CRITICISMS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC'S leftist intellectuals, who are alleged to have had a detrimental stranglehold on the discourse of the public sphere, have been referred to frequently in the course of this volume — in particular, those criticisms made in the 1970s against the background of Red Army Faction terrorism. A similarly intensive period of criticism has followed unification. This time, however, the emphasis has been less on the dangers to democracy posed by strident political ideology than on the problems caused by a failure to face up to the real political issues of the day — specifically, those created by unification. At the same time, the different kinds of attitudes adopted have created a different kind of discourse that can no longer be considered peripheral, but rather raises the question whether the overall intellectual climate of the Federal Republic has swung markedly to the Right.

One example of the new kinds of poses being struck is provided by Cora Stephan's work Der Betroffenheitskult (The Cult of Consternation, 1993). In it, she criticizes German society for a woolly moralism that manifests itself especially in antinational feelings and a refusal to accept responsibility. Instead of considering what realistic actions a given situation may demand, many Germans lapse into a helpless Betroffenheit (feeling of concern). Accordingly, Stephan speaks of the public sphere in Germany being unreal and of a desire for provincial innocence.