West German intellectuals charged Erhard with waging class war from above

Evidence

In the election year of 1965, Hans Werner Richter published his Plea for a New Government, or, No Alternative. Rolf Hochhuth’s article there on Class Struggle' was featured prominently in the weekly Spiegel prior to publication. Erhard was presented in it as the protagonist of a class struggle initiated from above. Erhard's reaction to it as Chancellor was: There is a certain type of intellectualism that becomes idiotic. To me, this isn’t a writer any more, but a self-important pip-squeak yapping away like a stupid little dog.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2516

Categorization

• SHARE: Erhard’s dismissive put-down of Hochhuth would delight anyone interested in postwar German intellectual-political culture.