Boerne, Texas

In the middle of the 19th century a group of affluent, politically liberal Germans – the forty-eighters – made their way to the United States.  They embraced the principles of the American Revolution that are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, but which they had failed to achieve in their native Germany. Not surprisingly, most of these forty-eighters rejected Confederate slavery in their adopted country, and distinguished themselves in fighting for the Union cause in the American Civil War.  One group settled in the Texas hill country, and named their new community after a champion of freedom in Germany: Ludwig Börne.

Today Boerne, Texas is a rather sleepy town of 6000 residents.  Recently, Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine visited the town, and could not find one citizen who had a clue about the how the town got its name. For Horton, this amnesia has a double meaning. On the one hand, it is an example of the pervasive historical ignorance of Americans concerning their own history. On the other, there is the symbolic meaning of the decline of journalism in America. Börne was the Michael Moore of his time, a fearless investigative reporter who spoke truth to power, even though that was more than dangerous in Germany during that time.

"Börne was a practitioner of the highest form of the journalistic art, and today one reads his Letters from Paris not as newspaper contributions, but rather as works of high literature. They continue to inspire. His command of language; his ability to mobilize facts and thoughts to a certain end is amazing. Börne’s vibrant style was unlike anything that had been seen before. He shows us that a journalist can be both a careful observer and a person passionately engaged in the world around him. He was, to be clear, an opinion-journalist. He worked to inform and persuade. And to expose—especially to expose injustice."

Today that impulse has all but vanished in American journalism.  The "smart crowd" of Beltway pundits and journalists are stenographers of the powerful in Washington.  They parrot what the powerful tell them, and are terrified that they might offend the powerful and then be denied "access".  The Michael Moores and Seymour Hershes are banished, while the Robert Novacks and Bob Woodwards are celebrated for their "access" to the corridors of power.

Unfortunately, Ludwig Börne’s legacy has also been lost in Germany.  Last month the neoconservative journalist Henryk Broder – a vocal supporter of the war in Iraq and a reliable advocate for the persecution of Muslims in Germany – was awarded a prestigious prize for journalism: the Ludwig-Börne Prize.