MAKING SENSE OF MAKING SENSE 265that the stability of social life simply could not be reduced to any system of equations. Certainly
not linear ones. This fascinated me: If social stability does not arise from logic, where does it
come from and how is it sustained?
Everything else followed from this: opposition to the dominant, mainstream models of social
inquiry presented during graduate school; further independent reading in social and political
philosophy as part of a search for better alternatives; decisions to teach research methodology
courses in the Weberian mode stressing the incompatibilities between value commitments and the
diverse (and irreconcilable) insights generated by the ideal-typical approaches that stem from
them. And, eventually, this chapter.
❖❖❖Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Christian Democratic Union (CDU): The opposi-
tion has to take a position on this question—this, and no other, is the relevant
question: Are they prepared to send a [German] representative to the Ruhr Author-
ity, or not? And when they say no, then they know because of the clarification that
General Robertson gave me that the demolition program will be carried out through
to its end.
Kurt Schumacher, Chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party
(Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD): That’s not true!
(Shouts of “hear, hear!” and counter-calls from the government parties. Further
heated shouts from the SPD and the Communist Party [Kommunistische Partei
Deutschlands, KPD]. President’s bell sounds.)^1
Renner, KPD: What does this mean?
(Shouts from the left:^2 Are you still a German?
Are you speaking as a German chancellor?)
Schumacher: Federal Chancellor of the Allies!
(Loud shouts of protest from the middle and right. Great noise
from the opening and closing of desk covers. Representatives of
the SPD and the CDU/CSU rise from their places and engage in heated
disputes. Prolonged tolling of the President’s bell. Long-lasting din.)
—Verhandlungen der Deutschen Bundestags,
Stenographische Bericht, Bonn,
(November 24–25, 1949, 524–25)Kurt Schumacher’s accusation against Konrad Adenauer in the early morning of November 25,
1949, is an emblematic and significant moment in the history of postwar German reconstruction.
Coming near the end of a strident parliamentary debate concerning the proper German response
to an initiative by the occupying Allies^3 to internationalize control of the industrial Ruhr region, it
neatly exemplifies the basic dilemma of Chancellor Adenauer’s position. On one hand, in order to
keep the Allies happy, he had to be responsive to their demands and requests, lest they simply
dismiss the entire German government and install one more to their liking. On the other hand, in
order to keep his position within German political life, he had to avoid appearing as simply a tool
for the occupying powers. Coming from the leader of the largest opposition party (the SPD),
Schumacher’s challenge was particularly significant, as it was also a thinly veiled call to replace
Adenauer with someone who would stand up for the German people on issues of territorial
sovereignty and the ongoing demolition of industrial facilities—namely, Schumacher himself.