Yet another book to add to the reading list: Johann Hari reviews in today’s New York Times book section Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer, and its Aftermath. Here are some key excerpts from the interesting review:
This antitotalitarian ’68 went on to shape the actions of European governments at a turning point for the continent. In the 1990’s, it was the soixante-huitards – now close to the chancelleries and palaces of much of Europe – who led the fight against the New Left’s old fascist enemy when it emerged in the form of Serbian ultranationalism. When a program of ethnic extermination began just two days’ drive from Auschwitz, it was the old barricadier Joschka Fischer who made Germany’s wrenching involvement – its first lurch into postpacificism – possible, explaining to a shocked audience of fellow Greens, "I learned not only ‘No more war’ but also ‘No more Auschwitz.’ " In Europe at least, Kosovo was the New Left’s war – the street fight against fascism now directed against a target worthy of the name.
But which of these 1968’s is the true, the real, the authentic one – Fischer beating a police officer, or Fischer beating Milosevic? Ulrike Meinhof or Bernard Kouchner? In Berman’s reading the young Fischer, the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the revolutionary cells were merely the rancid afterbirth of the street protests. The baby itself, he writes persuasively, grew into a vibrant European antitotalitarian tradition. Long after Che has been reduced to a T-shirt logo, we are left with a fight for universal human rights and an argument about how best to be a resistant. 1968? Some tantrum.
The review is a reminder of how much Fischer will be missed on the world stage. It is doubtful that Steinmeier will be able to achieve the same stature.
