ABSTRACT
The challenge of understanding Nazism is often formulated as “How could something like that happen in the country of Schiller and Goethe?’’ Not only does Germany’s literary tradition seem to be located in a world completely divorced from Hitler’s politics, so does its social theory. Kant, Hegel, Marx, Weber, Freud, Fromm, Marcuse, Habermas-the list of seminal thinkers who have helped establish contemporary social sciences goes on and on. In the middle of the timeline they define, however, something went seriously wrong.
