Irony in the Age of Spasskultur

One of the trends in Germany after unification was its Spasskultur—a cultural phenomenon in which a premium was put on having fun, on partying, on celebrating. Unified Germany's Spassgesellschaft positioned itself quite explicitly against the mood, values, and attitudes that had arguably characterized the previous three decades. Indeed, the emergence of Spasskultur after 1990 can be understood as a symptomatic expression of the political rejection of the '68ers who now, after unification, were increasingly accused of having been on the wrong side of history. The winds of historical change almost instantaneously blew away the sociopolitical conditions that privileged a mode of being that was characterized by one's seriousness, by one's willingness to take a political stance, or by one's commitment to a belief or ideological position. However, this sea change not only caused an intellectual problem for those who did not want to participate in this “affirmative culture,” to borrow Herbert Marcuse's phrase, but also affected how one communicated one's opposition to this sociopolitical change.