Public sphere and Gelehrtenpolitik in Wilhelminian Germany: Friedrich Paulsen (1846-1908) and Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936).
(2012) 36th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association — Location: Milwaukee, USA (4.October.2012)
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- In his Habillitationschrift, Strukturwandel der Öffentlicheit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft (1961), Jürgen Habermas described the emergence of a bourgeois public sphere in England, France and Germany at the end of the 18th century, characterized by the accessibility to literature, the growing number of newspapers and the apparition of discursive areas (Britain’s coffee houses, France’s salons and Germany’s Tischgesellschaften). He pointed out three institutional criteria, which are preconditions for the emergence of a public sphere (Öffentlichkeit): disregard of status among the participants to the public sphere; domain of common concern; and inclusivity in the sense that everyone is able to have access to the discussed issues (which have significance for the society as a whole). If such sphere of rational and universalistic politics, free from both the economy and the State, was partly destroyed by the growth of capitalism in the 19th century and by the recurring attempt of the State to limit its influence (like in France under Napoleon III or in Germany under the Wilhelm II), it can be said that there still were some intellectuals or scholars who resisted! Here I deal with two of them, Ferdinand Tönnies and Friedrich Paulsen, who contributed, as I will shortly outline, to the building or strengthening of a public sphere in Wilhelminian Germany in the sense of Habermas’ definition. Their main focus is related to two ideas or programs they developed: the formation of The public opinion and the definition of Bildung as moral and civic education. I will also briefly link these ideas and programs to their role as agent, mainly as university professor and as Publizist, by addressing some of their achievements, and by showing strategic and discursive aspects of their writings and by indicating some of the main topics they dealt with.
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Warland, G. (2012). Public sphere and Gelehrtenpolitik in Wilhelminian Germany: Friedrich Paulsen (1846-1908) and Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936). 36th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, Milwaukee, USA. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/160990