Wilhelm Hennis' Politische Wissenschaft

Wilhelm Hennis, who would have celebrated his 90th birthday on 18 February 2013, was a leading representative of German political science. Alongside his academic activities, he always involved himself in political life, and thus his long career has itself become a part of the history of the Federal Republic. Hennis' works dissects political ideas and institutions with his passion and power of judgment. Here we encounter Max Weber, Goya and Tocqueville, as well as political parties, the German Bundestag and educational policy. He saw his discipline as a practical science which poses the question: in what kind of order should people live? What makes Hennis' studies so fascinating is its existential dimension, something which today's social science seems to have lost. In this volume, internationally renowned scholars and journalists deal with his central questions and diagnoses.