Postwar German philosophy remained apolitical and untouched by Nazi history

Evidence

It was unusual for philosophy students to hear society or socially relevant matters mentioned. For example, at the first post-war conference of German philosophers, held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1947, the two dominant figures were Heideggerin his absence, since he had been banned from teaching till 1951 by the French occupation authorities on the grounds of his political incrimination; and Nicolai Hartmann, who gave the opening address. Ignoring every hope that there would be topical philosophizing', Hartmann spoke of the timeless categorical research’ he had been carrying on for decades, undisturbed even by the Third Reich. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1914

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of postwar German intellectual reconstruction and the failure of denazification in academia — echoes the later discussion of the Institute’s marginal position within a conservative academic field. — connects to: Old-guard German sociology remained abstractly opposed to empirical research after the war — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1926; Academic philosophy in Weimar Germany ignored everyday post-war problems — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 176; Postwar West Germans showed mostly negative or ambivalent attitudes toward democratic values — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1888