Willi Winkler
“She was of course a kind of intellectual dominatrix…”
Postwar Germany embraced Hannah Arendt. Intellectuals liked the idea of a banality of evil because it seemed to offer the chance of an amnesty for all but Adolf Eichmann. “The girl from abroad” stirred emotions among the older generations and enabled a younger generation to find their voice. Sounds difficult? Hear for yourself.
Willi Winkler is a journalist mostly writing today for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He previously worked as an editor for Die Zeit and was head of arts and culture at Der Spiegel. The topics of his books range from the Beatles and the Stones to left-wing violence and Arab nationalist terrorism in the 1970s and 80s. His most recent book is Deutschland, eine Winterreise (2014). He is the recipient of the Ben Witter Prize (1998), the Otto Brenner Prize for Critical Journalism (2010), and the Michael Althen Prize (2013).