellectuals in

East German society and their collaboration with or resistance to the

Stasi. Sparks flew with particular intensity when Wolf Biermann,

former East German dissident musician and poet, accused Sascha

Anderson, erstwhile East German dissident poet, of being a Stasi

informant and an “asshole” (while there was some disagreement

over the latter charge, the former, at least, turned out to be accurate).

As the debate raged, some observers commented that it seemed

more a clash of male egos than a serious attempt to analyze the past.

In a 1993 book on the dissident literary community, a West German

commentator suggested the Stasi debate was a conflict among “three

egomaniacs … [Wolf] Biermann, [writer Lutz] Rathenow, [Sascha]

Anderson.” East German author Gabriele Stötzer-Kachold had

made a similar suggestion in 1992.

Although political asylum has been at the forefront of contemporary

German politics for over two decades, it has not been much discussed

in political science. Studying asylum is important, however,

because it challenges assertions in both comparative politics and

international relations that national interest drives decision-making.

Political parties use national interest arguments to justify claims that

only their agenda is best for the country, and governments argue

similarly when questions about corporatist bargaining practices arise.

More theoretically, realists in international relations have posited

that because some values “are preferable to others … it is possible to

discover, cumulate, and objectify a single national interest.” While

initially associated with Hans Morgenthau’s equating of national

interest to power, particularly in foreign policy, this position has

since been extended to argue that states can be seen as unitary rational

actors who carefully calculate the costs of alternative courses of

action in their efforts to maximize expected utility.

Learning from the Weimar experience, the founding fathers of the

Federal Republic eliminated the chance of a renewed institutionalized

conflict between the head of state and the federal government

through the creation of the Basic Law [Grundgesetz ]. They primarily

strengthened the power of the chancellor and his cabinet by introducing

the “constructive” vote of no confidence and abolishing the

principle of individual ministerial responsibility, while also reducing

the position of the federal president to a mere representative head of

state. With these clear-cut constitutional arrangements it is not surprising

that Germany has not been among the number of west European

democracies (such as Italy or Austria) for which issues

regarding the power of heads of state have occupied a rather prominent

position on the political agenda of the 1990s.

In response to my review of his book, Hitler’s Willing Executions, Daniel Goldhagen suggests, in the Fall 1997 issue of German Politics and Society (GPS), that I was unduly critical. His failure to address my main criticisms, and his abusive language interspersed with invectives and ad hominem attacks make replying to his article quite complicated. As I consider this style entirely inappropriate in a scholarly debate, I have restricted my response to his factual criticisms.

To continue refuting Ruth Bettina Birn’s specific falsehoods point by

point is to feed the charade that she is engaged in a scholarly discussion.

Thirty examples (many containing multiple instances) of her

fabrications, which I have documented in “The Fictions of Ruth Bettina

Birn” should be sufficient to establish this. Nevertheless, just so

others cannot say that I have not responded to them, an addendum

to this article taking up her individual misrepresentations, as well as

my original reply, can be found on the Internet at goldhagen.com.

Here I will briefly put Birn’s commentary in its appropriate general

perspective, so that people may know what she is up to: attacking

my book and my character by ascribing to me views and ideas that

are the opposite of my own.

Der Fliegende Holländer by Richard Wagner, at the Teatro delle Opera di Roma (April 1997).

Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, at the Metropolitan Opera (New York, April-May 1997).

Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, at the Festspielhaus (Bayreuth, July-August 1995).

Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner, at the Festspielhaus (Bayreuth, July 1995).

Barry Millington, “Nuremberg Trial: Is there Anti-Semitism in DieMeistersinger?” Cambridge Opera Journal 3 (3 November 1991), pp. 247-260.

Cecelia Hopkins Porter, The Rhine as a Musical Metaphor: Cultural Identity in German Romantic Music (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996).

Frederic Spotts, Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994).

Michael Tanner, Wagner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). Marc A. Weiner, Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).

Eric Michaud, Un Art de L’Éternité: L’image et le temps du national-socialisme (Paris: Gallimard, 1996).

Omer Bartov, Murder in Our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing and Representation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

Michael Wildt, Vom kleinen Wohlstand: Eine Konsumgeschichte der fünfziger Jahre (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1996).