Postwar Germans discussed sensitive politics openly with strangers in railway compartments.

Evidence

Horkheimer now suggested taking the situation in a railway compartment as a model of how one might carry out research into German opinion on political topics in a manner different from, and more realistic than, the usual methods of questioning. In railway compartments, discussions often took place in which strangers discussed even the most delicate topics with astonishing openness. At the time the model was an obvious one, since shared suffering or shared memories of suffering brought people into contact more quickly than usual. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1868

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader history of group interview methodology and qualitative research methods that informed Frankfurt School empirical work. — connects to: Postwar shared suffering made German strangers unusually open in conversation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1868; Postwar German public discussion revealed majority anti-democratic and anti-Semitic sentiment. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1887

Broader Connections

• Postwar German public discussion revealed majority anti-democratic and anti-Semitic sentiment. #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1887