Rhetorical Humanism: A Knowledge History of 'Conversation' in the Early Federal Republic (1947-1968)  

Dissertation project by Lukas Rathjen

Between 1947 and 1968, the genre of public 'conversation' enjoyed great popularity in the Federal Republic of Germany. Against the backdrop of National Socialism, World War and the Holocaust and in the face of democratisation and reeducation, it advanced to become the preferred mode of communication—especially among intellectuals. The research project examines the knowledge and technology of this new form of communication after 1945, using three formats and six contexts as examples: The 'conversation' as a public face-to-face event ("Darmstädter Gespräche", "Kölner Mittwochgespräche"), the 'conversation' in radio ("Abendstudio", "Nachtstudio") as well as the 'conversation' in literature and science ("Gruppe 47", "Poetik und Hermeneutik").
With recourse to protocol volumes, documents, press reports, letters, photographs as well as audio and video recordings in various archives, the humanistic rhetoric inherent in 'conversation' is examined in terms of its communicative, epistemic and social function. Thus, on the one hand, the knowledge that ensures the construction and reproduction of this communicative context is elaborated; on the other hand, the knowledge contents in the 'conversation' are described in their specific mode of existence—in their appearance and non-appearance. The former perspective makes visible the epistemic and technical efforts that were necessary after war and mass murder to make interpersonal communication possible (knowledge of conversation); the latter explains why this communication had to be the practice that concealed certain facts and realities (knowledge in conversation). Using instruments of knowledge history and deconstruction, the simultaneity of communication and silence in post-war Germany is thus brought into view.

This doctoral project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.