The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left: West Germany, 1968–1984 PDF
Preview The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left: West Germany, 1968–1984
THE EMOTIONAL POLITICS OF THE ALTERNATIVE LEFT In the s, a multifaceted alternative scene developed in West Germany. At the core of this leftist scene was a struggle for feelings in a capitalist world that seemed to be devoid of any emotions. Joachim C. Häberlen offers here a vivid account of these emotional politics. The book discusses critiques of rationality and celebrations of insanity as an alternative.It explores why capitalism made people feel afraid and modern cities made people feel lonely. Readers are takentoconsciousnessraisinggroups,nudeswimming atalternative vacation camps, and into the squatted houses of the early s. Häberlen drawsonakaleidoscopeofdifferentvoicestoexplorehow West Germans became more concerned with their selves, their feelings, and their bodies. By investigating how leftists tried to transform themselves through emotional practices, Häberlen gives usafreshperspectiveonafascinatingaspectofWestGermanhistory. . ¨ is Assistant Professor of Modern Contin- entalEuropeanHistoryattheUniversityofWarwick,whoseresearch focusesonprotestmovementsandthehistoryofemotions.Heisthe author of Vertrauen und Politik im Alltag: Die Arbeiterbewegung in Leipzig und Lyon im Moment der Krise, –/ (), numerousacademicarticles,andanessayonthepoliticsoffriendship between Germans and refugees (Wie aus Fremden Freunde werden; ).HeeditedPoliticsofAuthenticSubjectivity:Counterculturesand RadicalMovements acrossthe Iron Curtain, – (). PETERBALDWIN, University ofCalifornia, LosAngeles CHRISTOPHERCLARK, University of Cambridge JAMES B. COLLINS, Georgetown University MIA RODRÍGUEZ-SALGADO, LondonSchool ofEconomics and Political Science LYNDAL ROPER, University of Oxford TIMOTHY SNYDER, Yale University TheaimofthisseriesinearlymodernandmodernEuropeanhistoryistopublish outstanding works of research, addressed to important themes across a wide geographicalrange,fromsouthernandcentralEurope,toScandinaviaandRussia, from the time of the Renaissance to the present. As it develops the series will comprise focused works ofwide contextual range and intellectual ambition. A full list of titles published inthe series can be found at: www.cambridge.org/newstudiesineuropeanhistory THE EMOTIONAL POLITICS OF THE ALTERNATIVE LEFT – West Germany, JOACHIM C. HÄBERLEN UniversityofWarwick UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia –,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India AnsonRoad,#–/,Singapore CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ :./ ©JoachimC.Häberlen Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A. AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Everyefforthasbeenmadetocontacttherelevantcopyright-holdersfortheimages reproducedinthisbook.Intheeventofanyerror,thepublisherwillbepleasedtomake correctionsinanyreprintsorfutureeditions. Contents List of Figures page vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction Wholeness and Exuberance Feelings against Reason The Emotional Misery of Capitalism Searching for Intimacy Exuberance and Intensity Conclusion Primary Sources Bibliography Index v Figures ‘The small but fine difference between the capitalist (), the orthodox-communist () and the alternative () way to the sun, to freedom ...’ (radikal /, December / January , .) page ‘The people in the state of the future’. (Friedrich Eduard Bilz, Der Zukunftsstaat.) Cover page of Politikon , November . Cover page of Pflasterstrand , December . ‘Ten Years of Progress in Frankfurt’. (Rumpelstilzchen, May .) Cover page of The Unchaining of Desire. ‘A hot summer’. (Stilett , June , .) ‘The Plan’. (Subito , ca. May , .) ‘Graffiti’. (Stadtzeitung für Freiburg , March , .) vi Acknowledgements Iamgratefultothenumerousfriends,colleaguesandinstitutionsthathave supported me during researching and writing this book. The project took off at the Centre for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, where I was lucky not only to benefit from the generous financial support it offered, but also from the intellec- tually inspiring environment. In particular, I wish to express my gratitude to its director, Ute Frevert, to Margrit Pernau, Monique Scheer, Benno Gammerl, Uffa Jensen, Daniel Brückenhaus, Philipp Nielsen, and to the extremely helpful staff at the Institute. I