Abstract

This dissertation considers the various ways in which Karl Jaspers, Friedrich Meinecke and Thomas Mann offered leadership during the occupation and in the first years of the Federal Republic of Germany. It examines the practical example these three well-established intellectuals set for political and moral responsibility, and it discusses their contributions to the debate on cultural and political renewal in post-World War II Germany. While historians, philosophers and literary critics have examined each of these individuals separately, none has considered them together within the general post-war debate on rebuilding German culture and politics. This dissertation places them within a context in which they were contending with others for positions of leadership, and it analyzes their answers to the key questions of the period including "responsibility" and "guilt" for the National Socialist regime, German distinctiveness and the relation of intellectuals to politics and the broader society. Finally, it assesses their long-term significance to the cultural and political history of post-1945 Germany