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sincere, although somewhat transient. Twenty years later, Iring
Fetscher, who had done much to reintroduce young Marx into the
realm of German political consciousness, looks back; the "quest for
national identity," he says, is a sound reaction against years of
socialist internationalism and cosmopolitan consumerism. "The
desire to represent a somewhat national peculiarity is obvious," he
adds. Fetscher finds "the desire acceptable to open oneself to
German identity. Because we have repressed far too long who we are
and where we came from." Yet, if the term "identity" makes any
sense, the motives and psychological mechanisms of the "repres–
sion" Iring Fetscher has in mind must be part of that identity. At
any rate, the national resurgence provides relief from the cerebral
demands of Marxian theorizing; more and more young Germans
prefer a stroll through the garden of feelings.
They are walking on old pathways. Between November 1979
and March 1980, the federal government collected demographic
material through the Heidelberg pollster Sinus; 6,968 Germans,
picked at random, were asked about their national and political
inclinations. The research aimed at a picture of potential right-wing
attitudes in West Germany. Though there was a stringent academic
discussion on the methodology of the research, the results give a
clear indication of a national change of mood.
Asked how they judge their friends, 44 percent of the Germans
assume that they have "national attitudes" (11 percent "yes
indeed"; 31 percent "partly correct"). Asked whether they miss an
"echte Volksgemeinschaft,
neither capitalism nor communism," 53 per–
cent either missed this nebulous people's community "very much"
(19 percent) or at least "every now and then" (34 percent). Small
wonder, then, that 29 percent believe "national forces" in the
Federal Republic are suppressed (6 percent "yes indeed"; 23 per–
cent "sometimes"); and almost the same number, 28 percent,
believe in a "sell-out of German interests" (6 percent "that's cor–
rect"; 22 percent "partly correct"). Here is the reservoir for
German neutralism.
Xenophobia and racism are classic elements of German nation–
alism.
It
came as a shock to the pollster to learn that 39 percent of
the Germans believe it advisable to keep clean not only the environ–
ment, but also the race (12 percent "correct"; 27 percent "partly
correct"). And frightening continuities are suggested by the fact that
21 percent of the population think that it is either "correct" (5 per-
