In 1981 the philosopher Jürgen Habermas published Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, The Theory of Communicative Action. The book separates two kinds of social action. In strategisches Handeln, strategic action, each person is oriented only toward his own success. In kommunikatives Handeln, communicative action, people try to reach Verständigung, a shared understanding. Habermas wrote: Im kommunikativen Handeln sind die Beteiligten nicht primär am eigenen Erfolg orientiert. In communicative action, the participants are not primarily oriented toward their own success. They still pursue their own goals. But they do so on the condition that they can align their plans with each other.
books
Leisure and Worship
In September 1947, the philosopher Josef Pieper wrote a short book in three weeks. It appeared in Munich in 1948 as Muße und Kult, Leisure and Worship. Its first chapter takes up the theme Der Anspruch der totalen Arbeitswelt, the claim of the world of total work. Muße is a more elevated word for leisure than the everyday Freizeit, free time. The English edition of 1952 appeared as Leisure, the Basis of Culture, with an introduction by T. S. Eliot.
Little Man, What Now?
Hans Fallada’s novel Kleiner Mann – was nun?, Little Man, What Now?, appeared in 1932. Its hero, the bookkeeper Johannes Pinneberg, loses his job. He finds work in a department store and loses that job too, after only a year. He is behind on his sales quota. Fallada described his hero as einer von sechs Millionen, ein Garnichts, one of six million, a nothing. The book became a bestseller and went through 45 editions. It was filmed in Germany in 1933 and in Hollywood in 1934.
Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic
Heinrich Böll wrote Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral, Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic, for a radio broadcast on Labor Day, 1 May 1963. A tourist wakes a fisherman dozing in his boat. He cannot understand why the fisherman does not go out again and build up his business. The fisherman answers that he can already rest in the harbor. In the 1970s and 1980s, the story was compulsory reading at many West German schools.
Knigge on Keeping the Hour
Adolph Knigge’s Über den Umgang mit Menschen, On Dealing with People, first appeared in 1788. In the first chapter of later editions, Knigge tells his reader: Sei streng gegen dich selbst, pünktlich, ordentlich, arbeitsam, fleißig in Deinem Berufe! Be strict with yourself, punctual, orderly, hardworking, diligent in your profession. He gives a reason. Everyone likes to deal and do business with a person whose punctuality in word and deed can be relied on. Then he goes further. Be exactly where you mean to appear, at the set and proper hour, und wärst Du auch der einzige, der diese Ordnung beobachtet, even if you are the only one who keeps this order.
The Brockhaus on the Shelf
In the German Empire, owning a Konversationslexikon, a general encyclopedia, carried high social status, and wide sections of the population wanted one. The Brockhaus was one of them. Its publisher, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, bought the rights to an existing encyclopedia at the Leipzig Book Fair in 1808. The last printed edition, the 21st, appeared in 30 volumes in 2005 and 2006. The complete set cost 2,820 euros. Sales of the printed Brockhaus ended on 30 June 2014.
The Poison Cabinet
German libraries call their restricted holdings the Giftschrank, the poison cabinet, after the locked cupboard for poisons in a pharmacy. These are books that are not open to all readers. In East Germany, the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig decided centrally which books were restricted. They appeared in the catalog, marked with an inconspicuous triangle, and were available only under special conditions. After 1990, most of these holdings were opened and moved into the general collections.
Everything You Must Know
In 1999 the literary scholar Dietrich Schwanitz published Bildung. Alles, was man wissen muß, Education: everything you must know. The book reached number one on the Spiegel bestseller list in 2000. One sentence drew sharp criticism: Naturwissenschaftliche Kenntnisse müssen zwar nicht versteckt werden, aber zur Bildung gehören sie nicht. “Knowledge of the natural sciences need not be hidden, but it is not part of education.” In 2001 the science historian Ernst Peter Fischer answered with a book of his own, Die andere Bildung, the other education.
Why? What For? How Come?
Wieso? Weshalb? Warum?, “Why? What for? How come?”, is a series of children’s nonfiction books from the publisher Ravensburger. The books answer children’s questions. The series started in 1998. By the publisher’s account it is the most successful children’s nonfiction series in the German-speaking world. By 2018, almost 35 million copies had been sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Luhmann’s Card Index
The sociologist Niklas Luhmann kept a card index from the early 1950s into the 1990s. It grew to about 90,000 slips of paper. He described it as a partner in communication. Meine Produktivität ist im wesentlichen aus dem Zettelkasten-System zu erklären, he said: “My productivity can essentially be explained by the card index system.” Bielefeld University acquired his papers in 2011, and in 2019 the card index went online.