The magazine Cicero has published a list of the 500 most important intellectuals in Germany. Topping the list is the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Günter Grass:
"Der Schriftsteller Günter Grass ist einem "Cicero"-Ranking zufolge der wichtigste deutschsprachige Intellektuelle. Hinter dem Nobelpreisträger und noch vor dem Literaturkritiker Marcel Reich-Ranicki landete der Satiriker Harald Schmidt auf Platz zwei der in der Aprilausgabe des Politikmagazins veröffentlichten Rangliste. Es folgen die Autoren Martin Walser und Peter Handke, der Philosoph Jürgen Habermas, der Liedermacher Wolf Biermann, die Schriftstellerin Elfriede Jelinek, die Journalistin Alice Schwarzer und der Dramatiker Botho Strauß."
Interesting that the other Nobel Winner Jelinek made the list even though she is Austrian. No doubt Jürgen Habermas was amused to be on the list, since a few weeks before he had spoken about the demise of the public intellectuals in his acceptance speech in Austria for the Bruno Kreisky Prize. The internet, Habermas complains, has made intellectuals irrelevant (transl. via Sign and Sight):
"On the one hand, the communication shift from books and the printed press to the television and the Internet has brought about an unimagined broadening of the media sphere, and an unprecedented consolidation of communication networks. Intellectuals used to swim around in the public sphere like fish in water, but this environment has become ever more inclusive, while the exchange of ideas has become more intensive than ever. But on the other hand the intellectuals seem to be suffocating from the excess of this vitalising element, as if they were overdosing. The blessing seems to have become a curse. I see the reasons for that in the de-formalisation of the public sphere, and in the de-differentiation of the respective roles."
In other words: blogs rule! Still, it impressive that Cicero could come up with 500 influential intellectuals in Germany. I cannot think of a single influential intellectual in the United States since the death of Susan Sontag.
