Education in reality : Helmuth Plessner’s contribution to the intellectual foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany

To what extent were intellectuals responsible for the Nazi power grab, and how could they contribute to a new beginning in Germany after 1945? Numerous scholars have debated these questions in relation to right-wing academics. This article places the intellectual development of the “half-Jew” and emigrant Helmuth Plessner in the context of such debates. As a man of the political middle who cautioned against political extremism on both the right and left all his life, Plessner was a rare breed in twentieth-century Germany. In contrast to right-wing intellectuals who advocated for the «Third Reich», Plessner did not undergo processes of self-mobilization and disillusionment, nor did he have to deal with the issue of his own guilt. Therefore, in his case the question is rather what conclusions he drew from his experience of National Socialism and the Second World War and what effects this had on his thinking and actions. The article shows there was one goal in Plessner’s political philosophy as a decisive and ever-present concern: the education of the German bourgeoisie to deal with the world as it really was, that is, with reality (Erziehung zur Wirklichkeit) and away from utopian thinking. Apart from that, there were shifts (rather than ruptures or profound revisions) in Plessner’s thinking and actions: Around 1935, Plessner gave up both the idea of a German mission and his elite habits of the years around 1930. Instead, he transformed himself into an internationally effective scholar who consciously took on the role of a public intellectual.publishe

Panel I: Den 30. Januar 1933 neu lesen

Inhalt: Demokratie als System; Kommentar

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N8 Clade 2.3.4.4b in Germany in 2016/2017

Here, we report on the occurrence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4b in Germany. Between November 8, 2016, and September 30, 2017, more than 1,150 cases of HPAI H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4b in wild birds and 107 outbreaks in birds kept in captivity (92 poultry holdings and 15 zoos/animal parks) were reported in Germany. This HPAI epidemic is the most severe recorded in Germany so far. The viruses were apparently introduced by migratory birds, sparking an epidemic among wild birds across Germany with occasional incursions into poultry holdings, zoos and animal parks, which were usually rapidly detected and controlled by stamping out. HPAI viruses (mainly subtype H5N8, in a few cases also H5N5) were found in dead wild birds of at least 53 species. The affected wild birds were water birds (including gulls, storks, herons, and cormorants) and scavenging birds (birds of prey, owls, and crows). In a number of cases, substantial gaps in farm biosecurity may have eased virus entry into the holdings. In a second wave of the epidemic starting from February 2017, there was epidemiological and molecular evidence for virus transmission of the infections between commercial turkey holdings in an area of high poultry density, which caused approximately 25% of the total number of outbreaks in poultry. Biosecurity measures in poultry holdings should be adapted. This includes, inter alia, wearing of stable-specific protective clothing and footwear, cleaning, and disinfection of equipment that has been in contact with birds and prevention of contacts between poultry and wild water birds

Morphologically normal-appearing mammary epithelial cells obtained from high-risk women exhibit methylation silencing of INK4a/ARF.

Purposep16(INK4a) has been appreciated as a key regulator of cell cycle progression and senescence. Cultured human mammary epithelial cells that lack p16(INK4a) activity have been shown to exhibit premalignant phenotypes, such as telomeric dysfunction, centrosomal dysfunction, a sustained stress response, and, most recently, a dysregulation of chromatin remodeling and DNA methylation. These data suggest that cells that lack p16(INK4a) activity would be at high risk for breast cancer development and may exhibit an increased frequency of DNA methylation events in early cancer.Experimental designTo test this hypothesis, the frequencies of INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation, as well as four additional selected loci, were tested in the initial random periareolar fine needle aspiration samples from 86 asymptomatic women at high risk for development of breast cancer, stratified using the Masood cytology index.ResultsINK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation was observed throughout all early stages of intraepithelial neoplasia and, importantly, in morphologically normal-appearing mammary epithelial cells; 29 of 86 subjects showed INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation in at least one breast. Importantly, INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation was not associated with atypia, and the frequency of hypermethylation did not increase with increasing Masood cytology score. The frequency of INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation was associated with the combined frequency of promoter hypermethylation of retinoic acid receptor-beta2, estrogen receptor-alpha, and breast cancer-associated 1 genes (P = 0.001).ConclusionsBecause INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation does not increase with age but increases with the frequency of other methylation events, we predict that INK4a/ARF promoter hypermethylation may serve as a marker of global methylation dysregulation