Postwar German universities retained formal, anti-democratic ceremonial customs

Evidence

But what prospects did he see for his work in philosophy? Was he capable of drafting a project that would be able to give it inspiration? The answers to these questions can be seen in the speech he gave a week after the Institute’s opening ceremony, on 20 November 1951, on taking office as rector of Frankfurt University. Among the guests of honour were the Bishop of Limburg and members of the diplomatic corps. On the staff podium,' the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported the next day, the hoods on the deans’ gowns stood out colourfully. But the dark red with gold embroidery on the gown of the new rector, Professor Max Horkheimer, outshone them all.’ The atmosphere at the handover ceremony for the rectorship was somewhat more formal than that at the Institute’s opening. The wearing of gowns and insignia of office underlined how far removed the German universities were from any democratic customs. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1908

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Open anti-Semitic remarks persisted among Frankfurt faculty in the 1950s — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1999; Nazi rule and restoration alienated postwar Germans from utopian-social criticism; The Allied ban on political activity eased Nazi and conservative continuity in German institutions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1640 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The Allied ban on political activity eased Nazi and conservative continuity in German institutions #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1640
• Nazi rule and restoration alienated postwar Germans from utopian-social criticism #corroborates (0.80)
• Post-Nazi Germany needed fifty years of resocialization to acquire liberal political culture #corroborates (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 24