Habermas

40 Habermas: An intellectual biography

October 1954, DGB leader Agartz denounced market economics as

incompatible with socialism.^56 Abendroth described Agartz in ret-

rospect as a like-minded comrade whose 1954 book was “... one of

the most important political documents of the time.”^57 Habermas’s

proximity to the Abendroth-Agartz wing of the SPD shows that he

rejected the reinvention of the party along Keynesian lines.

In 1949, the concept of a “sozialer Rechtsstaat” had been elastic

enough to unite the left and right wings of the party. When par-

liamentarian Carlo Schmid introduced the concept in the delibera-

tions of the Parliamentary Council in 1948, he cited Weimar jurist

Hermann Heller (1891–1933) as his main inspiration.^58 Abendroth

and Schmid then were united in their endorsement of Heller’s the-

ory. By 1959, though, the idea of a sozialer Rechtsstaat had attained two

meanings: one reformist and the other transformist.^59 Habermas and

Abendroth interpreted the Godesburg platform as a weak reformist

version of the Sozialstaat goal. By contrast, Habermas adhered to

Abendroth’s transformist account of the social Rechtsstaat. The roots

of the divergence at Godesburg have a specific legal geneaology in

addition to the economic one. They can be traced to a heated 1954

debate between the leading constitutional lawyers in West Germany

over the correct interpretation of the Basic Law: Did it contain a

“decision” for a social welfare state, and if so, with what implications

for the idea of a “liberal” state based on law? Could social justice be

reconciled with strict equal treatment under the law?

DEBATING THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SOCIAL

RIGHTS: ABENDROTH VERSUS FORSTHOFF

In 1954, a heated debate was underway in the Association of Professors

of Constitutional Law (Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrern)

between the Abendroth camp and the Schmitt camp over whether

the Basic Law contained a “decision” for a social welfare state with a

(^56) Ibid., 374–5.
(^57) Dietrich, Leben, 224.
(^58) See Hans Gerber, “Die Sozialstaatsklausel des Grundgesetzes” [1956],
in Verfassung: Beiträge zur Verfassungstheorie, ed. Manfred Friedrich
(Darmstadt: Wissenschafliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978), 340–410.
(^59) With thanks to Professor Günther Frankenberg for discussion of this
point.