The Harvard
Center for European Studies Berlin

The 2006 Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin yearbook edited by the former president of the WZB Juergen Kocka, was published this week. Professor Kocka, Professor of History at the Free University in Berlin and eminent scholar of German social history, discussed the theme of the book Zukunftsfaehigkeit Deutschlands (The Future Capabilities of Germany) with Thomas de Maiziere, Chief of the Chancellery, during an afternoon book launch. Kocka said that category of "the future," which had been a tool of social scientific analysis in various historical periods, in the 1920s and in the 1960s, for example, has come in vogue again. In addition to the scholarly interest in the "the future," Kocka also pointed out that Germany faces a number of serious social, political and financial challenges that will determine the trajectory of social justice in coming years, thereby making Germany's future a palpable presence in contemporary public discourse. Juergen Kocka gave an overview of the yearbook, which combines essays from all the research wings of the WZB. Among the authors is the recently inaugurated president of the WZB, Prof. Dr. Jutta Allmendinger.

De Maiziere, Kocka's discussion partner, served in many high political posts in the state governments of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony, before joining Angela Merkel's government in 2005. The conversation that ensued between Kocka and de Maiziere took place on the dividing line between politics and academia. There was tension in the room as De Maiziere asserted that scholars involved in consulting the government are often seen as somewhat tiresome by political leaders. Politicians, de Maiziere noted, are concerned with pragmatics, and with how to lead society through phases of transition, and academia sheds scant light on this endeavor. According to de Maiziere, while academics are concerned with either diagnosing what the current problems are, or with projecting what the best outcome might be in the future, they are too little concerned with how to actually get from one point to the next. De Maiziere described the huge number of expert reports he receives, and how many advisory notes are written to him by academics on a daily basis. He said that he often has time only to note the name of the expert, and the institution, but that even with this meagre information he knows what the report contains. The comments by the Chief of the Chancellery, especially his apparently brazen criticism of German social sciences for paying too little tension to implementation, and for incubating so many disparate perspectives and lobbying such that its objectivity was thrown into question, created a stir in the crowd. Jutta Allmendinger, Professor of Sociology Humboldt University, and the President of the WZB, defended the role of academic consultants to the government, and suggested that politicians spend far too little time reading the reports and recommendations of the scholarly community, and they show a nonchalance to implementation strategies that academics propose, thereby causing bureaucratic stagnation, or the misapplication of reforms.

The less than friendly atmosphere in the room as de Maiziere squared off against leading German academics, pointed to one of the challenges facing Germany in the coming years, noted Juergen Kocka. The relationship between German academia and the policy world was one important area that had to be addressed to help prepare Germany for the future. Other themes included the relationship between men and women in the public and business world, Germany's low birth rate, migration and immigration, German federalism and the costs of governmental red tape, workforce reform, the social welfare state, GermanyÕs capacity for innovation, and concerns about the climate change and the environment.

"Zukunftsfaehigkeit Deutschlands" contains 18 essays, many of which offer a sobering, cautionary view about Germany's possibilities for maintaining its current level of social and economic vitality. On the other hand, none of the essays predict crisis. Rather, the overall consensus of the authors is that German politicians must think seriously about how reforms can be implemented. Given a track record of bureaucratic stagnancy, and a current culture among political classes that sees "reform" as an unpopular word, WZB academics appear to feel that the problem at hand requires creating a new culture of change and reform in German public life. De Maiziere would likely retort that the 2006 WZB yearbook does not tell politicians anything new: bureaucracy must be reduced and reforms are needed. To de Maiziere's repeatedly incanted question over the course of the discussion with Juergen Kocka, "but how are we supposed to do it?", WZB scholars would perhaps answer that a closer, and more complementary relationship between the worlds of politics and academe are an important first step. That suggestion seemed not to interest de Maiziere terribly much during his audience at the WZB this week. That, in itself, might be quite telling for the German Zukunftsfaehigkeiten.