NOTE 12.00 – 13.00
This talk provides an introduction to my current the book project which aims at reconstructing the political and intellectual biography of one of Germany’s most ostracized public intellectuals of the twentieth century: Hermann Budzislawski (1901-1978), a German-born Jewish publicist, politician and later professor of journalism. By applying a multilateral, transnational perspective, my study is expected to contribute to the existing studies on Socialism, anti-Fascism and exile, and the Cold War, and engages current methodological debates on identity, individuality and biography. Like many intellectuals of his generation, Budzislawski lived through four political regimes in Europe and the United States. Challenged to position himself in these changing political contexts, Budzislawski fashioned himself as socialist democrat, a western liberal and – ultimately – a hard-boiled communist. His life story allows for rare insights into the complexities and continuities of political and intellectual engagement in the twentieth century. On a more abstract level, it demonstrates the interaction between personal agency and the disciplinary power of political regimes to curtail expressions of individuality.
