Lübbe was born inAurich. From 1947 to 1951, he studied philosophy, theology and sociology inGöttingen,Münster andFreiburg. Among his academic teachers wereJoachim Ritter andHeinrich Scholz. From 1963 to 1969, Lübbe was professor inBochum. Since 1966, he was also secretary of state in the education ministry of the German stateNorth Rhine-Westphalia. In 1969, Lübbe became professor inBielefeld and secretary of state with the minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1971 to 1991, he was professor of philosophy and political theory inZurich.[1]
Lübbe's philosophical work focuses on a theory ofmodern civilization andliberal democracy. A prominent opponent of theprotests of 1968 in Germany, he analyzed the acceleration of social change and emphasized the relevance ofcommon sense, traditionalvirtues, stable politicalinstitutions andreligious orientations in modern, highly dynamic societies. Criticized byJürgen Habermas as one of the leading representatives of Germanneoconservatism in the 1970s and 1980s,[2][3] Lübbe is now widely recognized as one of the most influential German political philosophers in the last decades.[4] Lübbe and Habermas frequently clashed about the role of political intellectuals in a liberal democracy.[3]
^Nissing, Hanns-Gregor (2009).Hermann Lübbe. Pragmatische Vernunft nach der Aufklärung. Darmstadt: WBG.
^Habermas, Jürgen (1983). "Neoconservative Culture Criticism in the United States and West Germany: An Intellectual Movement in Two Political Cultures".Télos.56.
^abMuller, Jerry Z. (2003). "German Neo-Conservatism, ca. 1968–1986: Hermann Lübbe and Others". In Müller, Jan-Werner (ed.).German Ideologies since 1945: Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 161–184.
^Hacke, Jens (2006).Philosophie der Bürgerlichkeit. Die liberalkonservative Begründung der Bundesrepublik. Göttingen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Habermas, Jürgen, "Neoconservative Culture Criticism in the United States and West Germany: An Intellectual Movement in Two Political Cultures."Télos 1983 (56), p. 75–89.
Hacke, Jens,Philosophie der Bürgerlichkeit. Die liberalkonservative Begründung der Bundesrepublik. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006.ISBN9783525368428.
Muller, Jerry Z., "German Neo-Conservatism ca. 1968–1985. Hermann Lübbe and Others." In Jan-Werner Müller (ed.),German Ideologies since 1945. Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic, New York 2003, p. 161–184.
Nissing, Hanns-Gregor (ed.),Hermann Lübbe. Pragmatische Vernunft nach der Aufklärung, Darmstadt: WBG 2009.
