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structural innovation . The right wing supposed that this would allow an ex–
ceedingly tranquil modification of capitalism . The right wing's strategy
faltered even before the crisis. Its coalition partners, the Free Democrats,
refused to accept the Social Democrats' plan for participatory democracy in
the control of private enterprise . The right wing argued that if things could be
kept quiet, if no one in the country were frightened by thinking about too
much socialism, the party could win a majority . What, asked the left wing,
would a totallymoderate party do with that majority-except try to conserve it
by doing nothing? Under present conditions, each faction is true to itself. The
left wing cannot quite believe that this is the final crisis of capitalism, but
certainly thinks it a good occasion to extend public control of industry . The
right wing thinks that maximum caution is in order, as the government has
begun to reduce social programs.
I visited a former Social Democrat minister at the Bundestag. The streets
outside were patrolled by armored cars, but coffee and cake in the cafeteria
were traditional-and good . The minister was an intelligent technocrat. He
had tried to effect university reforms which would connect higher education
more closely with the world of practice. A previous generation of srudents,
however, wanted a different world, the professors wanted to do their research
undisturbed , and everybody else wanted to hear no more of, about, and from
the universities. Germany 's reformed universities now have a new srudent
generation interested mainly in diplomas and jobs : they are sure of attaining
only the former. The older professors resent the changes that have occurred,
the younger ones despair ofmaking meaningful contact with the society. I also
visited the new university at Bremen . It was supposed to introduce a new
curriculum, a new relationship to practical activity and the professions. Two
factors have made this impossible . The universiry has become a battlefield for
contending political factions . Inscriptions, pamphlets, and placards in its
halls might lead one to think that the German Federal Republic was on the
brink ofanother 1917 . The world outside, however, is implacably resistant to
revolution, and particularly to one whose avant-garde consists of srudents on
state scholarships. Bremen suffers from unemployment, but the workers have
not made common cause with the students . Indeed, the electorate has just
inflicted a severe reverse on the province 's very moderate Social Democratic
government . As I walked through the university, I wondered if the architec–
ture had been designed with student revolt in mind. It was impossible to find
anything, and all corridors seemed to lead to the cafeteria. If this was the new
house of the spirit in Germany, Heine's Parisian laments were still con–
temporary .
I've written of hopes for the democratization of German society. The
German public seems to fear , simultaneously, for the economy, the state,
