Prominent right-wing thinkers remained dissatisfied with restored West German society

Evidence

In view of the extent to which figures as suspect as Heidegger and Gehlen were respectable and influential in the Federal Republic, it might be surprising to find that they were so dissatisfied. There had been an effective West German restoration in the Adenauer period, a smooth transition to the Erhard period with its motto the fully formed society' (die formierte Gesellschaft), and a smooth transition again to the period of the Grand Coalition. Could Heidegger and Gehlen not reconcile themselves to the dreariness and impersonality of industrial society? It was partly this, perhaps. But the principal explanation lay in what Kirchheimer described as the lack of a sense of ultimate security and reliability at the last, decisive instant’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2516

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of West German restoration and intellectual conservatism’s discontents; pairs with Kirchheimer’s analysis of institutional (in)security found elsewhere in this history. — connects to: West German reactionaries welcomed right-wing backlash against left-wing professors — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2675; West German political attitudes measured 16 percent positive and 44 percent negative — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1888

Broader Connections

• West German political attitudes measured 16 percent positive and 44 percent negative #exemplifies (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1888
• West German reactionaries welcomed right-wing backlash against left-wing professors #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2675