finished the project at the University of Warwick, which since then has become my academic home duetofriendlyandwelcomingcolleagues. DiscussionsIhadwithClaudia Stein(thoughsheremainsscepticalaboutallthefussregardingemotions), Rebecca Earle, David Lambert, Ben Smith, Mark Knights, Mark Philp, and Charles Walton have challenged me to think about theoretical approaches to history. The transition to Warwick was also supported by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant by the European Union that supported further archival research. I equally benefited from the oppor- tunity to present my work at different conferences and colloquia, notably at the University of Tübingen, the University of Sheffield, the Free University Berlin, and the University of Basel. The discussions with the participants of these colloquia were highly stimulating. I also made stu- dents of my module on politics of protest in Europe read the manuscript. The discussions we had about the project were indeed amongst the most sophisticated,andsomecommentsandsuggestionsmadeitintothetext.It speaks to the high quality of students at Warwick. Mark Philp, Neil Gregor, Mathew Thomson, and Christiane Reinecke readtheentirebookmanuscriptandprovidedmewithhelpfulcomments. So did Moritz Föllmer and Jake Smith, with whom I had countless discussion about the West German left and its sometimes weird but vii viii Acknowledgements fascinatingpoliticalpractices.Thetwoanonymouspeerreviewersprovided me with helpful comments to revise the manuscript. Archivists at various places helped me by pointing me to sometimes obscure publications, especially Punx at the Papiertiger Archiv in Berlin. The hours spent in the small archive were always highlights of the week. I’m also grateful to the former activists who talked to me about their experiences. When I attended a meeting to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the squatting movement of /, I was struck by the profound sense of happiness I felt amongst those present. I don’t know if those activists would agree with me, but it seemed to me that they had done something right in their lives. Introduction In January , the West Berlin radical left-wing magazine radikal published an article, entitled ‘subjective mishmash’, about the relation between subjectivity and politics. Exploringthe entanglement and disen- tanglement of political and personal issues within the radical left, the text provides an intriguing perspective on the history of the West German left since . According to the anonymous author, protestors in ‘regardedtheirpersonaldifficultiesasaresultofcapitalistsociety’.Students went to the streets to demonstrate against the Vietnam War not only because of a ‘rational and conscious, but also [because of] an emotional solidarity with the fighting Vietnamese people’. Having learned from Wilhelm Reich, a Freudian Marxist popular amongst student activists in the revolt, that sexuality remained fundamentally repressed in a capitalist society, activists were as much concerned with their orgasm as with imperialist warfare. But by the early s, things changed, the authorwrote.DieterDuhm’spopularbookon‘FearinCapitalism’,which had already reached its th edition in , replaced Wilhelm Reich’s work as common reading within the left. ‘Everyday, interpersonal fears’ rather than ‘sexual difficulties’ now dominated the conversations amongst leftists,theradikalauthornoted.Thechangealsoaffectedhowleftistsdealt with their personal difficulties. Whereas Reich and those student activists following him had hoped that professional psychiatrists might provide emotionalsupport,activistsnowsoughtto‘collectivelyliberatethemselves’ Anon.,‘statteinesForums:subjektiverMischmasch’,radikal(January–February),. See Dieter Duhm, Angst im Kapitalismus: . Versuch der gesellschaftlichen Begründung zwischenmenschlicher Angst in der kapitalistischen Warengesellschaft (Lampertheim: Küber, ); Wilhelm Reich, Der sexuelle Kampf der Jugend (Berlin: Verlag für Sexualpolitik, ); Wilhelm Reich, Was ist Klassenbewusstsein? Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion über die Neuformierung der Arbeiterbewegung (Kopenhagen: Verlag für Sexualpolitik, ); Reich, Die Funktion des Orgasmus: Zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens (Amsterdam: Thomas de Munter,);WilhelmReich,DiesexuelleRevolution(Frankfurta.M.:Fischer,).
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