German Politics and Society

Characterized by a highly complex and segmented decision-making structure and strong conventions and values, German higher education was long considered impervious to significant change. In recent years, several initiatives demonstrate both the resistance to, and prospects for, profound reforms. This article focuses on two such endeavors: the establishment of junior professorships and the introduction of general tuition fees. Both policies aim to break ironclad traditions—in the first case, the entry qualification for professorships; in the second, the principle of free education. The discourse surrounding the establishment of these initiatives has emphasized performance and competition. The new advocacy coalitions and their opponents, however, use different frames to interpret these terms. The battle of ideas and policies regarding a reconfigured academic hierarchy has been shaped by stakeholders in the scientific community, with political actors taking a secondary role. On the other hand, the discourse surrounding the introduction of tuition fees reverses this order, with political actors taking the prominent role. Discourse patterns and involvement of political parties matter. The analysis reveals the competing rhetorical and policy frames that support policy diversity. Policy change adds to, rather than eliminates, existing structures.

This article contextualizes the recent debates about German and European anti-Americanism by highlighting the paradoxical nature of such sentiments. Using examples from the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, and the postwar period, this article shows that anti-Americanism arose less from divergent cultural trends and perceived "value gaps," as many recent authors have argued. Rather, anti-Americanism should be seen as a measure of America's continued influence and success. After all, anti-Americanism more often than not went hand in glove with "Americanization." Frequently, anti-Americans, namely those who are voicing anti-Americanism, were products of cultural transfer-processes emanating in the U.S. They also saw themselves allied with American anti-establishment forces. Thus, to a degree, anti-Americanism can be seen as by-product of westernization. Although the focus of this article is on Germany, the argument about the complex web of repudiation and embrace can be observed in other European (or even African, Arab, Asian, or South American) contexts as well.

The student revolt of the late 1960s had far-reaching repercussions in large parts of West German academia. This article sheds light on the group of liberal scholars who enjoyed a relative cohesiveness prior to "1968" and split up in the wake of the student revolt. The case of Kurt Sontheimer (1928-2005) offers an instructive example of the multifaceted process of a "liberal critic" turning into a liberal-conservative. While he initially welcomed the politicization of students and the democratization of universities, he became increasingly concerned about the stability of West Germany's political order and placed more and more emphasis on preserving, rather than changing the status quo. Sontheimer was a prime example of a liberal critic shifting and being shifted to the center-Right within a political culture that became increasingly polarized during the 1970s.

Siegmar Schmidt, Gunther Hellmann and Reinhard Wolf, eds., Handbuch zur deutschen Außenpolitik (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2007)

Thomas Jäger, Alexander Höse and Kai Oppermann, eds., Deutsche Außenpolitik. Sicherheit, Wohlfahrt, Institutionen und Normen (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2007)

Gunther Hellmann, Deutsche Außenpolitik. Eine Einführung (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2006)

Wilfried von Bredow, Die Außenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Eine Einführung (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2006)

Todd Samuel Presner, Mobile Modernity: Germans, Jews, Trains (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).

Reviewed by Robert Tobin

Ruth Mandel, Cosmopolitan Anxieties: Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008)

Reviewed by Hilary Silver

Wolfram Kaiser, Christian Democracy and the Origins of the European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Reviewed by Clay Clemens

David Raub Snyder, Sex Crimes under the Wehrmacht (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007)

Reviewed by Regina Mühlhäuser

Paul Hockenos, Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic. An Alternative History of Postwar Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Reviewed by Joyce M. Mushaben

Katherine Pence and Paul Betts, eds. Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008)

Reviewed by Eli Rubin

Patricia Heberer and Jürgen Matthäus, eds., Atrocities on Trial: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Prosecuting War Crimes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008)

Reviewed by Joachim J. Savelsberg

Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007)

Reviewed by Michael Brenner