Peter von Oertzen 1924–2008

Born in 1980, Philipp Kufferath studied history, sociology, media and communication studies, and philosophy in Berlin and Göttingen. Since 2016, he has been the managing editor of Archiv für Sozialgeschichte and a research associate at the Institute for European Sports Development and Leisure Research in Cologne. He received the Christian-Gottlob-Heyne Prize in 2016 for his outstanding humanities dissertation.

• AbbreviationsIntroduction: Political Intellectuals and Networks between Science and Politics1 The state of research2 The body of source material3 Intellectual History as the social history of ideas– dimensions and definitions4 Networks, circles and journals: intellectual groupings and institutions5 The structure of the present work1 From National Socialism to Social Democracy: Learning Processes and Defining Influences in Extreme Times1 Promises of national glory and educated bourgeois-aristocratic obstinacy: A culturally elitist German youth between democracy, Nazism, and war2 Reorientation and the search for meaning after the loss of a ‘worldview’: From war captivity to the decision to join the SPD3 The University of Göttingen as a nexus of tension in a society in upheaval: Academic pursuits, university politics, and student activism at the onset of the Cold War4 Intellectual ambitions between science and politics: New theoretical influences, political mentors, and first steps in the SPD2 Left-Socialist Identity and Scientific-Political Perspectives: Between Social Democracy, Political Science, Radical Networks and Trade Unions1 A socialist alternative beyond the existing power blocs? Unity initiatives and programmatic divisions among left socialists in the SPD (1954–60)2 The arduous path to recognition as a political scientist: The historical council movement and party sociology as academic fields and political and theoretical interventions3 Farewell to the SPD? Syndicalist trends within the New Left amidst the interplay of political intervention and trade-union operational logic4 Academic career or party career? Options and decisions3 Dare to Be More Pragmatic! Power, Compromises and Perspectives of a Socialist Intellectual in Polarised Times1 Unexpected opportunities in the political arena and internal conflicts: The SPD left, the 1968 movement, and the conquest of key institutional positions2 Social-Democratic education policy: Balancing aspirations for co-determination, government-imposed restrictions, and conservative counter-mobilisation3 Acid test of a programmatic party in government: Finding a compromise between ‘traditionless pragmatism’ and ‘revolutionary rigorism’4 The conservative ‘trend reversal’ and the orientation crisis of the SPD left amidst austerity, competing systems, and alternative movements4 The (Un)stoppable Departure from Socialism: Conservative Supremacy, Red-Green Hopes, and the Triumph of Market Liberalism1 Exploring the scope for a new reformism: The Social-Democratic programme in the era of neoliberal confrontation and Green-Alternative competition (1982–9)2 A missed opportunity for the SPD? The erosion of ‘actually existing socialism’ and resistance against an Anschluss to West Germany (1989–92)3 What remains of socialism? ‘Tradition-building’, positional struggles and disappointmentsSummary: A Socialist Identity Caught Up in Tensions and Contradictions1 Identity construction and intellectual and political self-conception2 Relationship with Social Democracy3 Engagement with Communism and the radical left4 Scientific priorities and fields of action5 Networks and reference groups6 Socialist totality and left reformist strategyBibliographyIndex