Diskussionslust

There is a lot of discussion in Germany - on television and on public podiums, in schools and universities, in families and partnerships. But why do people take part in such conversations, which communicative rules emerge and how has the willingness to discuss changed over time? Nina Verheyen shows the "discursivization" of West German post-war society, the increasing spread and appreciation of verbal, argumentative conversations up to the early 1970s. It focuses primarily on discussions as a power technique, as an instrument of profiling and distinction, and combines attempts by the Western Allies to convey the "art of discussion" as a democratic cultural technique with the efforts of 68ers to "discuss everything out" casually.