Joachim C. Häberlen

Struggling for feelings : the politics of emotions in the Radical New Left in West Germany, c.1968–84

The article discusses emotional politics in the radical left in West Germany from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The first part analyses radical left-wing critiques of capitalism during the 1970s that focused on the emotions that capitalism allegedly produced. The article argues that activists described an ‘emotional regime’ of capitalism, but in doing so effectively instituted an emotional regime within their own milieu which made the expression of certain negative feelings, such as fear, imperative. The article then discusses emotional practices radical left-wingers developed in order to overcome the alleged ‘emotional void’ of capitalism. The articles second part then focuses on the urban revolts of 1980–81 (mostly in Berlin). This revolt marked a decisive shift, as the centrality of fear, frustration and boredom was increasingly overshadowed by feelings of joy and ecstatic possibility. The article concludes by proposing that the alternative left contributed to the formulation of new emotional styles and norms in West German society at large. ------------------------- Cet article traite de la politique emotionnelle chez la gauche radicale en Allemagne de l’Ouest de la fin des annees 60 au debut des annees 80. Une premiere partie analyse les critiques gauchistes du capitalisme pendant les annees 70, centrees sur les emotions soi-disant produites par le capitalisme. Selon cet article, les activistes decrivaient un ‘regime emotionnel’ du capitalisme, mais ce faisant instituaient dans leur propre milieu un regime emotionnel qui rendait imperative l’expression de certains sentiments negatifs, comme la peur. L’article se penche ensuite sur les pratiques emotionnelles elaborees par les gauchistes pour surmonter le soi-disant ‘vide emotionnel’ du capitalisme. La seconde partie de l’article s’interesse de plus pres aux revoltes urbaines de 1980–81 (surtout a Berlin). Cette revolte a marque une evolution decisive, la centralite de la peur, de la frustration et de l’ennui cedant progressivement la place a des sentiments de joie et de possibilites extatiques. En conclusion, l’article avance que la gauche alternative a contribue a la formulation de nouvelles normes et de nouveaux styles emotionnels dans la societe de l’Allemagne de l’Ouest en general. -------------------------------- Der Aufsatz diskutiert die Gefuhlspolitik der radikalen Linken in Westdeutschland von den spaten 1960er bis in die fruhen 1980er Jahre. Der erste Teil analysiert von der radikalen Linken in den 1970er Jahren formulierte Kapitalismuskritiken, die sich auf die Gefuhle, die Kapitalismus angeblich hervorbrachte, konzentrierten. Der Aufsatz argumentiert, dass Aktivisten ein ‘emotionales Regime’ des Kapitalismus beschrieben, dabei aber effektiv selbst ein solches Regime innerhalb ihres Milieus schufen, das den Ausdruck bestimmter negativer Gefuhle, wie etwa Angst, verlangte. Der Aufsatz diskutiert dann die emotionalen Praktiken, die radikale Linke entwickelten, um die angebliche ‘emotionale Leere’ im Kapitalismus zu uberwinden. Der zweite Teil des Aufsatzes behandelt die stadtischen Revolten 1980–81, vor allem in Berlin. Diese Revolte markierte einen einschneidenden Wandel. Die zentrale Bedeutung von Angst, Frustration und Langeweile wurde nun zunehmend von Gefuhlen der Freude und des Rausches abgelost. Der Aufsatz schliest mit dem Argument, dass die alternative Linke zur Entwicklung neuer emotionaler Stile und Normen in der westdeutschen Gesellschaft insgesamt beitrug.

Feeling Like a Child: Dreams and Practices of Sexuality in the West German Alternative Left during the Long 1970s

The 1960s and 1970s are popularly known as a “time of sexual challenge to the prudery, hypocrisy and stolid family conservatism dominating the post-war Fifties’ world.”1 Scholars have often depicted these years as an era of sexual liberalization or even, especially in the context of the student revolts around 1968, as a time of sexual revolution.2 In West Germany, the focus of this article, premarital sexual relations became a new norm, as a 1971 study by the Hamburg sexologists Hans Giese and Volkmar Sigusch noted.3 Behavior surveys of this period found that the number of male students between the age of twenty and twenty-two without coital experience decreased from 49 percent in 1966 to 28 percent in 1981; among female students, the change was even more dramatic, as the numbers fell from 54 percent to 18 percent.4 The introduction of the pill in 1961 untied heterosexual sexuality and reproduction to a hitherto unknown degree. Though this did not cause a sexual revolution, it made [End Page 219] talking about both sexual pleasures and contraception easier.5 More generally, sexuality became more visible in the public sphere, not least through an increase in the availability of pornography.6 At the same time, people were encouraged to talk openly about their sexuality and sexual problems in therapeutic contexts.

Scope for agency and political options: The German working-class movement and the rise of Nazism

The article investigates the reactions of the working-class movement to the rise of Nazism. It begins with a discussion of the Preußenschlag, when the Social Democratic government of Prussia was disempowered by the Reich government in July 1932. These events are then put into the context of the social democrats’ struggle for the defense of the Republic. The article argues that certain options for courses of actions, such as calling for mass activism in the streets, were not available to social democrats in moments of crisis because they were not part of their repertoire of political practices. Broadening the perspective, the article then analyzes both the communists’ struggle against the Nazis, and their relations with social democrats. It argues that not only political goals separated social democrats from communists but even more importantly the radically different repertoires of their respective political practices. Finally, the article analyzes rank-and-file relations between communists and social democrats and highlights the deep distrust between them.

The contemporary self in German History

The history of the subject, or, in a different parlance, genealogies of the self, has received increased attention in recent years. Numerous scholars, historians and cultural sociologists alike have inquired about the practices and discourses that shape the (post-)modern self. And while this is by no means an exclusively German debate – indeed, major influences come from French, British and Israeli scholarship –, it is a debate that is particularly thriving within German-speaking scholarship on recent (West) German history, perhaps in part due to how graduate training and networking function in German academia. Somewhat remarkably, East German subjectivities are barely ever addressed in this debate, which speaks to the fact that historiographies of East and West Germany are still rather separated, despite repeated calls to overcome this division. A possible historical (rather than historiographical) reason for this lack of interest that would deserve further inquiry might be that the self became important for historical actors in the Federal Republic during the 1970s, but not in East Germany. It would be equally interesting to know to what extent similar or different regimes of subjectivity emerged across the Iron Curtain and what happened to them after the end of communism – that is, if and how the ‘neoliberal’ regime of subjectivity that scholars have described for Western Germany spread to the East. Yet, these are open questions.

Between global aspirations and local realities: the global dimensions of interwar communism

This article explores the global dimension of communism during the interwar period. It criticizes a literature that either depicts communist parties as small ‘red armies’ obeying any order from Moscow, or focuses exclusively on the local level and ignores any international aspects. The article first discusses attempts of communist leaders to create a ‘world party’ based in Moscow. It next analyses the conflicts between a globally acting communist leadership and rank-and-file members concerned about their local circumstances. Finally, it highlights the role that internationalism played on the local level. Such an approach – which locates ‘the global’ on the local level, both in terms of how internationalist ideas informed peoples behaviour in local contexts and in terms of how they resisted forms of globalism – might provide a means for bridging the gap between global and local histories.