The Nature and Politics of Talent in West Germany, 1950-1970
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3440665 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Hau (0000-0003-3707-2035, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 387-421 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Modern History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-2801 • E-ISSN: 1537-5358 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/735361 |
| OpenAlex | W4411202899 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
The article examines shifts in West German understandings of talent (Begabung) from 1950 to 1970. It analyzes debates about school and education reforms and explains how politicians, education reformers, and business representatives moved away from strict hereditarian understandings of talent to assumptions that there were significant talent reserves among socially disadvantaged sectors of the population that could be mobilized for the benefit of the economy and wider society. In this process, promises of upward social mobility based on talent and performance merged with the perceived imperatives of an advanced industrial economy that needed to adjust to two different kinds of competition: (1) the competition with other capitalist countries for market share, and (2) the system competition with the socialist Eastern Bloc with its growing numbers of university and engineering graduates. Both required significant efforts to identify and foster new talents
Economic history · Economics · Political science · Politics · West germany · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Law
| Highly cited | No |
|---|