ABSTRACT
A Barbusse or Romain Rolland had incomparably more in common with a Maurice Barres than a German intellectual of the left with Carl Schmitt or Ernst Junger. An attempt to sketch a profile of the left-wing and the right-wing intellectuals can produce, only an approximation not a true likeness, an ideal type or an identikit picture which may make it easier to understand a complex and elusive phenomenon even though the outlines are inevitably blurred. The extreme right-wingers demanded the total eradication of all un-German, anti-patriotic influences. The left-wing intelligentsia stood for close cooperation with Germany's neighbours and in particular with France, historically the arch-enemy of the Reich. As the Weimar period neared its end the Communists made some half hearted attempts to be less sectarian in their approach to the left-wing intellectuals. The cultural activities of the Communist Party were dominated by intellectuals of bourgeois background.
