Armin Mohler and German conservatism

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Armin Mohler was one of the defining figures of the conservative and right-wing intelligentsia after
1945. The historian Karlheinz Weissmann, who describes his relationship to the 40-year-old Swiss as
a "teacher-student relationship", has recently presented a political biography of Mohlers, which is
unrestricted Is recommended. One would like to learn more about the human being Armin Mohler
after reading the approximately 230 pages of the text, which are followed by an extensive annotation
apparatus and a literary section.

But here Weissmann exercises great restraint. In the center of his book is the portrait of the
portraitist, who was born in Basel on 12 April 1920 and died on 4 July 2003. With Mohler's death an
epoch in the history of post-war conservatism has come to an end. "He has played a more important
role than any other representative of the right mind," says Weissmann.

Conservatism: "a wild, dangerous and irrational thing"

In his highly knowledgeable and sympathetic presentation Weissmann Mohler's early years in
Switzerland, his relationship to art and literature, the Conservative Revolution, Ernst Jnger and Carl
Schmitt, the French right and the "New Right" in Germany, illuminate Gaullism Etc. Jnger and
Schmitt have most strongly influenced Mohler's thinking, even though his relationship with them was
never uncritical and tension-free.

For Mohler, "real conservatism was a wild, dangerous, and irrational thing." The author wanted to
revive the author of books such as "What the Germans Fear", "Seen from the Right" and "The Nose
Ring". He did not depend on antiquated forms of conservatism, which had nothing in common with
the reality of life in the Federal Republic.

Mohler has advised Franz Josef Strauss and the CSU, although his speeches were often re-circulated
to "Occidental". He was one of the most ardent and self-willed writers of Schrenck-Notzing's journal
Criticn, wrote articles for the freedom of the young, and became less and less compromising
towards the end of his life, and the shadows of the mind were inevitable.

Model for young journalists

It is a shame, and at the same time, the outflow of early publishing witch hunts that the "book-eater"
Mohler had to be the managing director of the Siemens Foundation and did not receive a full
professorship at a German university (perhaps he was simply not dull enough to have a chair
occupy). If young young journalists are looking for an example, they find it in Mohler - a man who
had courage and a worldview, as well as a very elegant and pointed feather.

Weissmann's book is wished for many readers. Mohler is not suited for heroes' worship, but she is
able to read and emulate her. However, not in all aspects, for example his relationship to Christianity
was quite prejudiced. Whether or not his ideas are suited to political practice may be judged by
others. The country has still not freed itself from the grip on the past, which Mohler complained
decades ago.