ABSTRACT
An aspect of Dregger’s comments on politics and culture that appeared dubious to a number of commentators was his insistence on their being largely separate worlds. The anniversary of 8 May 1985 surely shows through its significance for both writers and politicians how justified such scepticism was. The major domestic political commemoration of the end of the war was a special session of the Federal Parliament held on 8 May 1985. Sontheimer’s major point is that political consensus in the Federal Republic is being undermined by leftist theory, and that the impact of this theory is to make those in responsible positions doubt the value of what they are doing. Martin and Sylvia Greiffenhagen in their book on the political culture of the Federal Republic see Sontheimer’s change of position in the 1970s as an example of an unhappy German tradition — the tendency to be frightened of the consequences of previously held radical views and to lapse into reaction.
